Catherine D. Hughes

Catherine began her career at the National Geographic Society (NGS) in 1980, first as a researcher and writer working on NG World magazine (which was renamed NG KIDS magazine in 2001) and Books for Young Explorers. In 1995 she was promoted to her current position as science editor for National Geographic KIDS and, since its inception in 2008, for NG Little Kids magazine. Catherine has authored two books in a popular new series for pre-schoolers: National Geographic Little Kids First Big Book of Animals, and NGLK First Big Book of Dinosaurs. She's presently finishing up a third book, NGLK First Big Book of Space, due out in October 2012. Over the years, Catherine has led kids and family nature walks at nature centers, taught natural history workshops for kids at the Smithsonian, and worked with foster children as a volunteer. Having grown up around the world (India, Finland, El Salvador, and Laos) in a Foreign Service family, Catherine still enjoys traveling. With a keen interest in wildlife and the outdoors, she's camped on safari in Tanzania, snorkeled in the Virgin Islands, explored Costa Rica's volcanoes, and hiked through Panama's rain forest. Recently she and her husband traveled to Antarctica--especially exciting because she'd then been to all seven continents. (On that trip, she also joined the ranks of the "bi-polar," having now been both north of the Arctic Circle and south of the Antarctic Circle!)   Catherine combines her three life passions in her job: kids, natural history, and the written word. She leads story teams made up of writers, designers, photo editors, and researchers to bring articles to the pages of NGK and NGLK.