Zabarenko, environmental reporter, leaving Reuters

Debby Zabarenko, who has covered the environment and climate change for Reuters for the past seven years, announced Friday that she is leaving the news service after 27 years.

In a message to her colleagues, Zabarenko wrote:

With so many people leaving Reuters in the last few weeks, we’ve all become a bit jaded about these goodbye notes, so I’ll make mine brief.

First, a big thanks to my colleagues around the world. You are the absolute best in this business. It’s been an honor to be among you for so long.

I’m also deeply grateful to those I’ve tried to help in my job as union leader, in the United States and elsewhere in the Reuters universe. I appreciate those who’ve let me know they benefited from it.

Finally, to some who may have seen me as an irritant, this is your lucky day: my last working shift at Reuters after more than 27 years. I’ll be on the payroll, and on TR email, until December 31.

Until earlier this year, Zabarenko was also the Newspaper Guild’s Unit Chair at Thomson Reuters, representing more than 400 colleagues across the United States, helping to negotiate a labor contract and working to defend them in disputes with the company.

She is a graduate of Cal-Berkeley and Barnard.