Brian Shepherd
Brian Shepherd is a communications lead at AIDS Healthcare Foundation who writes news and advocacy pieces on global health emergencies, HIV care and the systems that support them. His coverage links emerging outbreaks and pandemic preparedness with front-line stories from clinicians and communities across AHF’s global network. He focuses on how investment, policy and education translate into concrete protections for patients and health workers.
Global Advocacy and Outbreak Preparedness
Shepherd’s article on the recent Ebola event, “Ebola Outbreak Exposes Need for Stronger Investment in Preparedness,” treats the outbreak as a stress test of national and global health systems rather than a stand‑alone crisis. He writes within AHF’s Global Advocacy and Global Featured channels, positioning the story in a wider push for stronger surveillance, financing and coordination before and during epidemics. The piece draws attention to the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola and uses its rarity and limited vaccine options to illustrate gaps in research and countermeasure development. He emphasizes practical weaknesses that matter to practitioners, including uneven access to personal protective equipment and the need for sustained community health education. Across this work he combines disease‑specific information with clear calls for policy responses, reflecting AHF’s role in global health security debates.
“I Am AHF” Clinician Profiles and HIV Care
Through AHF’s “I Am AHF” series, Shepherd profiles clinicians such as Dr. Karthik Prasanna V, whose work is framed around a holistic approach to HIV care in India. These pieces foreground individual practitioners while showing how HIV treatment, psychosocial support and community outreach operate together in specific care settings. He uses the profile format to connect personal narratives with AHF’s broader mission of providing prevention, treatment and advocacy services across a global programme. The writing in this series is more intimate than his outbreak coverage, focusing on day‑to‑day practice, patient relationships and local innovation rather than high‑level policy. That combination of clinician voice and organizational context gives his HIV coverage a grounded tone that is consistent with AHF’s service‑driven identity.
Organizational Communications on HIV and Pandemic Policy
Shepherd holds a senior communications role at AIDS Healthcare Foundation, working on global policy and messaging as part of the organization’s leadership. Beyond authored articles, he is a primary contact for AHF webinars and public events that address issues such as the PABS annex, equitable access to biological materials and the future of the WHO Pandemic Agreement. He also supports communications around discussions of next‑generation HIV/AIDS care strategies, linking service delivery experience to debates on how systems should evolve. This work reinforces the advocacy themes in his written coverage, placing him at the intersection of outbreak preparedness, HIV policy and international health governance. Across news stories, profiles and event communications, his output presents AHF’s positions in clear, institutional prose that combines technical detail with direct advocacy asks.
4 more health journalists.
Alex Storey
Alex Storey is a journalist at LBC whose work is driven by specific cases that test professional conduct and accountability in health and the public sector. He covers health as his main beat, focusing on the point where individual decisions by clinicians or officials meet public trust in institutions. His reporting is incident-first and case-led, using concrete episodes to show how rules, ethics and policy work in real life. Recent pieces include a disciplinary case where a nurse was struck off after linking a patient’s cancer to Covid jabs, and coverage of civil servants being “paid to play Grand Theft Auto” as “lived experience” training. Across these stories, he examines how professionals, regulators and officials explain their decisions, and what that reveals about trust, responsibility and the standards expected of people in positions of authority.
Alexandra Thompson
Alexandra Thompson is an assistant news editor focused on health who treats health claims as hypotheses to be tested rather than messages to be repeated. She works at New Scientist, combining editing with frontline reporting on ageing brains, cognitive health, chronic illness, contested treatments and infectious disease. Her beat centres on how neuroscience and psychology intersect with everyday health choices and on how scientific findings translate into real-world outcomes for people living with illness. She examines lifestyle advice, rehabilitation programmes and outbreak guidance against current evidence, clarifying risk without overstating it and giving space to controversy without sensationalising it. Alongside written news she appears in audio and video formats, bringing the same clear, news-driven approach to live discussions and helping shape the daily health agenda while keeping a tight focus on evidence and impact.
Alice Wilkinson
Alice Wilkinson investigates how everyday habits, products and routines shape sleep and long-term wellbeing, using test-driven health features to separate hype from real benefit. She holds a senior role on The Telegraph’s health features team, writing and shaping consumer-focused coverage that blends personal trial with clear expert evidence. Her core beat is sleep as a practical, solvable part of daily life, from detailed comparisons of magnesium supplements to service pieces on how sleeping position affects health over time. She treats supplements as a crowded, over-claimed market that demands careful testing and clear-eyed reporting. Alongside long-form features she writes weekly health desk dispatches on sleep, stress and concentration. Across her work she combines substantial self-testing, specialist insight and plain, unfussy prose to give readers measurable, realistic changes they can make.
Ally Head
Ally Head connects performance-focused fitness reporting with women’s health, sustainability and relationships, using her own endurance training and health history to stress-test trends against expert guidance. She is Senior Health, Sustainability and Relationships Editor at Marie Claire UK, where she shapes the health agenda across training, wellbeing and conscious living and writes and commissions news, topical features and SEO-led long-form pieces. A ten-time marathoner and Boston-qualifying runner, she focuses on structured, realistic training plans, strength and conditioning for women who run, and performance longevity. Her women’s health work centres on hormones, chronic conditions and fact versus fiction wellness claims. She also covers sustainability as conscious living and relationships, mental resilience and lifestyle features, favouring plain language, lived experience, specialist commentary and clear, repeatable routines. She has previously produced similar content for Women’s Health, Stylist, Glamour and Grazia.