Jackie Roman
Jackie Roman covers health care with a service-driven, systems-focused lens, explaining public health risks while tracking how institutions and the drug industry affect patients. She is the healthcare reporter for NJ.com and The Star-Ledger, where she reports breaking public health and drug industry news alongside deeper health coverage.
Public health risks and everyday safety
Roman’s public health reporting turns timely outbreaks and high-profile events into clear guidance on which risks matter most. In her piece on health risks around the men’s World Cup, she contrasts worry about Ebola with the more realistic challenges fans face, using the tournament as a hook for practical, non-sensational advice. In coverage of a cyclosporiasis outbreak, she explains symptoms such as watery, sometimes explosive diarrhea and fatigue, links the illness to contaminated produce, and walks readers through prevention and treatment steps based on CDC and FDA guidance. She brings in national case data from 17 states, hospitalization figures and age ranges, then presents them in plain language that helps readers understand how a stomach parasite might intersect with everyday shopping and food handling.
Health systems, cybersecurity and patient data
Roman also digs into the mechanics of health care systems, especially where law, technology and patient privacy intersect. In her coverage of a cyberattack on a major law firm representing health systems in New Jersey, she details how a compromised user account led to unauthorized access, what categories of patient information were exposed — including names, addresses, Social Security numbers, medical and insurance details — and how nearly 12,801 people were affected. She follows the incident through regulators’ notices and the firm’s internal investigation, then explains the concrete steps taken to enhance cybersecurity and provide identity theft protection services and a dedicated call center for impacted patients. That focus on both risk and remedy distinguishes her work from simple breach summaries and makes the story useful to patients trying to understand what a data incident means for them.
Drug industry and health care coverage
Roman’s beat spans breaking news across public health and the drug industry, giving her room to move between acute health threats, pharmaceutical developments and the business side of care. Her healthcare remit includes drug industry news as well as broader health coverage, so she can connect company decisions and regulatory actions back to their effect on patients and providers. She keeps complex subjects understandable by maintaining a straightforward tone and focusing on clear explanations of how policies, products and systems change the experience of care.
Community reporting background
Before focusing on health care, Roman reported local news and features in the Pound Ridge community of Westchester County and covered the Bedford Central School District. That community reporting background shows in her health coverage, which often connects national developments such as outbreaks or data breaches to everyday concerns for families, patients and workers. Her experience following school and town issues informs the way she explains institutional decisions and policies in concrete terms rather than abstractions.
Across her work, Roman favors plain, direct language even when subjects are technical or uncomfortable, and she grounds her stories in official data and guidance from agencies such as the CDC, FDA and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. She blends breaking-news urgency with service journalism, giving readers timely updates and actionable steps, whether they are navigating an outbreak, a data breach or the health risks around a major sporting event.
4 more health journalists.
Aislinn Antrim
Aislinn Antrim is an associate editorial director at Pharmacy Times and a journalist who connects clinical advances, regulation, and the changing role of pharmacists. She writes pharmacy-centered health coverage on chronic disease therapeutics, specialty and oncology care, workforce pressures, and advocacy. Her reporting explains FDA actions, policy shifts, drug pipelines, and the real-world effects of new evidence on patient care and pharmacy practice. She often uses interviews and expert conversations to show how pharmacists improve adherence, manage side effects, navigate access and benefits, and coordinate care with prescribers. She also covers burnout, staffing strain, and the future of pharmacy practice, with an eye on how policy and economics shape work at the dispenser.
Alex Cabrero
Alex Cabrero is an Emmy award-winning KSL TV reporter who covers where health, safety and community life meet, always focused on how decisions and events affect everyday people. He has been with KSL since 2004, bringing long experience in breaking news, public service coverage and human-centered features. His beat includes public health, emergency response, technology, local infrastructure, environment and science, framed through community well-being and resilience. He reports on issues like mental health initiatives, law enforcement staffing, environmental hazards, rescues, wildfire detection tools, land-use fights and scientific discoveries, making technical and policy details clear for a general audience. He also produces many positive, everyday-life features on families, veterans, farmers, sports and local traditions. His style is direct and conversational, often built around a central person or family whose experience carries the story across TV, digital and social platforms.
Allison Palmer
Allison Palmer stands out for turning complex microbiome and brain-health research into clear, service stories tied to everyday habits. She covers health, wellness and lifestyle topics for The Sacramento Bee, focusing on emerging trends that help readers build positive, sustainable routines. Her reporting on the gut microbiome and healthy aging uses vivid case studies, including a rare supercentenarian, to connect diet, bacterial communities and longevity to daily eating choices. Another strand of her work examines oral bacteria and brain health, linking gum infections to changes in brain tissue and to simple oral-care practices. Since 2024, her wellness coverage has appeared across the McClatchy network, alongside pieces on technology, travel, lifestyle and commerce. She favors reported explainers with direct takeaways, keeps scientific detail intact, and strips away jargon to help readers build realistic long-term habits.
Alyssa Kelly
Alyssa Kelly reports on health and emotional local stories that show how everyday experiences shape people’s sense of safety and wellbeing. They work in the digital newsroom at TV6 & FOX UP, contributing text and video pieces on community life and public interest topics. Their beat centers on health and safety in ordinary settings, especially outdoors, and on animal and family stories tied to wellbeing and memory. They cover issues like tick exposure during routine park visits and long-term pet disappearances and reunions, using specific details, clear timelines, and direct quotes to make the stakes feel immediate and personal. Kelly’s headlines often foreground quoted phrases from families and pet owners, giving their reporting a conversational, human-centered tone. They also collaborate with other reporters on health and safety stories that connect individual cases to wider public concerns.