Marilyn Schairer
Marilyn Schairer reports on how health care systems, workers and patients intersect, with a focus on safety, labor conditions and public health threats for GBH News. Her coverage follows the consequences of policy decisions inside hospitals and agencies, and the practical impact of illnesses and shortages on people’s lives. She combines frontline narratives with clear explanations of complex health topics, drawing on long experience in broadcast news and award-winning long-form reporting.
Violence and safety at Tewksbury State Hospital
Schairer devotes sustained attention to workplace safety inside Tewksbury State Hospital, tracking a series of violent incidents and the policy responses that follow. In coverage of an assault on a hospital staffer after a ban on defensive weapons, she lays out the decision to remove tools like pepper gel, batons and handcuffs and the fears it triggered among nurses and security staff.
Follow-up reporting on another violent incident at the hospital chronicles how staffers organized, demanded an emergency meeting and pressed for clearer protections.
When the state later reverses course and allows security tools again for staff at Tewksbury, she documents the new rules in detail, distinguishing clinical spaces from non-clinical areas and explaining how the compromise came about. Across these stories, she treats hospital workers as primary sources, quoting their experiences while situating those accounts within official statements from health agencies.
Cyclospora, alpha-gal and toxic algae warnings
Schairer’s health beat includes repeated coverage of food-, water- and vector-borne illnesses, with a focus on what they mean for Massachusetts residents. In reporting on cyclospora, she explains that state officials see no evidence of a major outbreak even as shoppers remain wary, and she connects local case numbers to federal investigations into contaminated lettuce and fast-food chains in other states.
Separate coverage notes an uptick in cyclospora cases identified by Massachusetts health authorities, spelling out symptoms and prevention advice such as thorough washing of produce.
She also reports on tick-borne illness alpha-gal syndrome being classified as a public health threat, describing how the condition can emerge after tick exposure and affect people’s ability to tolerate certain foods. Her stories on cyanobacteria and toxic algae in the Charles River, including a warning after a dog’s death, outline the risks to liver, kidney and neurological function in people and pets and detail the guidance from local health commissions on avoiding contaminated water. These pieces consistently translate technical public health language into straightforward instructions residents can act on.
Union drives at Mass General and primary care practices
Labor disputes and unionization inside major health institutions are another core thread in Schairer’s work. She has covered Mass General residents winning a historic union contract after a prolonged, two-year campaign, explaining both the key gains in the contract and the organizing tactics that led to the agreement. Earlier reporting on Mass General Brigham primary care physicians pushing to unionize details the hurdles they face, including legal and administrative challenges, while highlighting why clinicians believe collective bargaining is necessary for patient care and workload. Her stories on workforce strain extend beyond union campaigns, as seen in coverage of nurses struggling with fatigue amid wider health care staffing shortages.
In these pieces she balances the perspectives of doctors, residents and nurses with responses from hospital management and state officials, making clear how workplace conditions in health care affect access and quality for patients.
Patients living with colorectal cancer and IVF
Schairer often grounds health policy and science in individual stories, particularly when covering serious illnesses and reproductive technology. In an article on two Massachusetts patients living with colorectal cancer under age 50, she explores how early-onset diagnoses disrupt careers and family life while also motivating those patients to support others through advocacy and peer networks. Her feature on America’s first IVF baby looks at how one individual has navigated decades of public attention, placing personal reflection alongside the broader history of in vitro fertilization and current debates over reproductive medicine.
These narratives keep the scientific and clinical details accessible while emphasizing resilience and the practical realities of treatment.
Hospitals, facilities and long-form reporting
Beyond individual topics, Schairer reports on the fate of health facilities themselves and the communities that depend on them. Stories about Nashoba Valley’s effort to rebuild health care through a new emergency facility examine what losing local emergency services means for rural residents and how new infrastructure might fill the gap. Coverage of families and public health leaders urging lawmakers to keep Pappas hospital open shows how closure decisions ripple through caregiving networks and specialized patient populations.
She has also reported on drug supply issues, such as a morphine shortage affecting hospice care, pharmacies and patients, explaining where the supply chain is breaking and what stopgap measures clinicians are using. Her broader portfolio includes local news on schools, camps, arts organizations and 9/11 legacies, and her author biography notes prior work as a television news anchor, reporter, public affairs host and weather anchor and recognition through a Regional Edward R. Murrow Award, a PMJA News Series Award and regional Emmy nominations for long-form stories.
That background underpins a style that is careful with detail, rooted in interviews and attuned to how institutional decisions land on the people who live with them.
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.
Alexandra Frost
Alexandra Frost is a freelance journalist and content marketing writer who turns expert-backed health and family guidance into clear, practical service stories. She covers consumer health, wellness, nutrition, preventive care, medical research, parenting, kids’ mental health, education, products, and lifestyle. Her reporting explains concerns such as inflammation, urinary symptoms, fiber, lung cancer screening, pain treatment, mobility, family dynamics, children’s technology use, and school readiness. She profiles clinicians and scientists, connects research to everyday decisions, and focuses on what readers should watch for, ask, or change. Frost currently writes across multiple outlets, including Good Housekeeping, Cincinnati Magazine, Wirecutter, Popular Science, Success, Healthline, Parents, Women’s Health, Reader’s Digest, Today’s Parent, the Atlantic, the Washington Post, TIME, Consumer Reports, Business Insider, and National Geographic. She also works as a freelance editor, media consultant, and content strategist.
Alexandra Pattillo
Alexandra Pattillo is a freelance journalist who pairs rigorous health and science reporting with intimate accounts of patients’ lives. She covers health, science and wellness for the BBC and other major outlets, including National Geographic, The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Guardian, Outside, CNN and Inverse. Her beat includes eating disorders, women’s health, perinatal mental health, brain health, youth sports, concussion, long-term Covid symptoms, attention, habits and behavioral science. She reports on emerging treatments such as psychedelic-assisted therapy for anorexia, testing evidence, safety and relapse risk. She explains complex research in plain language and examines how it shapes everyday choices. Her reporting uses in-depth interviews with patients, families, clinicians, researchers and coaches. Through the BBC’s Health Gap column, she also covers stigma, unequal access to care and gaps between lived experience and standard medical pathways.