Health Journalistsin Canada

Alanna Smith is a national health reporter whose work links health policy and politics to real access to care, with a constant focus on health equity, infectious disease and the toxic drug crisis. She reports for The Globe and Mail on infectious diseases, hospitals and long-term care, mental health, drug policy and the pressures on health systems in Western Canada. Her stories connect big-picture decisions to patients, families, front-line workers and volunteers, showing how funding, privatization and federal standards shape public care. She has covered trauma care inequities, proposed public‑private models in Alberta, drug toxicity and overdose policy, respiratory virus surges, measles elimination, gene‑editing advances and gender‑affirming health care laws. Her work combines narrative reporting, data, legal and policy analysis, and has been recognized by national journalism and press freedom organizations.

Allan Levine is a historian and author whose journalism uses the past to explain present-day issues. He writes for the Winnipeg Free Press, including the Now & Then column, which examines current events through history. His subjects include public health, disease, medical treatment, health systems, politics, social conflict, strikes, wars, antisemitism and Canadian public life. His polio reporting traces Manitoba epidemics, hospital pressures, treatment, mortality and the arrival of vaccines through archival data and medical history. He also writes about the Winnipeg General Strike and Jewish communities, including discrimination, rights and security. His work draws on books about Canadian political leaders, Jewish history and the wartime economy, including The Dollar A Year Men. He writes long-form, analytical pieces that combine dates, statistics, policy decisions and narrative storytelling to connect people and institutions with broader historical change.

Angela Amato is a digital news producer with CTV News, and her coverage is distinct for linking health research and public safety concerns to legal and policy decisions that shape daily life. She reports on health, justice, politics, business, arts and culture, crime and public-interest stories. Her health work covers academic and clinical research, including studies on vaping and lung blood flow, exercise tolerance and early heart dysfunction in young adults. She also reports on motorcycle gang arrests, homicide and death investigations, Indigenous justice stories, wildfire evacuations, ambulance contracts, property taxes, labour negotiations and political advocacy rules. She explains complex findings in plain language and stays close to documents, data and expert sources. Her background includes investigative and daily newsrooms, and she has earned nominations for national journalism awards.

Apoorva Mandavilli covers the collision of infectious disease science, vaccine policy and public health agencies for The New York Times, following how research, regulation and politics shape outbreaks and access to vaccines. She reports on science and global health with a steady focus on infectious diseases and pandemics, including Covid-19, mpox, H.I.V., malaria and tuberculosis, treating them as ongoing global threats. Her work explains complex epidemiology and virology in clear narratives about risk, evidence and the consequences of scientific decisions. She repeatedly returns to vaccine policy, law and misinformation, tracing how court fights and agency disputes affect immunization schedules and public trust. She also reports on global health programs, funding cuts and inequity in care and technology. A longtime science journalist and former founding editor in chief of Spectrum, she has written widely on science and health and received major honors for medical science reporting and pandemic coverage.

Beth Fagan is a broadcast journalist who connects health and public safety to everyday life. She reports and presents local news for VOCM, covering housing, cost of living, emergency response, traffic safety, crime, collisions, fire risks, and access to community supports. Her work also examines policy and governance, including Inuit rights, Churchill Falls, and major energy agreements. She reports on housing initiatives, fundraisers, changing home prices, infrastructure projects, highway closures, theft warnings, cancer research, and pandemic-response work. Fagan works across broadcast and digital formats. She reads newscasts, voices midday updates, supports talk programming, and files short, direct reports from the field. On Open Line, she takes calls, manages the queue, and helps move discussions through complex local issues. She also appears at festivals, concerts, and other public events.

Bob Mackin is an independent reporter and publisher who examines how institutions and major events affect public services, health systems and everyday life. He runs theBreaker.news, with a Substack newsletter and podcast covering British Columbia issues, institutions and influencers. His beat spans politics, government, business, sport, crime, arts, travel and public services, with close attention to health care, emergency planning, public safety, contracts, governance and commercial interests. He has reported on FIFA World Cup planning, provincial elections, artificial intelligence, entertainment venues and the politics and business of Olympic and other multi-sport games. Earlier work also covered politics, government, crime, arts, travel, sports and business. He reports through exclusives, public records, planning briefs, historical context and on-the-ground interviews. His work links political decisions and event organizers to service capacity, accountability and emergency preparedness.

Bridget Shirvell connects everyday food choices, long-term health, and the climate crisis, with a focus on how families eat and live. She is a freelance journalist and editorial consultant whose work appears at Martha Stewart and in outlets including The New York Times, Teen Vogue, Civil Eats, PBS NewsHour, Good Housekeeping, and others. At Martha Stewart she reports health-driven food stories that blend nutrition guidance, ingredient ethics, and practical home cooking advice, grounded in expert-informed service journalism. She covers food systems, sustainability, parenting in a climate crisis, travel, and lifestyle, treating nutrition as part of wider family routines and the modern food system. Her reporting style foregrounds evidence, clear explanations, and practical takeaways, translating system-level climate and sustainability issues into concrete decisions for home cooks and parents.

Carol Sanders is a legislature reporter at the Free Press with a tight focus on the intersection of provincial politics and the health system. She concentrates on provincial health policy, political oversight, and how government decisions shape care on the ground, tracking health and economic pressures and the upheaval around them. Her beat combines political reporting with detailed coverage of health services, infrastructure, regulation, labour and access to care. She uses specific facilities, machines, contracts, staffing ratios and public health advisories to make system capacity and policy concrete. Reporting in print since 1989 and at the Free Press since 1997, she brings long institutional memory to coverage of ministers, critics, regulators, unions and private providers, writing in a straightforward news style that links high-level decisions to daily care, risk and community routines.

Cole Brennan focuses on how health services reach patients. They cover health stories for Town and Country Today, with a beat centred on community health services, access, preventive care, and the rollout of specific programs. Their reporting includes the mobile mammogram service coming to Athabasca and what it means for residents who need breast cancer screening without easy access to permanent facilities. Brennan follows concrete developments rather than broad policy debate. Their stories explain where and when services will be available, who they are intended to serve, and how care will be delivered. The work is straightforward and service-oriented, using plain, direct language to show what changes mean for patients, families, and communities. Brennan joined the Athabasca Advocate in 2023 and has also covered municipal politics, court, and junior and senior high school sports.

Daniel Otis is a journalist on CTV News’ digital team who covers health where science, systems and everyday lives meet. He reports on climate change and vector-borne disease, showing how warming temperatures expand tick ranges and raise risks for hikers, homeowners and outdoor workers. He also examines health systems, lab supply chains and diagnostic shortages, tracing how product constraints shape clinical decisions and patient care. Another strand of his work explains research on sexual health, cognition and aging in clear terms for a general audience. His coverage of medical cannabis includes an award-winning story about nurses helping elderly patients use cannabis in elder care. He also investigates unidentified aerial phenomena. He has more than a decade of news and feature writing experience, including work for the Toronto Star, Vice, Slate and The Globe and Mail.

David Taylor is a freelance writer and broadcaster specialising in modern men’s health and lifestyle, with a focus on gut health, fitness technology and practical routines. He writes for GQ and other outlets on everyday wellness, linking trends in nutrition, fitness and recovery to how people actually live. His health coverage centres on explainers of current wellness trends such as intermittent fasting, gut health and hybrid fitness events, turning them into clear, usable guidance. He reports on sleep, recovery, wearable technology, training concepts and endurance events, testing claims in a measured way while keeping the language simple. His personal experience, including wild swimming, informs features on resilience, routine and mental wellbeing. Beyond health he covers travel, culture, art, tech and sport across national newspapers, men’s lifestyle magazines and broadcasters, maintaining a straightforward, practical style.

Dean Stattmann covers health trends where they meet everyday life, using reported service pieces and first-person experiments to show what new wellness ideas mean in practice. He is a lifestyle writer and editor focused on health, fitness, wellness, and grooming for GQ and other major outlets. He tracks emerging nutrition, fitness, recovery, grooming, and biohacking movements, then tests and explains them in clear, usable terms. He is one of the main voices on maxxing culture, fibremaxxing, and peptides, decoding internet wellness jargon for a general audience and stressing the difference between buzz and evidence. He also produces practical guides on supplements, fitness gear, resolutions, alcohol, sobriety, and social health, often using his own life as reporting material. His experience includes award-winning editorial and brand work, with writing for GQ, The New York Times, Men’s Health, and TODAY.

Emma Tranter reports on how health, social services and other systems shape life in northern communities, with a steady focus on Nunavut and the Northwest Territories for CBC News. She covers health care systems, patient safety and funding decisions, showing how services work in remote regions and what that means for the people who rely on them. Her stories track incidents and official reports, and then widen out to reveal the staffing, training and management practices behind risk and breakdowns in care. She also reports on justice and community safety, following court cases, hearings and investigations to examine accountability and institutional responses to harm. Another strand of her work covers environment, industry and everyday life in the North, linking events like ship groundings, mines and emergencies to safety, access and long-term development. Her reporting is direct, detailed and rooted in verifiable facts and lived experience.

Frank McGwire connects provincial health policy, public safety decisions, and hard data to the real-world impact on people who rely on Manitoba’s services. He reports for Q Country 91.5FM, focusing on health systems, public health campaigns, and risk on the roads and in communities. He covers health system strain, emergency rooms, primary care, and access to care, using clear figures over time and patient experience to show how policy changes affect wait times and eligibility rules. His outbreak reporting centres on vaccination and expanded eligibility for hepatitis A and measles, with close attention to high-risk and marginalized groups. He also reports on provincial policy affecting the economy, cost of living, trade, housing, safety, infrastructure, connectivity, and wildfires, emphasizing dates, thresholds, and practical consequences. He extends this concise, fact-first style into interviews through Rapid Fire with McGwire.

Gabe Oatley is a health and public services reporter who links regulation, acute risk and public institutions to everyday life in the downtown core. He writes for TorontoToday on health and public service issues, with reporting also carried by health advocacy outlets focused on for-profit models in care and safety. His beat includes drug toxicity, overdose spikes, contamination in the unregulated drug supply, the long tail of COVID‑19, adult education and affordability. A defining strand of his work is a sustained series on paid blood plasma clinics and federal oversight, translating technical inspection findings and frequency rules into clear donor safety questions. He also covers public services under strain, including childcare disruptions, school board politics and health fears around new infrastructure. He works in a local news format, blending official documents, political and advocacy statements, and interviews with affected residents.

Hannah Alberga is a health reporter for The Canadian Press who connects national data, legal decisions and public policy to how people experience care and risk. She covers health-system access, patient experience, fertility trends, medically assisted dying, end-of-life care, public-health risks, medication use, injury prevention and environmental health. Her reporting has examined waits for family doctors and specialists, MAID eligibility for people with mental illness, e-scooter injuries, ADHD stimulant prescribing, Ebola travel restrictions and wildfire smoke. She previously worked at The Globe and Mail and on CBC’s Front Burner, and has written for The New York Times, the Toronto Star and This Magazine. She reports with surveys, surveillance data, academic studies, court filings and personal stories, explaining complex evidence in clear terms and showing what statistics mean for patients, families and communities.

Heather Senoran is a CTV News reporter who links health care and public policy decisions to the daily lives of families and communities in Waterloo Region and nearby cities. She covers hospital wait times, public health campaigns and local controversies through the experiences of patients, parents and front-line staff. Her health reporting focuses on hospital care, patient access, complex treatment journeys, infectious disease and tick-borne illness such as Lyme disease. She extends health coverage into public health behaviour, flu shot demand, prevention advice and debates over issues like a potential social media ban for children. Beyond health, she reports human-interest stories, local institutions, sports and civic debates, profiling elders, newcomers, chefs and organizers, and following school openings, transit funding disputes, university security concerns and the regional hockey scene.

Helen Branswell connects real-time outbreak reporting with the science, policy, and global politics shaping the response. She is STAT’s infectious diseases correspondent, covering infectious diseases and global health, including measles, Ebola, mpox, bird flu, West Nile virus, vaccines, preparedness, and response systems. She also reports on World Health Organization leadership, public health guidance, surveillance, and vaccine development. She joined STAT at its launch after covering the 2003 SARS outbreak for The Canadian Press, where she also reported on bird flu, H1N1, Ebola, Zika, polio, MERS, sexually transmitted diseases, and antibiotic resistance. She led STAT’s Covid-19 coverage. Her reporting examines transmission, risk, clinical evidence, access, logistics, and how agencies and political decisions affect control efforts. She won the George Polk Award and Victor Cohn Prize and was a Pulitzer finalist with colleagues for pandemic reporting.

Jack Knox is a long-time Times Colonist columnist known for humour and narrative that turn public issues into everyday local stories. He writes about health, politics, policy, the regional economy, local institutions and odd events, with a real beat rooted in how systems and services affect ordinary people. His health columns focus on access, prevention and service gaps, such as skin cancer and the shortage of dermatologists on Vancouver Island. He also covers elections, Port Alice after the mill shutdown, defence procurement, and the fate of community spaces. He reports with wit, irony and reported detail, often using local history and reader reaction to give his columns context and character.

James Gallagher is a health and science correspondent and presenter who makes complex, experimental medicine clear and concrete for general audiences. He works at the BBC, fronting programmes including Inside Health, Loud, Discovery and Health Check, and reporting across online, radio and television health coverage. His beat is health and medical science, with a focus on emerging therapies that reset the immune system, gene‑based treatments such as RNA interference and gene therapy, and how these reach patients with severe and rare diseases. He also covers environmental health, using personal participation to show how air pollution and noise affect the body, and infectious disease threats from coronavirus variants to African outbreaks. His stories blend granular biomedical detail, patient experience, expert interviews and trial data, and his work has been recognised by professional bodies in journalism and medical science.

Jennifer La Grassa is a CBC videojournalist who connects health research, policy changes and drug approvals to patients’ daily realities. She covers access, cost and risk across health care, including generic Ozempic and other GLP-1 drugs, specialist shortages and wait times, dermatology access, medical assistance in dying and mental illness, self-harm, obesity, exercise-related illness, infections and food contamination. Her notable reporting includes generic Ozempic prices and rollout, millions struggling to reach specialists, the debate over MAID eligibility, rising self-harm among young Canadians and obesity trends after the pandemic. She reports in a feature and explainer style. She uses national datasets, peer-reviewed studies, regulatory updates, expert commentary, frontline voices and patient experiences to explain complex issues. Her work focuses on affordability, prescribing, legal rules, safety and who gets timely care.

Jennifer Lee is a senior health reporter who follows how policy decisions and infectious disease trends play out for patients and frontline providers, with a strong focus on vaccination campaigns, outbreaks and strain on the health system. She works for CBC News, reporting across web, radio and video. Her beat sits at the intersection of epidemiology, access to care and political choices, often grounded in the experiences of Albertans and the warnings of medical experts. She covers COVID-19 vaccination plans, respiratory virus shots, Omicron subvariants and comparative vaccination rates, as well as deadly flu seasons and measles resurgence. She reports on ER crowding, wait times and private care experiments, and tracks drug shortages, pharmacy pressures and prescription forgeries. Her stories also tackle health misinformation, clearly explaining the evidence and health agency positions for readers.

Jim Reed is a BBC health reporter focused on how health policy and medical developments affect patients and families. He covers the Covid-19 inquiry, pandemic accountability, infected blood, new drugs, compensation schemes, flu, vaccines, sports medicine and everyday health. His reporting combines official documents, data and personal testimony. He presents a weekly podcast on the Covid inquiry, recapping hearings and examining their impact on disabled people, care and support services. He also reports on procurement failures, treatment access, eligibility rules, pricing, timelines and payouts. His coverage has included teplizumab, vaccine compensation and the infected blood scandal, for which he has received medical journalism recognition. He uses charts and plain language to explain surveillance data and medical issues. His work spans radio, television and online news, with patient stories at its centre.

Joelle Kovach is a city hall and politics reporter at the Peterborough Examiner who shows how decisions affect daily life. She covers city council, local representatives and the workings of city hall, along with health services, addiction treatment, child care, housing, waste collection and transportation. Her reporting has examined pickleball courts at Bonnerworth Park, municipal daycare closures, a publicly funded addiction treatment facility at Paddock Wood, vaping risks for teens, overflowing garbage at a rental complex and Via Rail’s delayed return. She has also covered Peterborough–Kawartha MP Michelle Ferreri’s voting effort to “axe the carbon tax.” Kovach follows institutions and decision-makers over time, using concrete examples to connect policy, funding and corporate choices to safety, access and services. During emergencies, she provides real-time updates on cancellations, facilities, outages and practical service information.

Karen Pauls is a national reporter for CBC who treats Manitoba-origin stories as entry points into wider health, safety and justice questions with clear explanation and attention to long-term consequences. She works across daily news, feature and documentary formats for the network’s national coverage. Her core beat is health and public safety, covering global pandemic preparedness, infectious disease labs, mosquito-borne threats and changes to family doctor training. She reports on health systems, medical education and preparedness as structural issues, linking policy shifts and expert debates to real-world access, workload and risk. Her public safety and justice work follows cases such as the Humboldt Broncos bus crash, cross-border murder investigations and cybercrime, tracking accountability and system performance. She is experienced in long-form and documentary storytelling, including award-recognized audio work and an interactive project on ibogaine.

Kelsey Kunik is a dietitian and health journalist who turns clinical nutrition into clear, practical guidance that helps readers add nourishing foods instead of restrict them. She writes health stories for EatingWell that link specific foods, drinks and habits to digestive comfort, blood sugar control, heart health, hydration and immune resilience, with a focus on everyday symptoms and concrete diet changes. Her work also appears in health and wellness publications including Men’s Journal, Healthline, Well+Good and Motherly. She reports on high-protein foods, smoothies, satisfying meals, cardiometabolic health, myths and trends, food allergies and fitness-adjacent topics, using list formats, ranked comparisons and expert-led explanations. Credentialed as a dietitian since 2016, she draws on clinical and community experience and her own recipe work to keep the science clear, specific and easy to use in daily routines.

Kevin Maimann is a senior writer at CBC News who explains how health risks, recalls and emerging science affect people’s daily lives in clear, actionable terms. He covers health as his real beat while also reporting on technology, crime, politics and culture, giving his health stories a broad social and policy frame. His past reporting for outlets including VICE, the Toronto Star, Xtra Magazine and the Edmonton Journal shapes a direct, evidence‑driven style focused on how marginalized and everyday communities experience risk. He regularly reports on drug, product and food recalls, infectious disease threats, wellness trends and the mental toll of technology, using expert analysis, epidemiology and regulatory guidance to translate complex systems into practical advice and to keep public risk perception aligned with what the evidence supports.

Khloe Quill turns everyday habits and environmental exposures into clear health reporting. She is a lifestyle writer with Fox News Digital, where she covers food and drink, travel, and health, with recent work focused on health. Her stories connect routine choices, common products, and shared conditions to risks such as cancer, heart disease, metabolic illness, and cognitive decline. She has reported on nightly wine drinking, marijuana use and type 2 diabetes, high-salt diets, fatigue, microplastics in the blood of heart attack patients, cholesterol drugs and dementia risk, Alzheimer’s rates, weight-loss compounds, early-life water filtration and lifespan, bacteria in cooling towers, lead contamination in parks, and cyclosporiasis clusters. She writes in a plain, fact-driven style that draws on studies, agency reports, and expert analysis.

Kyle Freel is an afternoon news anchor and reporter at 104.7 Heart FM whose reporting focuses on what crime, health alerts, public safety issues and local decisions mean for residents. He covers investigations, charges, court cases, scams, missing people, police warnings, water advisories, community events and infrastructure projects. His work also includes political accountability, municipal leadership and investments such as Sunrise Farms’ planned poultry processing facility. He has reported on a swatting incident at a high school, a hate-motivated assault, a boil water advisory and new jobs linked to local development. He works across breaking news, planned announcements and longer-running stories. He relies on police, health officials and other authorities, explains practical risks and required actions, and follows cases through to resolution.

Laura Sebben is a health reporter at the Hamilton Spectator who connects medical research and public health risks to patient and community experiences. She covers antibiotic discovery, drug-resistant bacteria, infectious disease, measles cases, disease surveillance and health-system responses. Her reporting explains complex science in clear language and follows developments from discovery through testing, treatment and practical use. She also reports on breaking news, crime, consumer issues and local business, including scams affecting small businesses. Before joining the Hamilton Spectator, she worked at CHCH News for nearly six years, then as a multi-platform writer with CTV News and CP24. Her background spans television, digital and print newsrooms. She combines reporting, writing and production skills to produce concise explanations, factual timelines and stories that show how medicine, public health and local events affect real people.

Laurence Williams is a health-focused journalist for The Pig Site who connects disease control, immunity and technology to practical pig production. He covers intestinal disease such as ileitis, respiratory disease, vaccination systems, immune function, nutrition, sustainability, farm equipment and management software. His reporting links health decisions to sow mortality, productivity, weight gain, feed efficiency and welfare. He explains how tools such as needle-free injectors, structured disease manuals, sustainable lysine, electric motors and BigFarmNet software work on commercial farms. Williams also writes about data, automation, feeding, breeding and environmental control at scale. Alongside his reporting, he is Head of Client Services at Global Ag Media, working across The Pig Site and other livestock titles. He combines detailed technical reporting with company case studies and sponsored content, focusing on usable detail, farm routines and herd-level outcomes.

Lauryn Higgins is a public health journalist at Flow Space who treats serious disease as a chronic reality to be managed, not only as a medical event, and links clinical care directly to quality of life. She focuses on women’s health and wellness, writing long-form service pieces and reported features that connect scientific research and clinical practice to everyday decisions about bodies, ambition and identity. Her Flow Space work covers metastatic breast cancer, identity and autonomy, and the emotional and practical impact of intensive care on relationships, work and self-perception. Another strand of her reporting examines women’s midlife ambition, perimenopause, mental load and burnout, translating journal findings into clear language and practical steps. A two-time Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist, she has covered public health and wellness for outlets including The New York Times, NPR, Women’s Health, Shape, Time, Parents, Health.com, Teen Vogue and Ambrook, while balancing freelance reporting, academic teaching and stringing work.

Leo Cruzat is a reporter and video journalist at CityNews Edmonton who stands out for health and public affairs coverage that turns systems, research and everyday life into clear, concrete stories. He focuses on emergency care, vaping and e-cigarettes, first responders, collisions, public safety, infrastructure, regulation and community programs. His reporting has covered an Edmonton woman’s death after waiting for an ambulance, 911 service outages, a University of Alberta study on lung and cardiovascular risk in young e-cigarette users, a collision that killed a volunteer firefighter and his son, 9/11 firefighter memorial coverage, and stories on bike lanes, electric dirt bikes and a youth boxing initiative. He reports with field work, interviews and straightforward explanations.

MJ Jorge is a health and community life reporter who uses specific events as entry points into broader stories about awareness, culture and social change. They report for Calgary Journal and focus on campaigns, cultural initiatives and public gatherings that aim to change what people know and how they engage. Their health coverage follows community health campaigns and cancer awareness, including a pancreatic cancer 5K run that is used to explain why the disease needs more attention through local initiative. Their arts reporting covers Indigenous artists and musicians whose exhibitions are tied to multi-generational activism. They also track local festivals and city events such as emerging outdoor festivals and international film programs, explaining what makes each distinct in origin, programming and audience.

Maddi Dellplain reports on how health systems, drug policy and social inequities intersect, structuring long-form features and debate coverage so policy decisions are seen through the lives of people on the margins. She is Digital Editor and Staff Writer at Healthy Debate, specializing in health reporting across multiple mediums, including audio-based storytelling. Her national award-nominated and award-winning work appears in outlets such as Healthy Debate, The Tyee, Megaphone Magazine, J-Source and Filter. Her beat centres on drug policy, the toxic drug supply crisis, legalization, health, disability, harm reduction, community-based care, Indigenous health and Covid-19. She uses “experts weigh in” formats, panels and organized debates to map contested issues clearly, placing clinicians, researchers, advocates and policy analysts in direct dialogue and linking policy design to community experience and the lived realities of people who use drugs.

Matt Hutcheson stands out for reporting health and social policy as everyday local consequences. He covers health, public safety and local services for CityNews Kitchener. His work tracks public health risks, system strain and vulnerable communities in Waterloo Region and nearby municipalities. He writes on Lyme disease, flu, RSV, heat-related overdoses, paramedic demand, school vaccination records, homelessness, encampment bylaws, crime, policing, transit and property tax reform. He also covers funding for health care and health-adjacent industry, plus environmental infrastructure such as a high-tech recycling facility. His reporting is clear and accessible. He uses data, government decisions and frontline impacts to show how regional conditions affect residents in practical ways.

Meghan Balogh is a multimedia journalist who uses the health beat to connect hospital developments, global surgery partnerships, community organizations, and public health campaigns into a clear picture of how care is delivered and defended in practice. She works at The Kingston Whig-Standard, covering how medical institutions, public programs, and local campaigns shape care on the ground. Her reporting spans hospital restructuring and long-term planning, surgical innovation and global training exchanges, and community-based care. She explains complex clinical work and tracks major capital projects, first-of-its-kind surgeries, and visiting surgeon programs alongside their impact on access, equity, and capacity. Balogh also covers public and environmental health, from rabies control operations to citizens’ campaigns over landfill leachate, in a straightforward, factual style focused on governance, funding, policy, infrastructure, and community experience.

Melissa Gilligan is a digital news reporter whose work connects health alerts, public safety incidents and everyday community life. She works on the digital news team at CTV News, where she covers disease outbreaks, access to health services, crime, policing, scams, collisions, fatalities and lifestyle guides. Her reporting has included restaurant-linked illness outbreaks, mobile mammography services, thefts, gun and drug seizures, prolific offenders, bank scams, terrorism-related offences and child abuse allegations. She has also covered fatal crashes, hiking deaths and emergency responses, along with weekend activity and restaurant guides. Gilligan joined CTV News in 2021 after roles in radio and online newsrooms. She reports in a direct, incident-driven style, using official information and clear details about charges, investigations, dates, locations, risks and practical advice.

Melody Schreiber links infectious disease outbreaks with the policies, funding decisions and misinformation that leave health systems unprepared, with a sharp focus on how these failures affect vulnerable people. She is a health and science journalist whose reporting for the Guardian, NPR and The New Republic centers on public health, inequity and the lived consequences of political choices. Her outbreak coverage spans Covid, measles, hantavirus, mpox, bird flu and foodborne parasites, treating each new pathogen as a test of public health capacity. Her health beat also covers US health policy, insurance and access to care, including Medicaid, gender‑affirming care, agency budgets and political appointments. Another strand of her reporting focuses on reproductive health and evidence‑based medicine. She also maintains a long‑running focus on the Arctic and other frontline environments, showing how climate, ecosystem change and social structures converge on bodies and minds.

Mia Williams is a health reporter at UNILAD whose work sits inside breaking US news, crime, politics, entertainment and lifestyle rather than a standalone medical beat. She focuses on case-led reporting, using individual incidents, court cases and viral moments to expose medical risks, safety failures and the human impact of health decisions. She writes on injectable weight loss drugs and “ghost fat,” rare syndromes, environmental science and high-profile tragedies, anchoring stories in what happens to people’s bodies and daily life. She regularly explains rare or poorly understood conditions through specific people and events, and covers the intersection of health, crime and documentary narratives. She also reports on breaking incidents, politics, sports and wider science. Before UNILAD, she spent more than three years freelancing across LADbible Group titles, building her incident-led style.

Miriam E. Tucker is a freelance medical and health journalist whose work stands out for its focus on what new data mean for everyday clinical care, especially in diabetes, endocrinology, and metabolic disease. She is a regular contributor to Medscape Medical News and has also written for the Washington Post, NPR’s Shots blog, Diabetes Forecast, the British Medical Journal, and diaTribe. Her reporting centers on diabetes and its complications, cardiometabolic risk, sex-specific aspects of metabolic disease, continuity of care, and smoking cessation guidance. She covers obesity, GLP-1 therapies, and weight management, including real-world semaglutide use and fertility effects. She writes extensively on diabetes technology, policy, and safety, tracking FDA decisions, meeting data, infection-control failures, and shifts in screening and treatment guidelines, with close attention to clinical trials, real-world studies, and practical implications for clinicians.

Nicoletta Lanese turns complex medical research and fast-moving health crises into clear, deeply reported stories that show what is at stake for everyday health and public policy. She is health channel editor at Live Science, where she reports, commissions and edits coverage across medicine and public health and helps set long-range editorial priorities. Her beat sits at the intersection of infectious disease, neuroscience and chronic conditions, with recurring work on outbreaks, antibiotic resistance, HIV, AIDS, childhood obesity and myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome. She follows new studies, drug candidates, diagnostics and emerging therapies in mental health, autoimmune disease and neuroscience, emphasizing mechanisms, trial design and real-world use. Across Live Science and other science and medical outlets, she pairs expert analysis, methodological detail and practical context so readers understand both what the evidence shows and what it means for care.

Olivia Bowden reports on how health, policy and systemic inequities shape people’s lives. She is a freelance journalist whose recent work includes CBC News and publications such as The Guardian, Global News, TVO, The Juggernaut and The Local. Her beat covers health, race, culture and social justice, with a focus on gaps in care, safety and support. She reports on health access, reproductive care, housing, infrastructure, environmental risks, food safety, gender-based violence and community wellbeing. Her stories examine how institutions, government decisions, cultural practices and medical bias affect patients and communities, especially South Asians and others facing unequal services. She works across breaking news, features, audio and visual reporting. She combines interviews, lived experience, official reports, research and expert commentary to explain complex systems and keep affected people at the centre.

Petra Stock is distinctive for reporting where climate change, energy systems and the natural world meet science, health and daily life. She reports for the Guardian Australia and covers the practical consequences of climate and energy policy, household technologies, infrastructure, wildlife, habitats and emerging disease. Her work includes electric vehicles, home batteries, nuclear power, bird flu in seal pups, animals moving into homes after habitat loss, deep-sea goblin sharks and truffle science. She also writes on climate education. Her reporting is precise and fact-driven, built on expert studies, reports and interviews, with a strong grounding in environmental science and engineering. Her work has also appeared in Cosmos Magazine, The Age, Crikey, Australian Geographic, Archer, RenewEconomy, The Mandarin and The Citizen.

Randy Bracht is a reporter and editor at GCJ News whose distinct focus is on how local health services and public institutions actually deliver care and oversight. He covers community health services, hospital programs, local health boards, and public health regulations, explaining referral pathways, program scope, and how new offerings fit into existing systems. His reporting blends policy, practice, and human impact, with detailed, explanatory stories that center on the structure and responsibilities of local bodies. He also reports on county budgets, utilities, large public projects, clean energy targets, election-related measures, legal disputes, community events, memorials, local incidents, business development, and physical space reuse. His work emphasizes institutional powers, formal outcomes, and concrete implications for public agencies and services, often pairing precise descriptive reporting with his own photography to show how institutions and communities interact.

Rebecca Gao reports on how systems, environments and everyday choices shape health. She is an editor, fact-checker and freelance writer who works with Best Health and contributes to The Local, The Narwhal, Canadian Healthcare Network, Canadian Business, Toronto Life and other outlets. Her beat spans climate and public health risk, dermatology, beauty, consumer products, mental health, reproductive care, life expectancy and urban health gaps. She covers subjects such as spreading ticks, wildfires, cosmetic dermatology, skin routines, face masks, online therapy and the history of the birth control pill. Her work also examines how housing, infrastructure, markets and technology affect care and patient experience. She reports through deeply researched features, clear explainers and practical service pieces, combining expert evidence, statistics, local history and lived experience.

Rowan Dunne is a niche, counterculture-leaning business reporter at Mugglehead who connects specialized sectors to stock-market movement. He covers emerging health technologies, medtech, wellness products, mining, AI, robotics and industrial safety. His health reporting focuses on cancer screening, experimental therapeutics, psychedelics, sleep technology and brain-health devices. He tracks clinical results, patents, trial setbacks, product design, regulation, financing and corporate milestones, then links them to investor reaction. His coverage has included liquid biopsy methods, stem cell therapy, pancreatic cancer drugs, EEG earbuds and sleep-tech products. He also reports on mining safety, nickel-takeover regulation and small-cap companies whose announcements can drive sharp volatility. Dunne has filed more than 2,500 stories for Mugglehead over more than four years. He reports with technical detail, quantifies market moves and explains how scientific or operational developments affect early-stage companies.

Santiago Arias Orozco covers health and public policy for CBC Manitoba, with a focus on how systems, laws and environments shape the health of people at the margins. He reports on outbreaks, access to care and what happens when health and safety break down. His work includes public health surveillance and vaccination, including hepatitis A and measles, along with case counts, vaccination rates and exposure warnings. He also covers patient safety, legal accountability, organ donor registration, extreme weather, air quality, storms, Mental Health Act review and workplace oversight. He has written for CBC Toronto and the Toronto Star. He reports in a detailed, case-driven style that pairs outcome data with the policies and operational decisions behind them.

Sean Previl is an award-winning national online and digital broadcast journalist at Global News who specializes in fast, cross-platform breaking news with clear, practical focus. He covers where health, safety and policy meet daily life, reporting on disease outbreaks, health alerts, travel advisories, major accidents, severe weather and shifts in labour rules. His work explains immediate risk and what people need to do, turning complex policy and public health guidance into direct, numerical and concrete consequences. He scripts, voices and produces video packages as well as written pieces and on-air segments. His reporting tracks emergency response and public safety incidents, labour code changes, economic impacts such as hypothetical Alberta separation and consumer decisions tied to tariffs. Earlier roles producing broadcast packages and writing for regional online platforms show a consistent blend of field reporting, desk work and digital storytelling.

Stefan Dreesen is a publisher and health writer at Hospital News who turns complex hospital research and innovation into clear, practical stories for health care professionals. He covers clinical breakthroughs, artificial intelligence in medicine, hospital operations, public health, and workplace behaviour. His reporting includes first-in-kind procedures, novel therapies, organ donation, opioid reduction after heart surgery, critical care ventilation, and living heart tissue made with 3D printing. He also writes about privacy-first AI, AI-driven blood testing, risk management, hospital information systems, immunization gaps, and pressures on hospitals. His work connects bedside advances with system costs, policy, implementation, and patient impact. He reports by clearly summarizing study findings or innovations, then explaining their practical implications for care and policy. As publisher of a long-standing health care news outlet, he takes a broad view of how clinical progress, technology, system pressures, and human factors connect.

Stephanie Ip is a digital news editor and reporter at The Vancouver Sun, and her work stands out for treating health as live daily news, not a separate specialist beat. She covers illnesses, injuries, safety failures, and the official responses that follow, with a real focus on how events affect people in real time. Her reporting spans health, public safety, crime, and general assignment stories. She has written on the province’s first hantavirus patient, separate e-scooter crashes, and WorkSafeBC’s crane safety review and recommendations. She also covers breaking news, crime, pop culture, odd local stories, and service pieces such as election voting dates. Her stories are fast, concise, and plain, with clear outcomes, direct human impact, and attention to official updates.

Stephanie Nolen is a global health reporter for The New York Times who links disease biology to the politics, economics and infrastructure that determine access to care. She covers infectious diseases including H.I.V., tuberculosis, malaria, Covid, Ebola and emerging pathogens, along with mosquitoes, noncommunicable diseases, maternal mortality and child nutrition. Her beat focuses on medicines, health services, health equity, policy, funding and the systems that shape care in the global south. She examines pricing, regulation, aid, supply chains and international agencies, and shows how political decisions affect patients and health workers. She has reported on health and development for three decades and was a finalist for the 2026 Pulitzer Prize in International Reporting. Her work combines field reporting from clinics, laboratories, communities, war zones and humanitarian crises with clear explanations of science, data and policy.

Talia Ricci is a CBC News reporter who covers health and social issues through a strong human interest lens, with an emphasis on social justice and accountability. She focuses on how policies, systems and services shape the care people receive and the lives they lead, centring patients, families and frontline providers. Her work frequently takes audiences inside hospitals and emergency departments to show how rising demand, limited capacity and innovation affect care. She reports on public health topics like West Nile virus, misdiagnosed colon cancer and medical oversight, pairing personal stories with clear explanations of risk and responsibility. Ricci also covers mental health access, including the 988 suicide prevention line and postpartum psychiatric care, and everyday policy impacts such as home insurance transparency and nightlife privacy. She reports across television, radio and digital using interviews, on‑the‑ground reporting and feature storytelling.

Ted Clarke is a sports journalist whose close-in profiles and long view of teams and athletes define his work at the Prince George Citizen. He has reported there since the mid-1990s, covering local sports, including track and field, junior hockey, university athletics, baseball and the Prince George Cougars, Spruce Kings and UNBC Timberwolves. He also reports on team history, league structure, ownership, management and financial pressures. His wider work includes health, education, civic institutions, media, infrastructure and arts. In health stories, he focuses on serious illness through individual experience and explains public systems in plain language. He writes with concrete detail and clear explanations, placing current events in institutional and multi-year context. His reporting treats journalism as a paid education for readers.

Trisha Pasricha is a physician and medical columnist at The Washington Post whose work turns complex clinical research into clear answers for everyday health questions. A practicing neurogastroenterologist and researcher of the gut-brain connection, she stands out for science-forward, clinically grounded reporting that blends depth with practical detail. She writes a recurring Ask a Doctor column for The Washington Post’s Well+Being section and covers gut health, medications, vaccines, sleep, stress and other daily health choices. Her pieces often start with a reader concern or common myth, explain the science, and end with concrete, realistic steps. She has also written about irritable bowel syndrome, motility disorders, Parkinson’s disease, antibiotics, probiotics, coffee and sleep, grounding parks, and the safety of common drugs and vaccines.

Xavier Mesquita reports on health, safety and risk, especially when official warnings meet real-world harm. He is a journalist at the Toronto Star covering health and public safety. His work includes drug toxicity alerts, overdose surges, wildlife incidents, urban public safety, fraud and AI-generated scams. He has reported on overdose spikes as public health crises, coyote encounters involving children, and Toronto’s rising fraud losses. He also writes features for The Guardian and Toronto Life. His reporting centres on warnings, data and advisories from police and public health agencies, then connects them to recent incidents and community impact. He explains what risks mean for people on the ground, how authorities respond, and what practical steps residents are asked to take.