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Staff
 Len Bruzzese, Executive Director
Bruzzese is the executive director of AHCJ and its Center for Excellence in Health Care Journalism. He is also an associate professor at the Missouri School of Journalism and serves on the executive committee of the Council of National Journalism Organizations. Bruzzese, a founding staff member of USA Today, spent 20 years in daily journalism before entering the nonprofit and academic worlds. He served as deputy director of Investigative Reporters and Editors and the National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting for seven years before helping base AHCJ at Missouri in 2005. He is co-author of "The Investigative Reporter's Handbook," (fourth edition), and has edited 15 reporter beat books focused on different reporting topics of use to daily journalists. He has won several newspaper and magazine editing awards and was named Outstanding Alumnus in Journalism by the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Bruzzese's journalism career included writing, editing and management stints at USA Today, The Clarion-Ledger (Jackson, Miss.), the Pensacola News Journal and Gannett News Service (Washington, D.C.). His final daily newspaper position was as editor of The Olympian in Olympia, Wash. len@healthjournalism.org | Phone: 573-884-5606
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Jeff Porter, Special Projects Director
 Porter became AHCJ special projects director in 2008 after serving six years as the database library director for Investigative Reporters and Editors and the National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting. In that position, he conducted and directed data analysis for broadcast and print investigative projects, served as lead instructor for computer-assisted reporting boot camps, and provided journalism training across the United States and overseas. He also has served as a CAR instructor at the Missouri School of Journalism. Previously, he worked 20 years as an award-winning newspaper journalist, served as adjunct college faculty, and co-created and hosted a weekly radio program. His last newspaper job was at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, where he served as CAR specialist, combining traditional investigative reporting techniques with advanced data analysis tools. jeff@healthjournalism.org | Phone: 573-884-5477
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 Pia Christensen, Managing Editor/Online Services
Christensen manages the content and development of healthjournalism.org and oversaw the site's redesign. She assists with the editing and production of AHCJ's publications, including books, conference programs and the quarterly newsletter. In 2010, she was featured in "Journalists to Follow: 20 industry thinkers, innovators and practitioners we recommend you get to know" in Quill magazine, published by the Society of Professional Journalists. She previously was publications coordinator for Investigative Reporters and Editors, where she oversaw website content, edited IRE publications and assisted advertisers. She worked as a copy editor and an interactive producer at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, a producer for Tribune Interactive, a sports copy editor for the Marin (Calif.) Independent Journal, and was job and internship coordinator at the Center for Integration and Improvement of Journalism in San Francisco. She telecommutes from Oklahoma. pia@healthjournalism.org | Phone: 405-707-7300
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 Christy Stretz, Membership Coordinator
Stretz is the membership coordinator for AHCJ, where she provides the first line of service for members and potential members. She also coordinates marketing and outreach efforts to inform both AHCJ members and other journalists who would benefit from AHCJ events, resources and support. She has worked as a continuing education coordinator with the Center for Innovations in Education at the University of Missouri, and a genetics and rural outreach clinics coordinator at the MU Medical School. christy@healthjournalism.org | Phone: 573-882-2955
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 Ev Ruch-Graham, Training Coordinator
Ruch-Graham serves as training coordinator for AHCJ where she helps arrange conferences, workshops and other training events. She offers logistical assistance to speakers, exhibitors and conference program advertisers, and provides on-site leadership during events. She also offers direct assistance to journalists awarded specialty fellowships. She has served in similar roles at New Directions for News, Investigative Reporters and Editors and Missouri School Boards Association. She also has worked as a continuing education coordinator at the University of Missouri's College of Education. ev@healthjournalism.org | 573-884-8103
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 Stacey Andreasen, Financial Officer
Andreasen handles daily accounting chores and overall budget monitoring of the association and the center. The former office manager for a local private company has served as a case manager for developmentally disabled children, a payroll clerk and a Spanish teacher. She graduated from Utah State University with degrees in Spanish and political science/pre-law. She is happy to assist our Spanish-speaking members. stacey@healthjournalism.org | 573-882-2868
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Student Assistants
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Chelsea Reynolds, Graduate Research Assistant
Reynolds, a graduate student in the Missouri School of Journalism, has worked for the editorial teams of several consumer health magazines and websites, including Men's Health and Better Homes and Gardens' Diabetic Living. She is writing her master's thesis on the disparities between sex content in women's and men's health and lifestyle magazines. Her previous research has addressed the potential effects of sexual media on consumers.
Wei Peng, Graduate Research Assistant
Peng is a graduate student in the Missouri School of Journalism focusing on strategic communication. His research interest is health communication in magazines and advertising. He is writing his master's thesis on body image dissatisfaction among women. He plans to work for a non-profit public health organization after graduation.
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Jodie Sabino, Office Assistant
Sabino, a work-study student, is enrolled in the University of Missouri Trulaske School of Business, where she majors in marketing. She is from Houston and plans to work for a nonprofit organization.
Will Schmitt, Office Assistant
Schmitt is a freshman in the Missouri School of Journalism. He hails from St. Louis, Missouri.
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Editorial Contributors
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Graham is leading the effort to provide resources to help AHCJ members cover the complexities of aging by writing blog posts, tip sheets, articles and other resources. She started writing about health care finance and policy in the mid-1980s. She has reported on Medicare, Medicaid, long-term care, chronic care, patient safety, public health, efforts to improve health care quality, end of life care, and the business of health care, among other topics. Graham wrote a monthly column on aging for the Tribune Co. newspapers, which was distributed widely across the country. She has hosted more than half a dozen hour-long Web chats on aging issues and wrote extensively about those topics on her blog, Triage, and in the news pages of the Chicago Tribune, where she worked for 14 years.
Joanne Kenen, Health Reform Topic Leader
Kenen is a Washington-based writer who specializes in health and health policy. She is leading an effort to provide resources to help AHCJ members cover the complexities of implementing health care reform. Her work has appeared in the Atlantic, The Washington Post, Slate, the Washingtonian, Kaiser Health News, Health Affairs, Miller-McCune, the American Prospect, AARP Magazine and numerous other publications. She was the senior writer for the Health Policy Program at the New America Foundation, and a Kaiser Media Fellow in a 2006-7, where she wrote extensively about palliative medicine, hospice, and aging. A longtime Reuters correspondent in New York, Florida/the Caribbean, and Washington, she has covered everything from voodoo festivals to U.S. presidential campaigns and she spent more than a decade covering health policy on Capitol Hill. Thanks to her particularly wakeful second son, she is co-author of a parenting book, "The Sleeplady's Good Night, Sleep Tight." Earlier in her career, she did a lot of reporting from Latin America, and co-authored a book on Costa Rica.
Andrew Van Dam, Website Writer
Van Dam recently earned his master's degree from the Missouri School of Journalism, where he studied reporting, both through text and through new media, infographics and design. He previously reported for the Idaho Press-Tribune in Nampa, Idaho.
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