About AHCJ: General News

AHCJ names Seegert new topic leader on aging issues Date: 04/02/13

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, April 2, 2013
Contact: Len Bruzzese, AHCJ, 573-884-5606

COLUMBIA, Mo. – The Association of Health Care Journalists has hired reporting professional Liz Seegert as the new topic champion for its core curriculum efforts on aging.

Seegert’s reporting and writing background spans more than 25 years in print, broadcast, and digital media, covering consumer and professional health topics, including wellness/prevention, chronic disease management, women’s health, aging, health policy and health IT. She takes over from founding topic leader Judith Graham, who built the foundation of the site, and who now writes for The New York Times’ blog The New Old Age.

Seegert has written for Kaiser Health News, New America Media, Women, Home Care Technology Report, The Atlantic online, Discovery Education, Kidshealth.org, Healthwise magazine, professional journals, the HealthCetera blog and the HealthStyles radio show, both part of the Center for Health, Media and Policy at Hunter College in New York City, where she is a senior fellow.

Her experience includes stints in Boston as a general assignment news reporter for public radio and a writer for all-news radio, and as a television news associate producer/writer in New York City.

Aging is one of at least a dozen key subject areas the organization believes today’s health journalists will need to master to cover the beat well.

The pages offer a central and cataloged collection of materials on the topic, with the practical daily guidance of a lead editor who specializes in the topic. Each specialty topic page includes glossaries, key concepts, reporting tip sheets, weekly blog items, first-person stories by fellow journalists, videos, data and more. The topic home page serves as a launch pad to more resources on the healthjournalism.org site and elsewhere.

The creation of the aging pages was made possible by support from The Commonwealth Fund and the John A. Hartford Foundation. The funders agreed reporters could use more help in reporting the myriad stories of aging and they support AHCJ’s approach of journalists guiding journalists.

The Association of Health Care Journalists is an independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing public understanding of health care issues. With more than 1,400 members across the United States and around the globe, its mission is to improve the quality, accuracy and visibility of health care reporting, writing and editing. The association and its Center for Excellence in Health Care Journalism provide training, resources and a professional home for journalists. Offices are based at the Missouri School of Journalism.