About AHCJ: General News

New AHCJ board seated for 2015-16 Date: 06/26/15

Jeanne Erdmann and Mary Shedden

Jeanne Erdmann, an independent journalist based in Missouri, and Mary Shedden, editor of Health News Florida, join four incumbents in being seated on the Association of Health Care Journalists' 2015-16 board of directors.

Incumbents starting a new two-year term include AHCJ President Karl Stark, of The Philadelphia Inquirer; AHCJ Treasurer Felice J. Freyer, of The Boston Globe; Gideon Gil, of The Boston Globe; and Maryn McKenna, an Atlanta-based independent journalist.

Erdmann was a 2013 AHCJ Reporting Fellow on Health Care Performance and, as an active member of the association’s Freelance Committee, has had a key role in organizing the annual Freelance PitchFest for the past six years. Her writing appears in trade and consumer outlets and she is co-founder and editor-at-large at The Open Notebook, a craft-focused site for science, health and environmental writers.

Shedden, a 2012-13 AHCJ Regional Health Fellow, in addition to being editor of HealthNewsFlorida.org – a statewide digital news service – is coordinator of statewide radio health coverage for NPR member stations in Miami, Tampa and Orlando. She has worked at several newspapers, most recently at The Tampa Tribune for eight years.

The newly seated board members join those elected last year for two-year terms: AHCJ Vice President Ivan Oransky, M.D., of MedPage Today in New York; AHCJ Secretary Julie Appleby of Kaiser Health News in Washington, D.C., Scott Hensley of NPR in Washington, D.C., Tony Leys of the Des Moines (Iowa) Register, Charlotte Sutton of The Philadelphia Inquirer, and Irene Wielawski, an independent journalist in Pound Ridge, N.Y.

The new board takes office on July 1.

Longtime board members Carla K. Johnson, of The Associated Press, and Charles Ornstein, of ProPublica, chose not to run for re-election.

The Association of Health Care Journalists is an independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing public understanding of health care issues. Its mission is to improve the quality, accuracy and visibility of health care reporting, writing and editing. AHCJ is housed at the Missouri School of Journalism.