About AHCJ: General News

Eight Kansas, Missouri journalists named as Midwest Health Journalism Program Fellows Date: 08/03/10

COLUMBIA, Mo. - The Association of Health Care Journalists has named the 2010-11 class of the Midwest Health Journalism Program, an annual fellowship program for reporters and editors from Kansas and Missouri.

The fellows are:

• Jim Doyle, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
• Christy Hendricks, KFVS-Cape Girardeau, Mo.
• Jodie Jackson Jr., Columbia (Mo.) Daily Tribune
• Chuck Kurtz, Sun Publications, Overland Park, Kan.
• Julia Paulus, St. Louis Small Business Monthly
• Larry Seward II, KSHB-Kansas City
• Kimber Wallace, The Manhattan(Kan.) Mercury
• J. Jeff Zehnder Jr.,WIBW-Topeka/Kansas Radio Networks

The program provides established journalists with the tools needed to improve the depth and amount of coverage focused on critical state and local health issues. The goals include a better-educated public and more accountability for policymakers, say the program planners.

The program involves a cooperative effort among AHCJ, the Kansas Health Institute and the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Kansas.

AHCJ, based at the Missouri School of Journalism, will conduct the training program through its Center for Excellence in Health Care Journalism. The Kansas Health Institute will administer the grant and coordinate overall planning and marketing efforts, while the University of Kansas will evaluate the training project and its results.

Training includes:

• a customized weeklong reporting boot camp in Columbia, Mo., Aug. 15-19
• a fall trip to the headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta
• access to state government health policy seminars in Topeka and Jefferson City early in 2011
• a four-day trip to the Health Journalism 2011 conference in Philadelphia in April
• a workshop on covering rural health issues in mid-2011

Each fellow will be provided an appropriate mentor from the worldwide membership of AHCJ to discuss story ideas, best sources and story approaches throughout the year.

The program funders are:

• The Kansas Health Foundation, Wichita, Kan.
• The Sunflower Foundation, Topeka, Kan.
• The United Methodist Health Ministry Fund, Hutchinson, Kan.
• REACH Healthcare Foundation, Merriam, Kan.
• Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City, Kansas City, Mo.
• Missouri Foundation for Health, St. Louis

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.