The USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism announced the winners of its Dennis A. Hunt Fund for Health Journalism grants and National Health Journalism Fellowships this week, and multiple AHCJ members earned honors in each category. The program seeks to fund explanatory and investigative reporting in underserved communities. The winning members are listed below; see the Annenberg site for a full list. All descriptions are taken directly from the press release.
2010 HUNT GRANT RECIPIENTS
Christina Hernandez, a freelance writer for The Philadelphia Inquirer, will receive a $5,000 grant to examine a troubled health care system in a New Jersey city and local attempts to find solutions.
Emily Ramshaw, an assistant managing editor and investigative reporter at The Texas Tribune in Austin, will receive $4,000 to analyze efforts to improve public health in colonias – 2,300 unincorporated and isolated border towns.
2010 NATIONAL HEALTH JOURNALISM FELLOWS
Pedro F. Frisneda, health editor of El Diario/La Prensa in New York City, will explore several serious threats to the health of Latinos in the United States: disparities in health care access and outcomes; obesity and diabetes; and HIV/AIDS.
Heather May, a reporter for The Salt Lake Tribune, will look at why children in some racially diverse neighborhoods in Salt Lake County are more likely than their neighbors to be born with birth defects, die from prematurity or SIDS or be hospitalized for asthma.
Elizabeth Simpson (Early), the medical reporter at The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, Virginia, will examine the contributing factors to infant mortality in African American neighborhoods throughout the Hampton Roads region.
Carol Smith, a Seattle-based reporter for InvestigateWest, will take a look at the health of predominantly minority communities that live and work along the Duwamish River in Seattle.
Mark Taylor, a freelancer writer based in Munster, Indiana, will produce a series of stories for the Post-Tribune that will examine the high rates of disease, infant deaths and chronic health conditions in Gary, Indiana’s poorer neighborhoods.
