The latest report on AHCJ members’ awards, fellowships, job changes and other news includes Christie Aschwanden, Jennifer Boen, Karen Brown, Pieter Droppert, Ellen Durckel Vestewig, Pamela Fayerman, Nancy Finn, Kristin Gourlay, Tara Haelle, Harriet Hodgson, Naseem Miller, Crissinda Ponder, Maria Ortiz Briones, Joe Rojas-Burke, Liz Seegert and Emily Willingham.
Christie Aschwanden (@CragCrest ) has been hired as the lead writer for science at FiveThirtyEight. She also has been awarded a Journalism Fellowship In Complexity Science from the Santa Fe Institute and will spend May at the Institute. And she was elected to the board of the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing. She continues to blog at Last Word On Nothing.
Jennifer Boen (@SentryOnHealth ) was selected as a Journalist in Aging Fellow by the Gerontological Society of America to attend the organization’s November meeting in Washington, D.C.
Karen Brown (@kbrownreports) won “Best News Feature” at the Third Coast International Audio Festival for her story “Lance and Nina: A Story of Addiction, Recovery, and Redemption.”
Pieter Droppert (@3NT) completed a diploma in radio journalism at the National Broadcasting School based at Radio City in Liverpool, United Kingdom. He received the Jon Snow prize for leading student on the course, and his radio documentary on “Living well with dementia – a personal journey” won Best Radio News Documentary at the 2014 Broadcast Journalism Training Council’s student journalism awards.
Ellen Durckel Vestewig works as a freelance producer for ABC News and NBC News in Houston.
Pamela Fayerman (@medicinematters) of The Vancouver Sun won a 2014 Media Award for Health Reporting from the Canadian Medical Association. Her piece, “The power of an apology,” was honored with the Michelle Lang Award for Excellence in Print Reporting – In-depth feature article.
Nancy Finn (@nfinn8421) spoke about “Expediting Advances in Women’s Health Through Internet and mHealth” at the United Nations Geneva at the Women’s Health Round Table, part of the Geneva NGO Forum Beijing+20 Un ECE Regional Review.
Kristin Gourlay (@KristinGourlay), a health care reporter for Rhode Island Public Radio, was selected as a 2014 National Health Journalism Fellow, through the USC Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism and its California Health Endowment Fellowships. For the fellowship, she launched a multi-part radio documentary series called “At the Crossroads: The Rise of Hepatitis C and the Fight to Stop It.”
Tara Haelle (@tarahaelle) was awarded a fellowship from the International Reporting Project to spend two weeks reporting on child health and immunizations in Mozambique.
“Happy Again! Your New and Meaningful Life After Loss,” a book by Harriet Hodgson (@healthmn1), has been re-released by BQB Publishing and her latest book, “The Family Caregiver’s Guide,” is in production. Hodgson is a contributing writer for The Caregiver Space website.
Naseem Miller (@NaseemMiller) has joined The Orlando Sentinel as a senior health reporter. She was a reporter for Frontline Medical News.
Crissinda Ponder (@CrissiPonder) was selected as a fellow for the Society of American Business Editors and Writers’ health care symposium, focused on the Affordable Care Act, in Atlanta.
Maria Ortiz Briones (@TuValleTuSalud), a health reporter for Vida en el Valle, was selected to participate in the National Press Foundation’s Cancer Issues fellowship in Washington, D.C., in December.
Joe Rojas-Burke has taken a position as a senior science writer at the University of Utah.
Independent journalist Liz Seegert, who serves as AHCJ’s core topic leader on aging, was elected to the board of directors of the Journalism and Women’s Symposium.
Freelance journalist Emily Willingham, Ph.D., (@ejwillingham) has been awarded a 2014 John Maddox Prize for Standing up for Science, an international prize for courage in promoting science and evidence on a matter of public interest, despite facing difficulty and hostility in doing so.
