Dear AHCJ members,

AHCJ staff have been monitoring the emergence and spread of the Delta variant closely over the last few weeks. With the guidance of the board of directors, we have made the difficult decision to once again postpone our in-person annual conference scheduled for October 28-31 in Austin. While we were planning to offer some conference sessions virtually, recent COVID-19 developments have made it unwise to ask our members to travel for an in-person meeting.

A little over a month ago we were optimistic about vaccinations and excited to gather in person, and we had great planning meetings on-site in Austin just a few weeks ago. We are still committed to bringing the annual conference to Austin and are working hard to find appropriate dates to gather in 2022. Continue reading →

Andrew Smiley is the executive director of AHCJ and its Center for Excellence in Health Care Journalism, and an assistant professor at the Missouri School of Journalism. Smiley comes to AHCJ from a sports broadcasting background, including nearly a decade at the Golf Channel/NBC Sports and a decade at ESPN, where he won an Emmy.