Career Development: Fellowships, Internships, Training & Grants

AHCJ Reporting Fellowships on Health Care Performance

Logo: AHCJ Media Fellowships on Health Performance

See the list of past fellows.

Get help with your big 2023 reporting project!

Have you and your editors started planning a major project for 2023? We can help assist your effort through the AHCJ Reporting Fellowships on Health Care Performance, which is supported by The Commonwealth Fund.

This calendar-year program allows journalists to pursue a significant reporting project related to the U.S. health care system. It can be local, regional or national in scope, or a mix.

Though not an exclusive requirement of your project proposal, this year’s review committee remains interested in projects focused on health equity. This might include racial disparities within a community, gaps in public health inclusion, unstable housing, insurance access, food insecurity, violence as a health issue, how health care institutions or systems are applying a racial equity lens to their policies and practices or otherwise addressing inequities or disparities, or other examinations of systemic problems that became so apparent over the past year.

Fellows pursue the projects with the support of their newsrooms or arranged outlets, which commit to publish or air the work.

Guidance is provided by AHCJ fellowship leaders through customized seminars on health care systems, conference calls and email consultations. The fellowship covers the cost of attending the seminars and AHCJ conferences, and a $4,000 project allowance is available to defray the cost of field reporting, health data analysis and other project-related research. In addition, each fellow will receive a $2,500 fellowship award upon the successful completion of the project.

The application deadline is January 19, 2023 at 1 p.m. ET, Noon. CT, 10 a.m. PT

For 2023, the first meeting is planned as either an in-person meeting in New York or as a virtual seminar to be held in January. The second seminar will take place at Health Journalism 2023, with anticipated dates in early March. The third seminar is due for later in the year in New York. We anticipate the first half of the year being spent on research and remote interviews, with the second half of the year allowing travel to sites needed to complete your reporting.

See details about applying for the fellowship.

Questions? Contact Susan Cunningham, cunninghamsu@missouri.edu or 573-882-2203.


2022 fellows

(Click names to see their projects.)

Theodore Alcorn, independent journalist

Sarah Boden, health and science reporter for 90.5 WESA News, Pittsburgh’s NPR station

Arielle Dreher, health care reporter for the Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Washington

Emily Green, managing editor, The Lund Report.

Cecilia Hernandez-Cromwell, news director and anchor at Telemundo Noticiero Oklahoma

2021 fellows

(Click names to see their projects.)

Erin Durkin, health care correspondent, The National Journal (@ErinDurkin2)

Melba Newsome, independent journalist writing for The Charlotte Observer

Matthew Ong, associate editor, medical investigative reporter, The Cancer Letter (@mattobh)

Kristen Schorsch, reporter, WBEZ, Chicago Public Media (@kschorsch)

Farah Yousry, health equity reporter, WFYI Side Effects Public Media (@Farah_Yousrym)

 

2020 fellows

(Click names to see their projects.)

Carol Cruzan Morton, independent journalist writing for The Oregonian (@CarolMorton)

Nicholas Florko, Washington correspondent, Stat (@NicholasFlorko)

Sebastián Martínez Valdivia, public health reporter, KBIA (@sebastiansings)

Alice Ollstein, health care reporter, Politico (@AliceOllstein)

Luanne Rife, health reporter, The Roanoke Times (@LuanneRife)

Jocelyn Wiener, independent journalist writing for CalMatters (@jocelynwiener)

  • Wiener will examine the roots of California’s mental health crisis and explore possible solutions that may exist elsewhere.

 

2019 fellows

Read the press release. (Click names to see their projects.)

Erin Alberty, reporter, The Salt Lake Tribune (@erinalberty)

Max Blau, independent journalist writing for The (Macon, Ga.) Telegraph (@MaxBlau)

Blake Farmer, reporter, Nashville Public Radio (@flakebarmer)

Naseem Miller, reporter, Orlando Sentinel (@NaseemMiller)

 

2018 fellows

Read the press release. (Click names to see their projects.)

Nick Budnick, reporter, Portland Tribune, Portland, Ore.

Kathleen Burge, independent journalist writing for CommonHealth/WBUR, Boston

Audrey Dutton, reporter, Idaho Statesman, Boise, Idaho

Benjamin Hardy, Arkansas Nonprofit News Network

 

2017 fellows

Read the press release. (Click names to see their projects.)

Jessica Bylander, senior editor, Health Affairs

Brenda Goodman, senior news writer, WebMD

Markian Hawryluk, health reporter, Bend (Ore.) Bulletin (now with Kaiser Health News)

Erin Mershon, Washington correspondent, Stat (now news editor)

Bram Sable-Smith, lead reporter, health & wealth desk, KBIA-Columbia, Mo. (now with Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism)

 

2016 fellows

Read the press release. (Click names to see their projects.)

Dan Diamond, author, Politico Pulse

Glenn Howatt, health care reporter, Minneapolis Star Tribune

Stephanie Innes, senior reporter, (Tucson) Arizona Daily Star (now with The Arizona Republic)

JoAnn Mar, producer, KALW-San Francisco

Misty Williams, health care policy reporter, Atlanta Journal-Constitution (now editor of state news at AARP)

  • Williams examined access to mental health care for children in Georgia and what a lack of treatment means for families and the state.

 


2015 fellows

Read the press release. (Click names to see their projects.)

Rick Jurgens, reporter, Valley News (New Hampshire)

Sarah Kliff, senior editor, Vox

Beth Kutscher, finance reporter, Modern Healthcare (now managing editor at LinkedIn News)

Jayne O'Donnell, health care policy reporter, USA Today

David Wahlberg, health reporter, Wisconsin State Journal

 

2014 fellows

Read the press release. (Click names to see their projects.)

Karen Brown, reporter and producer, New England Public Radio

David Pittman, reporter, Politico

  • Pittman compared state Medicaid models and the impact of innovations aimed at improving health care quality while lowering costs.

  • State Medicaid ACOs Up but Struggles Mount

  • Arkansas’ struggle with telemedicine mirrors the nation’s | PDF of project

  • Medicaid agencies turn to 'big data' to tackle costs | PDF

  • States fail to track Medicaid EHR payments | PDF

Sarah Gantz, staff writer, Baltimore Business Journal (now with The Philadelphia Inquirer)

Michaela Gibson Morris, health care reporter, Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal

Lola J. Butcher, independent journalist, Springfield, Mo.


2013 fellows

Read the press release. (Click names to see their projects.)

Alan Bavley, medical reporter, The Kansas City Star

Jeanne Erdmann, independent journalist, St. Louis

Noam Levey, national health care reporter, Los Angeles Times/Tribune Washington Bureau

Rhiannon Meyers, reporter, Corpus Christi Caller-Times

Lindy Washburn, senior writer, The Record/North Jersey Media Group

 


2012 fellows

Read the press release. (Click names to see their projects.)

John George, health care reporter, Philadelphia Business Journal

Margot Sanger-Katz, health care correspondent, National Journal (now with The New York Times)

  • Sanger-Katz produced a yearlong series of stories examining the growing pattern of hospital consolidation and its influence on health care costs and the future of health reform.

  • The New Goliaths: The 2010 health law was designed to lower costs. Instead, by encouraging hospitals to merge, it could boost the price of care.

  • Nothing to Smile About: The number of teeth in this country grows, even as the number of dentists shrinks. Guess who gets squeezed out.

  • In Praise of Price-Fixing: Americans face a constant (and often Sisyphean) struggle against health care inflation. Maryland found an answer.

  • The False Promise: Hospitals like Pittsburgh’s UPMC created enough jobs to end the recession. If they keep it up, they’ll wreck the economy.

Tammy Worth, independent journalist, Kansas City, Mo.

 

2011 fellows

Read the press release. (Click names to see their projects.)

Yanick Rice Lamb, editor and writer, Heart & Soul Magazine

Marshall Allen, staff writer, Las Vegas Sun (now a reporter at ProPublica in New York)

Rosemary Hoban, reporter, North Carolina Public Radio/WUNC (now editor of North Carolina Health News)