Career Development: Job Postings

Job type: Freelance Position
Location:
Position: Environmental HealthBeat Leader
Organization: Association of Health Care Journalists
Date posted: 05/23/23

About AHCJ

The Association of Health Care Journalists is an independent, nonprofit professional journalism association dedicated to advancing public understanding of health care issues. We work with thousands of journalists each year to improve the quality, accuracy and visibility of health care reporting and editing internationally.

The Opportunity

We’re seeking a reporter with a strong interest in environmental health to join our team of HealthBeat leaders. These freelancers focus on helping AHCJ’s members do better journalism and share resources, tips and terms that deepen our members’ understanding of timely and important subjects. The Environmental HealthBeat leader will guide our members’ reporting on how climate change, lack of access to clean air and water, energy and agricultural issues and other environmental challenges, are negatively impacting the physical and mental health of many Americans. In this role, the writer would also help members report on how these environmental health challenges are disproportionately affecting people in low-income communities who already have health care vulnerabilities. This topic closely intersects with health equity, patient safety and mental health.

The Environmental HealthBeat reporter will also guide members to research, data sets and other resources that address these related topics. The writer would also help members learn how to monitor the work of organizations engaged in researching environmental health and its impact.

This year-to-year commitment includes writing for AHCJ’s HealthBeat at healthjournalism.org, summarizing key issues, organizing and moderating webinars with experts, reporting on other journalists’ work, contributing tip sheets, and identifying good story examples and important events related to the subject.

The reporter will work mainly with AHCJ's managing editor and the director of content and education. To promote content and events, the reporter will also work with AHCJ’s director of engagement to encourage reader interaction through social media. The right person for the job will be enthusiastic about organizing and moderating panels and sharing expertise at AHCJ events. The reporter also would be expected to coordinate coverage and collaborate with AHCJ’s other reporters as part of the organization’s “newsroom.”

The ideal applicant is a well-connected freelancer with experience in writing about environmental health.  Multimedia experience is a plus.

This freelance opportunity will pay up to $15,600 a year and comes with high-profile opportunities in the organization, including with other professionals in health care journalism.

Position Details

AHCJ believes there are health care topics that today’s journalists need to understand to cover health well and has launched several health beats toward that effort, including this topic. These "learning centers" provide expertise in areas essential to reporting on health or health care.

Each specialty topic page includes a glossary of key terms, reporting tip sheets, stories about great work by fellow journalists, data and more. The topic home page serves as a launch pad to more resources on healthjournalism.org and elsewhere.

This HealthBeat leader role will focus on the complex and wide-ranging factors in the environment that affect physical and mental health, including exposure to air and chemical pollution, climate change and natural disasters, poor water quality, etc.

The reporter will:

  • Contribute two posts per month on Health Beat. Posts will help other journalists understand the significance of news on the topic, highlight good journalistic work being done on it, and elevate resources or other tools that may help reporters advance their coverage. 

  • Define key terms and concepts related to environmental health to assist reporters working on deadline.

  • Find and write descriptions of related events, workshops, conferences, briefings, etc., to add to AHCJ's web calendar.

  • Organize and moderate quarterly webinars with experts and journalists to educate reporters on emerging issues.

  • Review suggestions from members and determine which to add to our resources and serve as a resource with whom other reporters can consult.

  • Write Q&As and tip sheets designed to help reporters work on similar or related stories. 

  • Identify robust, related datasets that will allow reporters to deepen their stories and write summaries of them, suggesting best uses and possible stories.

  • Assist in setting up panels and finding speakers for AHCJ training events.

  • Attend AHCJ-related events, including the annual conference

Status: Independent contractor
Reporting to: Managing editor
Project Type: One-year contract
Compensation: Up to $15,600 per year 

To apply, fill out this form. 

Questions about the position? Email Director of Education and Content Katherine Reed at katherine@healthjournalism.org.