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Amber Dance
Freelance science journalist
Freelance science journalist
Amber Dance, Ph.D., an award-winning freelance science journalist based in Southern California, co-authors the Center's Health Divide column. She also contributes to publications including PNAS Front Matter, The Scientist, and Nature. She also edits books on a variety of topics.
After earning a doctorate in biology, Amber Dance re-trained in journalism as a way to engage her broad interest in science and share her enthusiasm with readers. She mainly writes about life sciences, with particular expertise in microbiology, cell biology, neuroscience and lab techniques.
Heat wave endangers migrants, prisoners of color
Deaths of despair among Black people tripled from 2015-2022, surpassing white rates. Also this week: Efforts to reduce medical debt and Pew generates controversy in survey on Black Americans’ views on health care.
Also this week: Advocates urge changes to tissue donation rules for gay men, and families of color struggle to get cystic fibrosis diagnoses for newborns.
Also this week: Cancer inequities narrow, but more work is needed; and disabled people lose services during Medicaid unwinding.
This week: Task force advises mammograms at 40 for women; rural living raises death risk; HHS fights disability discrimination and courts support LGBTQ+ rights.
Also this week: Social and economic factors take more than a decade off Native American life expectancy.
Also this week: The alarming suicide rate among young Black men in rural regions of the country.
Louisiana's abortion ban affects maternal care, leading to delays and unnecessary cesarean sections, disproportionately impacting Black and low-income women.
Study links medical debt with poor health outcomes, urging attention to financial hardships in healthcare.
Mental health is a big contributor to pregnancy-related death rates, according to a new analysis in JAMA Psychiatry.