Ana Ibarra

Ana B. Ibarra, Web Reporter for California Healthline, is a bilingual journalist who started her career at the Merced Sun-Star. During her two years at the Sun-Star, she covered community health, health-related research at UC Merced and issues affecting underserved and Latino communities in Merced County. Her work has also appeared in the Modesto Bee and the Fresno Bee. She is a 2015 Center for Health Journalism fellow and a Cal Poly Pomona graduate. As a fellow of the California Endowment Health Journalism Fellowships in 2014, she explored the impact of community violence on the mental health of residents in Merced County and the San Joaquin Valley. She is a native Angeleno and a 2013 Cal Poly Pomona graduate.

Articles

Top of the Morning: Ana B. Ibarra Edition

Here we check in with prominent health journalists and experts to see what sites, newsletters and social media feeds they turn to first every morning. This week, we caught up with Ana Ibarra, web reporter for Kaiser Health News. Here are her top morning reads.

Tact is crucial in interviewing victims of rising street violence

For her three-part series on the health effects of rising violent crime in Merced County, reporter Ana Ibarra interviewed victims and family members struggling with pain and raw emotion. Here she shares a few of the reporting lessons she learned along the way.

Mental Health

Community Safety

Health Equity & Social Justice

Community & Public Health

Residents in Calif.'s Central Valley work toward safer, healthier neighborhoods

Community groups in Merced County, where ongoing violence has taken a heavy toll, are pursuing a hands-on approach to building safer and healthier neighborhoods. Some host community workshops and resource fairs; others walk the streets late at night in a call for peace.

Race and Equity

Community Safety

Winton resident Claudia Gonzalez, 29, holds a photo of a friend who was killed by gang violence while speaking about her childhood and experience being initiated into a gang at the Merced Organizing Project office.

Health Equity & Social Justice

Community & Public Health

Violent traumas bear array of often buried health issues

As Merced County in California's Central Valley grapples with a rising tide of violence over the past few years, local behavioral health clinicians are paying closer attention to PTSD. The county has recorded homicides in record numbers over the past two years.

Race and Equity

Poverty and Class

Community Safety

A photo of Samantha Parreira sits in the home of her mother, Desiree Parreira, in Atwater.

Health Equity & Social Justice

Community & Public Health

Unspoken emotional damage looms over victims of violence in Merced County

In 2013, Desiree Parreira lived a parent’s worst nightmare when her 16-year-old daughter, Samantha, was shot and killed at a house party near Merced in California's Central Valley. The ensuing grief was unbearable. But in a county wracked by violence, she's not alone.

Race and Equity

Poverty and Class

Community Safety

Violent environments can create toxic stress for residents

Violence on the rise: its impact on mental well-being

Like in many low-income communities, violence is a major concern for residents of Merced County. Just last year, the county recorded its highest number of homicides at 32. For this project, I will explore the short and long-term effects that the increasing violence has on residents’ mental health.

Environmental Health

Reporting Topics

Reporting Topics

Reporting Topics

Reporting Topics

Reporting Topics

Ana Ibarra

Articles

Top of the Morning: Ana B. Ibarra Edition

Tact is crucial in interviewing victims of rising street violence

Residents in Calif.'s Central Valley work toward safer, healthier neighborhoods

Violent traumas bear array of often buried health issues

Unspoken emotional damage looms over victims of violence in Merced County

Violence on the rise: its impact on mental well-being