Michelle Levander
Editor and Founding Director
Editor and Founding Director
My life has been enriched by work as a reporter, editor and, currently, as a journalism educator, news leader and founder of the USC Center for Health Journalism.
In 2004, I launched the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism. Before that I worked in daily journalism in California at the San Jose Mercury News and in Asia for the Asian Wall Street Journal and Time Magazine Asia. I also spent a year in Mexico, studying and later writing about immigrants and the tug North as an Inter American Press Association Fellow at El Colegio de México and El Colegio de Michoacán and in villages in the region. I'm a graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and UC Berkeley.
To learn more about some of the initiatives I've launched and now manage at the Center, click here to learn about our Fellowships and Impact Funds, here to learn about our reporting collaboratives and here to see the journalism that results. I also co-founded Boyle Heights Beat, a bilingual youth media community news project, and served as its hands-on co-editor and publisher for a decade, along with Pedro Rojas, then executive editor of La Opinión.
I welcome your feedback and ideas on the work we do. Please contact me at editor@centerforhealthjournalism.org.
With our new blog “The Health Divide,” our aim is to inspire conversations and help journalists portray how larger forces outside of the doctor’s office can shape community health.
The newly announced Center for Health Journalism Impact Fund will provide reporting grants of up to $10,000 news outlets, news collaboratives or individual reporters to undertake investigative or explanatory health reporting projects in California.
In recent months, Fresno School Board President Brooke Ashjian has launched a series of attacks on Fresno Bee reporter Mackenzie Mays over her reporting on the district's failure to provide basic sex ed to students.
For two decades, New America Media nurtured journalists for ethnic media outlets and helped make the concerns of America’s ethnic communities part of the national conversation.
The Center for Health Journalism at USC Annenberg will bring 10 California journalists to Los Angeles this month for the 2017 California Data Fellowship, which helps reporters learn the skills to become investigative health data reporters and produce ambitious journalism projects.
The USC Center for Health Journalism welcomes 24 journalists from around the nation to its National Fellowships and awards them reporting grants of $2,000 to $10,000.
At The Center for Health Journalism, we believe in the power of engagement to advance journalism. In fact, we could be accused of being evangelists on the topic.
The Center for Health Journalism will soon welcome 23 talented reporters from across the nation for our 2016 National Fellowship. Here's a look at this year's focus and the reporters who will be joining us.
Peggy Girshman, a visionary journalist beloved by many and a longtime friend of our center, died Monday. She was a gifted leader, generous mentor, and a funny, endearing presence to those lucky enough to work with her.
Next week, the Center for Health Journalism will host 21 reporters for our 2016 California Fellowship. Fellows and their newsrooms partner with our Center to produce ambitious projects on health topics. Here's a look at the talented crew that will be joining us.