
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.
USC Annenberg support will help journalists with ambitious projects ranging from a look at the lack of sanitation in remote Alaskan villages to an examination of the costs of Alzheimer's in Florida.
Debra Sherman died Tuesday of lung cancer after more than a year of living with the disease. She spent her final days sharing what she learned about cancer with readers.
My son's soccer injury prompted a few reflections on medical costs and coordination of care – issues more easily contemplated from a safe distance than from the emergency room.
Reporting on Health will cover the momentous effort to broaden health insurance access. Our focus will be on California, a bellwether state widely viewed as a proving ground for Obamacare. Read more about our new “Remaking Health Care: the Affordable Care Blog.”
Two thirds of America’s population growth between 1995 and 2050 stems from immigration, one recent study found. The health of immigrants increasingly will define the health of America.
The sustained fire power and reach of seven news outlets – combined with community outreach efforts – have yielded results as we approach the one-year anniversary of the new Reporting on Health Collaborative and its series on the toll of valley fever.
USC Annenberg Awards $60,000 in health reporting grants to support ambitious investigative and explanatory journalism.
During our five-day program, we will tackle topics ranging from the country’s historic health care expansion to health and homelessness.
Antronette Yancey pioneered “Instant Recess." With her death at 55, we need to keep moving to honor her legacy. Workplaces across America will hold a 10-minute “Instant Recess” in her honor, at 1 p.m. PDT on Tuesday, May 7.
Most journalists aren't venturing into Latino communities to get the story of Herbalife's aggressive sales techniques. They're missing a great tale, but a Latino high school student didn't.