Center for Health Journalism awards more than $44,000 for the 2025 California Health Equity Fellowship

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CHJ graphic showing 2025 California Health Equity Fellows

March 18, 2025

The USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism is delighted to announce the selection of 15 talented journalists to participate in its annual California Health Equity Fellowship, investigating and exploring health issues across the Golden State.

At this critical juncture, we face enormous uncertainty and peril when it comes to the health of our state and our nation. The stories these journalists will tell can help illuminate inequities and set the stage for progress and change.

This year’s Fellowship class is a diverse group of California print, digital and broadcast journalists who work for mainstream outlets such as The San Jose Mercury News, The Modesto Bee, The San Luis Obispo Tribune, and The Sacramento Bee; nonprofit newsrooms including Santa Cruz Local, San Francisco Public Press, KQED, and Capital Public Radio; and ethnic media publications, including The Sacramento Observer, El Tímpano, AfroLA News and India Currents. More than half of the Fellows are journalists of color.

The 2025 California Health Equity Fellows will tackle a range of health and social welfare topics important to Californians, such as immigrant health concerns under the new Trump administration, the hazards of groundwater contamination, pedestrian and cyclist injuries and deaths, and whether efforts to improve the child welfare system are working. Other stories will cover domestic violence, substance abuse treatment, mental health resources for Native Americans, and the toll hepatitis B takes on Asian American immigrants.

Additional projects supported through the Center’s Lori Yearwood Fund for Reporting on Homelessness will address the state’s homelessness crisis, exploring the reasons behind the variation in homelessness rates across regions, and chronicling the lives of people who are just a few missed paychecks away from a life on the streets.

The program includes a four-day learning institute at the USC Annenberg School in Los Angeles that will involve panel discussions and conversations on topics including the social and environmental factors shaping health, and challenges to Medi-Cal and immigrant health and well-being in a time of threatened mass deportations. Fellows will go on a field visit to the Downtown Women’s Center on Skid Row, the first organization in Los Angeles that focuses exclusively on helping single women who are experiencing homelessness find housing and support. The keynote conversation, “Community-Centered Reporting for Difficult Times,” will feature independent journalists Ruxandra Guidi and Zaydee Sanchez, both former Center Fellows, discussing why the elevation of community voices is central to their work. Fellows also will have the opportunity to learn more about reporting with context and balance, and expanding their story reach via social media and community engagement.

Through reporting stipends and five months of expert mentoring, the Center for Health Journalism will nurture its Fellows as they produce their ambitious projects. The Center has awarded $44,400 in reporting grants for this class. Fellows also have the opportunity to receive five months of community engagement mentoring and engagement grants.

The program is made possible thanks to the generous support of Blue Shield of California Foundation, The California Endowment and the California Wellness Foundation.

We are pleased to announce our 2025 California Health Equity Fellows:

Jasmine Aguilera, El Tímpano

Tanay Gokhale, India Currents

Emma Hall, The Sacramento Bee

Jesse Kathan, Santa Cruz Local

Samantha Lim, KQED

Erin Malsbury, KAZU

Luis Melecio-Zambrano, The Mercury News

Elizabeth Moss, AfroLA News

Megan Myscofski, Capital Public Radio

Kathleen Quinn, The Modesto Bee

Russell Stiger, The Sacramento Observer