Author/health writer
From 2000 to 2012 I covered science and health issues for the Bay Area News Group, which includes the San Jose Mercury News, Contra Costa Times, and Oakland Tribune. In recent years I’ve concentrated on covering health disparities, and in April 2018 Island Press will publish my most recent book “20 Years of Life: Why the Poor Die Earlier and How to Challenge Inequities.”
The Neighborhood Atlas gives journalists an intriguing new tool to visualize how social advantages vary across cities and regions.
In low-income neighborhoods beset by predatory lending and check-cashing hubs, options for building credit and savings are scarce. A credit union that opened last year seeks to change that.
<p>Two journalists offer tips for your reporting from their award-winning series on the striking gap in health and life expectancies between rich and poor neighborhoods.</p>
<p>Join Dr. Robert Smith with the American Cancer Society and Dr. Chris Flowers with UCSF to discuss the science behind the new U.S. Preventive Services Task Force guidelines. Log on at www.contracostatimes.com.</p>
<p>On Thursday, Bay Area News Group (Contra Costa Times, Oakland Tribune, etc.) hosted a live online chat with Dr. David Satcher, former U.S. Surgeon General, and Rich Hamburg, deputy director of Trust for America's Health. Health reporter Sandy Kleffman and I (the science reporter for the chain) moderated it. </p><p>Both men responded to questions posted by participants on how Congressional health reform legislation offers an unprecedented amount of funds for disease prevention, and funds for novel programs to improve health by improving neighborhoods. It's archived at: </p>
<p>While reporting for a four-part series on the wide gap in life expectancies and disease rates between people in nearby neighborhoods – due to drastically different conditions and social status – I expected to find that health care reform legislation would do little to address this issue. The reform legislation, after all, is primarily about health care insurance. But I was surprised to find that, for the first time, Congressional legislation contains at least $3.4 billion to focus on improving health disparities.
This story was produced as part of a larger project led by Suzanne Bohan and Sandy Kleffman, participants in the
Other stories in this series include:
This story was produced as part of a larger project led by Suzanne Bohan and Sandy Kleffman, participants in the
Other stories in this series include:
<p>The "Shortened Lives: Where You Live Matters" project, produced by staff writers Suzanne Bohan and Sandy Kleffman, ran in 2009 as a four-part series in the Contra Costa Times and the Oakland Tribune, now rebranded as part of the Bay Area News Group.
<p>On Sunday, a four-part series a year in the making runs in the Bay Area News Group. As the science reporter for the chain, I teamed with health reporter Sandy Kleffman to report and write this series.</p>
