Tracy Wood

Senior Writer

I'm a Senior Writer at Voice of OC, the nonprofit news agency that covers Orange County, Calif. With a population of more than three million, Orange County is larger than 20 U.S. states, including Iowa, Mississippi and Nevada, and faces all of the health and other challenges of any major political body.

During my career, I have been a foreign correspondent in Asia, one of the few women war correspondents in Vietnam and a California investigative reporter and editor. Health reporting was and is a significant part of covering any issue, whether it was Agent Orange in Vietnam, aerial spraying of pesticides to eradicate the Mediterranean Fruit Fly in California or today's challenges to healthy living in an urban home, office or recreational environment.

 

Articles

Behind the Battle Over Orange County's CalOptima

<p>CalOptima is Orange County's system for managing Medi-Cal. With no warning, one county supervisor tried to push through major changes that shifted control of the $1.3 billion program.</p>

New York City's High Line Park, a green space built on an old elevated train track.

Finding Future Parkland Where There Isn't Any Now

<p>It might be roof-top green space. Perhaps a reconfiguration of streets that permits walkable medians and wide bike lanes. Or it could be a supercharging of current joint-use plans between cities and school districts.</p><p>The most likely scenario would be a combination of these solutions and

Children play on a street corner in central Santa Ana.

No room to run

<p>Santa Ana's childhood obesity rates are among the highest in Orange County. Neighborhood advocates have complained bitterly about what they say is a lack of official effort to create adequate places for the city's children to play, and an entrenched deference to developers.</p>

Mysterious Death Shares LA Locale with Famous Unsolved Murder

<p>It's a bit afield from our usual reporting, but a dead body in Los Angeles' landmark Millennium Biltmore Hotel, dozens of cops and hundreds of singing and dancing would-be celebs swirled through my life last weekend. But so far, nothing I've seen has mentioned a historical piece of the mystery at the Biltmore.</p>

Health and Public Policy: Doing it Right

<p>For the first time, this fellowship gives me the opportunity to do a health story right.</p> <p>Health issues usually mean big trouble when it’s breaking news or an investigative story.</p> <p>Agent Orange. Ebola virus. West Nile. H1N1. In their time, viruses, pesticides and other causes of sudden, mass illnesses have forced all of us who cover the news to drop what we’re doing and take a crash course in an unexpected health crisis.</p>