USC Annenberg School of Journalism Announces 2010 Recipients of Reporting Grants from the Dennis A. Hunt Fund for Health Journalism
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, June 15, 2010 -- The USC Annenberg School of Journalism is pleased to announce the 2010 recipients of grants from the Dennis A. Hunt Fund for Health Journalism.
The five grants will underwrite ambitious reporting projects on critical community health issues, including the impact of industrial contamination on workers and neighborhoods, the marketing messages that contribute to childhood obesity, barriers to dental care, the underlying causes of health disparities in border communities and barriers to health care in urban environments.
The Hunt Fund provides grants of between $2,500 and $10,000 over one year for investigative or explanatory journalism projects on community health issues. Projects examine the social and environmental factors that contribute to poor health in specific communities, as well as policy and other potential solutions to address them.
The fund honors the legacy of Dennis A. Hunt, a visionary communications leader at The California Endowment who was dedicated to improving and supporting high-quality reporting on the health of communities. Hunt died in a car crash in 2007 at the age of 60.
The fund is a project of the USC Annenberg/California Endowment Health Journalism Fellowships, which Hunt was instrumental in establishing during his tenure at The Endowment. The fund is financed by memorial contributions from Hunt’s friends and colleagues, as well as The Endowment and the Kaiser Family Foundation. Grants were offered for the first time in 2009 and will also be offered in 2011.
Nearly 40 journalists applied this year. A panel of judges that included veteran health reporters, editors, health policy experts and health communications leaders selected five winners.
Hunt’s family praised the fund’s mission. "We are very heartened by your work to promote the awareness and understanding of today's critical community health issues,” the family said in a statement. “Given the current state of the debate on how to make Americans healthier, the role played by journalists will be essential for any reasonable progress. In Dennis' memory, we appreciate all of your efforts."
Michelle Levander, director of the USC Annenberg/California Endowment Health Journalism Fellowships, said: “With the fund’s support, journalists now have the resources to investigate pressing community health concerns. I can’t think of a better way to honor the memory of Dennis Hunt, whose vision led to the founding of our program.”
Dr. Robert K. Ross, president and CEO of The California Endowment, said: "The Dennis A. Hunt Health Journalism Awards represent a terrific way to honor an extraordinary professional, journalist and civic leader. The awardees certainly reflect the brand of insightful and impactful journalism that Dennis exemplified."
2010 AWARD RECIPIENTS
Christina Hernandez, freelance writer, Philadelphia: $5,000
Project Description: Hernandez will examine the impacts of a troubled health care system in a New Jersey city – from the financial costs to the physical toll on residents – and local attempts to develop solutions. Her project will appear in the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Bio: Christina Hernandez is a freelance journalist based in the Philadelphia area. Her work has appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Latina and numerous other print and online outlets. Hernandez worked previously for Newsday in New York, where she covered health and science, education and municipal government. She joined Newsday in 2007 as a Kaiser Family Foundation media intern in health reporting. Hernandez earned a master’s degree from Columbia University’s School of Journalism and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Delaware.
Kari Lyderson, freelance writer, Chicago: $8,000
Project Description: Kari Lydersen’s proposed three-story series, for the Chicago Reader, The Progressive and the Christian Science Monitor, will examine the health effects of the goods movement industry on workers and residents in several cities around the country. Drawing on her experience reporting on diesel emissions from the shipping industry as well as general occupational and community health, labor and immigration issues, Lydersen will examine the localized health effects of the shipping industry and look at how communities are responding.
Bio: Kari Lydersen worked until December 2009 as a staff writer in the Washington Post’s Midwest bureau in Chicago. She is also the author of three books, most recently “Revolt on Goose Island: The Chicago Factory Takeover and What It Says About the Economic Crisis.” She now works as a Chicago-based freelancer and teaches journalism both at Columbia College and in a nonprofit program that works with youth in marginalized communities. Lyderson earned a journalism degree from Northwestern University in 1997.
Maureen O’Hagan, staff reporter, Seattle Times, Seattle: $3,000
Project Description: O’Hagan’s project will focus on childhood obesity and the role played by marketing. She will look at how the junk-food marketing world has changed over the years and dig into the latest trends in Internet marketing.
Bio: Maureen O'Hagan is a reporter for the Seattle Times who has worked a range of beats, from courts to social services to food issues, her current assignment. Last year, she was part of the Seattle Times team that covered the deaths of four police officers, which won the newspaper the 2010 Pulitzer Prize in Breaking News Reporting. She previously reported for the Washington Post and Willamette Week, an alternative newsweekly in Portland. In 1999-2000, she studied law and creative writing as a Michigan Journalism Fellow. She has won numerous state, regional and national journalism awards over the years.
Mary Otto, editor-in-chief, Street Sense, and freelancer writer, Washington, D.C.: $5,000
Project Description: Otto will explore the human impact of untreated dental disease and the effect of reforms put into place in Maryland since the death of a 12-year-old boy from a dental infection three years ago. Her reporting will appear in the Washington Post health section and in Street Sense.
Bio: Mary Otto has been writing about health and social issues throughout her career. While on the metro staff of the Washington Post, she began exploring oral health disparities after covering the death of a 12-year-old Maryland boy from an untreated dental infection. She spent the 2009-2010 academic year as a Knight Science Journalism Fellow studying public health, epidemiology and medical and dental anthropology at Harvard and MIT. She lives in Washington, D.C., where she works as a freelance writer and serves as editor-in-chief of Street Sense, a newspaper that serves the city's homeless community.
Emily Ramshaw, assistant managing editor and investigative reporter, Texas Tribune, Austin: $3,950
Project Description: Nearly half a million Texans live in substandard conditions in colonias — 2,300 unincorporated and isolated border towns -- with limited access to potable water, sewer systems, electricity, sanitary housing or health care. These predominantly Hispanic and overwhelmingly impoverished villages dot the 1,248-mile Texas-Mexico border from the Gulf of Mexico to El Paso and present a state public health nightmare. Ramshaw will analyze efforts by the state and federal government to improve public health in the colonias and investigate why (and where) they've fallen short.
Bio: Emily Ramshaw is an assistant managing editor and investigative reporter at the Texas Tribune, a nonprofit politics and policy news website based in Austin. Previously, she spent six years reporting for the Dallas Morning News in Dallas and in Austin. In April 2009, the Texas Associated Press Managing Editors and the Headliners Foundation of Texas named her Star Reporter of the Year. Ramshaw earned a bachelor’s degree from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.
About USC Annenberg’s California Endowment Health Journalism Fellowships
Since hosting its first seminars in 2005, The Fellowships program has educated more than 400 journalists on the craft and content of health journalism. The program also provides mini-grants to foster coverage of health issues through the Hunt grants and its National Health Journalism Fellowship. Last spring, it launched ReportingonHealth.org, an online community of journalists committed to improving the craft by sharing ideas and resources. The program is funded by The California Endowment,
About the USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism
Located in Los Angeles at the University of Southern California, the USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism is among the nation’s leading institutions devoted to journalism and communication and their impact on politics, culture and society. With an enrollment of more than 1,900 graduate and undergraduate students, USC Annenberg offers degree programs in journalism, communication, public diplomacy and public relations.