Institute to host monthly public health journalism webinars starting June 16

The National Press Club Journalism Institute will host a virtual conversation with public health journalists as they discuss the challenges of reporting on public health in an increasingly politicized landscape.

This program, scheduled for 11 a.m. ET on June 16, kicks off the Journalism Institute’s monthly webinar series produced as part of the Public Health Reporting Fellowship. The sessions are free and open to the public, and will cover the intersection of public health and environmental factors, mental health care, wraparound services, and other topics. 

For the first session, KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner and Amanda Seitz will draw on collective decades of experience covering health policy at the national and local levels to advise journalists on reporting clearly and accurately on issues that impact their communities and the broader public. 

They will share practical insights on translating data and industry jargon for broad audiences, making tough editorial judgements when covering major public health issues, and building trust in a fractured media environment. 

In partnership with the Common Health Coalition, the Public Health Reporting Fellowship — now in its second year — offers training and financial support for mid-career journalists to complete reporting projects focused on the intersection of public health policy and health care delivery.

Registration is FREE and open here.

Rovner is KFF Health News’ chief Washington correspondent and hosts the weekly health policy news podcast What the Health? Previously, she spent 16 years as a health policy correspondent for NPR, where she helped lead the network’s coverage of the passage and implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Rovner is the author of the critically praised reference book Health Care Politics and Policy A to Z, now in its third edition. 

Seitz is a health policy reporter for KFF Health News. From Washington, D.C., she covers how federal regulations, laws, and policies impact the health of Americans around the country. Seitz previously worked as the health care policy reporter for the Associated Press. In the early years of her career, she reported from local television and newspaper newsrooms in Ohio and Wisconsin.