Award-winning freelance journalist based in Washington, DC. Words include The Washington Post, The Washington City Paper, The DC Line & Center for Health Journalism.
Black Infant Mortality in D.C., Part Three: Where Do We Go From Here?
Birth workers, doulas, midwives, and social services providers in the city are working to lower the rate of Black infant death. And the Home Visiting Services Reimbursement Act of 2023, introduced in June by Ward 1 Councilmember Brianne Nadeau, and unanimously approved by the rest of the D.C. Council in January, aims to provide steady funding for an evidence-based home visiting program designed to improve infant health.
Listen: Why do so many Black infants in D.C. die before their first birthday?
My guest appearance on NPR's Moring Edition. I discussed my article series on Black infant demise in the nation's capital.
Black Infant Loss in D.C., Part II: the Stillbirth Crisis
Washington, DC has the fourth highest stillbirth rate in the nation. How come we don't hear about it more often?
We Were Here: Black Infant Loss in D.C.
Between 2014 and 2020, more than 330 Black infants died in D.C. before their first birthdays. Recent perinatal reports show this problem isn’t going away anytime soon. Why does this crisis hit the Black community in D.C. so hard and who is working to prevent infant loss? This series is being produced as a project for the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism’s 2023 National Fellowship.
How doulas could help prevent the harms that can happen during childbirth
Doulas, midwives and other maternal health care workers have been lauded as life saving workers who can mitigate obstetric violence. Can doctors make room for them?
Access to Housing Can Reduce Infant Deaths
Finding solutions to the maternal and infant mortality crisis can be a confounding task. Are more mothers and babies dying because they lack insurance coverage and don’t have access to good health care providers? Are racial disparities to blame for the fact that Black mothers are dying at three or four times the rate of white mothers?
Could housing be the solution we're overlooking?
Class Appeal
Community colleges are one of the best open secrets for physiology and other STEM majors.
Artificial intelligence, healthcare, and racial bias
More and more, artificial intelligence (AI) is being used to make decisions—evaluating job applications, approving home loans, and even predicting who will be more likely to commit a crime. However, AI is designed by humans. That means these algorithms can often be built on homogenous data sets, questionable rules, and implicit biases, while omitting environmental factors—all of which can have a negative impact on a person’s access to healthcare.
Positively Aware Magazine- Special Issue: DEI in HIV Advocacy Spring 2022
I served as the guest editor of this issue. Our theme was Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in HIV Advocacy. My contributors took a look at what diversity looks like and how it can enhance our global response to the HIV epidemic.
DC set to receive millions to speed up removal of lead-based paint, lead pipes
Thanks to the passage of the infrastructure bill and the American Rescue Plan, the District is set to receive millions in federal funding with the goal of completely removing lead pipes from its infrastructure by 2030.
However, both the city and advocates say the available money falls far short of what is needed to address the full amount of lead pipes and lead-based paint found in properties and public space across DC.
How a 2005 law puts unhoused, first-time expectant mothers in uncomfortable spaces
A 2005 law states that expectant mothers with no minor children who are experiencing homelessness are not eligible for private, family shelter until their third trimester. Until then, they must stay in crowded, low barrier shelters. How does that affect the maternal mortality crisis in DC?
Journalists need to go beyond Tuskegee when reporting on vaccines among Black Americans
The media’s practice of constantly referring to that clandestine and abusive experiment as the primary reason for vaccine hesitancy among Black Americans is myopic. At best, it has turned into a lazy form of shorthand for a long and complex history. At worst, the trope writes off Black people as apathetic victims.
As med students push for change, the AMA calls out racism in health
Is it a new day at the American Medical Association?
The influential AMA and more than 600 members of its House of Delegates have officially recognized racism as a public health threat and race as a social construct instead of a biological one.
But some activist medical students say the statement is late and empty.
Has America forgotten the opioid epidemic?
In just the first three months of 2020, 19,416 people across the country died from drug overdoses, surpassing last year’s first-quarter total by almost 3,000, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Can we afford to abandon in light of a new public heath crisis?