Awards

Finalist, 2026 National Magazine Award in feature writing
For a story about sterilization regret, tubal ligation reversal, and a medical controversy about mysterious pelvic pain.
2025 George Polk Award in health reporting
I was part of a team of 12 or so STAT journalists honored for our reporting on the Trump Administration’s effects on science and medicine, which included my story about interrupted research into topical steroid withdrawal and a collaborative investigation of the NIH director’s about-face on health disparities.
Finalist, 2025 Livingston Award for national reporting
For Coercive Care, my series about women with sickle cell disease feeling pressured into unwanted sterilizations.
2025 Edward R. Murrow Award for feature reporting
Also for Coercive Care.
2025 Edward R. Murrow Award for excellence in writing
Again, for Coercive Care.
2025 Science in Society Journalism Award for a series
Coercive Care also won this honor from the National Association of Science Writers.
2025 National Magazine Award for STAT in the general excellence, special interest category
In honoring STAT as a publication overall, the judges highlighted how my reporting “uncovered the ongoing tragedy of sickle-cell patients pressured into sterilization.”
2024 Edward R. Murrow Award for excellence in writing
For my profile of Wes Adams, a conservative, gun-toting ob-gyn who helped preserve access to abortion in Appalachia.
2024 Editor & Publisher EPPY Award, second place, for best investigative/enterprise feature
Again for Coercive Care.
2022 Edward R. Murrow Award for excellence in writing
For my story, “How medicine erased Black women from a ‘white man’s disease.’”
2022, third place, Award for Excellence in Health Care Journalism
For my feature on the uses and abuses of the diagnosis “adult failure to thrive.”
2021, National Headliner Award
For my profile of Marie Deus, a hospital system’s first employee to die of Covid-19, and how her life and death were shaped by the forces of Haitian history and American redlining.
Finalist, 2021 Livingston Award for national reporting
Also for my profile of Marie Deus.
2021 Edward R. Murrow Award for overall excellence for STAT
STAT won this honor for our coverage of Covid-19, which included my profile of Marie Deus.
Honorable Mention, 2021 SABEW Best in Business Award for health/science
My investigation into a test-maker’s questionable tactics in courting the fibromyalgia community received honorable mention from the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing.
2020 Society of Professional Journalists New America Award for public service coverage of immigrant communities
Again, for my profile of Marie Deus.
2020 News Leaders Association Deborah Howell Award for Writing Excellence
For a body of writing, including features about medical examiners’ unscientific practices after infant deaths, about how a toxic weed gave rise to a cancer drug, about the unsung attributes of microscopic creatures called rotifers, and about vaccine whisperers who try to work with new parents before their hesitancy hardens.
2020 AACR June Biedler Prize for Cancer Journalism
For my serialized narrative called “The Medicine Hunters” about how an epidemic of one-eyed sheep gave rise to an experimental drug — and one teenager’s insistence that she’d only volunteer to test it if the medication would remain affordable.
Finalist for 2020 Dart Award for Excellence in Coverage of Trauma
For my reporting on sudden infant death syndrome.
2019 SABEW Best in Business Award for health/science
For “The Medicine Hunters.”
2019, honorable mention, SABEW Best in Business Award for feature writing
Also for “The Medicine Hunters.”
2018 Science in Society Award for medium-length science reporting
For my story on entomologists who’ve had to become de facto psychologists to help people dealing with delusional infestations.
2017 Evert Clark/Seth Payne Award for young science journalists
From the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing, for a body of work, which included my stories about a citizen scientist who uses his breath to attract disease-transmitting bugs (and also is writing a sequel to Winnie the Pooh), about delusional parasitosis, about a cook-off to help cancer patients regain their sense of taste, and about a possible kratom ban.
2017 American Society of Magazine Editors “NEXT” Award for Journalists Under 30
For a collection of my features.
2017, second place, National Headliner Award
For a collection of my reporting.