Newswise — Harvard Medical School has selected the 2019 media fellows for the second of its two thematic tracks this year: Immunity and Inflammation: A friend, a foe (Nov. 4-8)

The first media fellowship track of 2019 took place in September and explored the promises and perils of artificial intelligence in medicine.

The media fellows for the Immunity and Inflammation track are:

Helen Branswell, STAT

Helen Branswell is STAT’s infectious diseases and public health reporter. She comes from the Canadian Press, where she was the medical reporter for the past 15 years. Helen cut her infectious diseases teeth during Toronto’s SARS outbreak in 2003 and spent the summer of 2004 embedded at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2010-11 she was a Nieman Global Health Fellow at Harvard, where she focused on polio eradication. Warning: Helen asks lots of questions.

Marine Corniou, Québec Science

Marine Corniou has been a science journalist for nearly 15 years in France and Canada and is currently a staff reporter for Québec Science magazine, a 55-year-old science and tech magazine based in Montreal. When she joined Québec Science eight years ago, Marine expanded her coverage and interest in science topics, which included the environment, astronomy, social sciences, chemistry and particle physics. However, biology and medicine remain her key areas of interest, and because research in these fields moves so fast, Marine remains eager to stay up to date and continue to be challenged by the world around her.

Carey Goldberg, WBURCarey Goldberg covers health and science and is the host of WBUR’s CommonHealth section. She has been the Boston bureau chief of The New York Times, a staff Moscow correspondent for The Los Angeles Times, and a health/science reporter for The Boston Globe. She was a Knight Science Journalism fellow at MIT, graduated summa cum laude from Yale, and did graduate work at Harvard University. Carey is co-author of the triple memoir Three Wishes: A True Story of Good Friends, Crushing Heartbreak, and Astonishing Luck on Our Way to Love and Motherhood.

Donna Owens, Freelance

Donna M. Owens is an award-winning journalist who juggles roles as a reporter, producer and editor for leading outlets nationwide. Her byline has appeared in multiple outlets, including Reuters, NBC News, NPR, O, the Oprah Magazine, The Miami Herald, The Los AngelesTimes, The Chicago Tribune, The Baltimore Sun, Glamour, Essence, Black Enterprise, HuffPostMSNBC.com, and BET.com. Prior to becoming a freelance journalist, Donna held staff positions as a television producer and investigative reporter for CBS and NBC stations in several states. She has held radio anchor/reporter positions in several markets and was a political and general assignment reporter for three Maryland newspapers.  

Ashley Yeager, The Scientist

Ashley Yeager has worked as a writer focused on science and health for more than a decade. She is currently an associate editor of The Scientist, where she reports on a range of topics in the life sciences and edits two profile sections of the publication’s print magazine. Before joining The Scientist full-time nearly two years ago, Ashley worked as a freelance writer for Science NewsKnowableThe Scientist and a variety of other outlets. She worked as a science writer for the Simons Foundation and for Science News. She earned an undergraduate degree in journalism from the University of Tennessee and a master’s degree in science writing from MIT. Ashley currently co-chairs the education committee of the National Association of Science Writers, helping to pair students and early-career science writers with more experienced professionals.

Lina Zeldovich, Freelance

Lina Zeldovich grew up in a family of Russian scientists listening to bedtime stories about volcanoes and black holes. She edited science features at the ASME award-winning Nautilus magazine, won four awards for stories about poo, and has written for major publications in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, including Reader’s Digest, Smithsonian, Newsweek, Audubon Magazine, Mosaic Science, Scientific American and Psychology Today, among others. Her book, The Other Dark Matter: The Science and Business of Turning Waste into Wealth, will be published by Chicago University Press in the next year. Lina holds a science degree from New York University and a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University.

The annual Media Fellowship brings together a small group of medical and science journalists and preeminent researchers and physician-scientists for an immersive, educational five-day session on the Harvard Medical School campus in Boston. Media fellows spend time on the Harvard Medical School campus to gain a deeper understanding of the spectrum of research and the state of science in a particular area. Reporters meet with basic scientists, translational investigators and practicing clinicians. The fellowships are offered as educational opportunities on a background basis. Over the past 21 years, Harvard Medical School has hosted more than 100 reporters from domestic and international news outlets.