The program is open to all journalists interested in health reporting, not just those on the health beat. We invite participation from print, broadcast and multimedia journalists working for or contributing to mainstream and ethnic media outlets in California. 

Taught by prize-winning journalists, community health leaders, policy analysts and health care experts, the 2015 California Health Journalism Fellowship will focus on two broad themes:

— how neighborhood life, social inequities, race, education and the environment influence health, and

— the promise of health reform and health system innovation.

This year, for the first time, we are pleased to be able to provide a $1,000 reporting stipend to participating journalists to help pay some of the costs associated with ambitious reporting projects.

The Fellowship will begin with a reception and keynote dinner on Sunday evening and end midday on the following Thursday. During five days of field trips, workshops and seminars, fellows learn about new data sources, hear about effective community engagement strategies and gain new perspectives on pressing health issues. They return home with great sources and new ideas for how to tell complex health stories.  A midweek Fellowship project workshop benefits from the participation of Fellows’ assigning editors or producers, whom we bring to Los Angeles at our expense.

During the Fellowship week, Fellows get plenty of time to discuss with experts, and with each other, strategies for covering health news with authority and sophistication. In the six months after the seminars end, Fellows confer by phone and e-mail with veteran journalists who guide them through work on major Fellowship projects.

What Past Fellows Say about the Fellowship

Fellows from the 2014 California Fellowship described it as a “boot camp for health journalism” and “a career-changing event.”