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$450,000 Grant to Support Health Journalism Training Efforts

Workshops Will Help Reporters Understand and Localize Important National Health News

Santa Clara, Calif. (April 23, 2015) — The Center for Excellence in Health Care Journalism, the educational arm of the Association of Health Care Journalists, has been awarded a three-year grant of $450,000 by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) to continue offering training and resources for journalists covering health issues. The center and the association are based at the Missouri School of Journalism.

RWJF announced the grant this week to coincide with Health Journalism 2015, the annual conference of AHCJ, being held April 24-27 in Silicon Valley. RWJF was one of the first supporters of the association, now marking its 17th year. AHCJ also is celebrating its 10th year at Missouri.

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation strives to build a national “culture of health” that will enable all Americans to live longer, healthier lives now and for generations to come.

The funding will support the association’s annual conference, regional workshops on niche health topics, an annual rural health journalism workshop and the building of health data resources on AHCJ’s website healthjournalism.org.

“RWJF’s continuing support over the years has allowed AHCJ and the Center for Excellence to put on training events with a much higher level of sophistication and provide more resources to reporters who otherwise couldn’t have localized many of the important national stories of the past decade,” said AHCJ Executive Director Len Bruzzese, an associate professor in the journalism school.

As more health data become available from different sources, reporters are seeking guidance on what is reliable and seeking help on teasing out what’s most useful, Bruzzese said. The grant support will help AHCJ devote more time toward sorting and adding value to various datasets.

“As the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation works to build a culture of health that will improve the lives of all people, we recognize how critical it is ‘to get the story out’ – that is, inform and educate people about the many options and choices surrounding health and health care today,” said Fred Mann, RWJF’s vice president of communications. “AHCJ has been a leader in providing the resources and training needed by journalists to tell this complicated story, and we are proud of our continuing partnership with the association.”

The Association of Health Care Journalists is an independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing public understanding of health care issues. With about 1,500 members across the United States and around the globe, its mission is to improve the quality, accuracy and visibility of health care reporting, writing and editing. The association and its Center for Excellence in Health Care Journalism provide training, resources and a professional home for journalists. Offices are based at the Missouri School of Journalism.

For more than 40 years the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has worked to improve the health and health care of all Americans. It is striving to build a national “culture of health” that will enable all Americans to live longer, healthier lives now and for generations to come. For more information, visit www.rwjf.org. Follow the Foundation on Twitter at www.rwjf.org/twitter or on Facebook at www.rwjf.org/facebook.

Updated: September 4, 2020

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