About the Fellowships

The California Endowment Health Journalism Fellowships offer journalists a chance to step away from the newsroom to hone their health reporting skills. In workshops, field trips and discussions, fellows learn from nationally renowned health experts, policy analysts and community health leaders, from top journalists in the field, and from each other. Participants "graduate" with a multitude of story ideas and sources, plus a thorough grounding in the principles and practice of good health journalism.

The program is both practical and inspiring, focusing on content as well as craft. With the Internet rapidly changing the face of modern journalism, we teach strategies for multimedia storytelling and discuss the latest trends in digital journalism. Seminars also highlight great story-telling techniques and provide tips for old-fashioned street reporting. Award-winning journalists share the inside story of ambitious health projects and fellows team up with seasoned journalists who serve as mentors and guides on final projects that are part of the fellowship program.

The Fellowships encourage journalists to chronicle and illuminate the health challenges and social justice issues confronting an increasingly diverse and polyglot nation. 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 the United States. Students are not eligible.  

We offer a variety of all-expenses-paid Fellowships aimed at meeting the training needs of journalists from both California and other states, as well as a new program aimed at helping community-based bloggers and editors of online-only news sites in California understand the importance of community health.

The 2012 National Health Journalism Fellowship will meet from  July 22-26, 2012 in Los Angeles. This intensive five-day gathering comes with a $2,000 grant to support the reporting of an ambitious health-related project.

In conjunction with the National Fellowship, we also administer the Dennis A. Hunt Fund for Health Journalism, a competitive grants program to underwrite substantive reporting on community health issues.  Each Hunt grantee receives $2,500 to $10,000 to support research on a community health topic.

We are excited to announce a new Health Journalism Fellowship for California journalists in 2012.  The new Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health Journalism Fund provides a reporting stipend of between $2,000 and $5,000 to support ambitious reporting on children's health and health care policy in California.   Lucile Packard Foundation for  The application period for the National Fellowship and the Hunt and Lucile Packard funds has closed.Children's Health Fellows will also participate in the National Health Journalism Fellowship July 22-26 in Los Angeles. 

The application period for the National Fellowship and the Hunt and Lucile Packard funds has closed. Decisions will be announced by June 22.

The dates for the 2012 California Health Journalism Fellowship, which will meet in Los Angeles late in 2012, have yet to be set. Click here for details about how to apply.  

Please check back frequently for more seminars and events.

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