Health Coverage Fellowship

Hosted by the Center for Health Communication at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the Health Coverage Fellowship is designed to help journalists do an even better job covering critical public health issues. 

About the fellowship

Each year thirteen journalists—from print, broadcast, and online news outlets as well as freelancers—are selected for an intensive nine days and nights of training in Boston. 

Over the course of the fellowship, these journalists hear from dozens of health officials, practitioners, researchers, and patients on issues such as mental health, pandemics, breakthrough treatments, climate-related health impacts, healthcare disparities, women’s health, and aging. And they get to watch first-hand how the system works, whether by walking the streets at night with doctors who treat the homeless or visiting labs that make stem cells and vaccines.

Journalists leave the fellowship with a notebook full of story ideas, a year’s worth of mentoring by veteran health journalist and fellowship director Larry Tye, and a new community of like-minded journalists.

What sets the fellowship apart

Most journalism fellowship programs take seasoned journalists away from their jobs for a full year, require employers to pay part of the cost, and do little practical training. The residential part of the Health Coverage Fellowship lasts just nine days, the program requires no financial contribution from media outlets, and the training ensures that reporters and editors come back with a list of story ideas and an address book full of new sources.

How to apply

Applications are now open for the 2025 program, which will be held September 5-13 at the Babson Executive Conference Center outside of Boston. The deadline to apply is February 14 at 11:59 pm Pacific time.

The 2024 fellows

The 2024 Health Coverage Fellows are: Olivia Aldridge of KUT in Austin, Emily Bader of the Maine Monitor, Amanda Beland of Boston’s WBUR, Fred Clasen-Kelly of KFF Health News, Katy Golvala of the Connecticut Mirror, Brenda Goodman of CNN, Alex Janin of the Wall Street Journal, Katie Jennings of Forbes, Sydney Lupkin of NPR, Sophia Paffenroth of Mississippi Today, Jenna Portnoy of the Washington Post, Annmarie Timmins of the New Hampshire Bulletin, and Brittany Trang of STAT.

The fellowship’s impact on health journalism

Founded in 2002 by the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation, the Health Coverage Fellowship has trained more than 275 leading health journalists from across the nation.

Our supporters

The 2024 program was made possible thanks to generous support from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation, the Bower Foundation in Mississippi, Connecticut Health Foundation, Endowment for Health in New Hampshire, Fledgling Fund, KFF, Maine Health Access Foundation, National Institute for Health Care Management Foundation, Rita Allen Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and, in Texas, the Episcopal Health Foundation, Congregational Collective at the H.E. Butt Foundation, Methodist Healthcare Ministries, and St. David’s Foundation.

Learn more

To get a better sense of the fellowship, have a look at our most recent schedule. 

Want to learn more about the fellowship or how to support its work? Contact Larry Tye at larrytye@gmail.com.