Andrea Ahneman
Andrea Ahneman graduated from the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities in 2008 with a major in journalism and mass communication and a minor in management. She is pursuing an M.P.H. along with the M.A. in health journalism & communication. Internships with the Minnesota AIDS Project and HealthPartners have allowed her to gain experience in health communication. She is very interested in educating people about public health issues and wants to learn more about how to do that through mass communication efforts.

 

Jeff Baillon
Jeff Baillon is an investigative reporter with KMSP-TV, the Fox-owned station in Minneapolis . His work has appeared on TV stations in every major market in the country, as well as the Fox News Channel and CNN. During his career Jeff has served as an anchor, assistant news director, and reporter/producer who has covered a variety of beats, including politics and government, the environment, transportation-aviation, consumer issues, and crime and courts. He has received more than 50 awards including 10 Emmys, as well as national honors from the Associated Press, Aviation & Space Writers Association, and regional awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, Northwest Broadcast News Association and AP. Jeff graduated magna cum laude from Bemidji State University with a degree in communications media. He also attended the Poynter Institute, a highly acclaimed school for professional journalists.

 

Hyedi Cribben
Hyedi Cribben graduated with a B.A. in mass communication from the School of Journalism & Mass Communication and a minor in psychology from the University of Minnesota . She became interested in health communication when she took the Mass Communication and Public Health course. Hyedi currently works at a local marketing research firm in Bloomington that does research for many local and national companies. Hyedi is interested in the various uses of market research in the public health field. Hyedi is originally from Lake Geneva , Wis. , but now resides in St. Paul.

 

Ashley Grey
Ashley Grey is from Cedarburg , Wis. , a small town near Lake Michigan . She moved to Minneapolis four years ago to complete a B.A. degree in journalism with a strategic communication emphasis from the University of Minnesota . She became interested in the health care industry after auditing Gary Schwitzer's health journalism class last spring and applied for this program with his support. She is excited to start this program and learn more about the issues in public health and how effective communication can serve society.

 

Kimberly Grodahl
Kimberly Grodahl is the owner of Advokat Marketing and has more than eight years of experience in marketing communication. She has a public health certificate from the University of Minnesota and a bachelor's degree in marketing and communication from the College of St. Catherine . Kimberly completed a health communication internship at the Minnesota Department of Health, has worked in various media including radio and TV, and has experience in Web marketing, branding and public relations. Her primary interest is to use health communication as a tool to prevent chronic disease and obesity.

 

Michael Joyce
Michael Joyce did his medical training at the Mayo Clinic and cut his teeth in journalism at Capital Public Radio in Sacramento . A longstanding interest in story and teaching led to his current passion for understanding the role of documentary in exploring the nexus of medicine and the humanities. His other interests include swimming, adventure travel, enology and independent film. 

 

Kate Levinson
Kate Levinson graduated from Ithaca College in 2007 with a B.A. in journalism. She then completed a year of AmeriCorps VISTA service, doing communications work at Minnesota International Health Volunteers. She has freelanced and interned for several publications, including Men's Health magazine, and interned at the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants and Planned Parenthood. She also volunteered in Ethiopia at Addis Ababa University's Mass Media Training Institute, studied and did research in Uganda and Rwanda and taught English in Thailand and Brazil. In addition to the health journalism & communication M.A., Kate is pursuing a joint M.P.H. in community health education.

 

Nancy Meissner
Nancy Meissner is a clinical research assistant at the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research (CIBMTR). She has also done research at the Minneapolis V.A. Medical Center and Minnesota Population Center . Nancy graduated summa cum laude with a degree in psychology (minor in journalism and mass communication) from the University of Minnesota in 2005. She is particularly interested in mental health communication.

 

Aimee Prasek
Aimee Prasek received her B.S. in psychology with a concentration in kinesiology from California Polytechnic State University . She completed her M.A. at the College of St. Catherine's Holistic Health Studies program and has also collected a variety of certifications in complementary modalities. The combination of "hard science" and holistic health has given Aimee an understanding of the mind-body-spirit interactions that make up wellness. Aimee is a director for Restore, a wellness event in Minneapolis that is intended to help educate the community in holistic health ( restorehealing.com ). She also has a daily blog that provides information for all facets of wellness ( wellnessgossip.com ).

 

Peter Skold
Peter Skold, a native of Minneapolis , graduated from Cornell University in 2006 with a B.S. in textile science. Not knowing quite what to do with a textile science degree, he spent a year traveling in Central and South America after graduating. There he volunteered in two public hospitals, experiences that would lead him to seek out graduate education. In addition to the Health Journalism & Communication M.A., Peter is pursuing his M.P.H. He hopes to focus on improving access to care for rural communities in developing nations.

 

Melissa Sperl Thompson
For her growing communications consulting business, Sperl Thompson Communications, Melissa Sperl Thompson creates program and marketing materials—mostly about wellness topics—for various corporations. Recent clients include Weight Watchers International, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, General Mills and Consumer Reports. She especially enjoys projects that aim to motivate readers to act. Melissa also writes articles for national consumer publications such as Marie Claire, Health and Woman's Day—again, often about topics related to health, but sometimes in general lifestyle areas as well. Her undergraduate degrees are from Syracuse University : magazine journalism and English. She lives in Uptown with her husband, Andy, a musician.

 

Pingping Yang
Pingping Yang is director/journalist for “Nature and Science,” and “Documentary,” at China Central Television – International. She recently reported on China 's largest earthquake ever. She has also served as associate director of “The Fallen City,” a Sino-German documentary project about the Sino-German scientific research on extinguishing coal fires in China, and director and editor of a science documentary “Carotid Endarterectomy—Leading the First Fight of Stroke.” She has a B.S. in biotechnology from Peking University in China , where she was also a research assistant in the Peking-Yale Joint Center for Plant Molecular Genetics and Agro-Biotechnology.