Joanne Silberner
Joanne Silberner is a health policy correspondent for National Public Radio. She covers medicine, health reform, and changes in the health care marketplace.
Silberner has been with NPR since 1992. Prior to that she spent five years covering consumer health and medical research at U.S. News & World Report. In addition she has worked at Science News magazine, Science Digest, and has freelanced for various publications. She has been published in The Washington Post, Health, USA Today, American Health, Practical Horseman, Encyclopedia Britannica, and others.
She was a fellow for a year at the Harvard School of Public Health, and from 1997-1998, she had a Kaiser Family Foundation media fellowship. During that fellowship she chronicled the closing of a state mental hospital. Silberner also had a fellowship to study the survivors of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Silberner has won awards for her work from the Society of Professional Journalists, the New York State Mental Health Association, the March of Dimes, Easter Seals, the American Heart Association, and others. Her work has also earned her a Unity Award and a Clarion Award.
A graduate of Johns Hopkins University, Silberner holds her B.A. in biology. She has a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
She currently resides in Washington, D.C.
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NewsIt sounds like another melodramatic show: pregnant teen heroine with a boyfriend who's a substance abuser. But there's a lot more to this soap. -
The years lost to mental illness around the globe — years of disability, early death — could be far greater than previous estimates. -
Depression is common in women during pregnancy and postpartum, posing risks to both mother and child. More effort is needed to get women screened and treated, a federal advisory panel says. -
The suicide rate has increased in the past decade, despite the best efforts of hotlines and prevention programs. A Detroit health plan set a zero suicide goal among its members — and achieved it. -
As it marks its 60th birthday, the injectable vaccine is still critical. It's "needed to end polio for good," as Carol Pendak of Rotary's Polio Plus program puts it. -
There's little money for cancer care in the developing world. And many children with curable cancers die. Two doctors believe it's time to stop accepting cancer as a death sentence in poor countries. -
Dr. Tony McMichael was a lonely crusader. He wanted governments to pay attention to ways that earth's changing climate will affect the health of all — with the poor likely to suffer the most. -
Filmmaker Tom Roberts was definitely not interested when he was first asked to make a movie about the disease. Then he began to do some research. "Every Last Child" is the result. -
Nigeria knows how to beat back polio. And that's helped in the battle against Ebola. But other West African countries are struggling to beat the deadly virus — and neglecting anti-polio efforts. -
Among advocates for improving sanitation through better toilet access, the only question is whether to play it straight or joke about the john. Pretty much everyone seems to give in to humor.
