The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has appointed Joanne Kenen, a leading health journalist who has covered issues ranging from health disparities to the coronavirus pandemic, as the inaugural Commonwealth Fund Journalist in Residence. In this role, Kenen will continue to report on critical topics at the intersection of public health, health policy, and health equity for Politico and a variety of publications. She will also teach Bloomberg School students and community organizations about the changing media landscape and participate in public meetings and seminars at the School.
“We are thrilled that Joanne Kenen will join the Department of Health Policy and Management to advance her journalism and to inform the educational and practice mission of the Bloomberg School of Public Health,” said Dean Ellen J. MacKenzie, PhD, ScM.
Most recently, Kenen led health care coverage as the health care editor at large and executive editor for health at Politico. She is a frequent public speaker and moderator and a regular on Kaiser Health News podcast, “What the Health.” She has lectured at Princeton University, Harvard Kennedy School, Columbia Journalism School, the Michigan Ross School of Business, and elsewhere.
In 1994, she settled in Washington, D.C, where she’s written about aging and end of life, the coronavirus, the future of public health, Obamacare and health care politics, gun violence, opioids and addiction, and social determinants and disparities for leading outlets. Her work has appeared in Politico and Politico Magazine, Washington Post, Kaiser Health News, The Atlantic, Slate, AARP Magazine, National Journal, Washingtonian, Health Affairs, and the Annals of Emergency Medicine. Early in her career, Kenen reported from Latin America and the Caribbean, New York, and Florida for Reuters.
As the Commonwealth Fund Journalist in Residence at the Bloomberg School, Kenen will delve into urgent and undercovered areas of health policy, with an emphasis on reforms to improve outcomes and health equity. She will also teach a class on the changing media landscape in an age of misinformation, give guest lectures in various courses at the School, and be a resource to students, staff, and faculty involved in the Bloomberg American Health Initiative.
Kenen started in this role on October 1.
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Media contacts: Carly Kempler at ckemple2@jhu.edu and Barbara Benham at bbenham1@jhu.edu
