WUNC Public Radio expands health coverage, hires reporter/producer Rose Hoban
| January 26, 2005 | |
| CHAPEL HILL – WUNC Public Radio (91.5 FM) has hired a health care reporter to enhance the station’s ability to cover health care issues statewide. The new position, which will be held by Rose Hoban, will enable WUNC to provide expanded news and information to listeners regarding this important topic. The position is part of WUNC Public Radio’s commitment to expand coverage of a variety of issues that impact the lives of North Carolinians.The health care reporter position is one component of a larger educational partnership between WUNC Public Radio, the UNC School of Public Health, and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina. The partnership also features internships in health communication through the UNC School of Public Health department of health behavior and health education and in conjunction with WUNC Public Radio and the UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communications medical journalism program. The internships, which will give students valuable training on ways to raise awareness and facilitate behavior change on high-priority health issues such as care for the state’s growing Hispanic population, women’s health and violence prevention, will include work at the WUNC studio.
“Health care plays an important role in our state and our country, and this partnership enables the station to create a dedicated position to give this topic the attention it deserves,” stated WUNC Program Director George Boosey. “In addition, it is an exciting opportunity to begin to prepare the next generation of public health and journalism leaders that we will all count on to illuminate the changing face of health care in the future.” Hoban joined the WUNC Public Radio staff on Jan. 18. A clinical nurse who holds master of public health and master of journalism degrees from the University of California at Berkeley, Hoban brings a breadth of experience to the position. In addition to working as a nurse in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Northern California, she served as medical project coordinator for Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres in Indonesia, directed student health services at the College of Aeronautics in New York, and managed medical cases at a residential drug treatment program for women and their infants. For the last four years, while completing her master’s degrees, she also worked part-time as a clinical nurse while reporting on health and science topics for KQED-FM radio, NPR’s Living on Earth, the San Francisco Chronicle, and other media outlets. “Health reporting should be more than talking about the ‘disease of the week,'” Hoban said. “I’m pleased to have this opportunity to use my experience and education to help WUNC listeners understand the health care issues facing our state, and to put these issues in a national and international context.” At WUNC Public Radio, Hoban will cover health care issues and advances in North Carolina and work with the station’s programmming staff to research and produce in-depth reports, interviews, and segments for WUNC’s newscasts and the midday talk program, The State of Things. The Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina gift to the School of Public Health and WUNC Public Radio counts toward the university’s Carolina First Campaign goal of $1.8 billion. Carolina First is a multi-year, private fund-raising campaign to support Carolina’s vision of becoming the nation’s leading public university.
WUNC-FM contact: Joan Siefert Rose, 919-962-9150 or jsrose@wunc.org News Services contact: Lisa Katz, 919-962-2093 For further information please contact Emily Smith either by phone at 919.966.8498 or by email at emily_smith@unc.edu |
