Lauren M. Whaley

Lauren M. Whaley is the multimedia reporter for the CHCF Center for Health Reporting at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism (longest name ever!). She produces radio, photography and multimedia stories on health policy issues for public radio stations and newspapers around California. She has covered issues ranging in topic from childbirth to dialysis to mental illness to aging and long-term care. For a story on childbirth policies, she even got to photograph a woman in labor. Her work has appeared on KQED Public Radio and Southern California Public Radio as well as in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Modesto Bee and other California newspapers. She joined JAWS as a fellow in 2010 (Thank you, KC Cole!).

Whaley worked as a writer and photographer in Jackson, Wyoming for five years before moving to Los Angeles to pursue her master’s degree in specialized science journalism at the University of Southern California. She earned her bachelor’s from Bowdoin College and spent summers in her early 20s taking high school girls on long canoe expeditions to northern Minnesota and the Canadian Arctic.

When not reporting on California health issues, Whaley listens to storytelling podcasts, writes postcards and runs the trails of Griffith Park with her husband.

“The women of JAWS are my heroes, mentors, peers and confidants. This community gives me the courage to keep pursuing journalism as a profession. JAWS women are badass, brilliant and accessible. I am forever grateful that they have welcomed me into their ranks.”