Helina Selemon is the audience development lead for the health and science desk at The Associated Press. She has been working as a freelance health and science journalist and researcher for more than four years, weaving between reporting, editing, fact-checking and engagement.
She has fact-checked for TED, Popular Science Magazine, and autism news site Spectrum, and written health stories for Health.com and Gastroenterology & Endoscopy News. She has executed engagement strategies for Dr. Oz The Good Life Magazine and BRIGHT Magazine (a startup funded by the Gates Foundation). She has also researched and edited for Since Parkland, a collaborative project between the Miami Herald, McClatchy, and The Trace that won an Online Journalism Award in 2019.
She has a B.S. in Microbiology from The Ohio State University and an M.A. in Journalism from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY, where she teaches research methods, coaches for Career Services, and serves on the inaugural alumni board.
Beyond making science make sense — and science/health journalism more visible and engaging – she enjoys roasting coffee and hosting traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremonies.