Melinda’s writing has appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, The Atlantic, Mother Jones, O: The Oprah Magazine, Nature and many other publications. She is a contributing editor at Scientific American magazine and has been a parenting columnist for Slate. As a 2018 Alicia Patterson fellow, she wrote an award-winning op-ed for The New York Times and traveled to Guinea-Bissau for a Scientific American story that was featured in the 2020 Best Science and Nature Writing anthology. A feature she wrote about factory farming and antibiotic resistance in 2017 was a finalist for a National Magazine Award, and a story she wrote about the public health effects of gun ownership, which involved a road trip through the Deep South, won the 2018 Excellence in Reporting Award from the American Society of Journalists and Authors. Melinda has been a featured guest on many local and national radio shows and news networks.
Recent Articles
- ‘A Poison in the System’: The Epidemic of Military Sexual Assault
- Let’s Do a Tick Check
- You’re Vaccinated. Your Kids Are Not. What Now?
- In Search of a Vaccine, Some Tourists Find Luck in the Caribbean
- Women Report Worse Side Effects After a Covid Vaccine
- Why Common Colds Might Spike When Kids Return to School
- What Should You Do if You Test Positive for the Coronavirus but Feel Fine?
- If You’re Offered a Vaccine, Take It
- ‘Just a Small Play Date’? You Still Need to Be Careful
- Is Staying Home Harming Your Child’s Immune System?
- ‘A Fearless Virus Hunter’ Tackles a Coronavirus Mystery in Children
- Can Covid Damage the Brain?
- How Are My Kids Still Getting Sick in Lockdown?
- The Dos and Don’ts of ‘Quarantine Pods’
- Kids Are Grieving, Too
- Could ‘Innate Immunology’ Save Us From the Coronavirus?
- Discipline Looks Different in a Pandemic
- Teaching Your Kids to Be Safe Online: A Hasty Primer
- When Will Kids Get Covid Vaccines?
- You Can Get through This Dark Pandemic Winter Using Tips from Disaster Psychology
- Could a Single Live Vaccine Protect against a Multitude of Diseases?
- A Wave of Resurgent Epidemics Has Hit the U.S.
- More Guns Do Not Stop More Crimes, Evidence Shows
- What Science Says about How to Get Preschool Right
- How Drug-Resistant Bacteria Travel from the Farm to Your Table
Awards & Honors
- 2019 Winner, Bricker Award for Science Writing in Medicine
- 2019 Finalist, National Academy of Sciences Communication Award
- 2019 Winner, Outstanding Opinion Article, the American Society of Journalists and Authors’ Writing Awards
- 2018 Fellowship awardee, Alicia Patterson Foundation
- 2018 Winner, Excellence in Reporting Award, the American Society of Journalists and Authors’ Writing Awards
- 2018 Winner, June Roth Award, the American Society of Journalists and Authors’ Writing Awards
- 2017 Winner, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Media Award
- 2017 Winner, Folio Eddie award for best single article in Consumer: Science/Technology
- 2017 Winner, Awards for Excellence in Health Care Reporting
- 2017 Finalist, National Magazine Award
- 2017 Finalist, Science in Society Award from the National Association of Science Writers
- 2012 Finalist, James Beard Journalism Award
- 2012 Winner, Society of Obstetric Anesthesia and Perinatology Journalism Award
- 2010 Winner, American College of Emergency Physicians Journalism of Excellence Award