QUESTIONS ABOUT AGING OR CAREGIVING?
We've Been There. And We're Here to Help.
Hi, and welcome to LocalAging.com. Whether you’re navigating aging yourself or helping a loved one, we’re here to help.
We created this site after watching our parents get older, helping as they signed up for Medicare, made their homes safer and, along the way, mended broken hips and broken hearts until, finally, they passed peacefully.
We were lucky — we’d both been working on publications and projects related to aging for more than a decade, and had a sense of where to start. But it struck us, over and over again, that things could have been easier.
That’s why we built LocalAging.com. Our goals are simple:
- Authoritative, easy-to-understand information for older adults and their caregivers.
- A deep well of local resources for aging-related help throughout California.
If you’re here (and it seems like you are!), know this: We’ve been there. And we’re here to help.
The LocalAging.com Leadership Team
Grace BrooksGrace Brooks is co-founder and publisher of LocalAging.com, the leading resource for California seniors and caregivers. A published author, designer and long-time editor, she started LocalAging.com after experiencing the aging and, ultimately, passing of her father-in-law and mother. She has been involved in developing senior-related content for more than a decade.
Greg BrooksGreg Brooks is the editorial director of localaging.com. An award-winning journalist and professional communicator more than 35 years of experience, Greg has written about senior issues and developed explanatory materials in the aging space for more than a decade, creating annual aging guides, public-information campaigns and other material to help California's older Americans live their best lives.
Meet Our Contributing Authors
Amanda Michelle GomezAmanda Michelle Gomez, KHN’s Peggy Girshman Fellow, reports on how public health policy impacts everyday people. She came from the Washington City Paper, where she wrote about the covid pandemic’s effects on D.C. residents. There, she broke countless stories related to the coronavirus, some of which helped change policies. Before working at the City Paper, she was a health policy reporter at ThinkProgress, and reported for PBS NewsHour on issues ranging from the Flint, Michigan, water crisis to the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive mandate.
Aneri PattaniAneri Pattani, Correspondent, reports on a broad range of public health topics, focusing on mental health and substance use. Her work spans text and audio stories, and she has been heard on NPR and Science Friday. Her stories have received national recognition, including a 2021 award from the Institute for Nonprofit News for reporting on the flawed oversight of addiction treatment facilities in Pennsylvania. She was also part of a team that received the News Leaders Association’s 2021 Batten Medal for Coverage of the Coronavirus Pandemic. Before joining KHN, Pattani wrote for Spotlight PA, a collaborative newsroom investigating the Pennsylvania state government. She was a 2019 recipient of the Rosalynn Carter Fellowship for Mental Health Journalism.
Angela HartAngela Hart, senior correspondent, covers health care politics and policy in California and the West, with a focus on California Gov. Gavin Newsom, government accountability, and political influence. She has been reporting on health care for more than five years, and has won awards for her work on homelessness, public health, and the covid-19 pandemic. Previously, she worked for Politico and The Sacramento Bee. She is a Wisconsin native and a military veteran and holds a master’s degree from the University of California-Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.
Arthur AllenArthur Allen, senior correspondent, writes about the FDA and the pharmaceutical industry as well as covid-related topics. He joined KHN in April 2020 after six years at Politico, where he created, edited, and wrote for the first health IT-focused news team. Previously, he was a freelance writer for publications such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, Smithsonian, Lingua Franca magazine, The New Republic, Slate, and Salon. Earlier in his career, he worked for The Associated Press for 13 years, including stints as a correspondent based in El Salvador, Mexico, and Germany. He is the author of the books “Vaccine: The Controversial Story of Medicine’s Greatest Lifesaver,” “Ripe: The Search for the Perfect Tomato,” and “The Fantastic Laboratory of Dr. Weigl.”
Ashley LopezAshley Lopez joined KUT in February 2016. She covers politics and health care, and is part of the NPR-Kaiser Health News reporting collaborative. Previously she worked as a reporter at public radio stations in Louisville, Ky., Miami and Fort Myers, Fla., where she won a National Edward R. Murrow Award for a story about an immigration policy that was failing some undocumented domestic abuse victims. She earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism and political science from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
Bernard WolfsonBernard J. Wolfson, senior correspondent and columnist for California Healthline, reports on the business of health care and writes a monthly consumer health column, “Asking Never Hurts.” Previously, Bernard was the business editor of the Orange County Register and its health care reporter, covering the rollout of the Affordable Care Act. He was a Pulitzer Prize finalist, along with two Register colleagues, for a groundbreaking report on cost vs. quality at 30 local hospitals. He also spent seven years as European editor for Market News International in Paris, where he supervised coverage of the eurozone debt crisis. Bernard holds a bachelor’s from the University of California-Berkeley and a master’s in international relations from Johns Hopkins University.
Blake FarmerBlake Farmer covers health care in Nashville, reporting on the region's unique health challenges as well as the city's concentration of health care companies. He's been with Nashville Public Radio since 2007 where his stories are often picked up for national broadcast.
Bram Sable-SmithBram Sable-Smith, Midwest correspondent, joined KHN after eight years covering public health and the social safety net for Wisconsin Public Radio; The Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism; KBIA in Columbia, Missouri; and as a founding reporter of Side Effects Public Media, a public media reporting collaborative in the Midwest. He also taught radio journalism at the University of Missouri School of Journalism. His reporting has received national recognition, including two Edward R. Murrow Awards, two Sigma Delta Chi Awards, and two health policy awards from the Association of Health Care Journalists.
Christina Saint LouisChristina Saint Louis, covers rural health care for KHN. Based in Minneapolis, she reports primarily on the Upper Midwest. She joined KHN from the Star Tribune’s public safety team, where she reported on policing and crime in Minneapolis. Originally from Stuart, Florida, she was previously an investigative reporter at the Miami Herald after having become the first recipient of its Esserman-Knight Investigative Journalism Fellowship. She received her master’s degree from the Toni Stabile Program in Investigative Journalism at Columbia University.
Colleen WhyteColleen Whyte an Associate Professor in the Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies and Graduate Program Director of the Master of Applied Gerontology program at Brock University. Her research program focuses on aging within Canadian society, and the contributions of recreation and leisure to quality of living for older adults. She teaches courses in aging, qualitative research and therapeutic recreation. Her research program has been funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).
Darla FortuneDarla Fortune is an associate professor of Applied Human Sciences at Concordia University. The inclusion of marginalized individuals, particularly within community leisure spaces and practices, is a central theme in her research.
Elisabeth RosenthalElisabeth Rosenthal, editor-in-chief, joined KHN in September 2016 after 22 years as a correspondent with The New York Times, where she covered a variety of beats from health care to environment and did a stint in the Beijing bureau. While in China, she covered SARS, bird flu, and the emergence of HIV/AIDS in rural areas. Her 2013-14 series, “Paying Till It Hurts,” won many prizes for both health reporting and its creative use of digital tools. Her book, “An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back”), was a New York Times bestseller and a Washington Post notable book of the year. She is a graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Medical School and briefly practiced medicine in a New York City emergency room before converting to journalism.
Fred SchulteFred Schulte, an investigative reporter, has worked at The Baltimore Sun, the South Florida Sun Sentinel, and the Center for Public Integrity. He is a four-time Pulitzer Prize finalist for stories including those that exposed excessive heart surgery death rates in veterans’ hospitals, substandard care by health insurance plans treating low-income people, and the hidden dangers of cosmetic surgery in medical offices. Fred has received the George Polk Award, two Investigative Reporters and Editors awards, four Gerald Loeb Awards for business writing, and two Philip Meyer Awards. The University of Virginia graduate is the author of “Fleeced!”
Harris MeyerHarris Meyer is a writer and editor focusing on health care policy and delivery, business, law, culture, and wine. Have published articles in Kaiser Health News, Health Affairs, Modern Healthcare, Wall Street Journal, Wine Spectator, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, and many other publications. Have won numerous national and regional journalism awards including the Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism and the National Institute for Health Care Management Award.
Heidi de MarcoHeidi de Marco, reporter and producer for California Healthline, produces bilingual multimedia stories about California’s ethnic and low-income communities. Previously, she was a freelance video journalist and photographer specializing in work abroad, including a series of short-form videos about artisans in Guatemala supported by Novica and National Geographic. She was a managing editor for El Pueblo in Los Angeles before moving to India for a postgraduate program at the International Center for Journalists. She is a DePaul University graduate and received a certificate in Spanish-language broadcast journalism from UCLA. She was part of the KHN team to win a NIHCM Digital Media Award in 2018 for “The Orphan Drug Machine” and the Association of Health Care Journalists’ Award for Excellence in Health Care Journalism in Business for the “Liquid Gold” series.
Jackie FortiérJackie Fortier covers health in Southern California and the health care industry in the Los Angeles area. She previously worked in public radio in Oklahoma and Colorado.
JoNel AlecciaJoNel Aleccia, senior correspondent on the KHN enterprise team, focuses on aging and end-of-life issues. Before joining KHN in November 2016, she was a health reporter for more than a decade, covering regional and national news at outlets including The Seattle Times, NBCNews.com, TODAY.com, and MSNBC.com. Before that, she was a reporter, editor, and columnist at newspapers in the Northwest. JoNel was a member of reporting teams that won National Press Club awards for digital journalism focused on the Great Recession and on amputees in the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. She holds a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Oregon.
Jordan RauJordan Rau, senior correspondent, reports on cost and quality in the American health care system with a focus on hospitals and nursing homes. He joined KHN at its founding in 2009 and specializes in data journalism. His articles have revealed: rampant infection control problems in nursing homes; dangerous daily swings in staffing levels in nursing homes; hospitals that do not follow their own charity care policies; byzantine ownership structures of skilled nursing facilities; and the proliferating and contradictory “best hospital” rating industry. On occasion he has digressed to write about the joys of remote schooling and the pretensions of children’s art. A graduate of Wesleyan University, he previously worked as a reporter at the Los Angeles Times and Newsday.
Judith GrahamJudith Graham writes the “Navigating Aging” column for Kaiser Health News. She has covered health care for more than 30 years. She’s been an investigative reporter, national correspondent and senior health reporter at the Chicago Tribune and a regular contributor to The New York Times’ New Old Age blog. Judith was the first topic leader on aging for the Association of Health Care Journalists. Her work has appeared in publications including Stat News, The Washington Post, and the Journal of the American Medical Association. She is a graduate of Harvard College and has a master’s in journalism from Columbia University.
Julie ApplebyJulie Appleby, senior correspondent, reports on the health law’s implementation, health care treatments and costs, trends in health insurance, and policy affecting hospitals and other medical providers. Before joining KHN, Julie spent 10 years covering the health industry and policy at USA Today. She also worked at the San Francisco Chronicle and the Contra Costa Times in Walnut Creek, California. She helped launch the Association of Health Care Journalists’ Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism contest in 2004 and oversaw it for more than a decade while serving on the association’s board. She holds a master’s degree in public health.
Julie RovnerJulie Rovner is chief Washington correspondent and host of KHN’s weekly health policy news podcast, “What the Health?” She joined KHN after 16 years as health policy correspondent for NPR, where she helped lead the network’s coverage of the passage and implementation of the Affordable Care Act. A noted expert on health policy issues, Julie is the author of the critically praised reference book “Health Care Politics and Policy A-Z,” now in its third edition. In 2005, she was awarded the National Press Foundation’s Everett McKinley Dirksen Award for distinguished reporting of Congress. Before working at NPR, Julie covered health policy for National Journal’s Congress Daily and for Congressional Quarterly, among other organizations.
Linda MarsaLinda Marsa is a nationally recognized science journalist. Her work has been syndicated nationally by the Los Angeles Times, and she has authored a book, Prescription for Profits. Her articles have been in dozens of other publications, like Newsweek, Playboy, U.S. News & World Report, Take Part, Aeon, Los Angeles Times Magazine, Parade, Pacific Standard, Financial Times, Smart Money, Popular Science, American Archaeology, Los Angeles, Glamour, More, Utne Reader, AARP, Self, The Daily Beast, Spectrum News, and Reader’s Digest.
Liz SzaboLiz Szabo, senior cdorrespondent, is an enterprise reporter who focuses on the quality of patient care and has covered medicine for two decades. Her stories about cancer and overtreatment for KHN have won numerous awards, including first place in the National Headliner Awards. She also was a finalist for the Gerald Loeb and NIHCM (National Institute for Health Care Management) awards. Before coming to KHN, Szabo covered medicine for USA Today for nearly 13 years. Her coverage of mental health and the link between poor health and substandard housing helped her earn the Victor Cohn Prize for Excellence in Medical Science Reporting in 2016. Her investigation of dangerous doctors, written while working at The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, Virginia, in 2002, won two National Press Club awards and led Virginia lawmakers to toughen state laws for disciplining physicians.
Marian LiuDr. Marian Liu is an Assistant Professor at Purdue School of Nursing and a Faculty Associate in the Center on Aging and the Life Course at Purdue University. She conducts applied and translational research around elder justice issues, covering elder abuse, neglect, and exploitation topics. She works with Adult Protective Services at the national, state, and county levels to measure effective services and outcomes, improve statewide data collection, and advocate for additional training for Adult Protective Services workforce. She is also the Co-Chair of the National Adult Protective Services Association’s Research-to-Practice Interest Group.
Markian HawrylukMarkian Hawryluk, the senior Colorado correspondent for KHN, is based in Denver. He has reported on health care for more than 25 years, writing for such publications as the Houston Chronicle, American Medical News, and, most recently, The (Bend, Ore.) Bulletin. He has won numerous awards for his health reporting from the Association of Health Care Journalists and the Society of Professional Journalists and in 2009 won Oregon’s top reporting prize, the Bruce Baer Award for investigative journalism. In 2013, he was named a Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellow at the University of Michigan. He holds a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Illinois.
Michelle AndrewsMichelle Andrews is a contributing writer and former columnist for KHN. She has been writing about health care for more than 15 years. Her work has appeared frequently in The New York Times, where she wrote the Money and Medicine column and contributed regular news and features. Her work has also been published in Money, Fortune Small Business, National Geographic and Women’s Health magazines, among others. Michelle previously worked as a senior writer at U.S. News & World Report and at SmartMoney magazines. She has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin and a master’s in journalism from Columbia University.
Phil GalewitzPhil Galewitz, senior correspondent, covers Medicaid, Medicare, long-term care, hospitals, and various state health issues. He has covered the health beat for more than two decades. He is a former board member of the Association of Health Care Journalists. In 2004-05, he was a Kaiser Media Fellow and wrote about community solutions for the uninsured. Before coming to KHN, he was at The Palm Beach Post and was a national health industry writer for The Associated Press and The Patriot-News in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He has a bachelor’s in health planning and administration and a master’s in public administration with an emphasis in health policy from Penn State University.
Rachana PradhanRachana Pradhan, correspondent, reports on a broad array of national health policy decisions and their effect on everyday Americans. She came to KHN from Politico, where for five years she covered health care policy and politics on national and state levels. Rachana has been involved in several high-impact projects in her time as a health care reporter, including an investigation into former HHS Secretary Tom Price’s extensive use of private jets at taxpayers’ expense. The investigation, which resulted in Price’s resignation, was a 2018 finalist for the American Society of News Editors’ O’Brien Fellowship Award and earned an honorable mention in the White House Correspondents’ Association’s Edgar A. Poe award. Rachana’s other reporting stints include covering city government for The Daily Progress newspaper in Charlottesville, Virginia, and reporting on the implementation of the Affordable Care Act for Inside Health Policy, a health care trade publication. She graduated from James Madison University.
Rachel BluthRachel Bluth, correspondent for California Healthline, covers the state legislature in Sacramento. She follows the politics of health care and covers the implications of health policies on Californians’ lives. From 2016 to 2019, Rachel reported on health care in Congress as the Peggy Girshman Fellow in KHN’s Washington, D.C., bureau. She was previously the lead political correspondent for the Annapolis bureau of Capital News Service, where she covered the Maryland General Assembly and Gov. Larry Hogan. She holds a master’s degree from the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland.
Rebecca GenoeRebecca Genoe is a professor in the Faculty of Kinesiology and Health Studies at the University of Regina. Her background is in Therapeutic Recreation, with particular interest in leisure and aging. More specifically, Rebecca explores the role of leisure in later life transitions, such as retirement or living with a chronic illness.
Samantha YoungSamantha Young, Senior Correspondent, is an award-winning journalist with 25 years of experience who covers health care politics and policy in California, focusing on government accountability and industry influence. As a former reporter for The Associated Press, Samantha covered the California legislature and the Schwarzenegger administration, statewide political campaigns and the state’s groundbreaking climate change law. She spent seven years in Washington, D.C., where she covered Congress and the federal government for newspapers in the Stephens Media Group. She is graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia journalism school.
Sarah VarneySarah Varney, senior correspondent, is an enterprise reporter with a special focus on racial and ethnic health disparities and the impacts of federal and state health laws on vulnerable populations, including children. Sarah is an accomplished journalist on multiple platforms, adapting her reporting and storytelling techniques for print, radio, and TV. As a KHN correspondent, she regularly produces segments for PBS NewsHour. Her stories have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and KHN’s other print partners.
Sofie KodnerSofie Kodner is a journalist and documentarian based in San Francisco, California. Her work has appeared in 99% Invisible, KQED, WBUR, The Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, CalMatters, Protocol, KALW, and more. She grew up in St. Louis, Missouri.
Susan JaffeSusan Jaffe is a Washington, D.C. reporter specializing in health policy and aging issues. She is a Kaiser Health News contributing writer and Washington correspondent for The Lancet, as well as a former aging issues reporter and columnist at The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio).
Yuki NoguchiYuki Noguchi is a correspondent on NPR's Science Desk based in Washington, D.C. She started covering consumer health in the midst of the pandemic, reporting on everything from vaccination and racial inequities in access to health, to cancer care, obesity and mental health. Her coverage of the impact of opioids on workers and their families won a 2019 Gracie Award and received First Place and Best In Show in the radio category from the National Headliner Awards. She also loves featuring offbeat topics, and has eaten insects in service of journalism.
