Founding Director
Center for Health Journalism
Michelle Levander is the founding director of the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism and editor-in-chief of its online community. Since she launched the Center in 2004, its journalism fellows have published more than 2,500 articles in partnership with the Center. Fellows’ stories have won distinction and changed laws, reinvigorated policy discussions and provoked new community discussions nationwide. Michelle launched the Center after more than 15 years as a staff reporter and editor in New York, California, Hong Kong and Mexico, working for Time Magazine Asia, the Asian Wall Street Journal and the San Jose Mercury News. She has received journalism awards from the Overseas Press Club of America (Best Reporting in Latin America), the Inter American Press Association, the Society of Professional Journalists L.A. (Distinguished Work in New Media) as well as a Northern California Co-Producer Emmy Award (Spanish-language Outstanding Achievement Health Journalism). A former Inter American Press Association fellow, she spent a year in Mexico, at Mexico City's El Colegio de México and at El Colegio de Michoacán and researched migrant culture from rural Mexico.
Innovative Approaches to Community-Informed Reporting
Tuesday, March 31, 2026
4:00 PM - 5:00 PM CT