Tara Haelle

Tara is an independent science/health journalist, author and speaker, and the AHCJ infectious disease health beat leader who formerly led the medical studies beat. She’s author of Vaccination Investigation and The Informed Parent, and her work has appeared in National Geographic, Scientific American, Texas Monthly, Science News, Medscape/WebMD, The New York Times, Wired, and O Magazine, among others. She specializes in public health and medical research, particularly vaccines, infectious disease, maternal and pediatric health, mental health, healthcare disparities, and misinformation. She also covers medical research conferences for trade publications. She has written nearly a dozen children’s nonfiction science books and delivered keynotes, webinars and grand rounds on vaccines and vaccine hesitancy, parenting, understanding medical research, storytelling, and mental health, including her TEDx Oslo talk. Tara earned a master’s in photojournalism from the University of Texas at Austin and was a public high school teacher in Texas prior to moving into full-time journalism.