Vikki Valentine
Vikki Valentine is a senior supervising editor on NPR's science desk. She oversees the network's global health and development coverage across broadcast and digital platforms. Previously, Valentine was the network's climate change, energy, and environment editor and in this role was a recipient of a 2012 DuPont Award for coverage of natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania.
Valentine led a team that won a 2014 Peabody for its on-the-ground coverage of the largest Ebola outbreak in history: an epidemic in West Africa that spread to nearly 30,000 people. That coverage was also recognized by the Edward R. Murrow awards, a Pictures of the Year International's Award of Excellence, and by the Online News Association.
She was lead editor on the Gracie Award-winning series "#HowToRaiseAHuman" and "#15Girls." The 2018 series "#HowToRaiseAHuman" searched remote parts of the world and human evolutionary history for lost secrets to raising kids. The 2015 series "#15Girls" explored the pervasive and deadly discrimination girls in developing countries face.
Valentine won the 2009 National Academies Communication Award for the year-long multimedia project "Climate Connections." The series was also recognized by the 2008 National Academy of Sciences award, the Metcalf award for environmental journalism, the White House News Photographers Association awards, and the Webbys.
Prior to NPR, Valentine worked as a daily science news editor at Discovery.com and as a features editor and reporter at The Baltimore Sun. Her writing has also been published by The New York Times, National Geographic, Smithsonian Channel, Marketplace, Science Magazine, and Washingtonian Magazine.
Valentine received a master's from University College London's Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine. Her bachelor's is from the University of Maryland Baltimore County. Writing under the name V.L. Valentine, she is the author of the historical thriller, The Plague Letters, and the forthcoming Begars Abbey.
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The Food and Drug Administration is again considering whether to allow the emergency contraception Plan B to be sold without a prescription. Here, a look at how Plan B works, and the controversy surrounding it.
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The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation now wields a fortune that holds the potential for dramatic change. Two public-health experts examine the attractions and perils of the Gates' role in global health. -
To learn more about data safety monitoring boards and their role in protecting patients who participate in drug studies, NPR turned to statistician David DeMets. He says the current watchdog system for patient safety is a good one, but there are practical limits on the extent to which drugs can be monitored.
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It's allergy season and your head is pounding, what do you take? Tylenol Sinus, Advil or Imitrex? And what's a vegan with migraine to do? Johns Hopkins Neurologist David Buchholz answers your questions on migraine and its nefarious symptoms.
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Lawmakers in Massachusetts earlier this week enacted a sweeping healthcare bill that aims to insure almost every citizen over the next three years. NPR's Richard Knox speaks with health economist Stuart Altman about the bill's attractions and weaknesses.
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A new Massachusetts law would promote affordable insurance plans and allow people to pay for them with pre-tax dollars. The bill is currently before the state's Republican governor, Mitt Romney. NPR's Richard Knox spoke with Romney about the bill and its genesis.
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Legislators say that by providing every Massachusetts resident with health insurance, the costs of health care are actually lowered. A look at how the bill would affect employers and individuals.
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Rebecca Peterson talks candidly about the difficulties of caring for her husband, Stewart Selman, who was dying from a brain tumor. Peterson experienced both compassion and anger, which is a fairly normal reaction when one spouse cares for another, according to Sarah Gupta. Director of support services for the Brain Tumor Society, Gupta talks about what families should know when caring for a loved one who is sick.
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When your back is in chronic pain, an approach that heals the mind as well as the body is needed, says Dr. Scott Fishman, an anesthesiologist and chief of University of California, Davis' Division of Pain Medicine. He also talks about the risks of relying too much –- or not enough -- on pain medications. -
Is your truck giving you a bad back? Or does it come from being hunched over a computer all day? And how do you find the best physical therapist for you? Anthony Delitto, chairman of the University of Pittsburgh's Department of Physical Therapy, fields your questions on physical therapy and back pain.
