Joe Neel
Joe Neel is NPR's deputy senior supervising editor and a correspondent on the Science Desk.
As a leader of NPR's award-winning health and science team, Neel directs coverage of breaking news in health and science, ranging from disease outbreaks and advances in medical research to debates over health reform and public health.
Joe also plays a key role in overseeing the Science Desk's award-winning enterprise reporting. Among his current projects and responsibilities, Neel supervises the Monday "Your Health" segment on Morning Edition. He also directs several ongoing editorial partnerships. One, a partnership with Kaiser Health News and public radio member stations, focuses on health care in the United States. Another is a polling project on health issues with the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Neel has played a key role in expanding the network's coverage of global health and development issues. He is currently focused on domestic health issues, including cutting-edge biomedical research and developments in the health industry, such as the Affordable Care Act.
In 2008, he launched NPR's "Your Health" podcast and helped launch and grow "Shots," NPR's health blog, in 2010.
In addition to his responsibilities at NPR's Science Desk, Neel also regularly serves as newsroom manager, overseeing the network's overall news coverage.
During his tenure as editor, NPR's health reporters and correspondents have won numerous awards, including the George Foster Peabody Award, the National Academy of Sciences Communication Award, the Sigma Delta Chi Award from the Society for Professional Journalists, the Everett McKinley Dirksen Award for Distinguished Reporting on Congress, the American Association for the Advancement of Science's Journalism Prize, and the Association of Health Care Journalism award. Neel was awarded the prestigious Kaiser Family Foundation Media Fellowship in 2007.
Neel started filing stories about medicine and health as a freelancer for NPR in 1994 and joined the staff two years later.
He earned bachelor degrees from Washington University in St. Louis in both biology and German literature and language. He also studied biology at the Universitaet Tuebingen in Germany.
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James P. Allison and Tasuku Honjo were cited for their work in harnessing the immune system to arrest the development of cancer. -
Brenda Fitzgerald, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is stepping down. This follows reports that she invested in tobacco company stocks after she began leading the agency.
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Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald had "complex financial interests," according to a statement from the Department of Health and Human Services. News reports say she bought tobacco stock while CDC director. -
New results from an NPR poll show sexism and discrimination against women is widespread and pervasive. Sexual harassment is just one of many challenges women experience in daily life.
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In the poll, LGBTQ people also reported numerous experiences of institutional discrimination — in jobs, equal pay, promotions, and when trying to obtain health care or housing.
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A third of black Americans say they avoid calling the police when in need because of fear of discrimination. And nearly half say they or a family member have been treated unfairly by the courts.
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NPR is launching a deep exploration of how Americans experience discrimination in daily life. One key result: The sense that their own group suffers discrimination crosses racial and identity lines.
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The version of the American Health Care Act passed by the House eliminates taxes on corporations and wealthy people and shrinks Medicaid coverage. A chart breaks down who would be affected and how. -
A new study finds that people who are overweight, but not obese, have shorter life spans. It's the opposite of a 2013 study that got a lot of attention by finding a few pounds might be good for you. -
Gottlieb is seen as a mainstream pick for an agency that oversees a quarter of the U.S. economy, including pharmaceuticals, medical devices, food, cosmetics and other areas of human and animal health.
