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Current Students
The Grady Journal
What happens when a medical school opens a new campus within a major state university? What if that state university is the flagship institution for a state in desperate need of more medical professionals? From the dean down through the first students, from a temporary location into a brand new campus, the new MCG-UGA Medical Partnership will affect all aspects of life in Athens – the students, the faculty, the administration, the hospitals and the residents. Through a series of documentaries, students in the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication’s Health and Medical Journalism program are exposing what the new school will mean to the community and the state.
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Robyn Abree is a second year master’s student interested in covering nutrition, fitness and other forms of prevention. She spent summer 2011 interning at GivingPoint, an Atlanta-based nonprofit that educates youth about health and public service.She created a “Positive Living” lesson plan and quiz that promotes active, healthy lifestyles among teens. Robyn has also written for Georgia Engineer magazine, Georgia Health News, and BLVD magazine.
First-year student Lacey Avery earned a B.S. in forestry from Auburn University in 2009. She has worked in outreach, communication, and governmental affairs for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources for the past two years, and as a grad student will focus on sharpening her environmental communication and journalism skills. She has a graduate assistantship with Georgia Sea Grant, a program that promotes research, education and outreach on the Georgia Coast.
Jessika Boedeker is a second-year HMJ graduate student who came to the program with an A.B.J. in telecommunication earned at UGA's Grady College. She is especially interested in the evolving role of social media in health communication and works in this area while earning her M.A. She has internships with the Athens Resource Center for the Homeless, a local non-profit agency, and with Emory Healthcare in Atlanta. She is a regular contributor to Emory Healthcare's blog.
Dian Cai is a first-year master's student who earned a bachelor's degree in international Journalism at United International College in China. As a journalist who is interested in television and video, she plans to focus on public health-related documentary production as a graduate student. She will be pursuing a certificate in global public health at the College of Public Health along with her concentration in HMJ.
Deborah Chasteen (B.A., English, U. South Carolina) spent years creating advertising design and copy for many publications, but coveted editorial space. Thus she began freelancing. The Knight Health program supports Deb's goals: sharing science's benefits and wonder through accessible writing, and working for social justice.
Amanda Dickey is a first-year graduate student who obtained her bachelor’s degree in English from Armstrong Atlantic State University in Savannah, GA, in 2010. Before coming to Athens, Amanda interned for six months at South Magazine, an award-winning publication based in Savannah. She is an avid reader and her passion for writing brought her to the health and medical journalism program at Grady College.
Felicia Harris earned her B.A. in English from Columbus State University with a concentration in professional writing and a minor in Communication. As a mother and first generation college student, she is interested in health disparities and health policy, and how reporting on these issues could impact the world and people around her.
Jing Luo majored in Chinese as an undergraduate at Guangdong University of Foreign Studies and is now a first-year graduate student in HMJ. Before coming to the U.S., she interned for a newspaper and learned what it felt like to have her work censored by government authorities. She is interested in bringing a global perspective to the health beat, and hopes to apply what she learns here to health and medical reporting back in China.
Jessica Luton spent three years as a reporter, photographer and web guru at a small, community newspaper in central Georgia. There, she learned the power of journalism as a force for good. She wrote often about poverty, both its devastating effects on community and about the positive actions of people helping one another. Yearning to cover stories with a bigger reach, and to master new storytelling techniques including video and other multimedia tools, she returned to Grady College (where she earned her undergraduate degree) and found a new home in the Health and Medical Journalism program.
Marcie McClellan is a second-year HMJ student who is also completing a global health certificate. She worked for three years developing prevention programs for youth in Fulton County, and as a journalist she covers mainly child health and health disparities. She is a 2007 graduate of Spelman College, where she earned a B.A. in English.
During a 30-year career as a pharmacist-editor, L. Michael Posey has worked
on journals, books, newsletters, and online articles for pharmacists. His
current interests are in use of technology and new media for rapid
information dissemination. An employee of the American Pharmacists
Association, Posey is the father of three boys.
Kathleen Raven received her A.B.J. in Newspapers from the University of Georgia. She is earning a master of science degree in Conservation Ecology and Sustainable Development. She loves writing about any science-related topic and specializes in biodiversity, natural resources, and local agriculture. 
