Public Media for Central Pennsylvania
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

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.

  • Arthritis, bunions, knee pain and shin splints; it's a pernicious group of injuries that frequently conspires to keep runners off the road. Dr. Mark Cucuzzella and Danny Dreyer, founder of the ChiRunning method, answer your questions about how to make running work for you.
  • An International Astronomical Union panel has recommended that our solar system recognize dwarves and plutons.
  • 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.
  • Soldiers who are burned in Iraq owe a debt to the members of the Guinea Pig Club. That's how badly burned Royal Air Force pilots from World War II referred to themselves. As doctors struggled to care for the men, they made major advances in treatment for burn victims — in the medical arena and in the psychological arena as well.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.