Jackie Fortiér, Peggy Girshman fellow, covers health policy nationally from her base in California. She’s the newsroom’s first audio-first fellow, a selection that honors Girshman, who was an NPR alum and longtime champion of audio journalism.

Fortiér has helped KFF Health News expand its offerings to “Marketplace,” National Public Radio, and CBS News Radio, and she landed the newsroom’s first audio feature on “The California Report.” She’s a skilled multimedia storyteller able to deliver compelling social videos, polished TV appearances, sonically rich audio features, and well-sourced digital reports.

Her work has been featured in The New York Times and The Washington Post, and she’s appeared live on air in Austria, in Ireland, and on PBS NewsHour in the U.S. She’s a longtime member of the NPR public radio collaboration and got her start in journalism during graduate school, hosting “Weekend Edition” at KUNC in northern Colorado. She later covered health for a group of NPR member stations in Oklahoma. More recently, Fortiér worked at KPCC/LAist. She’s a graduate of Colorado State University and holds a master’s from the University of Colorado-Boulder in Journalism.