Health & medical journalist. Award-winning science writer. Experienced storyteller.
About Lindsey
Lindsey Leake (she/her) is an award-winning health reporter with two master’s degrees and 15 years’ experience in print, broadcast and digital journalism. She has a zeal for medical and public health reporting, and people-centered prose forms the heart of her writing.
She’s a former health and wellness reporter on Fortune’s Well team who covered medicine, public health, the pharmaceutical industry, biotechnology, nutrition, fitness and more before her position was eliminated in February 2025. Lindsey is now exploring freelance opportunities and has so far written for the NBC News Health & Medical Unit and Cancer Today. She also just completed a two-year appointment as a senior editor on the alumni editorial board of The Science Writer, the digital magazine of the Johns Hopkins University MA in Science Writing Program. In addition, Lindsey is a thesis advisor to Hopkins science writing grad students.
Lindsey has been a member of the Association of Health Care Journalists, National Association of Black Journalists, National Association of Science Writers, Society of Professional Journalists, and Investigative Reporters & Editors. Following a five-year stint in Florida, she recently relocated to her native Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C.
Lindsey Leake poses in front of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism in Oxford, Oxfordshire, U.K., on Monday, Sept. 2, 2019. RISJ is affiliated with the University of Oxford, where Leake earned a placement in the Journalist Fellowship Summer School.
Lindsey Leake took home four certificates from the 2021 Sunshine State Awards, hosted by the Society of Professional Journalists Florida Pro Chapter.
Journalism awards
Lindsey has been honored with numerous accolades for her reporting. She was named among Editor & Publisher Magazine’s 2023 Class of 25 Under 35 young media professionals. The NASW named her USA TODAY story “Black blood donors are desperately needed, so I donated for the first time” a finalist in the commentary category of its 2022 Science in Society Journalism Awards.
Lindsey thrives on data-driven journalism and designs data visualizations to accompany most stories. Her COVID-19 infographics have been recognized by the Florida Society of News Editors and the SPJ Florida Pro Chapter.
“We’re storytellers first and foremost, with a multitude of modern media at our fingertips through which we can herald this ancient art.”
— LINDSEY LEAKE, quoted in E&P’s 2023 Class of 25 Under 35 feature
Scribe & scholar
Lindsey is an insatiable learner who enjoys supplementing her field reporting knowledge with formal education. She completed her undergraduate studies at Princeton University, and went on to earn two master’s degrees: an MA in Science Writing from Johns Hopkins University, and an MA in Journalism and Digital Storytelling from American University.
She’s not ruling out a future PhD in communication, or perhaps a graduate certificate in public health, bioethics or the history of medicine.
Lindsey Leake takes a selfie during a master’s commencement ceremony Thursday, May 19, 2022, at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, where she earned an MA in Science Writing.
15
Years in journalism
2
Master’s degrees
1
International journalism fellowship
Lindsey Leake takes a seaside selfie Monday, Sept. 11, 2017, on Pawleys Island, S.C., while covering Hurricane Irma for Sinclair Broadcast Group/WPDE-TV.
Health, medicine and beyond
Lindsey is grateful to have covered throughout her career everything from reformed gang members’ tattoo removal, the economics of alligator hunting and a presidential inauguration, to hurricanes, COVID-fueled food insecurity and the convergence of AI and in vitro fertilization.
Read Lindsey’s best reporting →
When she’s not reporting, Lindsey is usually lost in a mystery novel, binge-listening to true-crime podcasts or catching the latest horror flick at the movies. She roots for the Princeton Tigers, American Eagles, Hopkins Blue Jays, Virginia Tech Hokies and all D.C. sports teams.