About us

PGN is a nonprofit newsroom dedicated to community health.

We partner with trusted local voices throughout the U.S. to distribute accurate, accessible, and inclusive health news in English and Spanish. We do this by:

  • Responding to misinformation. Our stories are driven by and directly respond to the health misinformation we track online.
  • Joining forces with community-based organizations. We prioritize building strong, two-way relationships with our CBO partners so that our work can better serve their communities and feature their voices.
  • Creating a network of newsroom partners. We establish connections with newsrooms across the country to encourage republishing and collaborative reporting.

Are you a community-based organization that needs help informing your community about accurate health news? Learn more on our CBO partner page.

Our audience-first approach: 

  • We respect your time. 
  • We avoid jargon and explain complex health topics in an approachable way. 
  • We view journalism as a service. 
  • We highlight subject-matter experts. 
  • We deliver facts with accuracy and context. PGN follows the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics.

Our guiding beliefs: 

  • Public health is vital to protect communities. News about public health must be communicated clearly and adapted to local contexts. 
  • Misinformation is an existential threat to democracy. 
  • Racism and violence are public health crises. 
  • There aren’t “two sides” to a science story. Instead, we believe in scientific consensus, and we take a “weight-of-evidence” or “weight of experts” approach, looking to peer-reviewed research, scientific organizations, and reputable sources to accurately report on how much agreement exists among scientists on a topic. 
  • Politics affects public health. Communities deserve to know how. 
  • Human activity is driving climate change.

Editorial policy, transparency, and funding

PGN was founded by staff from The Public Good Projects (PGP), a public health nonprofit that specializes in health communications. PGP has been supporting journalists and providing community-based organizations with timely health information for several years. As part of PGP’s work with The Rockefeller Foundation’s Equity-First Vaccination Initiative (EVI)—a year-long demonstration project to increase vaccine confidence among BIPOC communities—PGP determined the urgent need for communities to receive accurate health information from trusted sources. PGN has since partnered with the CDC Foundation to provide COVID-19 and flu news to community-based organizations.

Funding for this effort is supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of a financial assistance award to the CDC Foundation totaling $22,724,994 with 100 percent funded by CDC/HHS. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by CDC/HHS, or the U.S. Government. In addition, the CDC Foundation does not guarantee and is not responsible for the accuracy or reliability of information or content contained in this site.

Moreover, the CDC Foundation expressly disclaims all liability for damages of any kind arising out of use, reference to, or reliance on any information contained within this website. This website is not intended as, and should not be interpreted by you as, constituting or implying the CDC Foundation’s endorsement, sponsorship, or recommendation of the information, products, or services found therein.

PGN retains full authority over editorial content to protect the best journalistic and business interests of our organization. We maintain a firewall between news coverage decisions and the sources of all revenue from PGP. We are committed to transparency in every aspect of funding our organization. Accepting financial support does not mean we endorse donors or their products, services, or opinions.

We accept gifts and grants from individuals, organizations, and foundations to help with our general operations, coverage of specific topics, and special projects. Our news judgments are made independently—not based on or influenced by donors. Editorial decisions are made by journalists and editors alone. We do not give supporters the rights to assign, review, or edit content.

Our organization may consider donations to support the coverage of particular topics, but our organization maintains editorial control of the coverage. We will cede no right of review or influence of editorial content, nor of unauthorized distribution of editorial content.

Our organization will make public all one-time donations of $1,000 or more. We will avoid accepting charitable donations from anonymous sources in excess of $5,000, political parties, elected officials, or candidates seeking public office. We will not accept donations from sources who our board of directors deems to present a conflict of interest with our work or compromise our independence.

We pledge to be transparent about the funding of our news operations and maintain editorial independence from all revenue sources to ensure news judgments are made in the interest of the communities we serve as journalists.

Ethics policy 
PGN follows the Society for Professional Journalists Code of Ethics. 

Who we are

Megan Barber (she/her): Founder and Editor-in-chief

With over a decade of experience in print and digital journalism, most recently at Vox Media and New York Magazine, Megan has covered a range of beats and is passionate about making complicated health topics more approachable to communities. A former Fulbright and Mellon scholar, Megan received her Master’s and PhD in history from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Claudia Sanchez-Bustamante (she/her): Senior Editor

A love of words and her bicultural and bilingual upbringing led Claudia to a career in journalism and strategic communications in corporate and government-sector organizations, including Discovery Channel Latin America and the U.S. Department of Defense, where she managed multilingual publications for diverse audiences in the U.S. and Latin America and also wrote and edited health-related content for the Defense Health Agency. This led to her passion for public health communications and working to provide accurate, fact-based, yet digestible health information to all audiences. She has a B.A. in Mass Communications from the University of South Florida and an M.A. in Emerging Media from Loyola University Maryland.

Valeria Ricciulli (she/her): Bilingual Writer and Reporter

Valeria is a bilingual writer and reporter, originally from Colombia. She’s passionate about service journalism and highlighting voices in communities of color. Her work has appeared in New York Magazine, Curbed, Eater, and Teen Vogue. At PGP and PGN, she writes in both English and Spanish about public health and vaccine misinformation. She holds a B.A. from Manhattanville College and an M.S. in media management from The New School. 

Aisha Abdullah (she/her): Senior Science Writer 

Aisha Abdullah is a writer with a diverse background in science communication, education, and academic research. She has nearly a decade of experience demystifying science for people of all ages and backgrounds. Aisha received a PhD in neuroscience from Weill Cornell Medical College, where she discovered a passion for making science accessible. She writes about misinformation, conspiracy theories, and myths related to vaccines and infectious diseases.

Adriana Díaz (they/she): Senior Editorial Manager, Communications

Adriana is a cultural worker, communications strategist, and journalist. Adriana works to shine a light on community narratives of resilience, healing, and health as an organizing strategy toward social change, justice, and freedom. Adriana boasts more than 20 years of professional experience in nonprofits, radio, community-driven journalism, and youth advocacy. They bring their lived experience—as a queer, neurodivergent, adult child of Mexican immigrant parents living joyfully in recovery—to all they do. Adriana holds a B.A. from DePaul University and an M.S.J. from Northwestern University.

Ashley McCalla (she/her): Senior Manager, Editorial Content

Ashley is a project manager with extensive experience in field and program operations. She coordinates all PGN editorial operations and works cross-functionally to ensure that the department runs smoothly. A graduate of Johnson & Wales University, Ashley holds a Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM)® certification and is a Project Management Professional (PMP)® certification candidate.

Darshana Panchal (she/her): Senior Manager, Programs

Darshana is an experienced professional in program management. She leads comprehensive health communication interventions on topics ranging from vaccine misinformation to ending stigma around opioid addiction, all with a lens toward narrowing racial health inequities. She supports PGN across multiple functions by focusing on stakeholder management and newsroom partnerships. She holds a Bachelors of Science in business from Creighton University and a Masters in Public Health from George Washington University.

Maya Greenstein (she/her): Associate Editor

Maya is a copywriter and editor with experience in health topics ranging from childhood obesity to the opioid epidemic. She graduated summa cum laude from the George Washington University with a degree in psychology and studied at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile.

Sydney Clark (she/they): Copywriter 

Sydney is an experienced writer who cares deeply about issues related to health and well-being. As a Master’s recipient from the Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, she is well-versed in public health issues, especially those surrounding social determinants of health. What’s most important to Sydney is making sure that the health topics she covers are accessible to the marginalized and vulnerable groups they affect most.