Introducing Your New Health Care Reporter

Hello Rhode Island! Allow me to introduce myself: I’m Kristin Gourlay, the new health care reporter at Rhode Island Public Radio. I’m really excited to be here, to listen and learn, and to find and tell the stories that matter most to you.

You can be sure I’ll be following all the big stories in health care, including health care reform, the health exchange, and hospitals. But I’d also like to mine the rich variety of important stories on Rhode Island’s health care landscape. In particular, I’m interested in vulnerable and less-covered populations, health sciences, health education, environmental health, and more. Of course, that’s only a small slice, but that should give you a flavor of some of the topics I’ll be exploring. Most importantly, I hope to hear from you. Got a tip? Email me!

A bit more about me:

I believe journalism is a public service, and I got into public radio journalism not only to be of service but because I fell in love with the power of the voice and of sound to transport and engage listeners.

Before coming to Rhode Island Public Radio, I was the environment reporter at WFPL, Louisville’s NPR news station. While there, I helped launch and became managing editor of a unique regional environmental news service called The Ohio River Radio Consortium, which tapped the talents of regional public radio reporters. Before that, I reported and hosted for Wyoming Public Radio, where I helped design and launch the station’s award-winning news magazine, Open Spaces. Over the past seven years, I’ve filed stories for NPR’s major news magazines as well as many public radio stations and shows. I got my MS in journalism from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. I’ve also taught journalism to undergraduates at Georgetown College in Georgetown, KY. I’m particularly proud of the variety of protective/unusual clothing I’ve had to wear on assignment (anyone got a story idea involving a Hazmat suit? That’s on my bucket list!).

(Here’s me on snowshoes, interviewing an avalanche expert in the Tetons  in 2006).

I grew up in Glen Ellyn and Chicago, IL and went to high school in Walnut Creek, CA. I received my BA in Anthropology from Lewis & Clark College in Portland, OR, and have since lived, worked, and studied in San Francisco, Iowa City, Madrid, New York, Wyoming, and Kentucky. When I’m not working, I like to spend time with my husband and step-daughter, strum  my ukulele, explore, cook, and listen to great radio.