Elizabeth Hlavinka

Elizabeth Hlavinka is a science journalist who reports at the intersection of health and the environment. She graduated with a degree in English from the University of Texas at Austin in the U.S. in 2018. Shortly after, she joined MedPage Today as a staff writer, where she focused on health disparities and systemic abuses within the healthcare system. In 2021, the National Press Foundation granted her the Poverty and Inequality Award for a series she produced with co-author Shannon Firth about how the Covid-19 pandemic impacted child welfare. Since transitioning to full-time freelance work in 2021, she has expanded her coverage to include environmental reporting and solutions-based stories, working with outlets in Europe as well as the U.S. Her work has appeared in Atmos, Salon, Atlas Obscura, and New Scientist, among other outlets. She is committed to accountability journalism that interrogates power imbalances, while also bringing depth and humanity to complex scientific question