We just launched!​

The Global Health Reporting Center is a brand new, independent, nonprofit newsroom that produces in-depth health journalism. We take a 360º approach to health and medicine looking at the complex interactions of science, community, economics, politics, business, and human behavior. We report from every continent in the world with both local expertise and a global perspective. We dig deep into the important health issues of our time producing an omni-channel range of content. Our coverage encompasses a wide variety of subjects including Aging, Human Behavior, a Changing Planet, Community, Epidemics, Food, Health Systems, Mental Health, Policy, Rumors and Misinformation, Research and Development, as well Sexual and Reproductive Health.

Our Team

Janet Tobias

Founder & CEO

Janet Tobias is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker. Tobias started her film and television career at CBS’ 60 Minutes as Diane Sawyer’s associate producer. After working at the networks for a little over a decade, she moved to PBS where she created and executive produced, the Emmy Award-winning PBS program Life 360. Her most recent documentary feature, Unseen Enemy, on the 21st century threat of pandemics, was released at the Copenhagen and Beijing International Film Festivals and broadcast on five continents in nine languages and was nominated for a Writers Guild Awards. Janet Tobias is also an adjunct assistant professor of Medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and a research professor of Global Public Health at NYU. She was a member of the Drug Forum of the Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences from 2009 to 2015.

Roger Lopez

COO & CFO

Roger Lopez migrated from Peru in 1999 and earned his bachelor’s degree in business administration with a concentration in public accounting. After 3 years of working in the accounting field for Adams & Salter, Roger moved into Production Management at Ikana and then in 2015, became the chief operations officer at Ikana Health managing the range of work at the company from short video series to feature documentaries to extensive health impact work. Roger was the lead producer on four of the company’s most recent science and health feature documentaries including: Unseen Enemy, Heart of the Matter, Memory Games and UnMasked: We all Breathe.

Veronica Aronova

ASSOCIATE PRODUCER

Veronica Aronova is the associate producer at the Global Health Reporting Center. She is a Russian-American filmmaker, media entrepreneur and polyglot, speaking Russian, French, Spanish, English and Portuguese. While earning her BA in Political Science from McGill University, Veronica founded the popular Montreal-based digital journal Graphite Publications. She also produced Pueblo Mágico, a series of documentary shorts about the lived experiences of American residents in the sparsely populated and harsh landscapes of the Sonora Desert in the US-Mexico borderlands. The shorts were included in an interactive exhibit at Centre Never Apart in Montreal in spring 2020. She has been developing and producing content for Ikana Health Action Lab and the Global Health Reporting Center since 2018 and A Diary From the Frontline, Memory Games and UnMasked are part of her portfolio.

Shayon Maitra

DIRECTOR & EDITOR

Shayon Maitra is an editor, director & screenwriter, who graduated from Columbia University’s MFA Film Program. He also holds a BA in Economics from The University of Chicago. Shayon was born in India, and has lived all over the world: Dubai, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, London and Chicago. He is fluent in Bengali, Hindi and English. Prior to filmmaking, Shayon worked in the world of finance, until he decided to follow his passion for cinema and film. He has directed and edited many short films that have played in festivals across the world. Shayon has been working with Janet and Roger since 2017. During that time, he has edited several films and video shorts, including A Diary From the Frontline, UnMasked, and Heart of the Matter. Shayon is currently working with the Global Health Reporting Center team on an as of yet untitled feature film on HIV/AIDS.

Worawit Wattanasomboon

GRAPHIC DESIGNER

Woratwit Wattanasomboon, aka Mo, is a Thai graphic designer and office administrator. In the past, he has taught English as a second language and worked in refugee resettlement through a work and cultural orientation program at Phanat Nikhom Camp in Chonburi, Thailand. In 1995, he came to United States to study at New York Institute of Technology. He graduated from NYIT with a MA in Communication Arts and Computer graphics. He has been with Ikana Health Action Lab and the Global Health Reporting Center since January 2018.

Ashleigh Hamilton

Co-Director

Ashleigh Hamilton has worked as a broadcast journalist for almost 20 years. Based in South Africa she has produced and directed current affairs, documentary and breaking-news content for Carte Blanche, CBS News, 60 Minutes, 48 Hours, NBC Universal including Dateline and the Today Show, CNN, Channel 4 and The New York Times. Ashleigh was selected as a reporting fellow for the International Reporting Project with John Hopkins University in 2016 and won a scholarship to Sweden’s Uppsala Health Summit in 2017 for her work on infectious diseases in Africa. As a reporter and producer, she has covered breaking news, humanitarian crises, natural disasters and conflict zones in Africa and Asia. She specializes in narrative, docudrama and storytelling. Ashleigh directed UnMasked: We all Breathe in South Africa, which aired in over two dozen countries and translated into nine languages.

Caleb Hellerman

Director and producer

Caleb Hellerman is a medical journalist and documentary filmmaker. This spring he produced Coronavirus Pandemic for PBS/Frontline, and is currently co-directing and producing an independent feature documentary about the resurgence of interest in psychedelic medicine. Since 2015, he has covered science for the PBS NewsHour, where he co-developed the Leading Edge series with correspondent Miles O’Brien, and helped to produce films for PBS/NOVA and PBS/Frontline. Prior to these efforts, Hellerman was supervising producer of the CNN Medical Unit, where he directed daily medical coverage and oversaw the weekly medical program Sanjay Gupta MD. At CNN, Hellerman produced more than two dozen network specials and a series of medically themed documentaries and magazine shows, on topics ranging from the science of happiness, to the colorful history of medical care in the White House, to Cheating Death, about cutting edge emergency medicine. He led CNN’s coverage of the massive 2014-2015 Ebola outbreak as well as the network’s coverage of health care reform. His work has won multiple Peabody awards, National Headliner awards and Emmy nominations, the New York Festival award, the Columbus International Film and Video Festival award, the CINE Golden Eagle and the Freddie International Health & Medical Media award. Hellerman began his network career as a writer and producer for the ABC News programs World News Tonight with Peter Jennings and Good Morning America. After leaving ABC, he spent six months as an embedded journalist at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, working alongside the nation’s top disease detectives.

Khaled Arres

Intern

Khaled Arres grew up in Tunisia where he studied Performing Arts. After moving to Malaysia to further his study, he gained experiences in both film and theater, working with multiple local film and theater makers. He directed and wrote short films and worked as the Production Assistant for the Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson shoot in Tunisia. He worked as an actor and tech operator on numerous theater plays like Light.Eve.Soliders.Fire, Api Jangan Lupa Api and Sejuk Siang Hari. Before pursuing his passion in filmmaking, he studied Computer Engineering with experience in Mobile App development. He likes to travel, explore new cultures and meeting new people. He stated his internship with Sierra Tango Production on January 2020.