California Healthline Staff

Emily Bazar, California enterprise editor, supervises the KFF Health News team of reporters in California, where they cover the politics, business, and policy of health care. Emily, who was an award-winning reporter before becoming an editor, created and wrote KFF Health News’ “Ask Emily” column, helping consumers navigate the bumpy rollout of the Affordable Care Act. She previously worked at the California Health Care Foundation’s Center for Health Reporting, USA Today, and The Sacramento Bee. She graduated from Stanford University.
ebazar@kff.org | @emilybazar

Judy Lin, California news editor, helps direct KHN’s coverage of California and assists with ethnic media partnerships. Judy was assistant editor at CalMatters, where she directed the award-winning California Divide project, a collaboration among multiple newsrooms focused on poverty and income inequality. She reported on Sacramento policy and politics for more than a decade for The Associated Press and The Sacramento Bee. Early on, she covered Detroit City Hall for The Detroit News. She’s a long-standing member of the Asian American Journalists Association and graduated from the University of Southern California.
jlin@kff.org | @ByJudyLin

Angela Hart, senior correspondent, covers health care politics and policy in California and the West, with a focus on California Gov. Gavin Newsom, government accountability, and political influence. She has been reporting on health care for more than five years, and has won awards for her work on homelessness, public health, and the covid-19 pandemic. Previously, she worked for Politico and The Sacramento Bee. She holds a master’s degree from the University of California-Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.
ahart@kff.org | @ahartreports

Ngoc Nguyen, ethnic media editor, develops and expands editorial collaborations with ethnic media in California for KFF Health News and California Healthline. She previously worked as an editor and reporter for New America Media, a national nonprofit news service for ethnic media, where she co-directed a health and environmental reporting fellowship program for ethnic-media journalists based in California. She also worked as an environmental reporter for The Sacramento Bee and as an assistant producer for Marketplace. She is a graduate of the University of California-Berkeley and California State University-Northridge.
ngocn@kff.org

Vanessa G. Sánchez, correspondent, reports on the health of Hispanic populations, issues at the intersection of health and immigration, and health policies of the California State Assembly. She joined KFF Health News in January 2024 after a year of working as a health investigative reporter at Searchlight New Mexico. She was a Bradlee Fellow and intern for The Washington Post’s local politics and government and education desks. As a Howard Center for Investigative Journalism fellow, she contributed to several award-winning investigations. Born in Ecuador, she holds a master’s from the University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism.
vsanchez@kff.org

Bernard J. Wolfson, senior correspondent and columnist for California Healthline, reports on the business of health care and writes a monthly consumer health column, “Asking Never Hurts.” Previously, he was the business editor of the Orange County Register and its health care reporter. Bernard was a Pulitzer Prize finalist, along with two Register colleagues, for a groundbreaking report on cost versus quality at 30 local hospitals. He also spent seven years as European editor for Market News International in Paris, where he supervised coverage of the eurozone debt crisis. Bernard holds a bachelor’s from the University of California-Berkeley and a master’s in international relations from Johns Hopkins University.
bwolfson@kff.org | @bjwolfson

Molly Castle Work, correspondent, covers health care in California. She has reported on a range of topics including hospital charity care, crisis pregnancy centers, and hospital lawsuits against indebted patients — the last of which earned first place for investigative reporting in the Association of Health Care Journalists’ 2023 Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism. She previously worked as an investigative reporter for the Post Bulletin in Rochester, Minnesota. Before entering the journalism field, she spent six years working in college access and higher-ed communications. She is a California native and holds a bachelor’s degree from Carleton College and a master’s from the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism.
mwork@kff.org

Samantha Young, senior correspondent, covers health care politics and policy in California, focusing on government accountability and industry influence. Previously, as a reporter for The Associated Press, she covered the California Legislature and the Schwarzenegger administration, statewide political campaigns, and the state’s groundbreaking climate change law. She spent seven years in Washington covering the federal government for newspapers in the Stephens Media Group. She is a graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia journalism school.
syoung@kff.org | @youngsamantha

Lauren Zamarron, newsletter editor for California Healthline’s Daily Edition and KFF Health News’ newsletters, joined the organization in 2020 after 16 years as a copy editor at USA Today. She also worked on the copy and wire desks at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Austin American-Statesman, The Roanoke Times, Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel, and The Florida Times-Union. Lauren has won several awards for headline writing, and her opinion stories have appeared in USA Today. She also taught copy editing and reporting at the University of Maryland and the University of Richmond. Based in Ohio, she holds a bachelor’s from the University of Florida.
lzamarron@kff.org

Lydia Zuraw, producer for California Healthline, prepares stories for online publication and helps maintain the websites of California Healthline and KFF Health News. She creates data visualizations, interactive elements, and illustrations, as well as preparing multimedia packages for media partners. She was part of the award-winning team that produced “Lost on the Frontline” in 2020 and 2021. Lydia joined KFF Health News after two years as the Washington correspondent for Food Safety News, where she covered federal food safety policy, outbreak investigations, and research. She earned a bachelor’s from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.
lzuraw@kff.org | @lydiazuraw

Damon Darlin, executive editor, has worked as a reporter and editor for 10 newspapers and magazines. He began his journalism career as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, including as a foreign correspondent in Japan and South Korea. He was the editor of the “News You Can Use” section of U.S. News & World Report and of a technology magazine, Business 2.0. He created and wrote the “Your Money” column at The New York Times and later served as the paper’s technology editor in San Francisco before helping to start “The Upshot” at the Times. Damon graduated from the University of Chicago.
ddarlin@kff.org | @darlin

Alex Wayne, managing editor for health policy and politics, directs KFF Health News’ coverage of U.S. elections, health policy, and the politics of health care. He previously worked for Bloomberg News, where he led coverage of the Joe Biden and Donald Trump presidencies and reported on health care policy, including the development of the Affordable Care Act. In 2020, he helped manage and edit articles about the coronavirus’ infiltration of Trump’s White House that won the Gerald R. Ford Journalism Prize for Distinguished Reporting on the Presidency. Earlier in his career, Alex reported on health care, immigration, Social Security, and other topics for Congressional Quarterly, and covered local and state government for the News & Record of Greensboro, North Carolina. He started his journalism career in Florida at The Villages Daily Sun, where he reported on local businesses, government, and some pretty wacky crimes. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Florida. ,
awayne@kff.org | @aawayne

Kathleen Hayden, senior digital editor for KFF Health News, is a 20-year online news veteran with a specialty in government, elections, and policy coverage. Before joining KFF Health News, she managed Bloomberg Government’s online, information graphics, and multimedia teams and edited news and analyses on industries including health care. Prior to BGOV, Kathleen worked at AOL, CNN, and TIME. She graduated from Haverford College.
khayden@kff.org | @kathleenhayden

Kytja Weir, national editor, leads KFF Health News’ state-based coverage. Before joining the organization in 2019, she led the state politics team at the Center for Public Integrity, which partnered with The Associated Press, USA Today, and NPR, among others, on investigative pieces diving into the politics behind the opioid crisis, soaring Medicaid drug prices, and more. Its work won multiple honors, including from the National Press Club, the Online News Association, Gerald Loeb Awards, and the Association of Health Care Journalists. Kytja was previously a local news reporter for the Washington Examiner, The Charlotte Observer, and The Boston Globe. She is a graduate of Dartmouth College and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.
kweir@kff.org | @kytja