Helen Branswell was awarded the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, at the 11:45 a.m. ceremony on Tuesday, June 21, “in recognition of an outstanding career in health science, infectious disease, and global health journalism exemplified by her stellar coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Branswell is a senior writer at STAT, a news outlet focused on health and medicine, where she covers infectious diseases and global health.
Branswell joined STAT at its 2015 launch. She began her career at the Daily Gleaner newspaper in Fredericton, N.B., before joining The Canadian Press (CP) in 1986. She was the CP’s medical reporter from 2000 to 2015.
Branswell was a Southam Fellow at the University of Toronto from 1992 to 1993. As a CDC Knight Fellow in 2004, she was embedded in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for three months. In 2011, Branswell was a Nieman Global Health Fellow at Harvard, focusing on polio eradication.
In 2020, Branswell won the George Polk Award for Public Service. Along with her colleagues, she was a 2020 Pulitzer finalist for breaking news for coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, Branswell won the Victor Cohn Prize for Excellence in Medical Science Reporting.