Alumni

Speechwriter, Office of Public Health and Science, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Julie Piotrowski, M.P.H., is a speechwriter in the Office of Public Health and Science at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). A journalist with training in public health, Ms. Piotrowski develops speeches on public health and related scientific topics primarily for the Assistant Secretary for Health, Dr. Howard Koh, and ensures integrity of health messaging for both professional audiences and the public.
 
Ms. Piotrowski has spent more than a decade researching, reporting on and analyzing public health issues, and developing programs to reduce disease and protect health. As a staff reporter for Crain's Modern Healthcare, the newsweekly magazine for the nation’s hospitals, she launched the public health newsbeat to help advance a more genuine, robust national conversation about public health. As a Knight Public Health Journalism Fellow at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, she also trained with the U.S. Epidemic Intelligence Service – the nation’s surveillance and response unit for all types of epidemics – and assisted senior CDC public affairs staff with developing effective health communication strategies, including messaging for the launch of the World Trade Center Health Registry in partnership with the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (NYC DOHMH).
 
A specialist in disaster preparedness and emergency response issues, Ms. Piotrowski has developed multi-faceted bioterrorism and emergency preparedness programs for the NYC DOHMH while on staff with the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University. After the September 2001 terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center, she served as a mass care supervisor and team leader for the American Red Cross at Ground Zero. Ms. Piotrowski holds a Bachelor of Science in Journalism from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and a Master of Public Health from Columbia University.