Media Relations Staff

 Gary Stephenson

Director, Media Relations and Public Affairs
office:  (410) 955-5384
cell: (443) 324-6726
e-mail: gstephenson@jhmi.edu

An award-winning former medical and science journalist, Gary M. Stephenson, M.S., joined Hopkins in 1996 as Senior Associate Director for Media Relations after serving in a similar position at the University of Maryland at College Park (UMCP). Prior to his position at UMCP, Stephenson was Washington editor for Diagnostic Imaging Magazine. He is also an associate faculty member at The College of Notre Dame, in Baltimore, Md., where he teaches graduate courses in public relations management and communications. Stephenson's news beats at Hopkins include corporate communications, "the business of medicine" and the areas of healthcare policy, labor relations, hospital emergency and disaster preparedness and response, nursing, radiology, outcomes research, clinical practice guidelines, and biotechnology and technology licensing.

Beats Covered:

• Biotechnology
• Bioterrorism
• Business of Medicine
• Health Care Policy
• Labor Relations
• Managed Care
• Nursing
• Pharmacy
• Radiology, Radiological Sciences and Imaging Technology
• Security
• Technology Licensing
• Women’s Board

Natalia Abel

office: (410)502-9422
cell: (443)838-3534
E-mail: nboloti1@jhmi.edu

Natalia Abel, Ph.D., has joined the media relations team within Johns Hopkins Marketing and Communications division as the primary media representative for Johns Hopkins Medicine International, the global arm of Johns Hopkins Medicine.

Natalia has spent more than a decade in print journalism, television and radio news and documentary production, as well as nonprofit and agency media relations on both sides of the Atlantic.

At the Russian Television Network in Moscow and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in Toronto, Canada, Natalia covered health care and foreign affairs, business and lifestyle stories. She helped to deliver investigative articles and programs to readers of The New York Times and Sports Illustrated, and to viewers of the Discovery Channel and CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) News.

In her academic career, Natalia served as a researcher at the Nordica Centre for Research in Journalism, Mass Media, and Culture at Moscow State University, coordinated exchange programs with Scandinavian universities, and mentored graduate students. She also directed the Russian portion of a multinational project titled News Definitions Across Cultures under the auspices of Syracuse University.

Natalia received her doctorate in Journalism at Moscow State University. She underwent further professional training at a rigorous BBC World Service Center course in London, UK, and was selected for the Yeltsin Democracy Fellowship Program sponsored by the Canadian International Development Agency in Canada.


Beats covered:

• International news media relations
• Johns Hopkins Medicine International

Stephanie Desmon 

office:  (410) 955-8665
cell: (410)530-5876
email: sdesmon1@jhmi.edu

Stephanie Desmon, an award-winning medical journalist, has joined Johns Hopkins Medicine as a senior media relations representative and public information officer.

Desmon comes to Johns Hopkins from The Baltimore Sun, where she spent the last nine years as a reporter and writer covering medicine and politics, among other topics. While at the Sun, she was nationally recognized for her six-part series, “The Trial of Their Lives,” which chronicled the lives of terminal cancer patients undergoing an experimental breast cancer trial at Hopkins. She also received the Gerald Loeb Award, the highest journalism honor for business reporting, for a series she wrote about the decline of the Maryland crab industry and the subsequent rise of crabbing in Asia.

At JHM’s division of Media Relations & Public Affairs, she will be principally responsible for covering surgery, transplants, gastroenterology, and complementary and integrative medicine.

Desmon previously worked at newspapers in West Palm Beach and Jacksonville, Fla., and in Birmingham, Ala. She is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, where she studied American history.


Beats Covered

• Anesthesiology/Critical Care Medicine/Pain Medicine
• Biomedical Engineering (clinical)
• Complementary and Integrative Medicine
• Endocrinology/Diabetes
• Gastroenterology
• General Internal Medicine
• Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
• Surgery
• Transplants

Audrey Huang

Director, Basic Science Research Communications
office: 410-614-5105
cell: 443-838-3378
e-mail: ahuang18@jhmi.edu

Audrey M. Huang, M.A., Ph.D., is the Director of Basic Science Research Communications. A science writer and molecular geneticist by training, she joined the media relations staff at Johns Hopkins Medicine in 2006.

Most recently, Huang was a science writer and communications officer at the Genetics and Public Policy Center, part of the Berman Bioethics Institute at Hopkins, located in Washington, DC. As a freelance editor and writer, Huang has written for the National Institutes of Health, the Carnegie Institution of Washington, and the Ontario Genomics Institute. She holds a master’s degree in science writing from Johns Hopkins University where she currently teaches a graduate course in grant writing.

She has extensive research experience in developmental biology, molecular and cell biology and genetics, having studied the molecular mechanisms involved in muscle cell development at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle and mammalian embryonic development at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York. Huang studied chromosome structure in fruitflies and yeast during her postdoctoral training at the Carnegie Institution of Washington Department of Embryology. She holds a Ph.D. in genetics and a B.A. in Biochemistry from the University of California at Berkeley.

 Beats covered:

• Institute for Basic Biomedical Sciences (IBBS)
• Institute for Cell Engineering
• The McKusick/Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine
• Animal Care and Use
  

John Lazarou

office: (410) 502-8902
cell: (410) 707-3116
e-mail: jlazaro1@jhmi.edu

John M. Lazarou, a former journalist and public radio talk show host joined the media relations staff at Hopkins in January 2002. Lazarou came to Hopkins after two years at a local public relations agency, where he practiced media relations. His areas of responsibility include dentistry, dermatology, event communications, ophthalmology, plastic surgery and women’s health – GYN/OB/reproductive endocrinology. Prior to relocating to Maryland, Lazarou was the media relations representative for Englewood Hospital and Medical Center in New Jersey. Before entering public relations, he worked as a newspaper reporter and feature writer in New Hampshire as well as a journalist and a talk show host for public radio stations in the New York and New Jersey area. He received his bachelor of arts in communications from Temple University and holds a master of arts in liberal studies from Fordham University.

Beats Covered

• Dentistry
• Dermatology
• Event communications
• Geriatrics/Gerontology
• Nephrology
• Ophthalmology
• Orthopedic Surgery/Sports Medicine
• Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
• Plastic Surgery
• Women’s Health--- GYN/OB/Reproductive Endocrinology

Ellen Beth Levitt

Office: (410) 955-5307
Cell: (410) 598-4711
e-mail: eblevitt@jhmi.edu

Ellen Beth Levitt, a media relations and health care communications leader with extensive experience in academic medicine, joined the media relations staff in February 2011.

Levitt came to Johns Hopkins from the University of Maryland Medical Center, where she was director of public affairs and media relations and led a joint media relations program with the UM School of Medicine . That program was recognized by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) with an Award for Excellence and was called a “national model.”

Ellen Beth also created a widely viewed cable TV show, Maryland Health Today, which was converted into a video podcast series. She also was responsible for publications and crisis communications.

Prior to joining the University of Maryland Medical Center, Levitt had worked for 12 years as a reporter and news director at radio stations in Baltimore, Washington, Richmond and Syracuse. Her work won numerous awards from the Associated Press, the Radio-TV News Directors Association and the Society of Professional Journalists. She previously worked at Johns Hopkins early in her career as creator and producer of Health Newsfeed, a service that provides health features for radio stations nationwide.

A native of Philadelphia, Pa., Levitt received a B.S. in Broadcast Journalism from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.

Levitt is also on the executive committee of the PRSA Health Academy and enjoys teaching yoga part time.

Beats Covered

• Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery (The Johns Hopkins Heart and Vascular Institute)
• Urology
• Medical Education
• The New Johns Hopkins Hospital Building

Levitt also writes for Hopkins publications and is responsible for Cardiovascular Report, a newsletter for physicians.

David March

office: (410) 955-1534
cell: (410) 598-7056
E-mail: dmarch1@jhmi.edu

David B. March, a science writer and former public relations agency consultant, joined the media relations staff at Johns Hopkins Medicine’s Office of Corporate Communications in May 2004.  March comes to Hopkins from the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, where he practiced media relations for Penn’s Abramson Cancer Center.

Prior to joining the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, March was a media relations consultant for Vancouver General Hospital in British Columbia, Canada. 

March received his bachelor of sciences degree in biology from Memorial University of Newfoundland, and holds a master of health administration degree from the University of Ottawa.

Beats Covered

• AIDS/HIV
• Allergy/Clinical Immunology/Asthma
• Hematology
• Hospital Epidemiology
• Infection/Infectious Diseases
• Pathology
• Pulmonary
• Radiology
• Rheumatology

Vanessa McMains

office: 410-502-9410
cell: 443-875-6099
e-mail: vmcmain1@jhmi.edu

Vanessa C. McMains, Ph.D. joined the media relations staff in June 2010 as a media relations representative and communications coordinator. Her background is in science writing and research.

Previously, she performed freelance writing and editing for the National Institutes of Health and The American Physiological Society. Recently, she was selected as an American Association for the Advancement in Science (AAAS) mass media fellow, which placed her at the Chicago Tribune reporting on science and medicine.

Vanessa’s roots are in scientific research with specialties in cell and developmental biology. She studied a protein found in amoebas that is also linked to Alzheimer’s disease when mutated in people. Also, she studied the fungus that caused the North American chestnut blight. She holds a Ph.D. in biology from a joint program between the National Institutes of Health and Johns Hopkins University. She also holds a B.S. in biological sciences from the University of Maryland at College Park.

 Beats covered:

• Institute for Basic Biomedical Sciences (IBBS)
• Institute for Cell Engineering
• The McKusick/Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine

 Shannon Swiger 

office:  (410) 955-6881
email: sswiger1@jhmi.edu

Shannon Swiger, a public relations professional from Charlotte, N.C., has joined the Johns Hopkins Medicine Marketing and Communications team as a senior communications specialist. In her new role, Swiger will write for internal publications and manage media relations on a number of topics of great importance to Hopkins, including patient safety, diversity and technology.

Swiger was previously employed by Presbyterian Healthcare, a multi-hospital system based in Charlotte, N.C., where she coordinated media relations and marketing for hospital and outpatient services. Swiger also brings experience in internal communications and social media outreach. She worked on two award-winning projects recognized by the Carolinas Healthcare Public Relations & Marketing Society while at Presbyterian Healthcare.

An alumnus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Swiger is a former writer for The Daily Tar Heel, and former editor in chief of campus magazine Kaleidoscope. She graduated in 2008 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and mass communication and political science.

Beats Covered

• Biotechnology
• School of Medicine Diversity Initiatives
• Patient Safety
• Tech Transfer

Ekaterina Pesheva

office: 410-502-9433
cell : 410-926-6780
e-mail : epeshev1@jhmi.edu

As a senior media relations representative, Ekaterina is responsible for reporting on faculty research and assisting media in developing stories about basic science and clinical research. Prior to joining the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, Ekaterina worked at the University of Missouri-Columbia as a research assistant and a health writer for a federal project designed to improve media coverage of arthritis and rheumatologic diseases. Prior to that, she worked as a medical and general-assignment reporter for two newspapers in St. Louis.  She is a recipient of the Missouri Press Association Award for News Reporting.  Ekaterina has a master’s degree in Journalism and Strategic Communication from the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Journalism and a bachelor’s from Truman State University.

Beats Covered

• Johns Hopkins Childrens' Center
• Pediatrics

Beth Simpkins

office: (410) 955-4288
cell: (410) 410-913-9081
email: bsimpkins@jhmi.edu

Beth Simpkins joined the office of Marketing and Communications in September 1996. As the News Media Services Coordinator, Beth manages the Johns Hopkins Medicine news and information web site including technical support for the podcast operation, RSS feeds and multimedia news content. She coordinates press release distribution and responds to media inquiries. She also coordinates social media efforts for Johns Hopkins Medicine news.

Beth holds a bachelor's degree in Public Relations from the University of Florida.

Vanessa Wasta

office: (410)614-2916
pager: (410)283-8034
E-mail: wastava@jhmi.edu

Vanessa Wasta joined the Public Affairs Office for the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center in September 1998. She holds a bachelor of science in biology and a master of business administration with a concentration in marketing. Previously, she worked in the Marketing and Public Relations Office for the University of Maryland Greenebaum Cancer Center.

Beats Covered

• Cancer/Oncology
• Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center