STAT News taps Lawrence to cover the FDA

STAT News has named Lizzy Lawrence its FDA reporter, leading coverage of the preeminent food and medicines regulator for the news organization.

Lawrence is based in Washington.

Lawrence most recently covered the medical device industry for STAT, where she reported on a medical-device company that implanted fake plastic parts into patients, and another that sent people endless batteries to boost revenue. She’s played a key role in STAT’s ongoing investigation of UnitedHealth Group’s physician empire.

A New York native, Lawrence is a graduate of the University of Michigan.

Lawrence reports to Zachary Tracer, who joined STAT earlier this year as senior editor, business and policy. She will work closely with Rachel Cohrs Zhang, who was recently promoted to the new role of chief Washington correspondent, and with the rest of STAT’s award-winning D.C. bureau and biotechnology team.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.