Dallas Morning News hires new health care reporter

Dallas Morning News business editor Paul O’Donnell sent out the following announcement to the staff on Tuesday:

I’m incredibly excited to announce that Sabriya Rice will be joining our newsroom next month as our new business of health care reporter.

Sabriya is a veteran health care journalist who brings more than a decade of experience to this revived beat in our newsroom. The health care industry’s annual economic impact in DFW is estimated to be $52 billion, making it one of the largest and most important sectors in our local economy.

Her health care background spans the print, digital and broadcast worlds. She joins us from Modern Healthcare in Chicago, where she writes about quality and safety issues for that respected trade publication’s website and magazine. She previously worked as a producer for CNN Health in Atlanta, where she teamed with on-air personalities Elizabeth Cohen and Sanjay Gupta.

In between those successful stints, she served as director of media relations for the American Cancer Society.

She is active in the Association of Health Care Journalists, earning a 2015 fellowship in the inaugural class of a program designed to improve reporting on medical research and how medical decisions are made. She also moderated a panel discussion on covering safety net medical providers and their patients at AHCJ’s 2016 conference.

Sabriya received her bachelor’s degree in arts, film and television from the University of Notre Dame, and her master’s degree in communication studies from the University of Miami.

She describes herself as a “vegetarian, runner and travel addict.” And in her spare time, she works as a freelance producer and reporter for Quest Network Blue Zones expeditions, traveling to Greece and Costa Rica to document cultures with high life expectancies.

Please welcome Sabriya to our newsroom with a tweet @sabriyarice or by email at xxxx.

Her start date here is June 13.