Joanne Cavanaugh Simpson

Joanne Cavanaugh Simpson, a freelance journalist and former Miami Herald staff writer, has reported from Argentina, India, China and Cuba, and written for The Washington Post, Baltimore Sun, USA Today, Johns Hopkins Magazine, WYPR's The Signal, and Signs of Life in the USA (Bedford/St. Martin’s). Her reporting centers on society and the individual, including challenges for people with intellectual disabilities in the courts; the crisis of sexual abuse of youths in a Baptist Church; personal stories of Cuban refugees and homeless people in South Florida; and the untested use of prescribed drugs during pregnancy, among other women's health issues. Internationally, she reported on transgender persons' rights and dissident Cuban journalists in Havana, as well as birth control efforts in rural Uttar Pradesh, India.

Cavanaugh Simpson, a lecturer at Johns Hopkins University, earned her bachelor's from the University of Maryland, College Park; her master's from Hopkins' Writing Seminars, with thesis support from Harvard University's Goldsmith Research Award; and her MFA in Nonfiction from Goucher College, where she won the Christine White Award in literary journalism. A Pushcart Prize nominee, she's also a recipient of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Arts Innovation Grant; the Wesleyan Writers Conference Jon Davidoff Scholarship; and other journalism and literary awards.

Memberships include the National Association of Science Writers (NASW); Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ); American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA); Authors Guild, Association of Literary Scholars, Critics, and Writers (ALSCW); and PEN America.