Joint Event: A Digital Safety Primer

Date: Wednesday, January 15, 2025
Start Time: 1 PM ET / 10 AM PT
Register here

More than 40 percent of journalists dealt with threats and online harassment in 2022. When policymakers turn their attention to science and health issues such as vaccination, access to abortion care, and the health dangers of climate change, journalists covering these topics must be prepared to protect themselves amidst online communities that can mirror — or amplify — harmful rhetoric.

Join the National Association of Science Writers (NASW) and the Association of Healthcare Journalists for a joint webinar with Alison Joyce, a senior analyst on the Information Security team at The New York Times, and Tat Bellamy-Walker, program manager of Digital Safety Training and Resources (Media) at PEN America as they share best practices and resources on digital safety for journalists.

Attendees will learn how to gauge their own risks, assess their habits and leave with a list of resources they can deploy to improve their digital safety.

Moderator:

Jyoti Madhusoodanan
Independent Journalist/Civic Science fellow at AHCJ and NASW Board Treasurer
Jyoti Madhusoodanan is an independent science and health journalist who regularly covers biomedical research, health equity, clinical trials, and the translation of basic research into clinical care. She is NASW's Board Treasurer and AHCJ’s Civic Science Fellow, covering race in health algorithms as part of a year-long fellowship funded by the Doris Duke Foundation.

Her reporting on race adjustments in clinical algorithms was supported by a 2020 project fellowship from the MIT Knight Science Journalism program; reporting on other topics has received fellowship support from the Alicia Patterson Foundation, the GSA Journalists in Aging program, and others.

Madhusoodanan is a senior contributor to Undark magazine and her work regularly appears in Nature, Scientific American, and other outlets.

Speakers:

Alison Joyce
Senior analyst, New York Times Information Security Team
Alison Joyce is a Senior Analyst on the Information Security team at The New York Times. She specializes in providing tailored training and awareness to staff across the organization on digital security policies and best practices.

Alison has successfully built internal security programs for the newsroom, business departments and senior leadership. Prior to joining The Times, she spent six years working in the financial industry as an Incident Response Analyst. Alison earned a master’s degree in Cybersecurity Policy and Governance from Boston College..

Tat Bellamy-Walker
Program manager of digital safety training and resources (media), PEN America
Tat Bellamy-Walker (He/They) is the Program Manager of Digital Safety Training and Resources (Media) at PEN America. Previously, Bellamy-Walker was a communities reporter at The Seattle Times and a newsroom equity team committee member. Bellamy-Walker is program co-director of the Trans Journalists Association’s Peer Career Network, the organization’s inaugural mentoring program.

Before joining The Seattle Times, they worked for NBC News’ diversity verticals and as a digital editor/reporter at Gay City News. Their work has also appeared in The Daily Beast, Inc. Magazine and on CNN. In 2023, they were selected for IWMF’s HEFAT training in Austin, Texas. Bellamy-Walker later shared digital safety tips in a local journalists webinar with the Council on Foreign Relations. They have also been a panel speaker at Investigative Reporters and Editors, NABJ, NAHJ and NLGJA.

Bellamy-Walker has a Master’s in Journalism with a concentration in Health and Science from the Craig Newmark School of Journalism.

Founded in 1934 with a mission to fight for the free flow of science news, NASW is an organization of ~2,400 professional journalists, authors, editors, producers, public information officers, students and people who write and produce material intended to inform the public about science, health, engineering, and technology. To learn more, visit www.nasw.org and follow NASW on LinkedIn and Bluesky.

The Association of Health Care Journalists is an independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing public understanding of health care issues. Its mission is to improve the quality, accuracy and visibility of health care reporting, writing and editing.