Maryn McKenna is an independent journalist specializing in public health, global health and infectious disease. She is a contributing writer at the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (www.cidrap.umn.edu) and just concluded a term as a Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation media fellow, researching emergency rooms in crisis. She writes for national magazines including SELF and MORE and is the author of BEATING BACK THE DEVIL (Free Press, 2004) and the forthcoming SUPERBUG (Free Press, 2009). She has reported from Africa, Asia and the Arctic and in 2005 covered both the Indian Ocean tsunami from Thailand and Hurricane Katrina from New Orleans. She has been a staff reporter at the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Boston Herald, Cincinnati Enquirer and Rockford Register-Star. She was an inaugural Health Fellow at the East-West Center in Honolulu and remains an Associate of the Center, and has also held fellowships at University of Michigan, Harvard Medical School and and University of Maryland. She is a frequent speaker on public health and the understanding of science, and has taught and guest-lectured on science journalism at Hong Kong University, Emory University, University of Georgia and elsewhere. For more: www.MarynMcKenna.com.