Leah Small on Muck Rack

Leah Small

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Richmond
As seen in: The New York Times, The Guardian, Yahoo News, Scientific American, Phys.org, The Boston Globe, Yahoo, Medical Xpress, Virginia Commonwealth University News, The Telegraph (India) and
Covers:  Government, K-12 and higher education, health and science, environment, social justice, business, technology
Freelance journalist & writer. Avid chronicler of happenings. @guardian @Sciam @progressindex @physorg_com @medical_xpress @cvilletomorrow
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Genetic Discoveries Could Reduce Black Women's Higher Breast Cancer Death Risk

Genetic Discoveries Could Reduce Black Women's Higher Breast Cancer Death Risk

Scientific American — Women with African ancestry have often been left out of breast cancer studies. Now scientists are catching up
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As the opioid epidemic persists, Virginia's foster care support falters for families - Virginia C...

As the opioid epidemic persists, Virginia's foster care support falters for families - Virginia C...

Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism — A Richmond-area retiree raises four grandchildren, struggling to pay bills and navigate the tangled bureaucracy of kinship care Relatives caring for children in Virginia are far less likely than caregivers in other states to have help from the foster care system for child care, counseling, grocery
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Science, policy advancements could curb disproportionate breast cancer deaths in Tidewater * Virg...

Science, policy advancements could curb disproportionate breast cancer deaths in Tidewater * Virg...

The Virginia Mercury — Black women in Tidewater Virginia are more likely to die of breast cancer than most women in the U.S.
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What the FDA Ruling about 'Dense Breasts' Means for Cancer Risk and Screening

What the FDA Ruling about 'Dense Breasts' Means for Cancer Risk and Screening

Scientific American — Women with dense breasts are at higher risk of breast cancer and are underdiagnosed, but other factors also play an important role
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Richmond's Confederate statues are gone. What should replace them?

Richmond's Confederate statues are gone. What should replace them?

The Guardian — All but one plinth is now bare on Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia. Where once stood enormous statues glorifying Confederate leaders, on a thoroughfare that memorialized a white supremacist past in the former capital of the Confederacy, there is now empty space.
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It's shameful that it took so long to bring down the statue of Robert E Lee

It's shameful that it took so long to bring down the statue of Robert E Lee

The Guardian — When they lifted the enormous statue of the Confederate general Robert E Lee from his pedestal and set him on the ground in Richmond, Virginia, on Wednesday, it was symbolically huge to me. On high, he was undeservedly venerated.
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Virginia PrEP users remain at risk for life insurance discrimination

Virginia PrEP users remain at risk for life insurance discrimination

VPM Daily Newscast — A General Assembly bill designed to address it was vetoed in March.
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Two-Way Science: Exploring Cancer's Ancestral Links | Hopkins Bloomberg Public Health Magazine

Two-Way Science: Exploring Cancer's Ancestral Links | Hopkins Bloomberg Public Health Magazine

jhu.edu — Brittany Jenkins-Lord seeks clues in the lab and the community to understand the biological causes of cancer disparities.
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A generational challenge - Where are Virginia's Black male doctors?

A generational challenge - Where are Virginia's Black male doctors?

WHRO-TV (Norfolk, VA) — Despite historic changes in educational and economic opportunities, the share of U.S. physicians who are Black men has remained unchanged since 1940. Virginia medical schools are still struggling to attract talented young men - a key to building trust between healthcare providers and the Black community
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Community Disrupted

Community Disrupted

Style Weekly — Sam Mosley was released from a weeklong psychiatric hold on a frigid November day in 2019. He was losing his battle against heroin addiction. Without a home to return to, he feared the night ahead when temperatures were predicted to drop to just over 42 degrees.
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Calls for civilian oversight of Richmond police are growing, but how far might powers extend?

Calls for civilian oversight of Richmond police are growing, but how far might powers extend?

Style Weekly — Richmond Black Lives Matter activists have joined nationwide calls for stronger oversight of police through civilian review boards – but these bodies are often handicapped by weaknesses such as lack of independence from public safety authorities and lack of disciplinary power, legal experts say.
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Left Out: The deaf community calls for better access to communications during the COVID-19 pandemic

Left Out: The deaf community calls for better access to communications during the COVID-19 pandemic

Richmond Magazine (US) — For the deaf community, barriers to accessing ASL interpretation are a public health issue. And governments and health care facilities are reaching deaf people with varying success, while dealing with the new communications hurdle of social distancing and face mask requirements, which make lip reading impossible.
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Youngkin says he will sign legislation ending higher insurance premiums for tobacco users - Virgi...

Youngkin says he will sign legislation ending higher insurance premiums for tobacco users - Virgi...

The Virginia Mercury — In an about-face, Gov. Glenn Youngkin's administration said he supports legislation that would eliminate higher premiums on health insurance for tobacco users in Virginia. Youngkin vetoed similar bipartisan legislation last year on the grounds that it would increase health care costs for Virginians who don't use tobacco and get rid of a tool meant to incentivize users to kick smoking.
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Peter Hemings, Thomas Jefferson’s enslaved brewmaster, is finally getting some overdue recognition.

Peter Hemings, Thomas Jefferson’s enslaved brewmaster, is finally getting some overdue recognition.

Style Weekly — The American dream is a narrative built on biographies of people with grit who find success without the aid of means. Instead they’re armed with smarts, perseverance and luck, so the stories go. But usually omitted is the acknowledgement of barriers to success shared by the disenfranchised, whose accomplishments are often absent from the historical record. One such individual mostly omitted from history is Peter Hemings, a slave who served as Thomas Jefferson’s head brewer, his tailor and chef.
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Will recent mass shootings turn Virginia's public safety debate?

Will recent mass shootings turn Virginia's public safety debate?

WHRO-TV (Norfolk, VA) — Democratic Sen. Creigh Deeds to float an assault weapon ban to reduce gun violence; Republicans continue to talk about mental health. Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism at WHRO Following the back-to-back mass shootings at the University of Virginia and a Chesapeake Walmart, Republicans and Democrats are touting proposals to help prevent future tragedies - again.
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Virginia Clean Economy Act may help get state's economy back on track post COVID-19

Virginia Clean Economy Act may help get state's economy back on track post COVID-19

Charlottesville Tomorrow — Virginia’s new legislative status as one of a handful of states targeting 100% clean power could resuscitate growth for state renewable energy industries hit hard with job losses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Virginia Clean Economy Act incentives for clean energy – one of the fastest-growing sectors of the U.S. economy prior to the pandemic – would help power Virginia’s economic recovery, advocates say. But the legislation’s impacts could be delayed, due to massive job losses in renewable industries and decreased overall energy use by manufacturing and retail sectors during COVID-19.
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CEO with lost sense of smell funds tech development to restore the ability

CEO with lost sense of smell funds tech development to restore the ability

news.vcu.edu — Scott Moorehead was thrown into a deep depression when he lost his sense of smell five years ago due to a traumatic brain injury. Moorehead fell in the driveway of his Marion, Indiana, home while teaching his then 6-year-old son, Mason, how to skateboard. He suffered a major concussion and internal bleeding, but the long-lasting consequence was severing the connection of the olfactory nerves in his nose to his brain, which resulted in total smell loss, or anosmia.
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Amid the boom of craft beer, Virginia colleges train brewers to meet growing industry needs

Amid the boom of craft beer, Virginia colleges train brewers to meet growing industry needs

Richmond Magazine (US) — The craft brewing industry has inspired a zeal for zymology - the science of using fermentation to produce food and libations - at Virginia colleges. The growing popularity of craft brewing education is bolstered by economic viability. Virginia is a leader in craft brewing on the East Coast, with more than 230 breweries in 2018, according to the Brewer's Association.
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After two decades of SOL testing, education leaders see benefits and flaws

After two decades of SOL testing, education leaders see benefits and flaws

Richmond Magazine (US) — For 20 years, Standards of Learning testing has served as the Virginia Department of Education's barometer of academic performance in the commonwealth's public schools. The assessments are praised for pinpointing areas needing improvement, but are widely criticized as being unfairly high stakes and constraining educators with narrowly focused curriculum.
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Opting Out: The case for and against refusing to take Virginia’s Standards of Learning tests

Opting Out: The case for and against refusing to take Virginia’s Standards of Learning tests

Richmond Magazine (US) — As Virginia marks two decades since the establishment of accreditation standards based on scores from the first round of SOL testing in 1997, a growing contingent of parents have chosen to refuse to have their children participate in the assessments. A similar trend exists nationally, as parents protest the proliferation of standardized testing by joining the “opt-out” movement, which calls on families to abstain from testing, advocates that stakes be lowered on assessments and promotes alternative approaches to determine academic progress.
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Husband and wife realty team works to improve African-American home ownership and financial literacy

Husband and wife realty team works to improve African-American home ownership and financial literacy

Richmond Magazine (US) — When Tarah and Damon Harris began selling homes nearly three years ago, Richmond's real-estate market was growing rapidly post-recession and had been recognized as one of the nation's hottest by CNN Money in 2014. But not all residents of the city have benefited from the continued upswing. African-Americans in Richmond have a home ownership rate of more than 49 percent, which lags behind that of whites by more than 26 percent.
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A generational challenge - Where are Virginia's Black male doctors?

A generational challenge - Where are Virginia's Black male doctors?

WVTF-FM (Roanoke, VA) — Despite historic changes in educational and economic opportunities, the share of U.S. physicians who are Black men has remained unchanged since 1940. Virginia medical schools are still struggling to attract talented young men - a key to building trust between healthcare providers and the Black community.
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A War Zone: Victims of gun violence mark Youth Violence Prevention Week with stories of survival.

A War Zone: Victims of gun violence mark Youth Violence Prevention Week with stories of survival.

Style Weekly — The rate of youth gun violence remains at public-health crisis proportions in Richmond and throughout Virginia. Our state's capital holds the grim title as the locality with the highest rate of gun-related homicides in the state annually in recent years - and black youth statewide remain disproportionately impacted by gun-related violence, according to Virginia Department of Health statistics.
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Social worker uses therapeutic climbing to treat substance abuse, depression and anxiet

Social worker uses therapeutic climbing to treat substance abuse, depression and anxiet

Richmond Magazine (US) — Sam Luckett is a numbers guy. A love of the quantifiable, as well as a newfound love of indoor climbing, keeps him sober after a multiyear battle with alcohol use disorder. The 64-year-old Bon Air resident tracks his sobriety to the second with a mobile app. As part of his recovery, Luckett has enlisted the help of Carolyn Sharff, a counselor and licensed clinical social worker. Through Beyond the Crux Counseling in Midlothian and in collaboration with instructors at Peak Experiences climbing gym, she offers therapeutic climbing group sessions.
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