Tara Haelle

Tara Haelle is an independent science/health journalist, author, professional speaker, and photographer. With two decades of reporting experience under her belt, her work has appeared in the National Geographic, The New York Times, Texas Monthly, NPR, Washington Post, Scientific American, Politico, Parents, Medscape, WebMD, Self, O Magazine, and Wired, among others. She specializes in writing about public health and medical research, particularly vaccines, infectious disease, maternal and pediatric health, mental health, healthcare disparities, misinformation, and parenting. Her trade work covering medical research and medical conferences has appeared in MDEdge, Medscape/WebMD, and Haymarket titles.

A former Forbes and Medium contributor, Tara regularly blogs at the Association of Health Journalists, where she is the Medical Studies Core Topic Leader, providing resources and training on responsible journalistic coverage of medical research. Her monthly blog at Science & the Sea, from the University of Texas Marine Science Institute, highlights short stories about marine life.

Tara’s most recent book, Vaccination Investigation: The History and Science of Vaccines, is a starred Kirkus book. She coauthored The Informed Parent: A Science-Based Resource for Your Child’s First Four Years and has written nearly a dozen children’s nonfiction science books. As a professional speaker, Tara has spoken about vaccine hesitancy at TEDx Oslo and has delivered national and international keynotes, webinars and grand rounds on vaccines and vaccine hesitancy, parenting, understanding medical research, storytelling, and mental health, including how to manage the depletion of your personal surge capacity.

Tara received her master’s in photojournalism from the University of Texas at Austin, and her images have appeared in NPR, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Chicago Sun-Times and Women’s Wear Daily. An avid traveler, Tara has backpacked, hiked, train-hopped, sky-dived, spelunked, scuba-dived and motorbiked through dozens of countries while eating strange insects, trekking to ancient ruins, and swimming with sharks. She lives in Texas with her husband and two sons, four dogs, and 15 pet rats, give or take.