Elena Rivera
Health ReporterElena Rivera is the health reporter at KERA.
Before joining KERA, Elena covered health in Southern Colorado for KRCC and Colorado Public Radio. Her stories covered pandemic mental health support, rural community health access issues and vaccine equity across the region. She also worked as a daily show producer with Georgia Public Broadcasting and a reporter and host with Blue Ridge Public Radio. She has won awards for arts and culture reporting, podcasting and team coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic in Colorado from the Society of Professional Journalists.
Elena got her start as a reporter and producer at KBIA, Mid-Missouri’s NPR station. She has a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri.
Outside of her public radio work, she serves as a mentor to emerging audio producers and reporters as the captain of the New Voices program with the Association of Independents in Radio (AIR).
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Pregnant Texans on Medicaid will now have 12 months of postpartum coverage starting in March.
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COVID-19 cases are increasing nationally after the winter holidays, which can mean more health risks like long COVID.
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Almost 90% of Texans live in a county where there's not enough mental health providers, according to a new report.
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A children’s hospital in Seattle is suing the Texas Attorney General’s office over trans kids' medical files.
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Flu cases in Texas have been increasing since mid-October, and health officials are encouraging people to get vaccinated before the holidays.
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Medicaid unwinding exposed a “crisis” in the system as more than a million Texans lost coverage this year.
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About 1.4 million Texans have gotten kicked off Medicaid this year, which means health insurance navigators have seen more folks looking for options.
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COVID-19 vaccine misinformation has contributed to a declining rate of childhood vaccinations in North Texas.
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Children's Health in Dallas recently released its biannual report measuring kids’ well-being across seven counties, showing there’s still a need for more mental health support.
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Children's Health in Dallas was recently recognized nationally for excellence in nursing, during a time hospitals across DFW are experiencing a surge of patients with respiratory viruses.
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A new study from U-T Southwestern Medical Center shows high stress contributes to worse heart disease over time.
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Mandy Cohen, the director for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, visited Dallas County today to discuss vaccines heading into the winter months.