Gabrielle Emanuel
Gabrielle Emanuel covers Global Health and Development for NPR's Science Desk.
Emanuel loves taking a complex issue and finding the person or story that can make it relatable to a general audience. She reports on infectious diseases (such as HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis), non-infections diseases (such as cancer and heart disease) and neglected diseases (such as schistosomiasis and river blindness) — as well as how people access health care. She keeps tabs on many of the big global health priorities, including improving maternal and child health.
She's covered everything from Ebola outbreaks, to access to eye glasses, to counterfeit medications.
Emanuel joined NPR's Science Desk in 2024. Before that, she covered health at WBUR in Boston. She started her career in journalism at NPR as a Kroc Fellow where she covered education — and reported a podcast episode with Planet Money on the bartering economy where zoos and aquariums swap animals. Her work has also appeared in The New York Times and on This American Life.
Emanuel has won multiple awards including National Edward R. Murrow Awards — one for education coverage and one for reporting on the Massachusetts family shelter system — and the Society of Professional Journalists' Sigma Delta Chi Award for Feature Reporting for a story uncovering the Reverse Freedom Rides of the 1960s.
Emanuel got her BA in history from Dartmouth College and completed her doctorate in policy at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. When she finds a free moment, she loves woodworking and delving into how best to bring American history to life for children. [Copyright 2026 NPR]
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In Virunga National Park, rangers are on the front lines — playing a critical role to contain the surging virus while coping with an upsurge in conflict-related violence. -
In echoes of past outbreaks, community members are attacking clinics, distrusting doctors and following burial traditions that could lead to more cases of Ebola. -
The number of cases — and deaths — in Bangladesh is staggering. As of Sunday, 528 have died, mostly children. How did this measles outbreak begin? And how is the country responding? -
This outbreak is being called "the perfect storm." How did it start, what are the characteristics of the strain that's causing it and how much of a threat is it to global health? -
The outbreak began in early April on a cruise ship. Now health authorities around the world are working to contain it. Here's what infectious disease experts have to say. -
While most hantaviruses spread through contact with rodent feces, urine or saliva, officials confirm that the type on the cruise ship is Andes hantavirus, which is known to spread between people. -
May 5 is International Day of the Midwife. This year's theme is "one million more" — reflecting a shortage of midwives. -
Congress has allocated more than $500 million for family planning work internationally. The Trump administration hasn't spent it — and the consequences are already being felt. -
After a year without data, the State Department released figures on PEPFAR, the program launched by George W. Bush and credited with saving millions of lives. How did Trump's aid cuts affect it? -
"We women are the land guardians and keepers," says Theonila Roka Matbob of Papua New Guinea, recognized for her efforts to repair the environmental and social harms caused by a copper and gold mine.
