Melanie Haiken avoids sticking to a single beat, but there is a throughline in her work: deep reporting.
It’s a talent she developed while getting her master’s in journalism at The University of California, Berkeley and during a follow-up stint working at the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR). And for the past 25 years, the San Francisco-based writer used this skill to cover everything from J.R.R. Tolkien-inspired travel to environmental issues for an ever-expanding list of publications including Sierra, Afar, National Geographic, and Yoga Journal.
Another one of her core topics: mental health issues like addiction and eating disorders. It’s a beat where Haiken’s professional and personal interests overlap. Her mother was an alcoholic and one of her kids went through years of treatment for anorexia and bulimia.
That combination of professional and personal experience is on full display in Haiken’s recent series for MindSite News, a nonprofit news site founded by Rob Waters and Diana Hembree that focuses on mental health issues. Her four-part series, “Deadly Denials: When Insurers Fail to Cover Treatment for Eating Disorders, People Suffer. Sometimes They Die.,” covers the often pernicious actions of insurance companies on people suffering from eating disorders.
Read my interview with Melanie Haiken on "Depth Perception."