Jess Craig is an independent multimedia journalist, science writer, and infectious diseases epidemiologist based in Nairobi, Kenya.

Her journalism focuses on global health and science, emerging technologies, conservation, and the environment. Her work has appeared in Al Jazeera, bioGraphic, The Guardian, National Geographic, The New Scientist, Popular Science, and Wired, among other publications. In 2020, Jess was an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Mass Media fellow writing for NPR’s science and global health desks. In 2021, she received a Howard G. Buffett Fund for Women Journalists grant from the International Women’s Media Foundation to report on the impacts of climate change and illegal commercial concessions in the Congo River Basin, the world’s second largest rainforest.

As a public health researcher, Jess’s work focuses primarily on emerging and re-emerging infectious disease surveillance and epidemiology. She has worked across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East and has supported various multilateral organizations, private research institutes, and US government agencies including the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the US Agency for International Development (USAID). In 2019, she received a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Grand Challenges Exploration grant to develop and test innovative health delivery mechanisms in East Africa. In 2020, Jess received an ISAACT New Technologies and Emerging Researchers grant to develop and implement an infectious disease surveillance system to identify critical exposure points for new and emerging infectious diseases and zoonotic pathogens in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

Education

Bachelor of Science, Microbiology, University of Pittsburgh

Bachelor of Arts, English Nonfiction Writing, University of Pittsburgh

Master of Public Health, Biostatistics & Epidemiology, George Washington University