As a practicing nurse through the 1990s, Rose Hoban witnessed many patients whose care was impeded — often by health care policies they didn’t know existed.
To help advance the cause of her patients, she soon pivoted to journalism — joining North Carolina Public Radio (WUNC) in 2005. There, she began extensively reporting on the state’s mental health care system.
When she arrived at the news station, five people were covering health care at the competing local daily newspaper. By the time she left in mid-2011, all five of those people had left. Realizing that she was “the last person standing,” Hoban said, was part of her inspiration for launching North Carolina Health News in 2012. The organization, a member of the Institute for Nonprofit News (INN), has since provided crucial information about health care in the state — topics ranging from state health policy to mental health.