Elana Gordon studied music and political science at Barnard College, but we say she found her true calling here, covering a major beat as KCUR 89.3's health reporter. While working in the Kansas City Free Health Clinic's HIV Prevention Department, she began volunteering at local community station KKFI 90.1. "It's how I learned how radio worked," she says. After that, she interned at KCUR, filling the position of health reporter for the NPR affiliate when it became open almost five years ago. Since then, she has crafted story after story around the sometimes deeply moving narratives of patients and health workers, all of whom she treats with sensitivity and dignity. And her work on covering a proposed federal physician database last winter was no less memorable, despite being about, well, a federal database. "These are very personal stories," Gordon says. "I'm as affected by them as our listeners."
