Dr. Anne Zink

February 18, 2021March 2, 2021 | Rebekah Jones

The Specialists Group (Alaska)

If the true measure of a person’s character can be derived from how they treat their inferiors, then Dr. Anne Zink would score aces.

Members of her team have publicly praised her expertise, humility, and empathy.

“She encourages Alaskans to take care of each other, and to check in on neighbors who may need a helping hand,” wrote Sarah Erkmann Ward, an Anchorage communications consultant who worked with Dr. Zink during the crisis.

“She is the right person at the right moment that we never knew existed,” Erkmann told Alaska Public Radio.

Dr. Zink is the Chief Medical Officer for the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services, and she began her regular updates on COVID-19 long before the virus reached her state.

“I want to make sure you have the latest information at your fingertips,” Dr. Zink wrote in her monthly newsletter in February 2020.

Dr. Zink’s team developed user-friendly web tools for Alaskans to see if they’re eligible for vaccines and make vaccine appointments.

Alaska Public Media wrote about Dr. Zink’s dedication and skill with communicating complex science with the public.

She’s also been widely praised for… her ability to work with others, project calm under pressure and communicate in a clear and relatable way.
Alaska Public Media, April 2020

A few words from those who nominated Dr. Zink:

“Dr. Anne Zink from Alaska is a total badass and has been keeping us up to date with accurate data since early March 2020”

“Using a data driven approach, she has wonderfully informed Alaskans about how actions have consequences in the covid crisis (both positive and negative) She has a great humility, but is so deserving of awards! “

Click here to follow Dr. Anne Zink on Twitter.

Award note: Dr. Zink has requested that she not be considered a finalist or be awarded any monetary prizes due to her position with the state.

Eilzabeth Shulok

February 18, 2021February 28, 2021 | Rebekah Jones

The Provocateurs Cohort (California)

Eizabeth Shulok started tracking COVID-19 in California in May 2020.

Using her expertise as a data scientist, she built her own website to track, analyze and visualize data in San Diego County.

“The data tells the story; I just paint the picture,” said Shulok.

Elizabeth works with the press to produce accurate data visualizations, including a recent project to map the CDC schools guidance by zip code in her state.

Elizabeth wrestled with the pushback she received when she started reporting on cases in K-12 schools, finding that many in San Diego county (and online) would harass, threaten and berate experts who cautioned about what was known and what was speculation about kids, teachers and school staff.

“The violence coming from some of the pandemic deniers has made me hesitant to post openly about COVID-19,” Elizabeth said.

Despite the risk, Elizabeth pressed on, continued to track and report cases (including cases in schools), and challenged early misconceptions and lack of transparency in her area.

“I wasn’t convinced we knew enough about the role children play in the pandemic so I decided to see what the data shows,” said Shulok. “The county provides data on COVID-19, but doesn’t display it in a way to see how transmission varies by age group over time. So I created my own charts to try to get a better picture of what is happening with kids in San Diego County and ended up expanding from there.”

Elizabeth feared for her own safety at times, even going so far as to remove her name from her projects. But seeing activists using her data confront the anti-science crowd online and in the news encouraged her.

“It has shifted my perspective. And seeing them go on air, doing interviews to counter the Reopen Now group’s narrative, and getting bashed online, puts my work into perspective. What I’m doing is fairly neutral and less controversial,” she said.

Elizabeth provides all of the data free to the public with complete transparency of where it comes from, which is almost entirely primary sources.

A few comments from those who nominated Elizabeth:

“Her data analysis has provided insights and views that have illuminated areas of concern, highlighted gaps in tracking and brought into question policies in place.”

“As a concerned parent and data scientist, Liz used her skills to compile an amazing data dashboard, coding to periodically scrape data from publicly available sources in an easy-to-use, centralized format to help better under the role of schools in the coronavirus pandemic. Since we know that asymptomatic spread and a lack of testing are leading to serious undercounts, Liz’s dashboard provides a critical lower bound of confirmed, official cases and other data points that allow for better policy decisions knowing it is the tip of the iceberg.”

Click here to follow Elizabeth Shulok on Twitter.

Click here to see Elizabeth’s website.

Misty Oprin

February 17, 2021March 2, 2021 | Rebekah Jones

The Newcomers Cohort (Arkansas)

Misty Orpin launched her Arkansas Covid tracking site in March 2020 to make the Arkansas Department of Health’s Covid-19 data more accessible and transparent to its people.

A novice to the complexities of epidemiology, Orpin focused on visualization, geographic specificity, and active Q&A with Arkansans on Twitter and via email.

The organization evolved into a watchdog role, attending press conferences and striving for clarity from the Arkansas Department of Health and the Governor.

Orpin partnered with the University of Arkansas to bring on an intern to assist with demographic information, and eventually turned the project over to the University of Arkansas’ Department of Journalism after six months of 12-hour days bringing the latest data and updates to Arkansas.

The project is now student-run and continues to provide daily updates and in-depth news stories on the impacts of Covid in Arkansas.

A few words from those who nominated Misty:

“Misty Oprin began the @ArkansasCovid project and was invaluable to me the first several months to make sense if Arkansas covid data!”

Click here to follow Arkansas Covid on Twitter.

Click here to see the Arkansas COVID website, now managed by the School of Journalism and Strategic Media at the University of Arkansas.

Click here to follow Misty Oprin on Twitter.