Isabella Gomes
GRANTEE AND 2019 REPORTING FELLOW
Isabella Gomes (she/her), 29, is a public health journalist, infectious diseases epidemiologist, and medical student from Ontario, Canada. She previously earned a Bachelor of Arts in Infectious Disease Ecology from Princeton University (2016), a Master of Arts in Science, Health and Environmental Reporting from Columbia University (2017), and a Master of Public Health in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from Johns Hopkins University (2019). Gomes recently worked as a Coronavirus frontline reporter for the Baltimore Sun and as a senior research assistant at Hopkins, modeling infectious disease dynamics and the epidemiology of tuberculosis in Bangladesh and South Africa. Gomes is also a two-time grant recipient with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, a former reporting fellow with the Miami New Times, a finalist for the Society of Professional Journalists' 2020 Mark of Excellence Award, and the winner of the National Association of LGBTQ Journalists' Excellence in Journalism Award in 2021.
As a queer, multiracial woman of color, Gomes is most passionate about her advocacy work, fighting human trafficking, anti-LGBTQ violence, anti-immigrant policies, and healthcare inequity. She is currently pursuing a dual career in crisis reporting and clinical medicine as a medical student at Washington University in St. Louis (Class of 2026).