Julia Craven is an award-winning health journalist whose reporting has shaped policy, been cited in peer-reviewed medical journals, and changed how institutions talk about health equity.

Her investigative work has directly prompted infrastructure policy change by halting a highway expansion in Orlando, and her reporting on COVID-19 in Black communities was featured in The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2021. Julia’s journalism has been cited in Obstetrics & Gynecology, Health Communication, Annals of Health Law and Life Sciences, and Health Research Policy and Systems, and referenced by the American Medical Association, the American Lung Association, and the Center for American Progress. Her work has also been featured in Harvard Library’s COVID-19 Health Research Guide.

Julia co-directed a large-scale storytelling and research initiative at New America examining the role federal COVID funding played in reducing poverty—a project that produced a 51,000-word report, more than 30 articles, national media coverage, and won an Anthem Award in 2025. Her bylines include The Washington Post, Vox, New York Magazine, Slate, FiveThirtyEight, NBC News, and Popular Science, where she wrote a monthly neuroscience column.

She spearheads Healthy Futures, a science- and history-backed Substack that examines health and wellness through the lens of culture and policy. In 2025, Healthy Futures was named a Substack Top 10 Rising Newsletter in Health & Wellness and featured by Good Good Good as one of the 24 Best Wellness Newsletters for a Balanced Inbox. Julia also founded the Library of Black Wellness, a living archive preserving the stories, practices, and cultural knowledge that have sustained Black wellness across generations.