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Rebecca Smith
Health ReporterRebecca Smith is an award-winning reporter and producer for the KBIA Health & Wealth Desk. Born and raised outside of Rolla, Missouri, she has a passion for diving into often overlooked issues that affect the rural populations of her state – especially stories that broaden people’s perception of “rural” life. She created a conversations-based journalism project, Missouri Health Talks, in 2016 that empowers people throughout the state to share their stories of access to healthcare – in their own words.
She has degrees in both Journalism and Chemistry from Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri, and often says health reporting is the perfect marriage of individual’s stories and reporting on science.
You can reach her at smithbecky@missouri.edu or 573-882-4824.
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Oliver Ackerman and Danielle Workman are both transgender and are in a T4T, or trans for trans relationship. They’ve known each other since they were young and shared a little about their relationship, and how they support each other.
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Ameren Missouri announced in a press release today that they will be putting an additional $200,000 toward the Ameren Missouri Veterans Fund.
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For many years, it’s been possible to hear speeches from so-called “scared straight” programs where formerly incarcerated people go into a community and speak about what led them astray, in hopes of steering others clear of the mistakes they made. KBIA’s Rebecca Smith has the story of one event held earlier this year that changed the setting, bringing the audience to the experts, instead of the other way around.
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Kat and Aly Wright are a queer married couple in Columbia. Kat is queer and nonbinary, and Aly is a bisexual transgender woman. They met and fell in love while playing roller derby. They spoke about how some unexpected circumstances changed their original wedding plans – perhaps for the better.
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Dr. Crystal Lim is the chair of health psychology at the University of Missouri, and has spent much of her career working with children who are overweight. She spoke about how the treatment of excess weight has changed to focus more of health than size.
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A new study examines the impact of sleep, screen time and physical activity on obesity rates among youth with ADHD. KBIA’s Rebecca Smith reports the research was conducted in part by a University of Missouri scientist.
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Prison can be a lonely, violent place. But KBIA’s Rebecca Smith has the story of one program - or more specifically, one Missouri prison resident who’s changing the men around him.
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Julia Gonzalez is a student at the University of Missouri originally from Texas. She’s a transgender woman and spoke about the importance of diverse representation, as well about finding confidence in her identity.