Jess Craig is a journalist and former infectious diseases epidemiologist based in North Carolina.

Her journalism focuses on health and science, human rights, and neglected crises. Her work has appeared in Al Jazeera, bioGraphic, The Guardian, National Geographic, The New Scientist, Popular Science, Vox, and Wired, among other publications.

In 2020, Jess was an American Association for the Advancement of Science Mass Media fellow writing for NPR’s science and global health desks. In 2021, she received a Howard G. Buffett Fund for Women Journalists grant from the International Women’s Media Foundation to report on the impacts of climate change and illegal commercial concessions in the Congo River Basin, the world’s second largest rainforest. In 2024, she was a fellow at Vox before joining Straight Arrow News, a media start-up dedicated to unbiased journalism. In 2026, she was awarded an Investigative Reports & Editors (IRE) fellowship.

Before journalism, Jess worked as an epidemiologist and global health security expert focusing on outbreak response and emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases. She worked across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East for a decade supporting multilateral organizations, international research institutes, and U.S. government agencies including the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the US Department of Agriculture, the US Agency for International Development, and the Department of State.

Education

Bachelor of Science, Microbiology, University of Pittsburgh

Bachelor of Arts, English Nonfiction Writing, University of Pittsburgh

Master of Public Health, Biostatistics & Epidemiology, George Washington University