Rhitu Chatterjee

Health Correspondent Rhitu Chatterjee is a health correspondent with NPR, with a focus on mental health. Chatterjee has a particular interest in mental health problems faced by the most vulnerable in society, especially pregnant women and children, as well as racial and ethnic minorities. She reported on how the pandemic exacerbated an already worsening mental health crisis in the United States, with stories about the mental health of children, family caregivers and healthcare workers. She has covered the intergenerational impacts of COVID-19 deaths by looking specifically at the long term consequences on children of parental death during the pandemic. She has also investigated how health insurers limit access to mental health care despite laws on the books that require them to cover mental health the same way they cover physical health. Throughout her career, Chatterjee has reported on everything from basic scientific discoveries to issues at the intersection of science, society, and culture. She specializes in trauma-informed reporting and is regularly invited to moderate panels and speak about her work on panels and at conferences. Chatterjee has mentored student fellows by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, and taught science writing at the Santa Fe Science Writing Workshop. Before starting at NPR's health desk in 2018, Chatterjee was an editor for NPR's The Salt, where she edited stories about food, culture, nutrition, and agriculture. Prior to that, Chatterjee reported on current affairs from New Delhi for The World by PRX, and covered science and health news for Science Magazine. Before that, she was based in Boston as a science correspondent with The World. She did her undergraduate work in Darjeeling, India, and has a Master of Arts in journalism from the University of Missouri.