Jayne O'Donnell
Jayne was USA TODAY's health policy reporter from September 2013 to March 2021, when she took a buyout after more than 28 years with the company. She is now founder and CEO of Youthcast Media Group (formerly Urban Health Media Project), which trains diverse youth in under-resourced communities to create multimedia journalism on health and social issues and the solutions. An author, TV contributor and freelance writer, Jayne has appeared on Good Morning America, CBS This Morning, CNN, MSNBC, NPR and C-Span and been published in Woman's Day, Good Housekeeping and Parents. After working as an auto safety and consumer reporter in the Money section, Jayne covered the implementation of the Affordable Care Act beginning in September 2013 and later focused on mental health, addiction and childhood trauma, along with Covid-19.
She's won several awards for her work, most notably for her 1996 articles in USA TODAY on the dangers airbags posed to children. That reporting prompted many government actions including the "smart" airbags and warning labels in every new vehicle.
A graduate of University of Maryland's College of Journalism, Jayne did graduate work at George Washington University's School of Business. She lives in McLean, Va. and Westerly, R.I. with her husband, Richard Willing a longtime journalist and intelligence agency spokesman and historian. They have a daughter, Cate O'Donnell Willing. Jayne co-founded UHMP in 2017 with Dr. Reed Tuckson, a former D.C. public health commissioner and a longtime health care senior executive.