About Us

Staff, Consultants

Editor: Carol Gentry, St. Petersburg

Carol Gentry, founder and editor of Florida Health News, has three decades of experience covering health finance and policy, with an emphasis on consumer education and protection. She covered health and medicine for the St. Petersburg Times for 10 years, for the Tampa Tribune for two years and for the Wall Street Journal for three years, in addition to being a member of the editorial board of the Orlando Sentinel in 2004-05.

She has written for national magazines and been a commentator for public radio’s Marketplace; she is active in the Association of Health Care Journalists, serving as a judge for the awards each year. Ms. Gentry was a Kaiser Family Foundation Media Fellow in 1994-95, conducting research on the managed-care movement’s impact on patients and health-care professionals.

In 1996, she earned a master’s degree in public administration with a concentration in health policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. She has taught health journalism at the college and professional level in this and other countries and directed the Knight Journalism Fellowships at CDC for almost four years. She also served two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Colombia.  

Capital Bureau Chief, Jim Saunders, Tallahassee

Executive Director: Ben Wilcox, Tallahassee

After graduation from Florida State University in 1976, Ben Wilcox worked as a reporter for the Florida Public Radio Network, providing reports on state government and the Florida legislature to public radio stations throughout the state. In 1978, he became the news director for the network and in 1994 he also became the news director for WFSU-FM, the public radio station in Tallahassee. As a journalist he covered 23 sessions of the Florida legislature. He also hosted a statewide call-in program called Florida on the Line featuring the state’s political leaders, including the Governor, legislative leadership and members of the state cabinet. 

In 1999 Mr. Wilcox was named the executive director of Common Cause Florida. As executive director, he was responsible for representing the position of Common Cause before the Florida legislature on a variety of issues including election reform, campaign finance reform, open government, reapportionment and ethics reform.

Mr. Wilcox became the executive director of Health News Florida in 2009, responsible for the management and development of this independent online news service focusing on health issues in Florida. You can contact him via email or 850-544-4448

Marketing Director: Mary Frederick, Tallahassee

Mary Frederick has more than 20 years’ experience in the communications field, including managing communications departments for an insurance association and third-party administrator of benefits plans, and marketing for the Tallahassee Democrat.

She’s won many awards for work on websites, advertising designs and multi-media campaigns. She’s active in the local community and serves on the board of her neighborhood association.

Please call her at 850-933-9998 or email if you’d like to reach Health News Florida’s readers!

Copy editors: Sandra King, Ed Giuliotti, Gail Spencer