Heather Tirado Gilligan is a journalist who has written for publications including Slate, The Nation, CNN, the Washington Post, and USA Today. Previously, she was executive editor of the California Health Report, a news nonprofit covering disparities in health and access to health care.

Heather received a master’s degree in journalism from UC Berkeley and a PhD in English from Rutgers University, where she studied race in American culture. She writes about history — especially the history of race in the United States — health, parenting and other subjects.