Kara Leigh Lofton
Kara Leigh Lofton is the Appalachia Health News Coordinator at West Virginia Public Broadcasting. Previously Kara was a freelance reporter for WMRA, an affiliate of NPR serving the Shenandoah Valley and Charlottesville in Virginia. There she produced 70 radio reports in her first year of reporting, most often on health or environmental topics. One of her reports, “Trauma Workers Find Solace in a Pause That Honors Life After a Death,” circulated nationally after proving to be an all-time favorite among WMRA’s audience.
Kara is also a photographer and writer, whose work has been published by Kaiser Health News, The Hill (the news outlet and blog serving Congress), Virginia Living, the Augusta Free Press, and Sojourners, among other outlets. A large body of her work has appeared on the news website and in the magazines of Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, from which she graduated in 2014.
Prior to and during her university years, Kara had stints living internationally, spending months in Morocco, Spain, Turkey, and England, with shorter visits to Zambia, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and a half-dozen countries in western and central Europe. In the fall of 2015, she toured Guatemala (using her conversational Spanish), where she reported on its woefully underfunded health system. In her spare time Kara Leigh enjoys reading, practicing yoga and hiking with her two loyal dogs.
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As coronavirus cases rise in West Virginia and across many states, parents are grappling with whether schools will be safe spaces for children and...
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For people in recovery from addiction, coronavirus can be particularly challenging. Take Ashley Temple -- for the past several months the single mom of...
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Today marked the first day of West Virginia’s reopening plan. At his daily virtual press conference Gov. Jim Justice announced he will lift the stay-at...
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In Gov. Jim Justice’s daily briefing on the coronavirus, he announced three more residents and several nursing home staffers have tested positive for...
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This is a developing story and will be updated. In an internal memo to employees, Fairmont Regional Medical Center announced today, Feb. 18, it will be...
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A new study has found that older adults with chronic health issues like heart disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder are much more likely to...
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West Virginia has some of the lowest breastfeeding rates in the country – especially for participants in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for...
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The community health center New River Health has partnered with Fayette County schools to offer a concussion-management protocol for athletes. The idea...
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Moderate to vigorous aerobic activity is associated with a lower risk of several cancers. But a new study has found that weightlifting can also help...
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A new study has found that for patients with heart disease, exercise may prevent or improve artery stiffening that is associated with heart failure....