United States
Trained in newsrooms. Trusted to focus on what matters.
I’m a freelance journalist who writes about science, health, relationships and travel. I’m drawn to stories with a strong sense of place and people. I started as a newspaper reporter, then worked in hospital communications and video production. Writing and editing are still at the heart of what I do. Now, I work from wherever I am, sometimes at a quiet desk, sometimes on the road.
I'm the Windward Oahu travel guide author for the 11th edition of "Fodor's Oahu." I reported and updated the Windward Oahu chapter for one of travel publishing’s best-known guidebook brands. Released in August 2026, the guide is available in bookstores and online.
I use personal stories, expert interviews and medical research to make prevention and treatment topics easier to understand. This summer 2026 cover story on osteoporosis and exercise is one example.
I use personal stories, expert interviews and medical research to make prevention and treatment topics easier to understand. This summer 2026 eczema cover story is one example.
I report patient-facing health features for TIME Health, breaking down complex diagnoses into clear, step-by-step explanations people can recognize and act on.
I report clinician-focused health features for TIME Health Pro, turning research, expert interviews and patient stories into clear, actionable guidance.
I write for Good Info Newswire, a nonprofit news service that shares original local journalism with news organizations nationwide. I tell stories about the people, places and traditions that reveal another side of Kentucky, whether you've lived there your whole life or you're visiting for the first time.
Sometimes, I test products for lifestyle features, like this Mother’s Day story that compared popular methods for keeping cut flowers fresh.
From patient narratives to clinician perspectives, my work for TIME Health examines how health conditions affect life beyond the exam room. My latest cover story focuses on the hidden mental load of eczema.
My winter 2026 cover story for TIME Health explains why people with inflammatory bowel disease still live with more questions than answers about what causes it.
My winter 2026 cover story for TIME Health explains how doctors approach ulcerative colitis care in children by pairing expert insight with the lived experiences of families who navigate the disease every day.
Since June 2025, TIME magazine has regularly assigned me to write in-depth feature stories about medicine and innovation. I interview leading doctors and patients for pieces like this cover story on AI and inflammatory bowel disease.
My November 2025 cover story in TIME Health looks at how ulcerative colitis and mental health overlap. I wrote about the science and a patient’s experience to show why this connection matters.
Tanya Bricking Leach is an award-winning journalist who has worked in both breaking news and hospital communications. She has been a writer and editor for more than 20 years.
Need a doctor profile or patient story for your hospital or health system? I report real stories that show how medicine works and why it matters.
I interview doctors, researchers and people living with health conditions to tell clear, human stories for TIME Health Pro, a special edition of TIME magazine.
Scroll down the page to "Latest Articles" to see dozens of patient stories I assigned and edited, including: • A series on what it feels like to take pharmaceutical medications • A money series with personal finance tips • Medical topics explained in easy-to-understand terms
I'm drawn to stories about people, and sometimes about science. This one for Science Friday answers a question I’ve always had: Why do cyclists shave their legs?
Travel writing isn’t just about posting beach photos and ranking the best cocktails on the islands. It’s also about reporting on real-life issues, like how high hotel prices in Hawaii are affecting both travelers and the tourism industry.
Here’s my personal essay about the Wet Hens, a sailing program in Hawaii that has taught generations of military spouses how to sail and how to stay connected.
For a March 2025 Pacific Business News cover story, I turned breaking news into a deeply reported piece, combining expert insights and data to show how the cuts are affecting real people.
I used to write a "Relationships" column, and I still find myself drawn to the everyday moments that say something bigger, like when my son’s dorm move-in group chat turned into a full-on mom takeover.
As a reporter, I write about a variety of topics. I try to make complex issues like insurance easy to understand by finding experts who can explain things clearly and simply for readers.
A lot of women go into menopause without all the information they deserve. That's why I take on assignments like this to interview people who can provide honest answers on health topics that are often overlooked.
Not only did I edit patient stories at GoodRx, but I also wrote them and went on video shoots to tell stories like this one.
Managing diabetes was a big part of our health coverage at GoodRx. This was one of the stories I wrote for our Type 2 diabetes series.
Many of our patient stories included practical tips for people managing conditions such as diabetes. This was another story I wrote for our Type 2 diabetes series.
I've written lots of practical tips-related stories for AARP magazine, including this one about dealing with mobility issues.
Many of AARP's stories take a practical and empathetic approach to topics, like this one I wrote about suicide awareness and prevention.
This is a great moment-in-time story about the allure of ice cream trucks during the pandemic.
A lot of my stories put a human face on what it's like to go through something — like hospitalization for Parkinson's.
I like to find quirky stories, like the popularity of jigsaw puzzles during the coronavirus pandemic.
The AARP magazine SEO team loved this "how to make a face mask" story because it gained lots of traffic during the pandemic.
This is another "moment in time" story about COVID-era "window visits."
I did lots of COVID-era stories, like this one about "celebrations" in the season of COVID.
This story is personal to me, as I have tried (and am still trying) to learn a foreign language past the age of 50.
Many of my health stories give readers advice from experts in simple terms they can understand, like this one about when to remove a loved one from a nursing home.
I make health advice approachable by translating expert insights into language that’s easy to follow and apply, like this advice for worried caregivers about coronavirus exposure.
When my husband’s job took us to Zadar, Croatia in 2017-18, we embraced expat life, and I documented our travels here.
When I was a food and travel writer for The Associated Press, I wrote stories like this that were published in newspapers across the country.
At Cincinnati Children’s, I created these NPR StoryCorps-style audio slideshows, making them the site’s most-watched content at the time and prompting the creation of the hospital’s first video team, which I led.
At Cincinnati Children's, I served as managing editor for a consumer-focused publication and contributed articles to our research magazine and other print and digital materials. I worked closely with freelance writers, photographers and designers.
Part of my job at Cincinnati Children's included conducting interviews with researchers to translate complex scientific topics into clear, engaging narratives, including traveling to a coal-mining town in Kentucky to report on a cancer mystery for this hospital research publication.
I've written dozens of feature stories for regional, alumni and academic magazines. This story about funny place names in Kentucky won a lifestyle feature award from the Society of Professional Journalists that year.
I was part of an award-winning team that covered the deadly collision between the Navy submarine and the Japanese fishing vessel Ehime Maru. Gannett sent me to Japan to interview victims’ families. I wrote a series of news and feature stories and provided extended coverage.
This story won first place in a short-form feature award category from the Hawaii Society of Professional Journalists and was one of my favorite memories from my time there. The paper sent me to do a story about what Christmas was like in Kalaupapa, on the remote northern coast of the island of Molokai. It's where there's a dying community of people who used to be exiled there because of Hansen's disease (formerly known as leprosy).
When I was a news reporter in Hawaii, I covered crime stories, including this murder mystery I turned into a nonfiction story for the University of Hawaii's publication.
I've covered some of the hardest stories a journalist can face: mass shootings, grieving families and communities in shock. I've sat with families who have lost loved ones and asked questions no one ever wants to ask. In one story marking the anniversary of a mass shooting, I tried to do more than recount the timeline. The result was something close to poetic — not because the tragedy was softened, but because their strength deserved to be heard with care.
This was a national travel story that I did for The Associated Press when I was a reporter in Hawaii that ran in newspapers all over the country.
I’ve worked as a national stringer for The New York Times, contributing feature stories from Hawaii and reporting on major events such hurricanes and tornadoes in other parts of the country. I also support the national desk with research for special projects and reporting for breaking news stories.
I built my personal brand by sharing emotional stories, including my own. I was a newspaper columnist for years, including on an Army post in Alabama, where I wrote weekly dispatches about life as a military wife. Later, in Kentucky, with small kids and my husband on his second deployment to Afghanistan, I wrote this magazine essay.
I've written for national publications, including as a regional stringer for Newsweek. For two years, I was a Newsweek contributor, providing reporting on both breaking news and special projects such as the college issue.
When I worked for the daily newspaper in Hawaii, I used to write an "About Women" relationships column (that USA TODAY sometimes picked up, along with Gannett papers nationwide). Then I became a military wife and learned hard lessons fast. This was a column I wrote when the best man from my wedding died in Afghanistan.
Lately, I've been reconnecting with peers from my reporting days at USA Today. For a brief stint, I was a sports writer in their "loaner" program, when reporters were temporarily assigned to different sections. One of my favorite stories was when the late Gary Boren, a legendary free-throw coach, tried to teach me to shoot free throws with a quarter. I also had the chance to meet the late, great Muhammad Ali and write a punchy 30-line brief about it. Above all, that chapter of my career...
I spent several years as a contributing food writer for The Associated Press, with stories published nationwide. I wrote a weekly food column for The Dothan Eagle for two years. I also developed recipes for Food Lion, reviewed restaurants for Gault Millau travel guides and covered Cincinnati’s dining scene as the Cincinnati Food Examiner.
In 2010, my military-themed travel guide and app about Hawaii (published by GuideGecko) earned third place in an international travel-writing contest hosted by Insight Guides at the Frankfurt Book Fair in Germany. Though now out of print, I created it to help military families, veterans and retirees make the most out of their time in Hawaii.
As a young reporter, I spent a lot of time covering crime and breaking news. I learned how to find the heart of a story on deadline and how to connect with people. These clips are from those years, including an award-winning sex crimes story published well before the "Me Too" movement.