Tanya Bricking Leach

Senior Editor | Health Journalist | Brand Builder | Content Strategist | Communications Manager | Team Leader

United States

Stories connect us. I built my career as a journalist and healthcare communicator shaping narratives. Now, as a freelance writer, editor and strategist, I transform ideas into compelling stories that leave a lasting impression.

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GoodRx
Tanya Bricking Leach - Bio

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.

Goodrx
GoodRx Patient Stories I assigned and edited

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

Pacific Business News
Travel Writing Is About More Than Pretty Beaches

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.

AARP
8 Warning Signs of Suicide

Many of AARP's stories take a practical and empathetic approach to topics, like this one I wrote about suicide awareness and prevention.

The Washington Post
Hotels Sell Big-Ticket Souvenirs

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.

Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center
"Tell Me a Story" series — StoryCorps-style audio slideshows

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.

Cincinnati Children's
Writer/Editor at Cincinnati Children's Hospital

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.

Research Horizons
Science/Research/Medical Writer and Editor

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.

NKY Magazine
A Left at Rabbit Hash

This story about funny place names of Kentucky won a lifestyles feature award from the Society of Professional Journalists that year.

Vice-Versa
Night of the Full Moon

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.

msnbc.com
Spelunking Hawaii

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.

The New York Times
In Hawaii, a Ministry for Uncalm Waters

I was a national stringer for The New York Times and covered stories from Hawaii like this. I went on to cover disasters for the NYT, such as hurricanes and tornadoes, in other parts of the country.

Cincinnati Magazine
Days of Absence

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.

The Honolulu Advertiser
What is the lesson of death?

When I was a young writer in Hawaii, I used to write a relationships column. 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.

USA Today
What being a sports writer taught me about reinventing myself

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...