Sonya Collins is an Atlanta-based independent journalist and editor who covers health care, medicine, and biomedical research. For nearly 15 years, she has written on a variety of health and science topics ranging from racial disparities in health care to cancer genetics.
Her work has appeared in numerous publications, including Scientific American, Delta Sky, CURE, Family Circle, Pharmacy Today, Fortune.com, HealthCentral, AARP.com, and many others. She has won awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism from the Association of Health Care Journalists and a Robert G. Fenley Writing Award from the Association of American Medical Colleges.
Collins holds a Master of Arts in Health and Medical Journalism from the University of Georgia and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the New School University, where she was a teaching fellow. She has also taught writing at Hunter College of the City University of New York, where she earned her Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing, and at the University of Georgia. During her teaching stint at UGA, Collins contributed an article on author Elizabeth Gilbert (author of Eat, Pray, Love) to the Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Fiction (2010).
Marrying her love of teaching, writing and science, Collins offers media training to scientists and researchers. She has taught workshops and given invited lectures on science writing, cancer reporting, and building a freelance writing career at venues including Georgia Institute of Technology, Emory University, and the National Cancer Institute.
Fluent in Brazilian Portuguese, Collins has translated literary and scholarly texts for publication. An avid traveler, what she most enjoys about freelance work is that she can do it from anywhere in the world. So far she’s taken her laptop and reporter’s notebook to 11 countries and currently has flights booked to several more.