Doctor and reporter extraordinaire dispenses wisdom to Modesto area during COVID
Eulogies are written to celebrate the life of people who have touched our lives and hearts, but they occur after the person has gone to heaven. Today, we celebrate the living and recognize ChrisAnna Mink, M.D. She joined The Modesto Bee about two years ago through a new position funded by the nonprofit Report for America project, the Stanislaus County Office of Education and the Stanislaus Community Foundation. Chris joined The Bee to cover child healthcare issues in the Northern San Joaquin Valley. Chris, a trained and accomplished pediatrician in Southern California, had served her community for 30 years, including working as the medical director of the KIDS Foster Care Clinic at Harbor UCLA Medical Center, and as a clinical professor of pediatrics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
An interest in writing led her to pursue a master’s degree in journalism at the University of Southern California and a job with a local newsroom through the RFA program.
What nobody realized when The Bee hired Chris in 2019, of course, was just how valuable it would be to have a medical doctor, an infectious disease specialist, and someone with a fresh healthcare perspective contribute as a writer and team member. And she joined The Bee just before the worst health crisis — and biggest news story — to impact the world in decades.
Ever the physician, Chris had her finger on the pulse of our community throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Not one to sugarcoat anything, she has brought a fresh and vital medical perspective to The Bee’s readers.
COMPASSION, TRUTH IN MODESTO REPORTING
Through tough questions of county health officials by challenging their data and honesty, to diving into child hunger and malnutrition in a county rich in resources, to her relentless pursuit of the truth and formidable determination of always asking “Why?,” we have all gained greater insights into quality, substantive healthcare reporting.
Perhaps most memorable was Chris’ featured story where she asked how food insecurity could be such a crisis in a sector of the state known as the “breadbasket to the world.”
And Chris also demonstrated how caring, kindness, and compassion could be shown through the eyes of a reporter when she had to write about the death of a Turlock High School freshman. Her words were not just those of a reporter or physician, and they echoed the heart and soul of a mother grieving for a child in Turlock who was emblematic of a nation of lost souls during the pandemic.
As Dr. Mink prepares to return to Los Angeles to practice medicine, she leaves Bee readers and me remembering an unbiased reporter who choreographed life always with a smile, relentless determination for the truth, and an educator with a heart.
Take time to reread some of her articles. You will always find personal tidbits of Dr. Mink, sprinkled with the caring touch of a physician, mother, wife, and compassionate American.
There are very few ChrisAnna Minks in the world, so the next one you meet, savor their words and ideas and ask yourself, “Why not?”
