Cheryl Platzman Weinstock has been a freelance health/science writer for over 30 years and specializes in covering women’s health issues. She was among the first writers to report about the rise of AIDS among middle class women in The New York Times and among the first to report about the unique symptoms of heart disease in women in Woman’s Day.  One of her recent articles for “O”, The Oprah Magazine, examined the validity of genetic testing and earned her The American Society of Journalists and Authors Arlene Eisenberg Award For Writing That Makes A Difference and the New England Chapter of the American Medical Writer’s Association Will Solimene Award for Excellence. She is the winner of numerous other awards and fellowships, including several Knight Fellowships, and is a member and past board member of the National Association of Science Writers and also judges their Science in Society Awards.  The is also a member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors and  the freelance committee of The Association of Health Care Journalists.  Besides covering health and science, she frequently contributes to the Metropolitan Section of The New York Times. She contributed to the newspaper’s Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of 9/11 and also covered and wrote about the Sandy Hook massacre.
    Weinstock has a B.S. in biology and a M.A. from the premier class of New York University’s Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program (SHERP).  She financed her degrees by working on an accelerator, teaching swimming to paraplegics and tennis to army brats. She also wrote for local newspapers and journals on health care and nutrition. She has taught in college writing programs in Brooklyn and Long Island, but her favorite thing to do with what she learns is share it with others.  She hosts health talks at her local Barnes and Nobles and has launched a series of health chats for department stores.