CNN Senior Editor Katia Hetter oversees CNN’s digital wellness team, including its Life, But Better beat coverage of food and nutrition; sleep; exercise, relationships; and stress and mindfulness. The team also covers brain health, mental health, disease prevention and more.

She was the founding editor of both CNN’s digital wellness and space/science teams, launching both teams with one reporter each in April 2020 and spinning off the science team in July 2023.
She previous worked as a senior producer for CNN Travel, editing and reporting stories about food and drink, the von Trapps and why we love Disney, camping and all-inclusive resorts (or not).

Prior to joining CNN in 2011, Hetter covered the post-9/11 redevelopment of the World Trade Center site for Newsday, the marriage-defining moments of then-San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom’s first acts in office for the San Francisco Chronicle, and major U.S. Supreme Court decisions for U.S. News & World Report.

She was a member of CNN Digital’s 2018 RTDNA National Edward R. Murrow “Excellence in Innovation” Award-winning team for its coverage of the solar eclipse and Newsday’s 2004 Pulitzer Prize finalist team for coverage of the 2003 New York City blackout.

Hetter served for many years as co-chair of the Online News Association’s Student Newsroom. She’s also trained and edited newsrooms of teen writers at the nonprofit Youth Communication in New York City.