Jen Christensen

CNN Health & Climate Unit

Jen Christensen is a producer with CNN's Health & Climate Unit, a documentary & data producer, and a reporter with CNN.com
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‘Obesity is at a crisis point’: Study predicts that 260 million in US will be overweight or obese by 2050
Nov 14, 2024
Editor’s note: Watch “Dr. Sanjay Gupta Reports: Is Ozempic Right For You?” at 8 p.m. Sunday, November 17, on CNN.
SALT LAKE CITY, UT - APRIL 26: In this photo illustration a 10 pack and one dose bottles of measles, mumps and rubella virus vaccine, made by MERCK, sits on a counter at the Salt Lake County Health Department on April 26, 2019 in Salt Lake City, Utah. (Photo Illustration by George Frey/Getty Images)
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Measles is debilitating and deadly, and cases are surging, WHO and CDC warn
Nov 14, 2024
Global measles cases surged by more than 20% to an estimated 10.3 million last year, the World Health Organization and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday. About 107,500 people, mostly young children, died — an “unacceptable” death toll from a disease that’s preventable through vaccination, the health groups said.
Chlamydia trachomatis bacteria, computer illustration. Chlamydia trachomatis causes a sexually transmitted infection that can go undetected causing infertility. It also causes the eye disease trachoma, which can lead to blindness.
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There are millions of sexually transmitted infections in the US every year, but new data shows the epidemic may be slowing
Nov 12, 2024
Although sexually transmitted infections are still at an epidemic level in the US, scientists at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are expressing cautious optimism about some decreases emerging in the newest data.
Avery Davis Bell was crushed when her long-awaited second pregnancy ended in miscarriage.
Courtesy Avery Davis Bell
Bleeding and in pain, a woman endured a harrowing wait for miscarriage care due to Georgia’s restrictive abortion law
Nov 11, 2024
Had Avery Davis Bell had a miscarriage in Boston, where she lived until 2020, doctors could snap into action. But because she was having a miscarriage in a hospital in Georgia, surgery had to wait.
Transmission electron microscopic image of numerous Lassa virus particles grown in cell culture. The extracellular, spherical virions can vary in size and shape, and the black dots inside the particles are actually cellular ribosomes.
CS Goldsmith, P. Rollin, M. Bowen/CDC
Iowa resident dies of rare Lassa fever, officials say
Oct 28, 2024
A resident of eastern Iowa who had recently traveled to West Africa died after catching what is believed to be Lassa fever, officials said Monday. The virus, which is in the same viral hemorrhagic fever category as Ebola, is rarely seen in the United States.
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A man was wheeled into surgery to harvest his organs. Weeks later, he left the hospital alive
Oct 28, 2024
Three years ago, Anthony Hoover woke up in a Kentucky hospital to find people shaving his chest, bathing his body in surgical solution and talking about harvesting his organs.
As part of the outbreak, 26 people have gotten sick, and eight have died.
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Rwanda is dealing with its first outbreak of deadly Marburg virus disease
Sep 30, 2024
For the first time in Rwanda’s history, its health ministry is dealing with an outbreak of Marburg virus disease, a rare but deadly hemorrhagic disease similar to Ebola – but unlike Ebola, there is no treatment or vaccines for Marburg, and it has a fatality rate of 88%.
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Health dangers of flooding: Disease, injuries and mental health concerns
Sep 27, 2024
Even after a hurricane’s immediate flooding threat goes away, residents could face a host of potential health problems from the water — and what it leaves behind.
The risk of a suicide attempt among trans and nonbinary teens signficantly increases when anti-trans bills become law, a new study says.
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Suicide attempts increased among transgender teens when states passed anti-trans laws, study says
Sep 26, 2024
People in the United States who identify as transgender or nonbinary make up only a tiny fraction of the population, but they’ve been the targets of an outsized share of negative attention from lawmakers, a new study says — and those laws can have potentially deadly consequences.
Football at Riverdale Country School in the Bronx eliminated the kickoff altogether.
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How changing this one play may reduce football head injuries
Sep 11, 2024
Time will tell whether the NFL’s new kickoff will remain one of the most dangerous plays in football, but some younger athletes think the pros should take a page out of their playbook instead: At Riverdale Country School in the Bronx, they’ve eliminated the kickoff altogether.
Childhood obesity STOCK
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Weight loss drug liraglutide shows promise for younger children with obesity, study finds
Sep 10, 2024
Children who used the weight loss drug liraglutide in a late-stage trial lost significantly more weight than children who got a placebo, according to a new study.
National Institutes of Health James Shannon building on the campus of NIH in Bethesda, Md., Friday, Oct. 24, 2014. Appropriately called Building 1 or Shannon building was dedicated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and serves as the administrative center for NIH. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP
NIH cancels ‘Havana syndrome’ research, citing unethical coercion of participants
Sep 1, 2024
The National Institutes of Health said Friday that it is stopping its research of what’s commonly known as Havana syndrome, a mysterious illness experienced by a number of spies, soldiers and diplomats who have reported sudden debilitating symptoms of unknown origin.
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Tobacco buyers under 30 should expect to show ID under new FDA rule
Aug 29, 2024
The US Food and Drug Administration is instituting a rule that will require any retailer that sells tobacco products to check the identification of any tobacco buyers under the age of 30, up from the previous age limit of 27.
Boar's Head meats are displayed at a Safeway store on July 31, 2024 in San Rafael, California.
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Check your fridge: CDC warns against eating recalled deli meat as deadly listeria outbreak expands
Aug 29, 2024
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is reminding the public to avoid eating recalled deli meats amid a listeria outbreak that has expanded to become the nation’s largest since 2011.
TOPSHOT - A person covers their head while trying to stay cool in "The Zone," a vast homeless encampment where hundreds of people reside, during a record heat wave in Phoenix, Arizona on July 18, 2023. Swaths of the United States home to more than 80 million people were under heat warnings or advisories, as relentless, record-breaking temperatures continued to bake western and southern states. In Arizona, state capital Phoenix recorded its 17th straight day above 109 degrees Fahrenheit (43 degrees Celsius), as temperatures hit 113F (45C) Sunday afternoon. (Photo by Patrick T. Fallon / AFP) (Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)
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Heat-related deaths spiked 117% in the US since 1999
Aug 26, 2024
As temperatures reach record levels in many parts of the US this week, emergency rooms bracing for a new normal: More patients are becoming gravely ill because their bodies can’t take the heat.
Jack Titus with Dr. Alexander Movshovich, who performed his color-change procedure.
Courtesy Jack Titus
A quick surgical procedure can permanently change your eye color, but experts warn it’s not without risk
Aug 22, 2024
When he was a kid watching American movies in Thailand, Jack Titus’ one dream was to become an American. After the model made it a reality a few years ago with a move to Las Vegas, he developed a new dream: To look more like an American. And to him, that meant eyes that weren’t dark like his.

About

Jen Christensen is a producer with CNN’s Health, Medical and Wellness Unit. In addition, she produces multi-platform projects and documentaries, primarily for CNN Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta. She also does data analysis and is a reporter for CNN.com.

She has earned the highest awards in broadcasting – including the Peabody and the DuPont – as a producer for CNN’s chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour on the documentary God’s (Jewish) Warriors.

She produced several other award-winning documentaries, including: Soledad O’Brien’s Martin Luther King Jr: Words That Changed a Nation; Black in America: Eyewitness to Murder: The King Assassination; Suzanne Malveaux’s Barack Obama Revealed; Drew Griffin’s Sarah Palin Revealed; and Christiane Amanpour’s Generation Islam.

Prior to CNN, she was an award-winning investigative producer with WSOC-TV in Charlotte, N.C. She launched and managed the award-winning investigative unit at WTVQ-TV, Lexington, K.Y., after working as a show and segment producer. She started her career managing WXIN-TV’s weekend newsroom, where she also worked as an award-winning show and segment producer.

She has also worked as a freelance reporter and photographer for The Advocate, the Atlanta-Journal Constitution, Southern Voice, Sirius OutQ Radio News and others.

Prior to journalism, Christensen worked on nuclear non-proliferation issues in London for NATO’s Atlantic Council and worked at the Chicago Board of Elections. She is a co-author of chapters in two books: Women Public Speakers in the United States, 1925-1993 (Greenwood Press, 1993) and Women Confronting Retirement (Rutgers Press, 2003).

From 2013 - 2018, she has served as the national president of NLGJA, the Association of LGBTQ Journalists and is currently the VP of Digital and Print. Christensen holds a bachelor’s degree in TV/Radio and politics from Butler University and also attended the London School of Economics, where she studied foreign policy and economics. She is currently working on an MFA at Bennington College.