Believe it or not, most writers aren’t very comfortable writing about themselves, at least not the ones I know.
But here goes: I’m Julie Anderson, the new editor of UNMC Today. I recently joined the UNMC Department of Strategic Communications after spending all but one of the last 38 years as a reporter for the Omaha World-Herald.
During that time, I have told stories from across Nebraska and western Iowa, most concentrated in the Omaha metro area. I have covered a wide range of what reporters call “beats,” including water, the environment, utilities and most recently medical and health topics and development issues in Omaha.
In fact, my name may ring a bell for some on campus. I reported extensively on the coronavirus pandemic. I was extremely grateful during that time that I was able to call on UNMC experts to provide life-saving information to our readers, recognizing that they were also going out into the community to provide that kind of guidance to schools, packing plants and nursing homes.
More recently, I have written about the quarantine of cruise ship passengers potentially exposed to the Andes hantavirus at the National Quarantine Unit, UNMC’s expansion and plans for Project Health, as well as the change in governance for UNMC’s partner, Nebraska Medicine. (You also can ask me about the future Buc-ees in Gretna and the planned soccer stadium in North Downtown.)
In fact, I’ve been reading UNMC Today every weekday morning for years, looking for interesting health and medical news and trends to write about. Now I’m excited to dig into more stories about UNMC and the people who make it work.
As UNMC Today’s editor, I’ll be responsible for curating the daily newsletter and will write articles from around the campus. In that, I’m following in the able footsteps of Jeff Robb. While I’m not the expert you all are, I have a longstanding interest in science and medicine, and my mom and three of her sisters were RNs. Three of them actually worked together in the same small central Minnesota hospital.
Although I’m a Minnesota native and have the cross country skis to prove it, I have been a Nebraskan nearly twice as long. My husband, Jeff Beiermann, is a former World-Herald photographer and community development director in Blair. We have two sons, both Eagle Scouts and graduates of Omaha Central and UNL. We also have two English Springer Spaniel dogs, and I can’t wait to meet K9 Ares on campus. Outside of work, I enjoy running (mostly!) and reading, and we are original members of the Dundee Community Garden.
I’m looking forward to sharing your stories. If you have an idea for a story, reach out through this link.