About the Author

 
 

In a writing career of more than 25 years, Patricia Meisol has often profiled women who take extraordinary action to change their lives and the world around them. 

Among her portraits is that of a woman diagnosed with chronic fatigue who discovered she had an operable brain malformation; her story helped thousands of other misdiagnosed patients obtain the same cure. Another narrative traced the life of a 21-year-old woman up through the afternoon she fatally shot her father. It led hundreds of readers to share stories of imprisonment and sexual abuse and demand better child protection laws. The woman was never prosecuted. Patricia’s investigation of student loan fraud, prompted by young women victims of unscrupulous schools, led to federal racketeering charges and jail for school and bank officials.

Patricia’s portfolio also includes extensive reporting on the business and delivery of health care and the people and institutions that provide it. She is the winner of national writing awards for reporting on health, race and higher education, and victims of violence, and is a five-time nominee for the Pulitzer Prize.

A former feature writer and business reporter for the Baltimore Sun and a staff writer covering higher education and criminal courts for the St. Petersburg Times, her long-form narratives also have been published in the New York Times, Washington Post, and other media. After leaving journalism in 2005, she earned a master’s degree from the University of Maryland School of Public Policy and for five years developed health care finance policy for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid.