Rhonda Rowland
It’s something we all have in common: A medical or health trial. If it’s not our own, it may be someone we love, a close friend, a neighbor a co-worker. What do we do when it happens? We search for answers. Support. Encouragement.
My passion is telling stories about health challenges and medical advances and how they impact and change people’s lives. My professional specialty is culling through the research and talking to experts to find answers. My goal is to share accurate and engaging health and medical information with the public for their times of need.
Do you have a story that needs to be told? Let me help you.
Telling Your Story
Talent * Video Production * Writing * Content Development
On-camera. Voice-over. I can do both.
My television reporting career began in 1991 when I recorded the voice-over for a story I produced about the doctor who wrote the book that the film Doc Hollywood was based on. A year later I shot my first on-camera stand-up and reported as a CNN medical correspondent for the next decade. Since 2002 I’ve provided voice-over and on-camera talent for clients ranging from academia and the pharmaceutical industry to web-based and hospital-based video outlets.
In Each Voice Counts: The Experts I recorded the introductory voice-over and was the on-camera talent. My client’s goal is to explain through the voices of oncology experts the reality of treating women who are living with advanced breast cancer.
Research. Identify interviewees. Field produce. Scripting. I can do it all.
My career in video production began in 1986 when an associate producer job opened up in the CNN Medical News Unit. I learned the process of putting a video report together that combined medical facts with story telling. How do you get your audience’s attention? With the human element. Compelling stories of people overcoming their health challenges and who have been changed for the better. Add in factual medical information and you change lives.
My client, Everwell TV needed an event covered and the script written quickly. There wasn’t time for advance research or planning. We had only one day to shoot. I would meet my potential interviewees when I arrived on location and decide then where we’d do our interviews. The topic was exciting: kids living with heart disease who were given the gift of being “normal” for a day at Camp Braveheart. For years I reported from the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology annual conferences. I had the honor of being the first broadcast journalist awarded with the American Heart Association’s Lifetime Achievement award in reporting. My medical background freed me up to focus on the people. The story telling.
Writing a video script. Writing for the web. I can write what you need.
A young working woman made the altruistic decision to donate one of her kidneys to a male co-worker. A living organ donation between friends. In 1986 this was rare. I felt the story should be told on CNN and no one was available to report it. So I did. It was the first of thousands of video scripts I’d write and it’s one I’ll never forget.
CNN Digital launched in 1995. From that point on reporters were asked to write web versions of their on-air reports. What fun! Some of the insightful information I couldn’t fit into a 2-minute video story but was important to tell could be shared on the web. That’s what happened with this story about a woman who changed the face of medicine:
Click on this link to download the article (178 KB)
CNN – Death and dying pioneer may have personal lessons to offer – March 26, 1999
There are similarities in writing for both mediums. Simple language. Varied sentences. Short paragraphs. Conversational style. Skip unnecessary words. Avoid jargon.
One of the most memorable scripts I wrote for WebMD is this story on macular degeneration. It’s part of a series of videos WebMD asked me to produce and write over several years on various topics in ophthalmology for its Eye TV channel:
For thirty years I’ve written about transplantation. When the Wilson Disease Association asked for someone to write its web page on Transplantation, it was a no brainer.
Multimedia websites. Patient education outlets. YouTube channels. Medical news TV.
Endless possibilities!
It’s mind boggling that in my lifetime we’ve gone from three major television networks to video outlets too varied and numerous to count. With my experience I can create video content for all these services.
I’ve hosted broadcasts for services created solely for medical conference attendees, town hall meetings, medical education and news conferences connecting participants on different continents. I’ve created videos that combine expert and patient sound bites with narration…videos of conversations between me and the people affected by a particular health condition…videos told through the voices of those who have the story to tell.
I consider it a privilege that former CNN President & CEO Tom Johnson entrusted me to capture his personal story of struggling with depression and thoughts of suicide for a health information website:
The first opportunity to share my former boss’s personal struggle of coming to terms with his depression came when he went public about his mental illness while we were both at CNN:
Click to view the CNN.com Article
Clients:
My company’s clients cover an exciting spectrum of medical and health information services. All are committed to educating the public and improving overall health and wellbeing.
I enjoy partnering with my clients to offer the experience and skills needed to reach their communication and production goals. In some cases, the collaboration is between my client and theirs to create the ideal team. Below are some of the clients I’ve had the pleasure of working with.
