Felice J. Freyer

Felice J. Freyer covers health care and medicine, seeking out the human stories behind medical science and policy. She joined the Globe in 2014, arriving just as the opioid crisis was unfolding in Massachusetts. Freyer wrote about how opioids destroyed lives, but also how fear of opioids was harming people with chronic pain. In a nine-part series that ran periodically in 2017 and 2018, she revealed the failures of addiction treatment and showed how some people nevertheless find their path to recovery. When the pandemic struck, Freyer embedded at a hospital coping with the crisis, followed a Boston woman’s slow progress from ICU to home, and exposed the plight of those with “long covid.” In a story years in the making, in September 2023 Freyer described how a revolutionary new drug for cystic fibrosis brought health and longer lives, but not without complications and sorrows.

Before the Globe, Freyer was the medical writer at the Providence (R.I.) Journal, where she was honored as “Master Reporter” by the New England Society of Newspaper Editors. Her series chronicling a burn victim’s recovery after the notorious Station fire was part of a package selected as a Pulitzer finalist.

Long active with the 1,400-member Association of Health Care Journalists, Freyer has served as its president since 2021. She also does her part to educate and support journalists-to-be, working as an affiliated faculty member at Emerson College.

Follow her on X and Threads: @felicejfreyer