Sara Willa Ernst is a reporter with The Cancer Letter. She joined the publication in 2025.
Before joining The Cancer Letter, Sara reported on health in Texas both as a freelance journalist based in Austin and the health reporter at the NPR station in Houston, where she produced two investigative podcasts "Hot Stops" and "Below the Waterlines." The latter won her two regional Murrow awards in 2023.
Her bylines have appeared in publications such as NPR, The Texas Standard, WHYY's The Pulse, WBUR's Here and Now, Austin Free Press and the Austin Chronicle.
She graduated from Vanderbilt University with a bachelor's degree in Communications Studies in 2018.
