Adele Baleta

Adele Baleta is an award-winning independent science writer and editor with over 30 years experience. She has worked in radio and as a writer in South Africa for several prestigious publications. She has been an international correspondent for the Lancet stable of medical journals for over 25 years. As principal author she was published in the peer reviewed journal Vaccine. Baleta has contributed to documentary filmmaking on water resources (for U.S. public television) and infectious diseases (for Italian television). Passionate about making science accessible to the public, she has facilitated training for scientists and journalists. She was the lead facilitator for the World Federation of Science Journalists infectious disease workshops for radio journalists in Sierre Leone, Liberia (following the Ebola crisis) and later in Kenya. She is working on e-learning materials for the project. She devised and taught the first science journalism honors course at Pretoria University and has run courses for the Institute for the Advancement of Journalism in writing, subediting, and science journalism. Baleta has developed communication training materials and facilitated workshops worldwide for the WHO’s Vaccines and Biologicals unit since 1999 for over 100 countries. Her last mission was to the Philippines, where she piloted an e-Library on vaccine safety communication. She has facilitated media workshops for the South Africa Agency for Science and Technology Advancement, the National Science and Technology Forum, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the Vaccines for Africa Initiative and SA TB vaccine Initiative and others. A University of Cape Town and Rhodes University graduate, Baleta has an M.Phil. degree in science and technology journalism from the University of Stellenbosch. In 2013, she was the South Africa candidate for WFSJ president. She is a former South Africa Science Journalist Association (Sasja) regional representative and was on the Western Cape Committee for the SA Freelancers’ Association.