Kathy Ritchie

Kathy Ritchie's picture
Senior Field Correspondent - Tempe

Kathy Ritchie has 20 years of experience reporting and writing stories for national and local media outlets -- nearly a decade of it has been spent in public media.

Most recently, she was the health and caregiving editor at Next Avenue, a national digital publication geared toward people 50-plus. While there, she oversaw a team of contributors, identified opportunities for new feature stories and series, and oversaw the completion of the 2021 John A. Hartford Foundation grant, one of Next Avenue’s largest active grants to date. Ritchie was also responsible for Next Avenue's 2022 series entitled Aging with Disabilities in America. Next Avenue is part of the Twin Cities PBS system.

Ritchie has spent most of her public media career in radio as a senior field correspondent at NPR member station, KJZZ in Phoenix. While there, Ritchie was responsible for the station’s largest newsroom collaboration, a 10-part series The State of Aging in the Valley. She also pitched and produced a four-part podcast, The Recovering Caregiver, based on her own personal experience with her mother who had frontotemporal degeneration (FTD) and what life is like after dementia. The final episode was nominated for a Regional Edward R. Murrow Award.

Her latest podcast aims to set the record straight when it comes to menopause. Period, The End (But Not Really) debuted in September 2023.

Over the years, Ritchie has reported on the challenges facing LGBT elders, the topic of aging and intimacy, senior homelessness, ambiguous loss and grief, grandfamilies, and what it means to age in our society. Many of these stories have aired on NPR’s national magazine show, Here & Now.

And throughout the Coronavirus pandemic, Ritchie reported on the myriad challenges facing families, older adults and caregivers. That work led her to create a miniseries called, Caring in Crisis, in which she documented the experiences of “the helpers.”

Besides her professional experience in the aging space, Ritchie wrote about her mother’s journey living with dementia in a blog

Ritchie got her start in television at ABC News and later at FOX News in New York City.

Title Author(s) Publication Date
Dementia Friendly Tempe lecture series features geropsychologist Kathy Ritchie March 25, 2024
AG asking court to take control of assisted living facility Kathy Ritchie March 24, 2024
New report: 11% of Arizonans age 65 and older are living with Alzheimer's Kathy Ritchie March 20, 2024
Survey: Support for same-sex marriage, other LGTBQ+ protections has declined Kathy Ritchie March 20, 2024
Nonbinary teen's death was ruled a suicide. Arizona advocate says it's murder Kathy Ritchie March 19, 2024
Bill to define memory care is in Arizona Senate after bill on long-term care cameras fails Kathy Ritchie March 19, 2024
Survey says nursing homes don't have enough staff Kathy Ritchie March 11, 2024
Bill would set staff training hours for memory care Kathy Ritchie March 5, 2024
Arizona advocate: LGBTQ+ youths are scared after death of Oklahoma nonbinary teen Kathy Ritchie March 5, 2024
Meet the team that delivers health care to homeless patients on the streets of Phoenix Kathy Ritchie March 11, 2024
Women who experience homelessness struggle to access menstrual products Kathy Ritchie Feb. 27, 2024
More and more people under age 18 are identifying as unpaid family caregivers Kathy Ritchie Feb. 27, 2024
Teen girls experience higher rates of sexual violence compared to male peers Kathy Ritchie Feb. 18, 2024
Lawmakers take up long-term care bills Kathy Ritchie Feb. 19, 2024
Many older middle-income earners, called 'the forgotten middle,' can't afford long-term care Kathy Ritchie Feb. 19, 2024
A bill that defines memory care is moving through the Legislature Kathy Ritchie Feb. 16, 2024
Goodyear skilled nursing facility fined after resident alleges she was raped, impregnated Kathy Ritchie Feb. 9, 2024
Another push to get kinship foster families more money to care for kids Kathy Ritchie Feb. 9, 2024
Senior center aims to reduce isolation in Latinos Kathy Ritchie Feb. 12, 2024
The cost of long-term care could squeeze millions of middle-income Americans into poverty Kathy Ritchie Feb. 13, 2024
Immigrants are key to Arizona long-term care workforce, says head of health association Kathy Ritchie Feb. 5, 2024
Doctors trained in other countries could soon practice medicine in Arizona Kathy Ritchie Feb. 2, 2024
High schooler helps get period poverty bill moving through AZ Legislature Kathy Ritchie Feb. 2, 2024
1 in 5 women deaths are from heart attacks. Their symptoms are not obvious Kathy Ritchie Jan. 30, 2024
LGBTQ organization receives $1.9M to serve more homeless youth Kathy Ritchie Jan. 29, 2024

Pages