Prerna Mona Khanna

Dr. Prerna Mona Khanna (BSJ87) is a member of the Medill Hall of Achievement.

Khanna is a triple board-certified medical doctor, Emmy award-winning multi-platform medical journalist, and an acclaimed humanitarian and disaster volunteer. She has volunteered her medical skills after numerous natural disasters such as hurricanes, earthquakes, and tsunamis, bringing her overseas aid work to a total of 14 countries.

Khanna was the first physician to report from the frontlines of a disaster site while providing care. This was at Ground Zero in New York City after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. She specializes in print, online and television reporting from sites where she provides medical aid, including from New York after Superstorm Sandy, from Port-au-Prince after the Haiti earthquake, from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, from Indonesia after the Indian Ocean tsunami and from Hong Kong after the SARS epidemic. She has raised health literacy by reporting for Fox 32 Chicago, CBS Dallas Fort Worth and CBS Palm Springs.

For her pioneering work in medicine and media, she was awarded the 2012 Chicago Foundation for Women "Breaking Barriers" Award, the 2010 Illinois Press Reporting Award and the 2005 Illinois State Society Award and has been nominated for six Emmy Awards. For her medical mission work, she has been recognized with the 2013 American College of Physicians Volunteerism Award, the 2012 Institute of Medicine of Chicago Global Health Humanitarian Award, 2008 University of Illinois Alumni Humanitarian Award, 2007 National Association of Minority Media Executives Award of Valor and 2005 Texas Association of Broadcasters Award for Outstanding Valor in the Coverage of News. She is also the only career journalist inducted into the prestigious Institute of Medicine of Chicago and the Delta Omega Public Health Honor Society.