Rick Berke

Rick Berke is the co-founder and executive editor of STAT, a media company that has become an important voice in the coverage of health and medicine, and has received multiple national journalism awards every year since its founding in 2015. After being the first to break the COVID-19 story in January 2020, STAT became a go-to source for information during the pandemic with over 26 million visitors in March 2020 alone.

Berke got his start as a reporter for the Baltimore Evening Sun and then spent the bulk of his career at the New York Times, where he was chief political correspondent, covering several beats, including Congress, the White House and national drug policy. As an editor, for many years he organized the Times' daily news coverage as assistant managing editor for news. He was also assistant managing editor for features, as well as Washington editor, national editor, political editor, and video content editor. Before launching STAT, he was the executive editor of Politico.

Berke was a longtime board member of the Institute of Politics at Harvard, and a visiting lecturer at Harvard's Kennedy School. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2023. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan and Columbia University School of Journalism.