As a leader in research, patient care and special education for children with special needs, Kennedy Krieger Institute’s experts and remarkable patients and families often garner media attention. At Kennedy Krieger, our media relations staff is a team seasoned communications professionals who welcome inquiries from local, national and international media.

Our staff can assist with scheduling expert and patient interviews, providing photo/video assets, and answering questions about news releases, events, and programs at the Institute. Journalists should honor the guidelines below when pursuing an interview by phone or with any recording device (camera, video camera, audio equipment).

Contact Information

For all media inquiries, please email us at media@kennedykrieger.org or contact our team directly:

Director of Communications

Elise Welker (welker@kennedykrieger.org)
Phone: 443-923-7338

Communications Coordinator

Jennifer Burke (burkeJ@kennedykrieger.org)
Phone: 443-923-7329

AVP of Marketing and Public Relations

Bryan Stark
Department Phone: 443-923-7330

Media Guidelines

• All interviews or background conversations must be scheduled through the media relations staff.
• On-site interviews require advance notice to allow time for notifying appropriate staff, departments, patients and families.
• To ensure patient and family privacy, journalists must be accompanied by a member of the media relations team when on the grounds of Kennedy Krieger campuses.
• Journalists are asked to refer to the institution by its full and accurate name, Kennedy Krieger Institute. Kennedy Krieger is acceptable on second reference.

Patient Privacy

Protecting the health, welfare, privacy and legal rights of our patients is the first priority of Kennedy Krieger Institute.

In accordance with the privacy rules of the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA), medical status and/or information on Kennedy Krieger patients will not be released without prior written consent from the patient, parent, guardian or legal representative.

Kennedy Krieger does not grade patients based on the American Hospital Association scale; therefore, faculty and staff cannot provide general patient condition information as provided by other hospitals.

It is against our policy for anyone from the media to directly approach a patient or patient’s family while at Kennedy Krieger without prior authorization from the media relations team.