About Me

What others say about me and my work:

‘Powerful writing as strong and inspiring as the writer‘ – Lyse Doucet, BBC Chief International Correspondent

Hannah Storm has that rarest of all qualities. When she stands to speak, she stands not only as an expert but also — vitally — as a vulnerable, brilliant, brave woman. – Amy Selwyn, former Managing Director, News Xchange

Hannah Storm led a powerful session on self-care and wellness for our entire team in August 2021. Chalkbeat’s journalists could relate to her personal experiences, and everyone benefited from the discussion about self-care. During a period of significant local, national, and global challenges, Hannah helped our team address complicated issues and opened up a conversation that we needed to have.
— Jennifer Bramble, Chief People Officer, Chalkbeat

Hannah is a natural leader with rich experience as a fighter for the rights of journalists
– Aidan White, Founder of Ethical Journalism Network

[Hannah is] one of the most powerful writers I have encountered on this [mental health] topic. She writes about personal experience, but she is also brilliant at showing how this is something that affects the industry, and all journalists, and action needs to be taken if we are going to function properly.
– Meera Selva, Director, Journalism Fellowship Program, Reuters Institute

Hannah did a good job of teasing out insights from our team as well as offering her own. Her advice was simple but sophisticated.– Pam Fine, Regional Manager, Report for America.

I am a media expert, award-winning writer and speaker, passionate about mental health, media safety, gender and ethics.

My international expertise, extensive contacts and empathy enable me to facilitate connections across the news industry and support others.

My experiences have shaped and inspired my fiction and non-fiction. My writing has won the ‘I Must Be Off!’ travel writing competition, placed second at the Bath Flash Fiction Award, been named in Best Microfictions and in the BIFFY 50.  My memoir, ‘Aftershocks’ was shortlisted in the 2020 Mslexia life-writing and memoir award and my debut flash collection, ‘The Thin Line Between Everything and Nothing’ is published by Reflex Fiction. I now also offer writing workshops.

I have been a journalist for two decades, most recently as the Director and CEO of the Ethical Journalism Network, as well as a media consultant specialising in gender-based violence and gender sensitive reporting. I am an experienced moderator, public speaker, and panellist.

As the former director of the International News Safety Institute (INSI), I established a vital physical and virtual safety network for its members, which included some of the world’s most best known news organisations. I convened this network -which included Reuters, Agence France-Press, the BBC, CNN, Globo and NHK – and competing media houses share good practice and solutions to some of the most important security challenges of recent times.

I am the co-author of The Emotional Toll on Journalists Covering the Refugee Crisis and The Kidnapping of Journalists: Reporting from High Risk Conflict Zones, both written for the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford and No Woman’s Land: On the Frontlines with Female Reporters, published by INSI, which explores the unique safety issues for women working in the media.

I began my career as a graduate trainee for Reuters, and have worked for some of the world’s most well-respected news organisations as both an employee and freelancer. These include the BBC, The Times, ITN. I have also worked for Oxfam in their media department.

As a media consultant, I have designed training and curriculums for UN agencies and institutions including Poynter, and have delivered teaching to journalists online and in person across the world. I speak Spanish and French and understand several other languages.

I have also learned the language of mental health through my experiences in journalism and my personal experiences and as a survivor of trauma and sexual assault, I have found a way to share my story of mental ill health to support others who are not yet able to do so. I am the founder and co-director of Headlines Network, a community aimed at promoting more open conversations about mental health in journalism. As a marathon runner, I am also aware of the importance of wellbeing, resilience and recovery and I am a passionate supporter of recognising that being well allows us to do our journalism well.