Before joining UCSF in 2004 to work with Dean David Kessler, the former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Doug Levy spent two decades covering science, health, medicine and technology for a variety of broadcast and print media. His investigative reporting garnered numerous awards, including a Peabody in 1987.

As medical reporter for USA Today from 1993 to 1999, he covered the tobacco industry, medical ethics, general health news and medical research. Previously, he was science editor at the UPI wire service and served in various capacities at National Public Radio, the Mutual Broadcasting System and the NBC Radio Networks, among others. In 1988–1989, he was assistant director in the office of public affairs at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions in Baltimore, where he produced a daily radio medical news report that was syndicated nationally. In that capacity, he also produced Report on Medicine for WCBS-FM in New York.

He studied science reporting at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, where he earned a master’s degree. In addition, he has a degree in health law from the University of Maryland and a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of California, Berkeley. He is admitted to practice law in Maryland and served more than eight years as a volunteer firefighter and emergency medical technician in Howard County, Maryland.