Silhouette of a human head and shoulders.

Ashley Lopez


Ashley Lopez joined KUT in February 2016. She covers politics and health care, and is part of the NPR-Kaiser Health News reporting collaborative. Previously, she worked as a reporter at public radio stations in Louisville, Kentucky, and Miami and Fort Myers, Florida, where she won a National Edward R. Murrow Award for a story about an immigration policy that was failing some undocumented domestic abuse victims. She earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism and political science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

From this contributor

Explore more from The Transmitter

Fiona Sanderson photo illustration.

Creating community through grant support

Fiona Sanderson, a senior program manager at the Brain Canada Foundation, shares how she got into grant administration and how she helps connect researchers with funding and one another.

By Katie Moisse
14 October 2026 | 7 min read
Illustration of the brain processing different shapes.

This paper changed my life: A first glimpse into the ‘middle’ of brain processing

Work by Jeffrey Moran and Robert Desimone showed that monkeys could focus their attention on different stimuli in their visual field without shifting their gaze. Their work marked a key milestone in the emergence of cognitive neuroscience.

By Earl K. Miller
14 October 2026 | 3 min read
Research image of resting-state functional MRI.

Acetaminophen effects on developing brain organoids; and more

Here is a roundup of autism-related news and research spotted around the web for the week of 12 October.

By Jill Adams
13 October 2026 | 1 min read