Des Moines attorney Roxanne Conlin (left), with her client, Sarah Dudley in February 2023. Conlin took on a medical malpractice case filed by Sarah and her husband, Joe, after a physician’s assistant at an urgent care clinic misdiagnosed Joe with the flu when he had bacterial meningitis. The infection caused permanent brain damage. A jury awarded the Dudleys $27 million in non-economic damages.

Sara Willette, an independent data tracker, runs a website with COVID-19 information out of her home in Ames, Iowa in Sept. 2020. She has a rare immunodeficiency that makes her more susceptible to the coronavirus.

Aaron Goodenbour, Kip Ladage, Steve Hill and Jim Shutte work as emergency medical technicians in Bremer County, Iowa in February 2019. EMS is not considered essential under Iowa law, which means an ambulance isn't guaranteed.

Francesca Turner, an OB/GYN at Broadlawns Medical Center in Des Moines, sits next to her patient Kimbrly Orea Badillo after her first postpartum appointment in June 2023. Orea Badillo says she relies on Medicaid to be able to cover things like pain medication for her C-section and contraceptives following the birth of her second child in May.

Jacqueline Brock of West Des Moines, Iowa, in May 2024 said she and her husband, James, are concerned about what to do with an embryo created through IVF following a bill in Iowa that would give fetuses rights generally associated with people.

Jon Miller sits with his dog, Carlos, in his West Des Moines, Iowa home in April 2022. Miller had a stroke more than a decade ago as the result of advanced testicular cancer. A shortage of home health aides means Miller may have to move out of the home he purchased before his diagnosis.

Bethany Gates types medical notes on her iPad following a prenatal appointment at her office in Vinton, Iowa, in March 2022. Gates is a certified professional midwife and has been pushing Iowa lawmakers to pass legislation to license CPMs.

Sara Konrad Baranowski, the managing editor at the Cedar Rapids Gazette, in her office in October 2023.

Catherine Hillestad, the CEO of Adair County Memorial Hospital in Greenfield, stands in the medical-surgical unit in August 2024. A tornado in May damaged the entire hospital, shutting it down for months for repairs.

University of Iowa Psychiatry Resident Desire Christensen plays with toy dinosaurs she uses to explain complex brain functions to young clients in June 2019. Christensen is one of just a handful of Iowans studying child and adolescent psychiatry. The state has a shortage with psychiatrists in just 14 of 99 counties.

Polk County, Iowa, resident Brenton Harmison in a Des Moines hospital room in October 2021. He says he didn't get the COVID-19 vaccine because he didn't think he'd get so sick.

Ann Breeding of Bondurant, Iowa, in June 2024. She founded Steps of Hope after her son, Daniel, died of an overdose in 2020.

Eighth grade language arts teacher Andrea Ward in her suburban Des Moines classroom in August 2020. Ward spent the summer preparing her classroom to welcome back students during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Victoria Julio, 14, at the shooting range near her Leander, Texas home in July 2014. Julio, a junior member of A Girl and A Gun shooting club, competes in shooting competitions.

Amner Martinez is in his office in Des Moines in November 2021. He grew up in Perry, Iowa, after his family moved from Guatemala. Many of Martinez's family member work in the Perry Tyson plant and got sick from COVID-19.

Kelly Dejoode watches her son Jaxon in her Jasper County home in March 2020. Dejoode fell off Iowa "childcare cliff" meaning she lost her government assistance when she got a small raise at her job and would have to pay hundreds more for daycare a month. It forced her to quit to look for a lower paying job.

Molly in Voyagers National Park in northern Minnesota in February 2022.

Josie Shaw is a Swahili interpreter who lives in Clive, Iowa, in March 2021. She makes videos for refugees with COVID-19 information.

James and Betty Laird of Groves, Texas celebrated their 70th anniversary on Christmas Eve in 2016. The two met as teenagers in rural Mississippi and married when Betty was 17, and James was 20--a move that required their parents' permission.

Di Daniels and Emilia Marroquin, in September 2021, are members of SALUD, a community health group in Storm Lake, Iowa. Their group works with many meatpacking workers one of Iowa's most diverse communities.

Shannon Zoffka, the director of the Tama County, Iowa, public health department, watches over the county's first COVID-19 vaccine clinic in Feb. 2021.