Jamie Zimmerman – the medical doctor and journalist best known for her work with ABC News – has passed away at the age of 31.
Sources say Zimmerman drowned while vacationing in Hawaii.
“Jamie touched so many of us across ABC News,” wrote network president Goldston in a message to employees. “We will miss her. Jamie had a passion to make the world a better place and help all of us lead better lives.”
In addition to her on-air work at ABC, Zimmerman was a regular contributor to Huffington Post, Yahoo News and PBS.
Though tremendously knowledgeable on the topic of medicine, Zimmerman was also remarkably well-rounded.
She studied anthropology and film at UCLA and got her medical degree from Mount Sinai School of Medicine last year. As a teen, she acted on such popular series as 7th Heaven and Boston Public.
But for all of her accomplishments, family and friends say she was most proud of her work on global health initiatives that recently brought her to the most troubled areas of Haiti and the Congo.
“My little girl was always trying to do too much,” Jamie’s mother wrote on Facebook.
“She wanted to write books and already had a literary agent. She just couldn’t stop taking on more. It’s as if she knew her time was limited and she was trying to fit it all in!”
She added that she hopes her daughter’s life will inspire others to make the world a better place.
