Resumé

Professional Experience

I am a writer and editor with twenty-five years experience and a wide range of interests and expertise including but not limited to: urbanism, Midwest history and culture, urbanism, feminism, food and cooking, urban agriculture, and books and publishing.

Freelance Writer

  • Author of the critically acclaimed Soup & Bread Cookbook: Building Community One Pot at a Time (Agate Publishing, 2011)
  • Journalist and critic published in the Chicago Reader, the Chicago Reporter, Crain’s Chicago Business, Buzzfeed, Eater, the Rumpus, the Baffler, and San Juan’s Centro de Periodismo Investigativo, among other outlets.
  • City Bureau team leader (2017)
  • Social Justice News Nexus fellow (2015)
  • Contributing writer for the Chicago Community Trust website (2016-present)

 Editorial Work

  • Senior editor for Belt Publishing (2016-present)
  • Anthology editor: Rust Belt Chicago: An Anthology (2017), Red State Blues: Tales of Midwestern Life on the Left (2018), and The Chicago Neighborhood Guidebook (2019)
  • Managing editor, South Side Weekly (2020-present)
  • Editor in chief, Belt Magazine (2014-2016)
  • Sunday essays editor, The Rumpus (2014-2016)
  • Associate managing editor, Plate (2012-2014)
  • Copy editor, Chicago Tribune (2010-2012)
  • Senior Editor, Chicago Reader (1998-2007)

Project Management

I have organized and managed many public events, from Soup & Bread benefits for more than 300 people to large-scale theatrical projects involving multiple stakeholders and logistics across disciplines.

Teaching and Public Speaking

Staff: I teach undergraduate Magazine Writing in the Communications program at Columbia College Chicago.

Guest lecturer: Northwestern University School of Continuing Studies, Harold Washington College, Young Chicago Authors.

Speaker: I have given numerous public talks on books and publishing, as well as on food and community building, and have been a guest on many radio programs, as well as on podcasts, TV, and (lately) Zoom.

Education

Oberlin College, BA in philosophy 1990

References available on request.