Resume

 

Terri Colby

9601 S. Winchester Ave., Chicago, IL 60643

773-238-7729 terricolby@gmail.com

A communications professional

An award-winning writer and editor, proven project manager and team builder with a depth and breadth of subject matter and journalism experience that’s hard to match. Successful track record in areas ranging from investigative reporting to sports, politics to personal finance and books to travel. Known for being a problem solver and an idea person who adapts easily to new situations.

Experience

Chicago Tribune

1995-2009

• Sought after as an editor who helps struggling writers and is able to shape a story and focus a writing assignment to have impact.

 

• Especially skilled at encouraging a collaborative environment where colleagues with varying responsibilities and skill levels are successful as a team.

 

• Successful at analyzing complicated public policy issues and translating bureaucratese into concise and clear language for broad audiences.

 

• Known for mentoring new writers, helping them develop their craft and shape their work to produce compelling and focused stories.

 

Travel, assistant editor  2008-2009

• Recruited to join the Travel section in a time of diminishing resources when skilled editing help was crucial to putting the team on a more successful path.

 

• Produced well-regarded Travel cover stories and inside pieces, including cover photography, while successfully meeting expanding editing demands on Travel section and elsewhere in Features and Metro.

 

• Developed long-range thematic story ideas and managed shorter-range organizational projects that helped improve efficiency and contributed to the Travel section’s appeal to readers and advertisers.

 

Books, assistant editor  2005-2008

• Managed the annual Printers Row Book Fair special sections needing input from many departments under tight deadlines against competing interests. Unsolicited response was overwhelmingly positive.

 

• Created the Chicago Connections column of quick-hit local book reviews and wrote other longer reviews while producing the weekly Books section.

 

• Developed a database of Books section reviews at  chicagotribune.com to allow readers to easily find authors and book titles.

 

Terri Colby

• Balanced the interests of four authors as moderator of a discussion on travel writing before an especially large audience at the Printers Row Book Fair.

 

• Successfully assumed payment responsibilities for the Books section following a colleague’s abrupt departure.

 

Business, assistant editor on New Homes, Your Money, Transportation  1998-2005

• Created a weekly Page 1 New Homes feature called Favorite Things that drew hundreds of reader responses and grew into a longer cover story.

 

• Managed the New Homes section nearly single-handedly for several months when a coworker was on medical leave.

 

Sports, copy editor  1995-1998

• Succeeded in adapting news editing skills to sports journalism and was recognized as a quick learner and versatile and collaborative worker.

 

Other professional experience

Associated Press: As a government and political reporter in Springfield, Ill., covered budget crises, school reform, tax increases, tort reform, seat belt debates and many other issues. Traveled with the campaigns of Adlai Stevenson III and Paul Simon, among others. Covered Bill Clinton in Little Rock, Ark., then the youngest governor in the U.S. Served as Southern Illinois correspondent.

Minneapolis Star Tribune:  Copy editor on Metro, National/Foreign and Business desks.

Public Health Issues: As an independent contractor, worked on the Illinois Secretary of State’s organ donor awareness program in 1991 and served as an editor for the Illinois State Medical Society in 1996.

Northwestern University: Adjunct lecturer, beginning in 2009, at Medill School of Journalism working with graduate students who are producing stories for the Medill News Service.

Education

B.S. in Journalism from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

M.S. in Public Affairs Reporting from Sangamon State University, now UIS, at Springfield

Professional affiliations and awards

 

Member, Association for Women Journalists

Member, Society of American Travel Writers

Winner, Peter Lisagor Award for series on lobbyists in Illinois government