Newspaper experience
Greensboro News & Record, Greensboro, NC (1990-2010)
Investigative / Enterprise Team Reporter
Major initiatives included homeless refugees, financial problems at Greensboro College; the unraveling of North Carolina’s state mental health reform; the erosion of the Outer Banks, alleged misuse of power within the Greensboro Police Department; lead poisoning in tenements, stories that led to a lead paint ordinance.
Award-winning metro columnist: chosen as the state’s top metro columnist four times. 1997-2009.
Read some examples of her work here.
Multimedia expertise: for the newspaper’s first Website, designed and produced the first interactive project, “East Market Memories,” a digital recreation of the old black business district in Greensboro, and led a company training session based on the project.
Major news initiatives included:
• A series written from Europe in 1997 on the Americanization of Western Europe,
• The impact on French and German public opinion of the concurrent trial of Klaus Barbee and the publication of “Hitler’s Willing Executioners.”
• A series on the impact of the World Trade Center bombings on New York, and
• The last hours of United Flight 93
• The serialized story of the child celebrity advertising phenomenon, “The Fultz Quads” of the 1950s.
• An original research project on the gay purge of 1957, featured on “Andrew’s Blog.’
Our State Magazine (Current)
Freelance Contributor
Read a sample of her work here.
The New York Times (2008-2009)
Freelance Contributor
Stringer on contract to the National Desk for North Carolina news stories
The Annapolis Capital (1985-1989)
Investigative Reporter, Projects writer for PM/Sunday in state capital
Radio experience
NPR WFDD (88.5) Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC (2006-Present)
Regular contributor of human interest, humor and slice-of-life topics ranging from the story of a longtime homeless man to nature essays to the macro economics of a neighborhood lemonade stand and the dubious joy of Irish cooking.
Recent radio work employed an experimental convergent method of newspaper writing for radio, using a new narrative column voice that can be applied to both print and audio with a one-step edit, eliminating the need for adaptation; frequent appearances on 91.5 (WUNC) “The State of Things,” “Murphy in the Morning,” WFMY-TV, WGHP-TV, FOX-8 News.”
Listen to Lorraine discuss her career as a metro columnist on “The State of Things” with Frank Stasio here.
Listen to Lorraine discuss promoting a winter fundraiser for a homeless day center during a cold weather emergency on “State of Things” here.
Honors:
Casey Journalism Medal for Distinguished Commentary on Family and Child Welfare
First place (’02;) honorable mention (’06.)
North Carolina Press Association
Metro Daily Division: Serious columns, First place, (’09, ’08, ’03. ’99) second place, (’05, 01;) Features, Second place, ’09) News Enterprise second place (’07) for Outer Banks series; News feature, first place, (’02) for multimedia series, “The Fultz Quads;” Profile-writing, third place (’09) Humor columns, third place (’06)
Maryland-Delaware-D.C. Press Association
Best-In-Show, Public Service (’89,) for project writing cited in Carl Sessions Stepp’s textbook, The Magic and Craft of Media Writing.
Associated Press
Mark Twain Award, Investigative Reporting (’89;) Best Feature (’87.) Runner-up for Thomas Wolfe Award for Best N.C. Newspaper Story, (’07, ’06, ’91)
Maryland Bar Association
First place Gavel Award for Court Coverage (’89)
Professional Training
Vocal Training (for Radio Broadcasting) 2006
Marsha Paludan, University of North Carolina Greensboro Theatre Department
Knight Center for Specialized Journalism, College Park, MD 1995
Seminar in Ethnic Affairs
National Press Club, Washington DC 1994
Campaign Finance Symposium
Poynter Institute, Tampa, FL 1992-94
Narrative Writing; Investigative Reporting
Publishing, Journal and Public Relations Experience
Cold Type Press 2009-present
Owner and operator of small independent publishing company in Greensboro, NC; published and marketed hardback titles, The Man Who Became Santa Claus, and Other Winter Tales in 2010; The Anxious Hipster and Other Barflies I’ve Known, 2011.
American Journalism 2010-present
Assistant to editor of quarterly scholarly publication of the American Journalism Historians Association; responsible for assisting in editing manuscripts and coordinating production.
Southeast Alliance for Clean Energy (current)
Grant writing for non-profit educational energy cooperative to produce a documentary film educating the public on the benefits of biomass fuel.
