I've been an editor since 1996, as long as I've been a reporter and writer.
From 2019 to 2021, I served as Senior Editor of Investigations and Projects, at KPCC, L.A.’s leading NPR member station and its website LAist.com. In this role, I led a small team of investigative reporters on high-stakes radio and web stories; edited or consulted on investigative or deep-dive narratives with other reporters in the newsroom and freelancers; helped plan newsroom strategy as a member of the editorial management team; and acted as a point-person on collaborations with other news outlets, including the Beacon Project at USC/Annenberg's journalism school. While at KPCC/LAist, I was also the editor on California City, a multi-episode narrative podcast. During the pandemic, I worked on a lot of daily news, including breaking stories of public interest.
Before my time at KPCC/LAist, I freelance-edited a couple of stories for 5280 (Denver's city magazine) and Matter (RIP), one of which became the source material for a segment for Last Week Tonight With John Oliver. In 2010 I did a late-round edit of Tracy Ross’s well-received memoir, The Source of All Things (Free Press/Simon & Schuster).
From 2006 to 2008 I was articles editor at Denver’s 5280 magazine, where I assigned and edited several departments and features each month, and top-edited the front-of-book and some service packages. One package I edited won the 2007 City and Regional Magazine Award in Leisure Interests, and a handful of articles I edited were CRMA finalists.
From 2003 to 2006 I was executive editor at Boulder, Colorado-based Skiing magazine, where I edited the front-of-the-book, features, and service packages, top-edited a substantial portion of the magazine, and wrote when time allowed.
While freelancing from 1998 to 2003, I was editor-in-chief of a custom-published magazine called No Boundaries.
I started my career in fall of 1995 as an intern at New York City’s PAPER magazine. A few months later I moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, to be an editorial intern at Outside, where I wound up spending two years as a junior editor.
Recent Editing/Editorial Consulting
Investigative/Enterprise
Yu, Elly and Mendelson, Aaron. Immediate Jeopardy: Death and Neglect Inside a Troubled Nursing Home Chain, April 6, 2021, KPCC/LAist
Mendelson, Aaron. Stuck: Deceit, Disrepair and Death Inside a Southern California Rental Empire, February 12, 2020, KPCC/LAist *Winner of IRE, OJA, and Loeb awards*
Wang, Yingjie. Neither Human Nor Ghost: Chinese Immigrants Scrape By In San Gabriel Valley’s Boarding Houses, March 11, 2020, KPCC/LAist
Shatkin, Elina. Former Staffers Accuse Owner Of Cafe Stella In Silver Lake Of Sexual Harassment, September 4, 2019, KPCC/LAist
Breaking/Exclusive
Yu, Elly. Immigrant Detainees At Adelanto Say Officers Pepper Sprayed Them For Peacefully Protesting, June 22, 2020, KPCC/LAist
O’Neill, Stephanie. '10 To A Room, A Few Feet Apart’: Advocates Say LA County’s Incarcerated Youth Are At Risk, April 3, 2020, KPCC/LAist
Lopez, Lindsey Hunter. Director of Popular Silver Lake Preschool Accused Of Misconduct With Kids, June 21, 2019, KPCC/LAist