2004-2005:

Your Health for Kids

In 2004, I was hired by the Monroe Publishing Company as the health editor for its daily newspaper serving serving the southeastern-most county in Michigan.

Upon joining the team at what was then called the Monroe Evening News (now called the Monroe News, a Gannett newspaper) in July 2004 – at the time a 7-day-a-week three-section evening newspaper – I was tasked with producing a weekly health section on Thursdays. This included a montly section for children called “Your Health for Kids.” What I found was a rather dry section. I prioritized revamping the section to engage 4th and 5th grade readers.

For guidance, I reached out to the editors of the Washington Post‘s Kids’ Post for advice. Over several telephone meetings, they offered me tips and inspiration – and topped it off with a care package filled with back issues of the Kids’ Post.

Together with graphic designer Jim Dombrowski (now creative director with Dental Advisor), and with assistance from photographer Kim Brent (now a photojournalist with the Beaumont Enterprise), we began a new era of Your Health for Kids featuring bright colors, corny jokes and in-person reading sessions with students at local public schools. Readership of our monthly Your Health for Kids issues improved tremenously.

Today, it is still one of my proudest achievements.