Susan Schoenberger, Patch Staff

I'm a native of New Windsor, N.Y., and went to high school in Newburgh, N.Y. I graduated from Dartmouth College in 1984 and went directly to work as a journalist at the Register-Citizen in Torrington.

Over the last 25 years, I have worked as a reporter, editor and copy editor at The Day in New London, The News and Observer in Raleigh, N.C., The Baltimore Sun and The Hartford Courant.

I live with my husband, Kevin Wyman; my son, a recent Hall graduate now at Muhlenberg College; my daughter, a Hall senior and a student at the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts; and my daughter, a Hall sophomore.

I love to run, read and bake chocolate chip cookies, and I write fiction. My first novel, A Watershed Year, was published by Guideposts Books in March 2011. My second novel, The Virtues of Oxygen, is due out from Amazon Publishing in the summer of 2014.

Beliefs

At Patch, we promise always to report the facts as objectively as possible and otherwise adhere to the principles of good journalism. However, we also acknowledge that true impartiality is impossible because human beings have beliefs. So in the spirit of simple honesty, our policy is to encourage our editors to reveal their beliefs to the extent they feel comfortable. This disclosure is not a license to inject beliefs into stories or to dictate coverage according to them. In fact, the intent is the opposite: we hope that the knowledge that our beliefs are on the record will cause us to be ever mindful to write, report and edit in a fair, balanced way. And if you ever see evidence that we failed in this mission, please let us know.

Politics

I'm a registered Democrat.

Religion

Though I was raised in the Roman Catholic Church, I'm now a member of the Unitarian Universalist Church of West Hartford where I enjoy working on social service projects.

Local Hot-Button Issues

I support adequate funding for our local public schools, but I believe we need to look at ways to make the system more efficient. I also believe we need to lead the way in addressing the achievement gap issues so apparent in our state.