After a rewarding and sometimes strange career in classical music and music education, Lisa pivoted to journalism in the hopes of combining her love of music and writing to become an arts reporter. She got sidetracked and began covering schools, and quickly realized that once the education beat sinks its claws into you, it doesn’t let go.
For her favorite project, she worked with an all-female team to tell the story of a mother in Raleigh who couldn’t afford summer activities for her two young daughters. The audio documentary, called The Cost of Summer, won Best in Radio from the Society of Professional Journalists’ Green Eyeshade Awards.
After many years in Baltimore then Durham, North Carolina, Lisa wanted to return home to the Chicago area, where she has multitudes of aunties and uncles and cousins to ask her nosy questions and cook for her. Her husband and two sons had no choice but to follow and fortunately they love it here as much as she does. She feels copious amounts of gratitude to be able to cover higher education at WBEZ. It’s the job she didn’t know to dream about when she was a kid.
