E-mail: lauren.williamson@patch.com
Hometown: Berea, OH
Birthday: August 8

Lauren serves as associate regional editor for several Patch.com sites in the near-west Chicago suburbs. She came to Patch from InsideCounsel, a legal magazine where she worked as managing editor. She was awarded Folio Magazine's 2011 Bronze Eddie Award for business reporting for her story "Mind the Gap: Generation Y Enters the Workplace." She has a master's in journalism from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. Post-graduation, she completed a three-month investigative reporting fellowship through the Carnegie-Knight News21 Initiative. She spent the summer reporting on the environmental, political and economic implications of a controversial industrial dairy farm under construction in northwest Illinois. Prior to graduate school, she worked as assistant director of undergraduate admission at Northwestern. She has a bachelor's degree in performance studies from Northwestern's School of Communication. Her freelance reporting and writing has appeared in Time Out Chicago, A.V. Club Chicago, Men's Health, Skin Inc. (a spa industry magazine) and the Chicago Sun-Times.

My 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.

Politics

I vote based on the candidate and the issue, not because of the party affiliation. That being said, my personal beliefs usually fall just left of center.

Religion

While I consider myself a Christian, I think what's most important is being and doing good, no matter your beliefs.