About Colleen
Colleen Cason is an award-winning daily newspaper journalist who has worn hats as a writer, reporter and editor.
A year ago, she donned the propeller hat and learned the technology to produce multimedia presentations for the Web.
These days, she writes and reports for print and online at the Ventura County Star, a 96,000-circulation paper in southern California. Her job calls for for to bang out deadline stories as well as craft longer features.
And, oh, the things she’s seen. She accompanied a Santa Paula, Calif., family to Tijuana, Mexico, as they exhumed their brother’s body from a pauper’s grave after he died in a Mexican prison. They did this grisly task under the watch of armed – and hostile – federal police and a hot July sun.
She followed a dying woman through her last 100 days as she created what she called a “village” to raise her granddaughter.
And it took 100 days for “Unchained Melody” to get out of her head after she covered the national karaoke championship. Who knew this would be the precursor to “American Idol”?
In 2006, she received hands-on training in shooting and editing video and creating Flash projects for VenturaCountyStar.com. Not only did her editor provide this training, he also gave her six weeks away from her beat to do all multimedia, all the time.
Since 1984, she has worked in journalism, including a stint editing at the Daily News of Los Angeles.
In addition she served as a public information officer at Pepperdine University in Malibu, where she helped get faculty members’ research placed in major national publications, including the Wall Street Journal.
She also has written exhibit copy for museums, including the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Fla.
A native of Chicago, Colleen earned a bachelor’s degree in comparative literature with a minor in film studies from Indiana University, Bloomington.
She lives outside Los Angeles with her husband, Mike, who also is a journalist.
Copyright 2007 Colleen Cason. All rights reserved
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