Medlemamericanglow

KHRISTOPHER J. BROOKS is a veteran journalist and graduate student at New York University, where he is currently studying Literary Reportage.

Before coming to New York, Mr. Brooks worked as the state higher education reporter for the Omaha World-Herald. His responsibilities included covering public and private universities and community colleges in Nebraska and western Iowa. Brooks, a 2006 Chips Quinn Scholar, has also worked as the business and education reporter for the Bristol (Va.) Herald Courier. Mr. Brooks gained notoriety in 2007 after reporting how Bristol school officials released a controversial letter attached to Virginia Middle School students' report cards. In 2007 Mr. Brooks won second place in education writing from the Virginia Press Association for a critical article on the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Mr. Brooks is a former NYTimes.com and Associated Press writer, and his byline has been published in newspapers and magazines all over the country.

Mr. Brooks draws inspiration from writers Tom Hallman, Jr., Thomas French, Christine Rook and Leonard Pitts, Jr. He believes that exceptional writing, prose that really stir emotions or actions, will keep readers engaged.

Mr. Brooks began his journalism career in 2000. He holds a bachelor’s of science degree in News/Editorial Journalism and General Political Science from Central Michigan University. He has received countless hours of education research and policy analysis training from the Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media and the Education Writers Association. In 2009 he was considered one of the best beat reporting bloggers in the nation.

Mr. Brooks’s hobbies include playing basketball, reading and learning. For fun, he likes to travel, write, exercise, toy with small electronics and pretend he’s a page designer. A Detroit native, Mr. Brooks adamantly reads John Steinbeck, Gay Talese, Willa Cather and other great American authors.