Sue VanDerzee

Sue VanDerzee is a recently retired, award-winning local newspaper editor. She worked for various weekly newspapers in Connecticut for 30 years as a reporter and editor, and with a group of three friends, started a weekly newspaper in Durham and Middlefield, CT in 1994. In 2002, the original group, having dwindled from four to two, sold the paper to the Meriden Record-Journal, another locally-owned entity, and Sue remained as editor till her retirement in October 2010. She continues as a mentor and contributor on a freelance basis. Sue’s contention is that journalism has taken the easy way – no longer do journalists explain the hard issues that face us as local and world citizens, but they have abdicated their responsibilities and now chase the easy stories – reporting on polls, crimes and celebrities – at the very time that hard choices face us and citizens remain uneducated. Sue has been married for 44 years and has four children and seven grandchildren living around the Northeast. She is an ardent volunteer in her community who has worked on social justice and youth and family issues for decades.