Mary C. Curtis Mary C. Curtis is an award-winning multimedia journalist based in Charlotte, N.C. She appears weekly on TV’s Fox News Rising Charlotte and contributes to The Washington Post “She the People” blog, TheRoot.com, NPR and Creative Loafing, where she writes a column on the 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte. She was national correspondent for AOL’s PoliticsDaily.com, covering politics, race and culture. She has worked at The New York Times, Charlotte Observer, Baltimore Sun, Arizona Daily Star and Associated Press. A 2006 Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, Curtis contributes to the Nieman Watchdog Website and was chosen for the Kiplinger Program in Public Affairs, journalism’s first social media fellowship, at Ohio State in 2011.

North Carolina is now the center of the political universe, with the convention, the recent vote on a marriage amendment and the 15 electoral votes up for grabs in a swing state. Mary has kept busy with radio appearances on “The Michael Smerconish Show,” NPR and other outlets to discuss the happenings in the state.

Her most recent awards were two Green Eyeshade Awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, a 1st place in serious commentary and a 3rd place in political reporting (in the past she has won for cultural criticism, as well). Other awards include a 2010 Clarion Award from the Association for Women in Communications for online columns, two first-place awards from the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), the Thomas Wolfe Award for an examination of Confederate heritage groups, and honors from National Society of Newspaper Columnists, National Headliners, American Association of Sunday and Feature Editors and Southern Newspaper Publishers Association.

She was inducted into the Hall of Fame Region IV NABJ in 2004, and serves on the executive board of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools’ Academic Internship Program, the board of Actor’s Theatre of Charlotte, and is active in Women’s Inter-Cultural Exchange and in ministries at St. Gabriel Catholic Church.

Mary is married to Martin Olsen; they have one son, Zane Curtis-Olsen.

“I turn to this group of talented, accomplished, committed professionals for advice, support and the inspiration to keep doing what I do in my life and work. We’re all in this together.”