She was editor of her high school and college papers, interned at The Washington Post, Milwaukee Journal and St. Petersburg Times, then came to work for the St. Pete Times in 1986 when she left IU with a bachelor’s degree and an MBA.

At the Times, she covered police, schools and business, then worked in circulation, marketing and business analysis, eventually as director of marketing (though the position was called Internal Services Director). She started the Times’ company store. Along the way, Wendy did some guest teaching for high school students taking seminars at The Poynter Institute, and when the position of high school program director opened up at Poynter in 2004, she took it. She loves helping high school students have journalism experiences like she had when she was a teen.

Now she also coordinates Poynter’s grant-seeking work with foundations and teaches in Poynter’s media entrepreneurship programs. She earned Certified Journalism Educator teaching certification from the Journalism Education Association in 2010.

Wendy is past president of the Indiana University Journalism Alumni Board. She served on the advisory committee for the Journeys in Journalism program for the Pinellas County Schools and is on the advisory board for the Center for Scholastic Journalism at Kent State University.