Cindy McCurry-Ross
Executive Editor, USA TODAY NETWORK Florida Regional Editor
I was a fourth-grader when I peered over the bench seat of my father's big ol' boat of a car, saw him push open the driver's door and scoop the newspaper from the driveway. He shook it open and my eyes grew wide. The entire top half of the front page declared "Nixon resigns," the biggest headline I'd ever seen.
I knew then that this business of journalism was for me, so I later went on to study at the William Allen White School of Journalism at the University of Kansas.
Born in North Carolina and raised in Kansas City — with stints in Atlanta and Chicago — I always say that I have southern sass and Midwestern sensibilities.
As I grew up, my fascination with newspapers morphed into a passion for the First Amendment and for the watchdog role a free press plays.
Watergate was a huge national story, but along the path of my career I discovered that my true obsession is with community journalism — the magic formula of reflecting a community back to itself, of sparking meaningful conversation and action, of amplifying the voices of those who need help, of being useful to our audiences and of storytelling. It's such an exciting time for community journalism because multimedia technology and social media offer us new, creative ways to interact and tell stories.
Most of my career has been in Fort Myers, where I started as a business reporter in 1988 and worked my way through the ranks. I served as editor of The (Salinas) Californian and then the Gainesville (Ga.) Times in the mid and late '90s before returning to Fort Myers as a managing editor in 2001.
I'm a terrible, messy and impatient cook, but that means I live to eat out, partially for survival's sake, but mostly because I love all kinds of flavors and cherish the social aspect of long, festive dinners.