Catherine J. Rourke

Bio

Catherine Rourke is an award-winning investigative journalist, media trailblazer and social change Thought Leader specializing in Truth in Media, Medicine, Health Care and Social Justice.

The New York City native picked up a quill pen at age 4 and has been writing ever since. Her first social justice report “Who Rules America?” was published at age 15 and received a Quill & Scroll award. After completing her studies at the City University of New York and Oxford University in England, she took her first job at The Miami Herald. From there she spent the next 30 years serving as a reporter, photographer and editor for newspapers, magazines and book publishers around the nation.

Catherine’s writing primarily focused on social justice and the downtrodden in their own voices – the working poor, the homeless, labor concerns, women’s issues and human rights. But it was as a newspaper editor and columnist in Sedona, Arizona, that she faced a turning point in her profession when her investigative reports about mysterious deaths at a local medical facility met with media censorship.

Determined to uphold her moral responsibility as a journalist to serve the common good, she launched a nonprofit online newspaper in 2007 to deliver the truth and report about the downtrodden in their own voices. The Sedona Observer grew virally into a global vehicle for truth in media -- with 44,000 free subscribers around the world and 6 national press awards – with a slogan “Changing America by Changing Its Media First.”

The newspaper relies on public donations, so Catherine has received not one penny of income for her social justice reports. Instead, she is the recipient of 26 press awards, including “Arizona Journalist of the Year” ~ along with plenty of death threats.

She currently resides in Florence, Oregon, where she writes a column for the local paper and teaches creative writing classes. As a visionary writer  her mission centers on “soul-utions” for human transformation. Known as “The Editorial Intuitive,” she is currently writing a book titled “And Forgive Us Our Press Passes ~ Confessions of Modern Day Muckraker.”

Other Info

·         Former blogs: “Rebel with a Clause” and “Media, Medicine & Morality”

·         Books: “Unseen Dreams: Voices of Low-Wage Workers”

                  “Invisible Sedona ~ Forgotten People and Neglected News”

             Public contact email: editor@sedonaobserver