Maureen Downey is a longtime reporter for the AJC where she has written about local, state and federal education policy for 17 years. She’s also taught college classes in mass communications and journalism.

However, she’s learned more about schools from having four children in them. Her children range in age from 25 to 15, so she’s now dealing with elementary school and graduate school.

Her own education includes an undergraduate degree from the University of Delaware and a master’s degree from Columbia University. She has worked for newspapers in New Jersey and Florida and has covered many school boards.

She has won a National Headliner Award for editorial writing and was one of three editorial writing finalists for a Pulitzer — in a year when the jury deadlocked and didn’t name a winner. She has twice been named best editorial writer by Cox Newspapers and twice by the Atlanta Press Club. A New Jersey native, she lives in Decatur.