WHO WE ARE:

Founded in 1999 as Catalyst Cleveland, Catalyst Ohio is a quarterly, nonprofit newsmagazine that documents, analyzes and supports school-improvement efforts in Ohio's urban school districts, with special emphasis on Cleveland, Cincinnati and Columbus. We also produce a weekly e-mail update for subscribers. Catalyst Ohio is the sister publication of the award-winning Catalyst Chicago.

We look at policies and programs with a critical eye but strive for balanced, fair and constructive coverage. Our in-depth reporting draws on research and illuminates models of success both locally and nationally. Our goal is to give decision-makers at the school, city and state levels the information they need to transform the city's schools. Catalyst Ohio is not an advocate for any particular point of view; rather, it seeks to reflect all the voices of Cleveland school reform efforts.

WHERE WE CAME FROM:

Catalyst Cleveland grew out of collaboration among the Community Renewal Society--the 120-year-old urban service organization which publishes Chicago's Catalyst--and three foundations: The George Gund Foundation, The Cleveland Foundation, and The Joyce Foundation. The Community Renewal Society also publishes The Chicago Reporter, an award-winning investigative newsletter that focuses on issues of race and poverty. All three publications are editorially independent of CRS.

WHERE WE GO:

Catalyst Ohio has a circulation of nearly 13,000, ranging from parents, teachers and activists to school administrators and municipal and state policymakers.

Editor

Prior to his arrival at Catalyst Ohio, Keith Reed spent nearly a decade as a business reporter and economics contributor to various publication. He wrote about business, personal finance, the economy and philanthropy for four years as a reporter at The Boston Globe. Most recently, he covered Proctor and Gamble for The Cincinnati Enquirer. He has also written for Essence, Ebony, Black Enterprise and Uptown magazines.

He provides economics commentary to National Public Radio's "News & Notes" and PBS' "The News Hour with Jim Lehrer." He continues to write personal finance and economics commentary on his blog, Keith Reed's Money Corner, and is an occasional essayist for The Root, a cultural commentary site owned by the Washington Post, and Essence.com.

He holds a degree in English from Coppin State University in Baltimore, Maryland.

Senior Writer

Scott Stephens has been an award-winning journalist for 30 years. Until joining Catalyst-Ohio, he worked at The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer for 18 years, the last 15 covering education. He has written extensively about issues such as testing, charter schools, school vouchers, desegregation and school funding.

Before coming to Cleveland, Stephens worked for newspapers in Pennsylvania, Florida and Ohio, and served as a stringer for United Press International in Mexico City, D.F. To many Clevelanders, he was best known as The Plain Dealer's beer critic, establishing the paper's first beer column. Stephens was also a long-time leader and activist in The Newspaper Guild-CWA, and served for six years as regional vice president on the board of North America's largest media workers union.

During college, he was editor-in-chief of the Ohio University Post, a 13,000-circulation campus daily in Athens, Ohio. A Pittsburgh native, Stephens, 50, now resides in Lakewood, Ohio, with his wife, the photographer Christine Stephens. The couple has three adult sons: Samuel, Philip and Daniel.

Data Analyst

Joy Brewington gathers district and state data to examine improvement efforts in teacher quality, student performance, fiscal management and other areas. A 2003 graduate of the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, Loube completed a two-year management training program at General Electric last year.

A Washington D.C. native, she has spent several years working with youth mentoring and community re-entry programs in Washington and Cleveland.

Reporter

Rachel Abbey began reporting for Catalyst Ohio in January 2008 during her senior year at Kent State University. As a journalism major, Abbey reported for the student newspaper, the Daily Kent Stater, covering higher education academics and administration for a year and a half. As editor in chief, she helped the publication embrace multimedia, using video and audio technology. She also helped plan its new Web site, using Web exclusive content. Abbey also wrote for Kent State's student magazines. Her last assignment, addressing the faculty's long fight for domestic partner benefits, earned her national recognition from the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association.

Abbey's years of covering social and academic issues at Kent State showed her how integral quality education is to reducing poverty and discrimination and increasing tolerance and open-mindedness.

Co-founding Editor

Charlise Lyles is the co-founding editor of Catalyst Cleveland and conceived the expansion to Catalyst Ohio. Before that, she was a metro columnist, editorial writer, ombudsperson, government, social services and courts reporter, and feature writer at daily newspapers.
Lyles began her career as a clerk for The New York Times White House Correspondent Hedrick Smith. In 1987, she was part of a team awarded the Copeland Public Service award for contributions to a series in The Virginian-Pilot on poverty and low-income housing in an affluent city.

In 1990, she was one of six recipients of the coveted national Alicia Patterson Foundation Fellowship to do year-long reporting on a national high school program. That same year, she was awarded for distinguished commentary from the Hampton Roads chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists. In 1995, her memoir "Do I Dare Disturb the Universe: From Projects to Prep School" was published by Faber & Faber Inc. (It will be republished in the fall of 2007 by Gray Publishers & Co.) In 1999, Lyles received two first and second place awards for Best Religion Coverage from the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists for work at the Dayton Daily News. She also received SPJ's award for best African American series. In 1981, Lyles received a B.A. in English literature from Smith College. She also studied in an M.F.A. creative writing program at Old Dominion University in Norfolk.

Born in Cleveland and raised in the King-Kennedy Estates public housing project, she attended Dike Elementary and Kennard Junior High schools. Lyles is a member of the PolicyBridge Advisory Board, a Northeast Ohio think tank on African American issues, and the board of Young Audiences of Northeast Ohio.

COMMUNITY RENEWAL SOCIETY
Since its creation in 1882, CRS has worked to create racially and economically just communities. In addition to publishing Catalyst and The Chicago Reporter, CRS works to provide leadership and support in several areas: public housing, education, criminal justice, anti-racism and anti-violence initiatives. Within these initiatives, CRS networks with congregations, community-based organizations, faith-based groups, civic and philanthropic institutions. Founded as an urban mission, the Community Renewal Society is affiliated with the United Church of Christ.

2009
First place in the national Association for Women in Communications' Clarion Award for a magazine series, special section or group project from an external publication with a circulation of 100,000 or less: "Early Education: Neediest Moms and Kids Miss Out," by Joy Brewington, Rachel Abbey and Charlise Lyles

First place in the Press Club of Cleveland's Ohio Excellence in Journalism Awards for trade publication public service or investigative reporting: "Early Education: Neediest Moms and Kids Miss Out," by Joy Brewington, Rachel Abbey and Charlise Lyles

First place in the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists Awards for best social justice reporting: "Early Education: Neediest Moms and Kids Miss Out," by Joy Brewington, Rachel Abbey and Charlise Lyles

2007
First place in the national Association for Women in Communications' Clarion Award for a magazine series, special section or group project from an external publication with a circulation of 100,000 or less: "The State of School Reform," Catalyst staff

Kiplinger Fellowship in Public Affairs Journalism (digital media) at the John Glenn School at The Ohio State University awarded to Charlise Lyles

2006
Second place in the Press Club of Cleveland's Ohio Excellence in Journalism Awards for an open print single essay: "Next CEO Cannot Save Schools Alone," by Charlise Lyles

Second place in the Press Club of Cleveland's Ohio Excellence in Journalism Awards for magazine public service or investigative reporting: "The Charter Challenge," by Piet van Lier and Stephanie Klupinski

2005
First Place the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists Award for Best Social Justice reporting: "Taming Poverty," by Piet van Lier and Stephanie Klupinski

Second place in the Press Club of Cleveland's Ohio Excellence in Journalism Awards for a single cartoon: "LeBron for Mayor," by Mike Konopacki

2004
Second place in the Press Club of Cleveland's Ohio Excellence in Journalism Awards for magazine public service or investigative reporting: "Nurturing the Networks that Help Kids Graduate," by Caitlin Scott and Piet van Lier