Email: danielle.horn@patch.com
Hometown: Worcester Position: Associate Regional Editor, MetroWest Boston A Worcester native, Danielle has been a full-time journalist since 2003, though her unofficial start in the business was in the '80s, when she would hang around the Telegram & Gazette newsroom with her aunt, now-columnist Dianne Williamson. Thanks in part to nepotism, Danielle got a job in high school as a gopher at the T&G, a position in which she gazed perplexedly at copiers and fax machines and fetched dinner for finicky editors. Danielle got her first byline the summer before she left for St. Anselm College; it was a holier-than-thou take on the dangers of teenage drinking, written as a column in her aunt's space. When, at a high school reunion years later, a former classmate recalled how much he hated "your aunt's column that made us all look bad," she smiled and didn't correct him. Danielle transferred to Worcester State College, and returned to the T&G, this time as an obituary and general assignment writer. She left the part-time job for her first full-time gig at a small daily, the Southbridge Evening News. She then progressed to a couple of other dailies, the Milford Daily News and the MetroWest Daily News, before returning to the T&G in 2007. She joined Milford Patch in 2010, launching the Milford, MA site as local editor in October 2010 before being promoted to associate regional editor of Patch MetroWest Boston in March 2011. Career highlights include writing all the copy for a 16-page special pull-out section on a controversial landfill, covering the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in Waveland, MS, and the first time a reader realized that she was Danielle, not Dianne, Williamson. Danielle lives in Mendon with her husband, two awesome stepsons, and her attention-seeking Cairn Terrier. She loves exercising, board games, fancy cars, boating, spending time in Maine, listening to her extensive music collection in alphabetical order, and being praised. Beliefs At Patch, we promise always to report the facts as objectively as possible and otherwise adhere to the principles of good journalism. However, we also acknowledge that true impartiality is impossible because human beings have beliefs. So in the spirit of simple honesty, our policy is to encourage our editors to reveal their beliefs to the extent they feel comfortable. This disclosure is not a license for writers to inject beliefs into stories or to dictate coverage according to them. In fact, the intent is the opposite: we hope that the knowledge that our beliefs are on the record will cause us to be ever mindful of writing, reporting and editing in a fair, balanced way. And if you ever see evidence that we failed in this mission, please let us know. Politics I'm not registered with a political party, though I'm slightly right of center.  Political extremism on either side is unappealing to me – I'm no more a fan of Ann Coulter than I am of Michael Moore.  Religion I'm not religious. I was raised Catholic but haven't been to church (except for weddings and funerals) since I was confirmed.