Christia Gibbons

I'm a Tucson native who wanted to be a city editor since I was 3 years old. After reporting and writing at the Yuma Daily Sun (you think it's hot here . . .) and The Arizona Republic, I landed an assistant city editor's job at The Arizona Daily Star and never looked back.

I was lucky enough to achieve my goal of being a city editor on the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin in Ontario, Calif., and again at the East Valley Tribune in Mesa.

Along the way, though, I figured I'd better get my degree in something else in case I bombed as a journalist, so I have a master's in special studies/criminal justice from George Washington University in D.C. I put my education to work and became a highway patrol reserve officer, badge No. 9644. I graduated from what was then called the Arizona Law Enforcement Training Academy, now the Arizona Law Enforcement Academy. I was one of five female DPS officers in the state at that time. (It was a long time ago). I did this for two years. When I switched from feature writing to news reporting, though, I knew I couldn't be a DPS officer anymore because of conflict-of-interest issues.

I've covered many stories from wars to elections to wildfires to attempted assassinations, from parachutes not opening to an emergency room of doctors fainting after cutting open a patient. My proudest accomplishment as a journalist was being the editor on a serial killer project at The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, Calif.

I have taught reporting at the ASU Cronkite School of Journalism & Mass Communication since 2001. I created a Crime and the Media course for the ASU School of Criminology and Criminal Justice last fall.