Erica R. Hendry

Erica R. Hendry is a reporter and producer for Smithsonian Magazine, where she was a former intern and then a freelancer until returning full time this year.

Before that, she worked for three years at Patch.com, first as the founding local editor of Vienna Patch in October 2010 and then as an Associate Regional Editor for Northern Fairfax and Loudoun counties, where she drove coverage of education and Virginia politics.

She's also written and produced videos for the Boston Globe, USA Today, The Chronicle of Higher Education and Henry Ford Magazine. She's also worked on books and movie scripts.

Erica, a native of Hopkinton, Mass., graduated from Ithaca College with degrees in journalism and music.

While in college, she worked in a number of capacities at the Ithacan, the college's award-winning student newspaper, including as Editor in Chief, and helped the paper begin its transition from a weekly print to an online daily product. She was also president of the Society of Professional Journalists, played field hockey and spent a lot of time with her tuba.

She worked for the Ithaca Journal, a 22,000-circulation daily in Ithaca, NY, during and after college.

As a musician, Erica is drawn to stories about music issues and artists, but she's reported on a wide range of issues, including education and higher education, politics, local business, sports and features. For stories, she's lived off the grid on Sapelo Island , been forced into a barn with breeding horses during a rain storm, and sat next to sight-impaired teenagers as they test-drove cars for the blind.

She loves dark roast coffee, cooking and her big Italian family (and thinks all of these things are probably related), has a fierce loyalty to Boston sports and finally ran her first marathon in 2012. She plays touch football in DC and tries to spend as much time possible around the local jazz scene (sometimes in cleats).

She's definitely a dog person (cats don't seem to like her, but if they do, she likes them, too).