Good Morning! I'm Your New Editor

Good morning, Marlborough.

I am your new editor for Marlborough Patch. I am excited to be here and hope to build on the momentum that has already started here, continuing the work to build a strong community site where people can come to share and read information.

My name is Mary MacDonald. For nearly three years, I have covered Milford as the Milford Patch editor. Going forward, I will continue to be editor of both the Milford and Marlborough Patches.

So, who am I?

I am a native New Englander who had a 20-year career in newspapers before making the leap to digital-only at Patch. I now live in Upton, but have lived pretty much all over the U.S. I was born in Waltham, and raised mostly in southern New Hampshire, Hampton to be specific. I left home to go to school at Michigan State University, but came back to Massachusetts to start my career. 

I've since lived and worked on Martha's Vineyard, in coastal New Hampshire, and in Jacksonville, Fla., and Atlanta. As a reporter at daily newspapers, I covered a variety of stories and issues, including desegregation of schools in Jacksonville, education in Georgia and the suburbs of Atlanta, and features and profiles of the people who make their communities better places to live.

About four years ago, I left my job as an education reporter at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution to become a teacher. While attending graduate school at UMass Amherst, I worked at a high school in Springfield, teaching English to eleventh graders.

I jumped back into journalism in 2011, when friends in Atlanta told me about an opportunity at Patch, and I've loved it. I enjoy the immediacy of Patch, being connected with my readers, and I've helped build the Milford site into a strong, interesting, engaging site.

I hope to do the same in Marlborough, building on its existing strengths.

Do you have suggestions for stories? Please contact me anytime. I am honored to be your new editor, and I'm here for you.

And if you would like to post an event, an announcement or a blog on the site, you can also contact community editor William (Bill) Gilman, who also happens to live in Marlborough with his wife and Great Pyrenees. His contact is williamg@patch.com, or (978) 413-8265.

Mary MacDonald

Phone: (508) 317-6136

E-mail: mary.macdonald@patch.com