Veteran education journalist Linda K. Wertheimer is the author of the award-winning book, Faith Ed, Teaching about Religion in an Age of Intolerance, which scrutinizes public schools’ efforts to teach about religion often in the face of controversy. Before turning to freelancing, writing books and teaching writing, she worked as an education reporter or editor for nearly 25 years. She is a former education editor of The Boston Globe and worked as an education reporter at The Dallas Morning News, The Orlando Sentinel and The Democrat and Chronicle in Rochester, N.Y. Faith Ed and related articles, such as a cover story for The Boston Globe Magazine, have won awards from the Religion News Association, the Education Writers Association and Massachusetts Cultural Council.
Wertheimer’s education journalism work, most recently in Boston Magazine and The New York Times, has focused on the intersection of race and education. She will use her Spencer Fellowship to work on narrative nonfiction book tentatively titled, Seeing Color, Can Schools Prepare a New Generation of Anti-Racists? Her book will examine how a predominantly white teaching force struggles to address race and racism in an increasingly tense environment. She will scrutinize controversies over lessons on racism, as well as the success stories and stories of challenges that rarely make news.
Linda has a bachelor’s and master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University. A frequent public speaker on religion and education, she is a mentor for Education Writer’s Association’s New to the Beat program, and mentor-editor for The Op-Ed Project, which strives to help publish underrepresented voices in the nation’s op-ed pages. She lives in the Boston area with her husband and school-aged son.