Morning. In today’s newsletter: Behind-the-scenes with another opinions team member.
You may know me, uh, from writing this newsletter. Or perhaps you’ve read an opinion of mine about water policy.
That’s only part of my job as digital opinions editor — which means I spend most of my time editing other folks’ opinions for online.
And nope, it’s not at all awkward talking about myself, especially in the third person … but here are some things you might not know about Joanna Allhands:
How long have you been with The Arizona Republic: I joined the newspaper in 2004, at the ripe old age of 24 (OK, I was 24 for like two weeks), but it was still unheard of for opinions writers at the time. The late, great Paul Schatt somehow convinced everyone that I would do OK, despite my youth. And 20 years later, no one’s fired me yet.
Where’d you grow up: I was born and raised in Lafayette, Ind.
What do you mostly write about, and why: Water policy, which I fell into quite by accident. We got a column circa 2016 from the state water director saying that the Central Arizona Project wasn’t playing ball. I suggested at an editorial board meeting that someone should look into why. The answer I received was, “Yep, someone should.”