Helen grew up in Scotland and graduated from Keele University in England with joint honors in History and Psychology. After working with youth in care and homeless women, she moved to Portland and spent six years as a crisis mental health counselor. In 1996 Helen moved to Chicago with her baby boy to attend Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. She reported from Washington DC for Medill News Service and interned with Dow Jones in Paris and at the Statesman Journal in Salem, Oregon. Helen worked as deputy education editor at The Scotsman newspaper in Edinburgh, then as a freelancer before joining The Skanner News in 2005. Helen has won awards and fellowships for her reporting on economic and social issues and juvenile justice.