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PrintAbout Tom Suddes and Emma Frankart
One day, while on a road trip, I called Tom Suddes to check in on his story about our Person of the Year, newly elected governor John Kasich. Before I realized it, I’d knocked off about 60 miles. I listened raptly as he wove links about Kasich’s victory to previous administrations while looping through various political figures and events. It was like slipping in a fascinating book on tape, but with the benefit of engaging the author.
There are only a handful of journalists who know as much about Ohio politics as Tom, who has covered nine campaigns for governor, starting in 1974 as a writer for the Lantern, the Ohio State University student newspaper.
After stints with the Chicago Sun-Times and newspapers in Iowa, Mississippi and New Hampshire, Tom landed back in Ohio in 1982 with the Cleveland Plain Dealer, where he covered the machinations of the Statehouse until 2000.
He left the daily grind of the newspaper world to go to Ohio University to earn a master’s in journalism and a PhD in mass communications. He’s now an adjunct assistant professor in Athens, as well as serving as a member of the Plain Dealer editorial board and writing a politics column that appears in the PD, the Dispatch, the Dayton Daily News and the Springfield News-Sun.
When I first talked to Tom about writing the Kasich piece, he mentioned that he has come full circle with Columbus Monthly. He remembers talking with Herb Cook Jr., one of the magazine’s founders, about doing some work for the publication soon before or after it launched in 1975. For whatever reasons, that didn’t pan out. And, now, 35 years later, we’re happy to publish his debut for us.
We’re also happy to announce that Emma Frankart, a recent Ohio University graduate, has joined our staff as an assistant editor. She works closely with senior editor Jill Hawes on producing a number of our niche publications, including Columbus Bride, as well as contributing to each issue of Columbus Monthly.
Emma stood out from a strong batch of candidates based in part on her extensive experience in leadership positions at various OU magazines.
And her background away from journalism also impressed us. While working as a part-time manager for the university’s dining services, she oversaw slightly more than 100 employees, which honed her multitasking and organizational abilities.
Emma learned some of those skills by growing up in a big family that moved frequently. As her father rose through the managerial ranks at Energizer, she called seven places home before going to college in Athens. And as the oldest of eight children, she grew up quickly while helping her mother with her siblings, starting to baby-sit before she became a teenager. “I don’t know many 12-year-olds who know how to change a diaper,” she says.
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