Mary C. Curtis, a 2006 Nieman Fellow, is a contributor to PoliticsDaily.com, TheRoot.com, NPR and Creative Loafing Charlotte. Her “Keeping It Positive” commentary airs every Wednesday on Fox News Rising Charlotte.

Most recently she was a columnist at the Charlotte Observer. Before that, from 1985 through 1994, Curtis worked at The New York Times in a variety of editing positions, including editor of Home, Education, Life and The Living Arts, a section in the national edition that she helped develop. She was features editor for arts and entertainment at The Sun in Baltimore and has also worked as a reporter and editor for The Associated Press in New York and Hartford, Conn., and for the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson.

Curtis recently won the 2005 Carmage Walls Prize for Commentary in a competition sponsored by the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association. She also received second place in the 71st annual National Headliner Awards for special or feature columns on one subject (“Faith and Values”). In 2004, Curtis took first place in commentary (over-150,000 circulation) in the National Association of Black Journalists’ Salute to Excellence contest. “My Rebel Journey,” her examination of Civil War heritage groups, received the 2004 Thomas Wolfe Award, presented by the North Carolina Associated Press for the best piece of newspaper writing in the state.

Curtis has won many other national, regional and state awards for her columns, and in 2004 was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Region IV National Association of Black Journalists.

She is a member of the American Association of Sunday and Feature Editors, the Society of Professional Journalists and the National Association of Black Journalists.