April 2007 Program: Speaker Bios

Laura Allen-Simpson
Laura Allen-Simpson is currently an editor in the Language Arts department at McDougal Littell, Inc., a subsidiary of Houghton Mifflin Company that produces educational materials for students in grades 6 through 12.

A 1982 graduate of Carleton College, Laura entered the workforce with no editorial experience or clippings and so had to parlay her minimal work experience at designing posters and programs into jobs that she hoped would eventually lead to editorial positions. She fell into educational publishing—a field whose existence had previously been unknown to her—by answering an ad for a freelance editor at McDougal, Littell & Company in 1984. In her subsequent 23-year career in the educational publishing industry, she spent six years on staff at a now-defunct development house called Ligature, Inc., about seven years freelancing for various publishers and other development houses, and the past 10 years on staff at McDougal. She is also the author of two American Girl trade books, Clever Letters: Fun Ways to Wiggle Your Words and The Quiz Book: Clues to You and Your Friends, Too!

Mary Ann Branagan
Mary Ann Branagan has spent 26 years in medical publishing, working on continuing education products and medical journals. Most of her career has been spent in the not-for-profit world as an employee of medical societies. She has held the titles of copy editor, production manager, managing editor, and freelancer; but whatever the title, the work itself has been much the same: producing accurate, high-quality publications in a timely manner. Mary Ann is a graduate of Northern Illinois University and a member of the Council of Science Editors. She is currently the periodical publications manager with the Society of Critical Care Medicine.

Betty Hintch
Since 1996, Betty Hintch has served as editor of Compliance Magazine, a workplace safety publication that covers regulatory issues and best practices in safety and loss control. In 2002, she also became the editor of Human Capital magazine, a trade publication for the human resource executive. In addition to editing the print versions of these magazines, she has participated in the launch of new publications and online products. She previously was the managing editor of Human Resource Management News and Recruiting Trends newsletters. Hintch is a member of the American Society of Business Press Editors and Chicago Women in Publishing (CWIP), and she served as president of CWIP in 1999. She is also on the boards of the Institute for Safety and Health Management, the National Center for Construction Education and Researching, and the Human Capital Institute. She holds a degree from DePaul University.

Patricia Widder
Pat Widder is a member of the Chicago Tribune Editorial board. She was named to that post in February 1998.

Widder came to the Chicago Tribune in September 1975, after working as a general assignment reporter for several community papers in the San Francisco Bay area. Joining Suburban Trib, a suburban supplement, first as a general assignment reporter, she then covered the Illinois legislature, was an assistant editor and developed suburban business coverage.

In September 1981, Widder became a financial reporter and was promoted to assistant financial editor in February 1983. She joined the paper’s Editorial Board in January 1986. In January 1987 she moved to New York City to report about Wall Street. She returned to Chicago in April 1992 as national business correspondent and later was named media writer. In September 1993, she was named associate managing editor, financial news.

In March 1997, she moved to the Washington Bureau as chief economic correspondent and senior writer.

Widder was born in Oshkosh, Wisconsin and graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in January 1969 with a degree in Russian.