Beth Dalbey, Patch Staff

How to contact me: beth.dalbey@patch.com.

I'm a longtime community journalist and started with Patch.com in 2011 as a local editor in Iowa. My current position is national editor.

My career has been solely focused in journalism, except for a brief detour in 2007 when I joined the communications department of a scientific research institute studying the evolution of language in bonobos and other great apes. I knew it would be an adventure – it was! – and worked as a freelance writer and consultant after that position was eliminated in 2010.

Beliefs

Politics: I’m a registered independent. I will vote every time, regardless of party affiliation, for the individual with the best ideas to make our communities more livable.

Religion: I grew up attending the United Methodist Church in my small hometown. It was a great foundation that taught me most of what I believe is right and wrong. I believe in a supreme being. I respect others’ right to believe what they believe, as long as they’re not proselytizing on the taxpayer’s dime, and I think this whole business of seeing everyone who does good works as an angel or every marvelous outcome as a miracle cheapens both.