Portrait Mode: Writing Profiles That Resonate

Stephanie Schorow is the author or co-author of nine nonfiction books on topics in Boston history, many of which include profiles of key “characters.” She has written about the tragic 1942 Cocoanut Grove nightclub fire, the notorious Combat Zone, Boston’s infamous mobsters, and the fabulous 1950 Brink’s robbery. She was the project leader on “A Boston Harbor Islands Adventure: The Great Brewster Journal,” a story of intrepid four women who traveled to Great Brewster Island in 1891 for a memorable escapade. Since 2022, she has taught media writing at Boston University’s College of Communication. She has been an editor, reporter and/or freelance correspondent for the Boston Herald, the Associated Press, the Boston Globe, and newspapers in Missouri, Idaho, Utah, and Connecticut. She has won numerous awards for her work and has frequently appeared in documentaries to discuss the topics she has researched. Her first novel, “Cat Dreaming: A Story of Friendships and Second Chances,” is a wickedly funny romp through the 1980s. She received a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University and a master’s in Latin American Studies from NYU.

Vicki Sanders is the editor of BC Law Magazine, the alumni magazine of the Boston College School of Law. A graduate of Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications, Vicki began her career in newspapers, working at The Berkshire Eagle, The Providence Journal, and The Miami Herald. During those years, she received two prestigious journalism fellowships: from the National Endowment for the Humanities at the University of Michigan and the Gannett Newspaper Foundation at the University of Hawaii, and her work has won many other awards. In the 1980s and ’90s, she was the managing editor of Rhode Island Monthly, news editor of The Boston Phoenix, and a theater and dance critic. She is also co-founder of the publications consulting firm Spence & Sanders Communications, LLC.

Anne Stuart is a Massachusetts-based writer, editor, and instructor who’s covered everything from entrepreneurship to higher education, but currently focuses on regional lifestyle stories and profiles of people and organizations.

She held senior communications roles at MIT from 2014-2026, including serving as editor of the alumni publications for MIT’s largest academic department and as a senior editorial staffer at MIT Technology Review and MIT Sloan Management Review. Previously, she was a senior editor and writer for Inc., Harvard Magazine, and CIO, among others, and she wrote or edited profiles in all those roles. She began her career as a reporter, editor, and columnist for the Associated Press and several daily newspapers. She’s taught writing classes or workshops at several colleges and continuing-education programs, and moderated or served on panels at many writers conferences. Her work has won many regional and national awards and honors, including fellowships from the National Press Club, the Poynter Institute for Media Studies and the Knight Foundation for Specialized Journalism. She received a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Michigan State and a master’s in journalism from Columbia University.