Email: melanie.johnson@patch.com
Phone: 909-560-3791
Hometown: Carson and Long Beach, CA (now Walnut)
Birthday: Aug. 5
Bio: Melanie C. Johnson is a writer and lover of all things escapism, including books, movies, music and television. She loves art, theater, travel and anything her dad cooks. She is a diehard Lakers fan. She also is the editor of your Walnut Patch.

Melanie grew up in Carson and Long Beach. She also lived in Diamond Bar for several years. She earned a bachelor's degree in English from Cal Poly Pomona in 1997 and a master's degree in journalism from Syracuse University in New York in 1999. 

Most recently, Melanie worked as a reporter for the Press-Enterprise newspaper in Riverside. She covered cities and school districts. She also worked as a former city and education reporter for the San Bernardino Sun, covering some of the largest school districts in the state. There she earned back-to-back first place awards in 2001 and 2002 for education coverage from the Society of Professional Journalists, Inland Empire chapter.

Now, she is bringing her love of journalism, writing and people to her job as the editor of Walnut Patch!

Your Beliefs
At Patch, we promise always to report the facts as objectively as possible and otherwise adhere to the principles of good journalism. However, we also acknowledge that true impartiality is impossible because human beings have beliefs. So in the spirit of simple honesty, our policy is to encourage our editors to reveal their beliefs to the extent they feel comfortable. This disclosure is not a license for you to inject your beliefs into stories or to dictate coverage according to them. In fact, the intent is the opposite: we hope that the knowledge that your beliefs are on the record will cause you to be ever mindful to write, report and edit in a fair, balanced way. And if you ever see evidence that we failed in this mission, please let us know.

Politics 
How would you describe your political beliefs?
Liberal

Are you registered with a certain party?
Democratic Party

Religion
How religious would you consider yourself?  
I consider myself casual I guess. I believe in God and I do pray but I do not attend church regularly. I have a profound respect for all religions. 

Local Hot-Button Issues
What do you think are the most important issues facing the community? Walnut residents are very community- and family-oriented. They care about what I would call quality of life issues - keeping crime low, managing growth, protecting the environment, and making sure their children get a quality education.

Where do you stand on each of these issues?
I think all of those issues are important.