Contributors

Find the all of the stories from the FreshWater Contributors you love !

Afi Scruggs
Afi Scruggs is a local freelancer. Her diverse body of work spans more than 30 years and has appeared in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the New Yorker, Cleveland Magazine, and the Atlanta Journal Constitution among many others. Visit her page for more information.
amy martin
Amy Martin brings more than 18 years of experience to helping organizations and brands reach target audiences by creating value for customers through content development, customer success programs, social strategy and thought leadership. Her industry expertise spans media relations, digital channel development, content marketing, social channel strategy and messaging and building brands that can evolve over time and across sectors. 
 
Martin is also the founder of SheInTheCLE.com, a female blogger collective that focuses on driving purposeful conversations by women in Northeast Ohio and was recently appointed to the Republican National Convention Host Committee Content Committee. Martin is also a regular speaker and workshop trainer for the YWCA Greater Cleveland Women’s Leadership Institute and is an advisor for the Women’s Leadership Conference of Northeast Ohio.
Andrew George
Andrew George is a rising junior at Baldwin Wallace University, majoring in sports management with a double minor in sociology and criminal justice. In his first two years of college, he has had the opportunity to be a part of many diverse experiences that include working at the Super Bowl, co-hosting a podcast, and engaging in a trip centered around civil rights in America. At FreshWater, Andrew enjoys being a part of a team that shares intriguing developments across Cleveland.
andrew poulsen
Andrew Poulsen is a writer based out Northeast Ohio. His work has appeared in numerous regional  and national outlets such as Ohio Magazine, Billboard.com Belt Magazine, the Athens News and more. He holds a B.S. in Journalism from Ohio University's E.W. Scripps College of Communication. When not behind his computer or in front of a Cavaliers game, Andrew enjoys playing guitar and banjo while touring with various bands in the area. He is an insatiable history buff, comedy nerd and bitter Cleveland sports fan.
Angelina Bair
Architectural historian Angelina Bair holds a master’s degree in library & information science from Kent State University. She has 16 years of experience working in archives, museums, and libraries and specializes in local architectural, historical, and genealogical research. Bair is currently working on a graduate certificate in historic preservation at Cleveland State University Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs.
 
Anthony Thompson
Anthony Thompson is a journalist originally from Chicago. After moving to Cleveland in June 2016, he eventually became a student at Cleveland State University, majoring in communications. He plans to graduate with his bachelor’s degree in communications in May 2021. Anthony loves reading historical narratives, hiking, and spending time with his fiancé. He currently lives in Cleveland Heights.
 
Beth Phillips Synk
Billy Hallal
Billy Hallal works as a freelance writer and an adult literacy advocate at Seeds of Literacy. You can find his writing on Northeast Ohio dining and culture at Thrillist and Cleveland Scene.
Bob Perkoski
Bob is managing photographer with FreshWater as well as a Cleveland freelance photographer. His photographic approach is rooted in the art of storytelling. Whether freezing the energy of an event, encapsulating the magic of a performance, or astutely anticipating the decisive moments, his work displays an innate ability to distill the essence of any scene or subject into a single frame or series of work. In addition, Bob is the official photographer for LAND studio and Holden Forest and Gardens and has worked with various Cleveland organizations. In 2019 he published a book of his photos Rust Belt Burlesque. He's had work published in other books like LGBTQ Cleveland by Ken Schneck, Rust Belt Chic: The Cleveland Anthology, Rust Belt Chic: The Pittsburgh Anthology and Moon Cleveland by Douglas Trattner. Previously he was co-founder/art director for Balanced Living Magazine. You can view his versatile portfolio of work, which includes news coverage, portraiture, architectural and fine art at Perkoski Photography. Originally from Conneaut, Ohio, Perkoski now lives close to the city in Parma. He has been Fresh Water's managing photographer since the publication's September 2010 inception.
Bob Sandrick
Bob Sandrick is an award-winning multimedia writer and reporter who has worked at Cleveland.com and Sun News. His exhaustive body of work includes investigative reporting on the Cleveland Division of Water and the City of Beachwood. Today he continues to write for cleveland.com as a freelancer and also writes for Community Leader magazine, The Medina Gazette and the Cleveland Clinic. 
Brandon Baker
Brandon Baker is a freelance journalist who has contributed articles to Freshwater Cleveland since 2014. His work has been featured by Scene, The News-Herald, Patch, EcoWatch and more. By day, he is a full-time research consultant with Burges & Burges Strategists, where he provides communications, messaging, strategic and research support for various public, private, and nonprofit entities in Ohio. In the fall, he enjoys working for the Cleveland Browns Scoreboard Operations team at FirstEnergy Stadium. Brandon is a graduate of The Ohio State University and enjoys traveling, exercising, the arts, volunteering, and spending time with family.
Brittney Hooper
Brittney Hooper is a lifelong Clevelander who resides in Old Brooklyn with her husband, two young sons, and a house full of animals (she thinks living near the zoo equates to needing a zoo yourself). A passionate environmentalist, Hooper works by day as a research associate at a biotech company and in her free time writes, colors, explores, cooks, and otherwise enjoys the many jewels her city has to offer.
 
Charlotte Morgan
Charlotte Morgan is a writer, journalist, and teacher who lives in Cleveland. She teaches composition and rhetoric at Cleveland State University and has just completed her first book, a memoir called “Glenville: My Side of Paradise,” which examines race, place and the influences that change place.
Charmaine Jordan

Charmaine is a resident of Cleveland, where she works as a procurement specialist during the day and in her spare time is a freelance writer, blogger, and community change agent. She enjoys spending time with her family and volunteering with the non profit organization Men & Women of Central to help make a positive impact in her community. She aspires to one day become a best selling author.

Chris Ball
Chris Ball became managing editor of FreshWater Cleveland in August 2019 after more than 20 years of editing and writing for The Plain Dealer. A graduate of Hawken School and Oberlin College, he previously worked for Crain Communications, the Lorain Morning Journal, The Free Times and The Cleveland Edition. A lover of Frisbee and film, Ball wrote a DVD review column for The PD for 15 years. He won a Press Club of Cleveland award in 2018 for Best Headline Writer in Ohio. Ball stepped down as managing editor of FreshWater in April 2020.
Christine McBurney
Christine McBurney is an educator,  writer, theater artist, and Co-Artistic Director of Mamai Theatre Company. Her writing has appeared in The Plain Dealer, Belt Magazine, Northern Ohio Live, CWRU Magazine, and other publications. She lives in Cleveland Heights.
Christopher Johnston

Christopher Johnston has published more than 3,000 articles in publications such as American Theatre, Christian Science Monitor, Credit.com, History Magazine, The Plain Dealer, Progressive Architecture, Scientific American and Time.com. He was a stringer for The New York Times for eight years. He served as a contributing editor for Inside Business for more than six years, and he was a contributing editor for Cleveland Enterprise for more than ten years. He teaches playwriting and creative nonfiction workshops at Cleveland State University. He wrote The Way I Saw It, the memoirs of Marc Wyse, co-founder of Wyse Advertising. His book, Shattering Silences: New Approaches to Healing Survivors of Rape and Bringing Their Assailants to Justice (Skyhorse) will be published in February 2018.

Cid Standifer
Cid Standifer is a Cleveland-based freelance journalist who specializes in data and investigative reporting, and whose work has appeared in The Plain Dealer, The Washington Post, FreshWater Cleveland, and Stars and Stripes.
Cindy Hill
Cindy Hill is a freelance writer based in Shaker Heights. She enjoys telling the stories of impact makers—the organizations and businesses that keep Cleveland at the forefront of innovation. For more than 22 years, she has produced award-winning curriculum, proposals, books, and articles, driven by her insatiable curiosity to find out “what’s next.”
Community Correspondents