Here’s a really good example of someone proactively changing their career, mid-stream.

Not so long ago, Brooke Edwards Staggs (pictured) was an English teacher at Rubidoux High School in Riverside, where she also served as the school’s journalism advisor. After deciding that she’d rather practice the five “W’s” instead of guiding budding young reporters towards the field, she earned a Master’s in journalism from NYU, started freelancing and eventually landed full-time at the Victorville Daily Press. After five years as a reporter and city editor at that Freedom Communications Inc. publication, she jumped this past New Year’s Eve to the Orange County Register:

In addition to covering South County cities for the Register and related community newspapers, Staggs will support general assignment reporting on topics such as development, transportation issues and water districts…

“I know there are countless interesting stories brewing in the battle between preserving the rural nature and allowing some development, or in the eclectic personalities that reside (in canyon communities) and the history those communities hold,” Staggs said.

Also hired at the Register this month: former Los Angeles Business Journal reporter-editor Richard Clough. He joins an already impressive business team that includes Margot Roosevelt, Donna Wares and Pulitzer Prize winner David Ferrell. Congrats to both.

Previously on FishbowlLA:
Latest OC Register Hire Comes to the Paper by Way of Chicago
Another Reporter Jumps from LA Times to OC Register