Biography

Molly Reid

Molly Reid, 23, graduated from Texas A&M University in the spring of 2005 with a Bachelor of Arts in English and music. She worked that following summer as an au pair in Geneva, Switzerland, and returned to her hometown of Lafayette, LA, one week following Hurricane Katrina.

Ms. Reid immediately began writing features for the Times of Acadiana, Lafayette's weekly publication. She moved to New Orleans in November 2006 after signing on as a public relations coordinator for Creative Industry, a small PR firm representing environmental, architecture and arts organizations. Ms. Reid continued her freelancer career with the Times of Acadiana, eventually moving on to New Orleans' Gambit Weekly and, in August 2006, The Times-Picayune.

From December 2006 to January 2007, she served as project coordinator for a criminal justice program called the Katrina-Gideon Interview Project. The winter break program brought over 200 law students New Orleans to assist the office of the Orleans Public Defenders by interviewing and building files for several hundred indigent defendants long overdue in going to trial.

In March 2007, Ms. Reid became a staff writer for The Times-Picayune. She writes feature articles for the InsideOut and Living sections, and helped create an architecture and planning column called Rebuilding Blocks for InsideOut, which she continues to co-author.

After completing an article on YURPs for The Times-Picayune – the first news piece to identify the phenomenon – she launched a full study of New Orleans' young professionals and their significance as an indicator of changing labor trends nationwide, which she is developing into a long-form article for a national publication.