John Ferak, Patch Staff

I was born in Joliet and grew up across from Nowell Park on the city's far east-side where I delivered the Joliet Herald-News. I attended grade school at St. Mary Nativity on Broadway. Some of my favorite memories growing up revolve around St, Joseph's Park where I played Little League baseball and had several Catholic Youth Organization basketball games.

At 13, our family moved out to Plainfield where I went to high school. By the time I was 16, I knew I wanted to be a journalist. As a teen, I made a few extra bucks as a sports stringer for The Plainfield Enterprise taking photos and covering Plainfield's high school football and basketball games.

In December 1995, I graduated with a journalism degree from Eastern Illinois University. I have had a strong passion and commitment for public service journalism ever since. I am grateful to have covered so many different places throughout the greater Midwest.

I worked for The South Bend Tribune (1996-1998), the Daily Herald in Arlington Heights (1998-2000), Green Bay Press-Gazette (2000-2003) Omaha World-Herald (2003-2012) and on the statewide investigative team for USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin, where I was based at The Post-Crescent in Appleton, from 2012 until 2017.

Obviously, Joliet and Plainfield have grown dramatically since I left Illinois in 2000 - but so has journalism and how readers consume their news. I'm thrilled to be joining Patch as the Joliet Editor at this point in time when more and more people prefer to access their local news information through web-only platforms and mobile devices.

Joliet and Will County always seem to have a lot of news going on, and I will do my best to bring you a superior news product.