Marie Cunningham, Patch Staff

Marie Cunningham grew up in Dearborn, Mich., loving Wolverine football and Detroit hockey. She attended the University of Michigan and graduated in 2005 with a B.A. in German and political science. Marie spent her last year as an undergrad living and studying in Germany.

After a stint as a clerk at an archives library, Marie came to SoCal in 2007 to attend graduate school at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism. She finished in 2009 with an M.A. in Journalism. While at USC, Marie was awarded a Carnegie-Knight fellowship to do multimedia reporting on Proposition 8 in California's Central Valley.

Marie has interned at newspapers, magazines and websites in both Los Angeles and New York City. She is very excited to join the Patch team as the Beverly Hills site editor and looks forward to bringing innovative, multimedia news to the community.

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 and human beings have beliefs. So in the spirit of simple honesty, our policy is to encourage our editors to reveal certain key beliefs to the extent they feel comfortable.

This disclosure is not a license for our editors to inject these beliefs into stories or to dictate coverage according to them. In fact, the intent is the opposite: we hope that the knowledge that our beliefs are on the record will force us to be ever mindful to write, report, and edit in a fair, balanced way. And if you, the user, ever think you see evidence that we failed in this mission, we wholeheartedly invite you to let us know.

Politics

    * How would you describe your political beliefs?

I'm a lefty, but I truly appreciate all calm approaches to political discourse.

Religion

    * How religious would you say you are? Casual, observant, devout, non-religious?

I prefer spiritualism in lieu of organized religion.

Local Hot Button Issues

    * What do you think are the most important issues facing the community?

The city's budget is getting a lot of attention right now, as is the budget of the Beverly Hills Unified School District.

    * Where do you stand on each of these issues?

"Government for the people, by the people."