Mark Ouellette, Patch Staff

Position: Editor, Stoneham Patch; Co-Editor, Melrose Patch

Email: mark.ouellette@patch.com

Phone: 978-595-8586

Bio: A New Hampshire native, Mark grew up in Milford, and attended college in Plymouth before relocating to the Boston area. Mark earned his bachelor's degree from Plymouth State University, where he majored in Communication Studies. While a student at PSU, Mark gained valuable journalism experience writing for The Clock, the college newspaper, and hosting news and sports radio programs at 91.7 WPCR. During his senior year, Mark interned with Viacom, helping produce daily and nightly sports TV broadcasts for CBS-4 and then-UPN38. Mark began his professional journalism career freelancing for The Cabinet Press, writing for their four weekly newspapers. After several months, Mark was promoted to a full-time staff reporter position with The Cabinet Press, where he worked for more than two years. Mark has spent the past couple years as a news and sports correspondent for some of the Granite State's largest daily newspapers, including The Telegraph of Nashua and the state's largest daily, the New Hampshire Union Leader and Sunday News. Mark has primarily covered the town of Merrimack the past couple of years, but he also spent time covering towns including Litchfield, Nashua, Hudson, Amherst, Mont Vernon, Wilton, Milford, Lyndeborough and Hooksett. Mark also was the founder, co-owner, managing editor and web editor for the New Hampshire news website, NHReporter.com. Some of the interesting people Mark conducted exclusive interviews with include Republican presidential candidates Rudy Giuliani and Tom Tancredo, but the most memorable interview was with Merrimack resident Phil "Doc" Peter, a retired medic and Iwo Jima survivor. In his free time, Mark enjoys spending time with friends and family, going to concerts, comedy shows, and different sporting events.

My 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 because human beings have beliefs. So in the spirit of simple honesty, our policy is to encourage our editors to reveal their beliefs to the extent they feel comfortable. This disclosure is not a license for them to inject their beliefs into stories or to dictate coverage according to them. In fact, the intent is the opposite: we hope that the knowledge that their beliefs are on the record will cause them to be ever mindful to write, report and edit in a fair, balanced way. And if you ever see evidence that we failed in this mission, please let us know.

Politics I'm independent-minded and not married to any specific political party.

Religion Not affiliated with any specific religious institution or spiritual group. Local Hot-Button Issues Being new to the community I won't pretend to say I fully understand all the complex issues facing Stoneham, but two areas that all schools and municipalities are currently trying to deal with concern taxes and operating budgets. Stoneham Patch will certainly be covering the various meetings related to fiscal issues facing the school district and town to keep our readers abreast of the situation.