About Me

Here you'll get a bit more of a sense of who I am (beyond my quick intro on the homepage) and the lifelong journey I'm on to become a better writer and human on this planet of ours. 

Who I am: Elizabeth Doerr (She/Her/Hers)

I'm a mom. My role as a parent has a huge influence on my writing. What kind of human I want my son to be and the world I want him to live in motivates the type of projects I take on and the stories I want to write. That human, currently in 3.5-year-old form, is named Finch, and he's my favorite person in the whole wide world (no offense to my second favorite person, my husband, Cory). Finch was born with a cleft lip, and I chronicled the early part of our cleft journey in my blog, The Widest Smile.

I'm an extrovert and a connector. My parents tell me that at almost every playground we'd visit when I was a kid, I'd come away with a new friend. This is as true today as it was when I was five. I derive energy from being around other people and no matter where I end up, I'm constantly seeking community and connection. This innate ability to connect with people comes in handy as an interviewer for the stories I write and the work that I do. 

I'm an external processor and reflector. To process what is going on in the world, I need to talk and write about it. From my early journaling days to my current reporting experiences, writing and storytelling is how I organize my thoughts and make meaning out of them. In many cases, I get to share these reflections about the world through my journalism and blog posts. I bring this inquisitiveness to all the work I do and I continuously learn from the interviewees I speak with and the editors who bring their perspective and experiences to my pieces.

I'm an aspiring antiracist. Ever since I landed in Malawi as a bright-eyed young Peace Corps Volunteer with the intent to "help the people of Africa," I realized I didn't know a damn thing and that my only "credential" was whiteness. After returning to the U.S., I made a career as a social justice educator and brought that lens into my writing work. But, as a privileged white woman, I’m still learning/unlearning so much. I’m on a lifelong journey to tear down racists systems and structures I’ve been complicit in upholding. While, previously, I kept some of this personal work to myself, I'm on an active—and much more vocal—journey to being a productive ally/accomplice to Black and Indigenous people and other people of color. Read about my antiracism journey at my blog, The Unlearning Journal.

I'm a Pacific Northwesterner. I grew up in Spokane, Washington, where the local motto is "near nature, near perfect." After a decade-and-a-half living abroad and in the Mid-Atlantic region of the U.S. East Coast, I’m back and rooted in my home region. Living in Portland—the ancestral land of the Clackamas and Cowlitz people—my love of the Pacific Northwest and my antiracism journey are resulting in an important tension: loving where I live while acknowledging and honoring the people whose land was stolen from them. In navigating that tension, I’m learning about that history and finding ways to actively invest (monetarily or otherwise) in returning the land back to its rightful owners.

I'm a traveler and a global citizen. From the moment my parents took me on my first international trip to Chile when I was 15, "traveler" has been a part of my identity. I’ve lived, worked, and studied in Latin America (Ecuador and Chile) and Africa (Malawi—Peace Corps 2004-2006), and I've had the privilege to travel all over the world. And I write about those experiences. My evolving mission for my travel writing is to "decolonize" travel and bring a sense of humility and critical perspective to my role as a white visitor in telling the story of a place. I'm doing this most often as the Social Justice and Sustainability Editor at Bébé Voyage—a blog and community for travel-loving families—to highlight respect for local cultures and protection of the environment through our travels.

I'm an enjoyer of life. While I'm working to help make this world a better place, I'm also enjoying my life quite a bit. Some of my obsessions not noted above include: coffee drinking, eating, cooking, city exploring, running (but we'll call this a mild obsession because if you tempt with a glass of wine and a chat that's what I'll choose), outdoor adventuring, hanging with my friends (usually after the kid is asleep because that's my rare uninterrupted time these days), and being with my family.

other credentials

I have published work in CityLab, Baltimore City Paper, Scalawag Magazine, and Portland Monthly among numerous other publications. My 2015 Baltimore City Paper cover story about street harassment, Stop Calling Me ‘Baby,’ won a Maryland Delaware DC press association award. 

Read my writing in the Portfolio page and learn about services I offer here. 

I've had the privilege to expand my world through really great learning opportunities through the following degree programs:

• Master's in Writing, nonfiction concentration from Johns Hopkins University (2013-2016)

• Master's in International Education Policy from The University of Maryland (2008-2010)

• Bachelor's in Rhetoric/Media Studies and Spanish from Willamette University (1999-2003)