Deborah Gastfreund Schuss is an award-winning reporter and the recipient of a prestigious national journalism fellowship that supported her recent graduate education at Harvard University. She was a correspondent for The Boston Globe for more than six years, with her articles covering education, business, politics, health issues and lifestyle trends.

Prior to her work at the Globe, Ms. Schuss was an editor and special-assignment reporter for a New England newspaper chain that was owned by Fidelity Investments. While at Fidelity's Community Newspaper Co., she launched and developed “Common Ground,” an award-winning regional series exploring the area's people, problems and options for navigating life’s key challenges. Her reporting spurred the introduction of legislation in the Massachusetts State Senate, changed a town's policy for handling racial and ethnic incidents, and generated several unique community programs. Ms. Schuss also was a correspondent for The Association Press in Boston and The Providence Sunday Journal, and has been published in a variety of other media outlets as well. She has served as a guest lecturer at the Northeastern University School of Journalism and at the Simmons College Department of Communications. A special-edition commemorative magazine she developed, co-wrote and co-edited on the legacy of the late Rabbi Dr. Joseph Soloveitchik was cited as a primary source for a recently published book about the world-renowned scholar.

A 2009 graduate of Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government with a Master in Public Administration degree, Ms. Schuss focused her studies and research on the press, politics and public policy, including the role of new media, as well as healthcare policy. She won the Rennie Taylor/Alton Blakeslee Graduate Studies Fellowship, a science/health journalism fellowship which the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing awarded for her Harvard education. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Simmons College, With Distinction, signifying highest honors, and received the Beatrice Gannon Award for outstanding academic achievement.

Ms. Schuss is the recipient of several journalism honors, including a New England Press Association award for Business/Economic Reporting, a Massachusetts Press Association award for In-Depth Reporting, and a commendation from the Massachusetts Bankers Association for a series she wrote on the 1990s banking crisis.