Melinda Lavine is an award-winning, multidisciplinary journalist with 17 years professional experience. She joined the Duluth News Tribune in 2014 as its features editor, and today, she writes about the people, the heartbeat of the community. Melinda grew up in central North Dakota, a first-generation American and the daughter of a military dad. In 2006, she earned bachelor's degrees in English and Communications from the University of North Dakota, and that summer, she started her career as a copy editor and page designer at the Grand Forks (N.D.) Herald, a Forum Communications Co. sister publication. In 2012, she helped launch the Herald's features section, as the editor, before moving east to do the same at the DNT. Contact her: 218-723-5346, mlavine@duluthnews.com.