Editorial Staff

SALES STAFF

DESIGN STAFF

GCM’S TEAM

Erika Hobbs

Editor (erika@growingcommunitymedia.org)
Erika Hobbs is an award-winning veteran journalist, digital strategist and news entrepreneur. Her work has appeared in Newsweek, the Chicago Tribune, the Philadelphia Inquirer and other publications. Her work focuses on public trusts, justice and holding the powerful accountable. She is committed to local news because fostering local identity while reporting news and creating space for civil discourse is critical for a vibrant democracy.

Luzane Draughon

Staff Reporter (luzane@oakpark.com)
Luzane Draughon is a 2023 graduate from Indiana University-Bloomington where she double majored in journalism and international law. She covered administration, student government and elections at the award-winning Indiana Daily Student newspaper, where she later became a news editor and managing editor. Luzane has also been a news reporter for The Herald-Times and a multimedia web researcher/writer for the Indiana Broadcast History Archive.

Amaris Rodriguez

Staff Reporter (amaris@growingcommunitymedia.org)
Amaris E. Rodriguez is a 2019 graduate of Northeastern Illinois University where she was the Opinion Editor and Co-Managing Editor for their award-winning publication, The Independent. Upon graduation, she covered the northwest suburbs of Chicago for Journal & Topics, out of Des Plaines, Illinois before moving to Waco, TX as a Police & Fire reporter. Before moving back home to the Chicagoland area, Amaris also spent time reporting for The Northeast Georgian Newspaper in Cornelia, Georgia as a City and Education Reporter.

Ken Trainor

Viewpoints Editor (ktrainor@wjinc.com)
Ken Trainor has been with Growing Community Media for 30 years, wearing almost every hat available, including Forest Park Review editor, Austin Weekly News editor, Wednesday Journal managing editor and, currently, copy editor, Viewpoints editor, and obituaries editor. He has written upward of 2,000 columns and still hasn’t run out of things to say.

Lacey Sikora

Homes Editor
Lacey graduated from Duke University with a degree in English and Art History and then went to law school at the University of Michigan. After working as an attorney in Chicago for a few years, she took some time off with her two children. Her family was rehabbing their second Oak Park home when the Journal put out a call for real estate reporters. Lacey has happily covered architecture and the historic homes and buildings in the Oak Park area ever since.