Elizabeth Hamilton, a 20-year veteran of Connecticut newsrooms and an accomplished poet, has been named editor of The Connecticut Mirror and The Connecticut News Project, Inc.
A former award-winning investigative reporter for The Hartford Courant, Hamilton will assume her duties at the Mirror on June 25. She comes to her new position from The Connecticut Hospital Association where she was communications manager.
Hamilton succeeds former editor G. Claude Albert who retired earlier this month.
“Elizabeth is smart, strategic, endlessly curious, and very passionate about The Mirror and its critical role in informing Connecticut residents about public policy,” said Connecticut Mirror Publisher Bruce Putterman. “She is committed to holding government accountable, doing more in-depth reporting, diversifying the voices in The Mirror, and engaging readers more deeply in our work. We are thrilled to have her guide us into our future.”
Hamilton’s experience as a journalist includes reporting and editing for a series of weekly and daily newspapers in western Connecticut before joining the Hartford Courant in 1998. She was named Reporter of the Year there in 2000, then went on to win the prestigious Theodore Driscoll Investigative Award for a series of stories about deaths in group homes for the developmentally disabled.
She has a degree in history from the University of Connecticut and an MFA from Southern Connecticut State University where she also teaches writing as an adjunct professor.
Hamilton’s work as a poet includes a poem cycle “Iseult Speaks,” which was set to music by Connecticut composer Jessica Rudman and performed at the Mark Twain House by the Hartford Chamber Orchestra in 2016. She was selected by poet Richard Blanco, President Barack Obama’s first inaugural poet, for a summer residency at the Atlantic Center for the Arts.
Hamilton lives in Old Lyme with her husband, Matthew Barrett, and their four children, ages 22 to 9.