Joan MerriamIt was as a graduate intern at a Sacramento CBS-affiliate television station that Joan became involved in the story that would ultimately form the basis for her full-length work of nonfiction, Little Girl Lost: A True Story of Shattered Innocence & Mrder, first published in 1992. The book sold over 250,000 copies worldwide.Over the years, she has authored a number of feature articles, commentaries, profiles, and columns which have appeared in dozens of national and regional magazines and newspapers. Among them are AARP Magazine, Sacramento Magazine, Sierra Heritage, the Sacramento Bee, and Vidura: The Press Institute of India Mass Media Magazine.Joan has been the recipient of awards from the Society of Professional Journalists as well as Writer's Digest magazine for her article on a one-time homophobic father's efforts to deal with his gay son's emergence from the closet and diagnosis of--and eventual death from--AIDS, and how that father went on to become an AIDS activist. In 2021, she received an Honorable Mention from the New Millennium Awards for her article, Whispers of a Forgotten Plague.Throughout the years, she has also been honored with dozens of awards for her civic work, including the Paul Harris Award from Rotary International for community service. An avid dog-lover--especially golden retrievers--she writes two newspaper columns on life with animals, syndicated in California and Colorado newspapers. In addition to her writing, she also teaches Communication Studies at a California community college. Read More Read Less