Alex_Bracken_RESUME.yaml

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cv:
  name: Alex Bracken
  location: Toledo, Ohio
  email: alex@alexbracken.co
  photo:
  phone: +1-260-710-2791
  website: https://alexbracken.co
  social_networks:
    - network: LinkedIn
      username: alexbracken
  custom_connections:
  sections:
    summary:
      - General assignment reporter with experience covering government, courts, and education at a daily newspaper, and independently running a weekly newspaper as its sole reporter. Past experience in photojournalism, data visualization, and graphic design helps add multimedia elements to reported stories that bring clarity to complex topics. Skilled in sorting through public records to surface impactful and hard-to-get stories that hold public officials accountable.
    education:
      - institution: Ball State University
        area: Journalism Graphics
        degree: BA
        start_date: 2020-08
        end_date: 2023-05
        location: Muncie, Ind.
        highlights:
        - Concentration in media development and design, minor in emerging media
          - Graduated *summa cum laude* with a 3.96 GPA
    experience:
      - company: The Toledo Blade
        position: General Assignment Reporter
        start_date: 2025-01
        end_date: present
        location: Toledo, Ohio
        summary: Covering local government, courts, breaking news, education, and features at a metro daily
        highlights:
          - Write five in-depth stories weekly on tight deadlines, independently pursuing enterprise projects while completing daily assignments and county government beat coverage
          - Investigate complex stories involving government agencies, using public records requests to produce impactful accountability journalism that advocates for the public interest
          - Shoot photos, gather and analyze data to create visualizations, and take videos to create multimedia packages that provide context and clarity to readers
          - Respond to breaking news events, quickly gathering information and coordinating with editors to publish accurate stories under competitive deadlines

      - company: Indiana Plain Dealer
        position: Peru Managing Editor
        start_date: 2023-07
        end_date: 2024-12
        location: Peru, Ind.
        summary: Produced a weekly newspaper as its sole employee, managing all aspects of publication
        highlights:
          - Published the Marion Chronicle-Tribune, a daily newspaper, for two months during a leadership transition, producing stories as its only reporter and hiring newsroom staff
          - Wrote eight to 10 news stories per week with photos, managing news coverage and reporting on courts, breaking news, local government, features, education, and business
          - Grew social media reach by 120% by posting stories on Facebook, enhanced search engine optimization (SEO), and improved website layout and user experience

      - company: Ball State Daily News
        position: Visual Editor
        start_date: 2022-08
        end_date: 2023-05
        location: Muncie, Ind.
        summary:
        highlights:
          - Mentored a team of eight student designers to create data graphics, illustrations, and layouts for an award-winning weekly news magazine with a circulation of 7,000

      - company: Ball Bearings Magazine
        position: Art Director
        start_date: 2022-01
        end_date: 2023-05
        location: Muncie, Ind.
        highlights:
          - Designed four issues of a student-run magazine which earned state and national honors, including several first-place design awards from the Indiana Collegiate Press Association

    skills:
      - label: Coverage areas
        details: City and county government, higher education, justice reform, policing, breaking news, foster care, economic and business development, data centers, politics, and elections
      - label: Skills
        details: Data visualization, photography, copy editing, news graphics, public records, layout design, social media management, graphic design, web design, video editing
      - label: Technologies
        details: HTML, CSS, Python, WordPress, Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Lightroom, InDesign, and Premiere Pro; Flourish, Datawrapper, Microsoft Excel, and Google Pinpoint.



design:
  theme: classic
  page:
    size: us-letter
    top_margin: 0.7in
    bottom_margin: 0.7in
    left_margin: 0.7in
    right_margin: 0.7in
    show_footer: false
    show_top_note: true
  colors:
    name: rgb(0, 0,0)
    body: rgb(0, 0, 0)
    headline: rgb(0, 0, 0)
    connections: rgb(0, 0, 0)
    section_titles: rgb(0, 0, 0)
    links: rgb(0, 0, 0)
    footer: rgb(128, 128, 128)
    top_note: rgb(128, 128, 128)
  typography:
    line_spacing: 0.5em
    alignment: justified-with-no-hyphenation
    date_and_location_column_alignment: right
    font_family:
      body: Source Sans 3
      name: Source Sans 3
      headline: Source Sans 3
      connections: Source Sans 3
      section_titles: Source Sans 3
    font_size:
      body: 10pt
      name: 30pt
      headline: 10pt
      connections: 10pt
      section_titles: 1.4em
    small_caps:
      name: false
      headline: false
      connections: false
      section_titles: false
    bold:
      name: true
      headline: false
      connections: false
      section_titles: true
  links:
    underline: true
    show_external_link_icon: false
  header:
    alignment: center
    photo_width: 3.5cm
    photo_position: left
    photo_space_left: 0.4cm
    photo_space_right: 0.4cm
    space_below_name: 0.7cm
    space_below_headline: 0.7cm
    space_below_connections: 0.7cm
    connections:
      phone_number_format: national
      hyperlink: true
      show_icons: true
      display_urls_instead_of_usernames: false
      separator: ''
      space_between_connections: 0.5cm
  section_titles:
    type: with_partial_line
    line_thickness: 0.5pt
    space_above: 0.5cm
    space_below: 0.3cm
  sections:
    allow_page_break: true
    space_between_regular_entries: 0.75em
    space_between_text_based_entries: 0.2em
    show_time_spans_in:
      - experience
  entries:
    date_and_location_width: 4.15cm
    side_space: 0.2cm
    space_between_columns: 0.1cm
    allow_page_break: false
    short_second_row: true
    summary:
      space_above: 0em
      space_left: 0cm
    highlights:
      bullet: •
      nested_bullet: •
      space_left: 0.15cm
      space_above: 0.2em
      space_between_items: 0.2em
      space_between_bullet_and_text: 0.5em
  templates:
    footer: ''
    top_note: '*LAST_UPDATED CURRENT_DATE*'
    single_date: MONTH_ABBREVIATION YEAR
    date_range: START_DATE – END_DATE
    time_span: HOW_MANY_YEARS YEARS HOW_MANY_MONTHS MONTHS
    one_line_entry:
      main_column: '**LABEL:** DETAILS'
    education_entry:
      main_column: |-
        **INSTITUTION**, AREA
        SUMMARY
        HIGHLIGHTS
      degree_column: '**DEGREE**'
      date_and_location_column: |-
        LOCATION
        DATE
    normal_entry:
      main_column: |-
        **NAME**
        SUMMARY
        HIGHLIGHTS
      date_and_location_column: |-
        LOCATION
        DATE
    experience_entry:
      main_column: |-
        **COMPANY**, POSITION
        SUMMARY
        HIGHLIGHTS
      date_and_location_column: |-
        LOCATION
        DATE
    publication_entry:
      main_column: |-
        **TITLE**
        SUMMARY
        AUTHORS
        URL (JOURNAL)
      date_and_location_column: DATE
locale:
  language: english
  last_updated: Last updated in
  month: month
  months: months
  year: year
  years: years
  present: present
  month_abbreviations:
    - Jan.
    - Feb.
    - Mar.
    - Apr.
    - May
    - June
    - July
    - Aug.
    - Sept.
    - Oct.
    - Nov.
    - Dec.
  month_names:
   - January
   - February
   - March
   - April
   - May
   - June
   - July
   - August
   - September
   - October
   - November
   - December
settings:
  current_date: '2026-08-09'
  render_command:
    design:
    locale:
    typst_path: output/NAME_IN_SNAKE_CASE_RESUME.typ
    pdf_path: output/NAME_IN_SNAKE_CASE_RESUME.pdf
    markdown_path: output/NAME_IN_SNAKE_CASE_RESUME.md
    html_path: output/NAME_IN_SNAKE_CASE_RESUME.html
    png_path: output/NAME_IN_SNAKE_CASE_RESUME.png
    dont_generate_markdown: false
    dont_generate_html: false
    dont_generate_typst: false
    dont_generate_pdf: false
    dont_generate_png: true
  bold_keywords: []