Laura T. Coffey is a veteran editor, feature writer and author with more than 30 years of journalism experience. She is president of the Society for Features Journalism, a professional organization of editors and writers at media outlets across North America. Laura spent 14 years working as a senior writer, editor and producer for the website of NBC’s TODAY show, where she wrote and edited hundreds of high-profile human-interest stories and oversaw special projects. Her nonfiction book “My Old Dog: Rescued Pets with Remarkable Second Acts” quickly became a national bestseller and went into a second printing. “My Old Dog” won the prestigious Best Book Award from the Dog Writers Association of America and a gold INDIES Book of the Year Award from Foreword Reviews.
Earlier in her career, Laura wrote and edited for NBC News Digital, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the Tampa Bay Times, The San Diego Union-Tribune, The Prague Post in the Czech Republic, the Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce and the Peninsula Clarion in Alaska. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, PBS NewsHour Online, Best Friends magazine and many other publications. Laura also has worked an editor and strategic advisor for Highlights Magazine and for Zibby Media, a media company that includes a publishing house, magazine, book club, bookstore, writing classes, retreats, events and podcasts.
Hallmarks of Laura’s writing are her authentic voice, her compassion and her ability to get out of the way and let story subjects shine. She has won numerous first-place writing awards from the Society for Features Journalism and the Dog Writers Association of America, as well as headline-writing awards from the American Copy Editors Society.
Laura lives in Seattle with her husband, Michael Wann, their son, Tyler, their adopted senior dog, Coco, and their rescued cat, Eddie.
Here are some of Laura’s viral feature stories about dogs that ultimately culminated in the “My Old Dog” book project:
- ‘No dog should die alone’: Photographer promotes senior pet adoption (That’s Laura’s story about Lori Fusaro, the photographer for the “My Old Dog” book!)
- 9/11 Ground Zero search dog still lends a helping paw
- Xena the Warrior Puppy, rescued from abuse, helps 8-year-old boy with autism
- Canines dogged in the effort to clear Bosnia of land mines (OK, this one is a much older story from the archives … but it just goes to show that even when she was living in Central Europe in the late 1990s, Laura found herself drawn to compelling dog stories. One of the most memorable assignments of her life involved traveling to a Serb territory of war-torn Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1999 to chronicle the work of mine-sniffing dogs for the Chicago Tribune.)
Please feel free to contact Laura directly at laura.coffey@gmail.com.