Amy Condra is a former journalist whose work as a reporter and editor earned her multiple Virginia Press Association Awards for investigative reporting, education coverage and editorial writing, as well as the competitive Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism’s Multimedia Editing Fellowship.
Amy also has extensive experience as a freelance writer, having ventured from Saigon to Hanoi to research and write two books on Vietnam published by Gareth Stevens. She also wrote a 96-page media reference guide for the U.S. Department of State, used during President William J. Clinton’s visit.
When Amy shifted from publishing to public service, she retained the passion for communication she experienced working for Knight Ridder, McClatchy, Media General and Morris Communications.
For the Government Accountability Office, Amy served as managing editor of the International Journal of Government Auditing, representing the Journal at auditing conferences in Peru and Samoa. In this role, she represented the Journal at auditing conferences in Peru and Samoa, covering key topics such as anticorruption initiatives in South America and cooperative audits on climate change adaptation in the Pacific region.
She then took on the lead communication role for USAID’s Office of Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment, visiting remote project sites in Nepal, Rwanda and Moldova to document and highlight the agency’s efforts to promote equitable access, opportunity and benefits for all. Amy created several high-impact social media campaigns for USAID, including an International Day of the Girl #GirlsShine initiative that was resonated across 68 countries and was endorsed used by the U.S. Department of State. She has also provided strategic communications guidance and support to the Department of Defense Education Activity, the U.S. Navy’s Naval History and Heritage Command, FEMA and the Department of Justice’s Community Relations Service.
An aspiring novelist, Amy currently serves on the national board of Sisters in Crime, an organization founded to address disparities experienced by women crime writers. Over the years, the mission of Sisters in Crime has expanded to advocate for all marginalized authors within the crime writing community and ensure a supportive environment for booksellers, librarians and publishers.
One of Amy’s earliest writing project has remained one of her favorites: while studying history at Loyola University in New Orleans, she wrote “Sarah Josepha Hale: Making Female Education Fashionable,” which was published in the Loyola Student Historical Journal. This work has been cited by the National Women’s History Museum’s exhibit on women and education, referenced in numerous American history books and included in course materials used by the University of Massachusetts and McGraw Hill Education.
Amy continues to be motivated by the desire to tell stories that are honest and engaging. She is currently working on a suspense novel set in Juneau, Alaska.