Caroline Gerdes

A New Orleanian turned Seattleite, Caroline Gerdes is a writer, editor, author, oral historian and digital marketing strategist.

After graduating from Louisiana State University, Gerdes received a National Geographic Young Explorers Grant. As a National Geographic Explorer, she conducted an oral history project about the New Orleans Ninth Ward neighborhood and wrote for several National Geographic outlets. She has spoken about her Ninth Ward research at the 2014 Columbia University Oral History Summer Institute and at National Geographic Headquarters on multiple occasions.

While living in DC, she was published in The Huffington Post and Bethesda Magazine’s Applause, in addition to DC arts publications. In Pittsburgh, she served as the development editor at Pop City.

Gerdes’ book, based on her National Geographic project, “An Oral History of the New Orleans Ninth Ward” was published in April 2017 (Pelican Publishing). Her freelance credits include working as a contributing writer for women’s site Bustle.com, working remotely as a digital producer for National Geographic Museum & National Geographic Live and serving as a journalism instructor and trip leader for The New York Times Student Journeys. She has been published in HelloGiggles, Thought Catalog, Time Out New York, National Geographic Magazine online, National Geographic Travel, The Advocate (Baton Rouge), WGBH, KCTS 9 Seattle, Crosscut and more.

She currently serves as the MarComm Managing Editor at Cascade Public Media in Seattle.