Meet Enterprise Editor Cheryl Smith, who is on her third stint with TCPalm

TCPalm / Treasure Coast Newspapers hired Cheryl Smith in 2012 — and it's her third time here since 1989. As enterprise editor, she emphasizes projects, analysis and investigations. She oversees business, environment, outdoors and entertainment coverage.

After graduating Old Dominion University, the Virginia native made a beeline for Florida. She worked for the Fort Pierce/Port St. Lucie Tribune from 1989-94 and again from 1995-97 after a one-year hiatus to backpack Europe.

Now she's back after living and working for newspapers and magazines in Sarasota, Tampa Bay and Key West. She also lived in Argentina and frequented Cuba (legally).

Q : Why did you choose to be a journalist?

A : As an English major in college, I was debating on my career path. My roommates suggested journalism because of my ability to see all sides of a story and my convictions to "comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable." Then former Virginian-Pilot reporter and ODU journalism professor Fred Talbott inspired and guided me to no end.

Q : What is your favorite part about being a journalist?

A : I get informed on an array of subjects and share my knowledge with readers — through facts, not opinions. I love this quote about journalists: "If someone says it's raining and another says it's dry, it's not your job to quote them both. Your job is to look out the (expletive) window and find out which is true." Our democracy depends on it.

Q : What is your most memorable work?

A : Too much to choose from after 35 years, but I'm proud of leading these investigations:

• Florida's pollution prevention plan is not working .
• Wastewater treatment plants dump massive human waste on farms , causing toxic algae blooms.
• Florida scrapped an imminent agricultural pollution crackdown and let a sugar lobbyist pave the way for weaker regulations.
• Endangered sea turtles get sucked into the nuclear power plant with no pipe grate to prevent it.
• Dangerous Detention: We exposed myriad problems at Florida's privatized Treasure Coast Forensic Treatment Center, where at least one patient was killed and several employees maimed.
• Save the Chimps : After chimpanzee Tiffany died, we exposed how the Fort Pierce sanctuary was cited for 12 Animal Welfare Act violations over five years, including three critical violations for medical care.
• Hep A : We exposed how the Florida Department of Health botched its handling of a 2019 Hepatitis A outbreak that killed six people and sickened 157 others on the Treasure Coast.
• The Nation : A Port St. Lucie private school shuttered after our investigation into a coach, which raised questions of child welfare, education, immigration, government oversight and public funding.

Q : What do you like to do outside of work?

A : Travel and outdoor activities: camping, hiking, biking, kayaking, paddle boarding and going to the beach.

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Meet Enterprise Editor Cheryl Smith, who is on her third stint with TCPalm