Kelly Bauer, '15, Pursues Truth as Senior Editor at Block Club Chicago
By Tony Scott

Kelly Bauer, '15, currently serves as senior editor at Block Club Chicago. (Photo: Alex Garcia for Block Club Chicago)

Kelly Bauer, ’15, caught the news bug at an early age, which led to NIU and, ultimately, to her becoming a full-time journalist in Chicago.
 

Bauer was a founding hire at the nonprofit news organization Block Club Chicago, established in 2018 following the dissolution of the news website DNAInfo by three former DNAInfo editors. Bauer currently serves as Block Club Chicago’s senior editor.

Bauer, who grew up in the Chicago suburbs with her parents and four siblings, initially struggled with reading as a child, but once she overcame that challenge, she found that she loved writing stories.

“I'd write stories to give to my family members as birthday gifts,” she said. “When I was around seven years old, a relative got me a subscription to National Geographic, and I fell in love with journalism. With my mom's help, I created a classroom newspaper that I'd print at home.”

Bauer later joined her high school newspaper, and when she came to NIU, she quickly joined the Northern Star as a reporter.

Bauer came to NIU because of its affordability, and scholarships helped ease her financial burden.

“I was a first-generation college student, and I was wholly responsible for paying for college,” she said. “I decided to go to NIU because I was offered scholarships that would make it a more affordable option for me; without those scholarships, I probably would not have been able to attend college. I had also heard good things about the Northern Star.”
 

Bauer lived on campus in Grant Towers, and spent a lot of time at the Northern Star office in the Campus Life Building, which she said was her favorite place on campus.

After starting as a reporter, she quickly ascended the Northern Star ranks, becoming the campus news editor in the second semester of her freshman year. After that, she was named the newspaper’s editor in chief and remained in that position until her graduation.

“I was in the office as much as possible to work on the paper and hang out with my coworkers — who became some of my best friends,” she said. “I'd study, do homework and write my papers at my desk. I definitely fell asleep on the couch there more than once.”

Bauer counts Shelley Hendricks, Northern Star advisor, as her mentor during her time at NIU. 

“Shelley was, and is, a very caring and thoughtful journalist and adviser — she'd give me constructive feedback about how the paper was doing, but then she was also available when I needed to vent or when I had worries about the future,” Bauer said. “Her advice helped me grow as a journalist in immeasurable ways. It makes me so happy to see her — and the Star's longtime business adviser, the incomparable Maria Krull — whenever I'm back at NIU.”

Bauer said another Northern Star alumna had started working at DNAInfo, and through her peer, she was able to obtain a summer internship at DNAInfo during her junior year. 

“I'd go to DNAinfo on weekdays and then rush back to DeKalb to create the weekly summer paper,” she said. “DNAinfo was so welcoming that they had me back the next summer — and then the next, when they heard I'd just graduated, they offered me a job.”

Bauer started as a breaking news and general assignment reporter at DNAInfo.

“It built on a lot of the skills I'd learned during my internship and at the Star — but also taught me so, so much,” she said. “I traveled all over the city for stories and fell even more in love with Chicago.”

After DNAInfo’s owner shut the publication down in 2017, three of its editors – Jen Sabella, Stephanie Lulay and Shamus Toomey – started Block Club Chicago as a nonprofit newsroom the following year. 

“I signed on instantly as a reporter and was part of Block Club Chicago’s founding team,” Bauer said. “I worked my way up the rungs and became an editor. I believe strongly in the importance of Block Club's work: providing hyperlocal, nonpartisan news that holds powerful people to account and helps neighbors better connect and understand their city.”

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Bauer served as Block Club Chicago’s breaking news editor and provided live coverage of news conferences from city, state and federal officials. 

“There was a period where I worked almost 75 days in a row — taking just one day off to celebrate my anniversary — because I knew people were counting on me and Block Club for nonpartisan, accurate information,” she said.

Bauer said she developed the skills she needed while at NIU working for the student newspaper.

“The breaking news skills that I developed while at the Star — covering local crime, crazy weather, electric outages and more — were the foundation for how I covered the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic,” she said. “I learned how to confirm information quickly and convey it accurately to people who were desperate for updates. In fact, the first time I ‘live tweeted’ a news event was at NIU — and then that became a key part of how I conveyed information to readers in need during the pandemic.”

Bauer points to a series of COVID-related stories that she is proud of, unveiling the actions of a Chicago hospital executive who allegedly steered questionable contracts to his friend, business partner and neighbor, and showing that pop-up testing companies were providing questionable results while collecting hundreds of millions of dollars from the government.

"My reports spurred a number of state and federal investigations — and multiple people are now facing charges because of them,” she said.

Bauer points to the skills she learned while a student journalist at NIU as crucial in building the expertise needed for reporting investigative stories like those.

“I wouldn't have been able to pursue those stories if not for what I learned at NIU,” she said.”I did investigatory work at the Star, learning how to use the Freedom of Information Act, obtain and analyze public records and how to connect with sources so they understood they could trust me. Those were all key skills for the work I do now."

In addition to the professional networks and skills she built while at NIU, as an alumna she shared that she also gained a very special personal relationship. 

“I met my spouse through an NIU connection,” she said. “One of my good friends was an editor with me at the Star. After we both graduated from college and moved to Chicago, I visited my friend — and fell for his roommate. We got married less than a year later. And he's accompanied me back to NIU's DeKalb campus a few times!”
 

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