The Monitor’s newest associate editor is pleased she can view the people, parishes and organizations of the Diocese of Trenton through the lens of the same faith she has come to embrace.

“I am looking for the ability to openly live out my faith through my work and do my part to bring people’s stories to light,” said Jennifer Mauro, 39, who joined the staff of the diocesan newspaper June 20.

Mauro was born in Mountain Home, Idaho, and raised by her mother in Arlington, Texas, where she graduated from the University of Texas at Arlington in 1999 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and communications. Upon completion of the Dow Jones News Fund internship program, Mauro began her career as a writer and copyeditor at The Times Herald-Record, Middletown, N.Y.

“This was around the time of 9/11,” Mauro recalled. Due to Middletown’s proximity to New York City, “we covered a lot of casualties, of funerals,” she said. “It was a real jump start into the world of journalism.”

Being on the East Coast, her desire to live closer to her father and stepmother prompted Mauro’s relocation to the Garden State in 2003. She worked at two Gannett Company-owned newspapers, The Courier-News, now located in Somerville, and the Home News Tribune, East Brunswick, from 2003 to 2010.

Raised as the child of a Lutheran mother and a Catholic father, Mauro had been baptized but had not completed her sacramental preparations. Hearing God’s call to full Communion into the Catholic Church, she joined the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults process in her home parish of St. Francis of Assisi, Brant Beach, and received the Sacraments of Confirmation and First Eucharist at the 2005 Easter Vigil.

Mauro still participates in the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults program at St. Francis. “It’s like my prayer group,” she said, noting that she enjoys supporting the current catechumens and candidates as well as continues to learn more about the Catholic faith.

Mauro also meets with a spiritual director at her parish about every six weeks. “It’s another way, besides going to Mass,” she said, “to keep me present to God and keep my thoughts focused in the ways of God.”

Mauro will be working in tandem with fellow Monitor associate editor, Mary Stadnyk, in coordinating the day-to-day operations of the newspaper for both its print and digital editions.

“We are fortunate to have someone with Jennifer’s journalism background join The Monitor team,” noted associate publisher Rayanne Bennett. “She has been freelancing for The Monitor during the past year, and has already developed a real feel for the Diocese and the work of the diocesan newspaper.”