Marie Tessier works at the intersection of democracy, news and interactive media as the lead moderator of reader comments to the Opinion pages of NYTimes.com, and as the contributing writer of audience engagement posts in opinion blogs. Her work in Community and Interactive News Technology is part of the company’s audience development strategy. As the project leader of an RJI Fellowship, she is working to engage women’s voices in online comments through the Coral Project to fulfill the civic purposes of news comments, and promote the full engagement of women, the industry’s most valuable consumers.

Before joining The Times in 2007, she was an independent journalist specializing in coverage of violence against women, politics, and legal and financial affairs. Her work has appeared on the Women’s eNews and Women’s Media Center Web sites, in Ms. magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, The Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, the San Francisco Chronicle, in other papers and magazines, and on “Marketplace” radio and National Public Radio. She is the author of “Covering Aviation Safety: An Investigator’s Guide,” from Investigative Reporters & Editors and several book chapters. She has been a regular panelist on a Maine Public Television talk show. She is an independent writer whose work has been distributed throughout the English and Arabic-speaking world. Before going into journalism, she worked at the League of Women Voters national office, and served on the production staff of the presidential debates.