About Us

We write about the issues and tradeoffs facing the Amherst community to help make sense of the swirl of information and opinion.

We write factually and fairly, and encourage open and respectful discussion through the opinion posts and comments on our pages.

Who We Are

The Amherst Current is guided by an all-volunteer editorial board.

  • Allison McDonald, Managing Editor
  • Shalini Bahl
  • Alex Cox
  • Nick Grabbe
  • Bryan Harvey
  • Jack Jemsek
  • Connie Kruger
  • David Porter
  • Stephen Schreiber

Andy Churchill, a member of the editorial board since 2023, stepped off the board in July 2025.

Allison McDonald, Managing Editor & Web Producer, has lived in Amherst since 2003. She has more than 30 years experience in communications and marketing in consumer products, retail, and nonprofit organizations. She currently leads performance marketing in the University Marcom group at UMass Amherst.

Allison served on Town Meeting and was elected to School Committee in 2018; she served as Chair of the Regional School Committee 2020-2021, and as Chair of the Amherst School Committee 2020-2023.

Founders

A native of Washington, D.C., Nick Grabbe has lived in Amherst for 41 years. He was a copy editor for five daily newspapers, then was managing editor of the Valley Advocate and Worcester Magazine in their early years. He was an Amherst-based editor and writer for the Bulletin and Gazette from 1980 to 2013. In retirement, he founded a blog on simple living and his low-carbon lifestyle called Adventures in the Good Life. He was elected to the Charter Commission, and with Mandi Jo Hanneke coordinated a blog called A Better Amherst about the new form of government. In 2021 he published a memoir called “Print and Privilege” (Off the Common Books).

Sarah Marshall has lived in Amherst since 2011. Before coming to Amherst, she was a scientist at an environmental consulting company in the Boston area for many years.  In Amherst, she serves on the Amherst and Regional School Committees and has served on the Zoning Board of Appeals, the Recreation Commission, and the Community Preservation Act Committee. She also served on other short-term committees including the North Common Working Group and the Middle School Grade-Span Advisory Committee.

Nick and Sarah conveyed all responsibilities for The Amherst Current to Allison McDonald on November 1, 2023.