"When local papers, politicians, police officers and other people who frequent Baltimore collectively decided to demonize 'squeegee kids'--Ron Cassie stepped up and delivered a dose of humanity, humanity that many other outlets ignored. Cassie could've taken the easy route and sided with most publications, but instead he did what was right. He met the kids, brilliantly documented their reality and crafted a beautiful story that the mainstream desperately needed. Cassie is a gem, his writing is extremely urgent, necessary, and we need more writers like him." -- D. Watkins, New York Times bestselling author of The Cook Up and We Speak for Ourselves, editor at large at Salon, University of Baltimore writing professor
Ron Cassie is a senior editor at Baltimore magazine, where he's won national awards for his coverage of the death of Freddie Gray, sea-level rise on the Eastern Shore, and the opioid epidemic in Hagerstown. He reported from Haiti in the days following the tragic earthquake, New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and from Uganda as part of a humanitarian relief effort. His work has appeared as a notable selection in The Best of American Sports Writing, in Newsweek, Huffington Post, Grist, The New York Daily News, The Baltimore Sun, several alternative weeklies, including Baltimore City Paper, and Urbanite, where he served as editor-in-chief before coming to Baltimore. He has been a finalist for the Folio and City and Regional Magazine Association Writer of the Year awards. He is a two-time Religion Writer of the Year runner-up. He holds masters degrees from Georgetown University and The Johns Hopkins University where he teaches in the Master of Arts writing program. Prior to becoming a full-time journalist, he spent almost two decades swinging a hammer, riding a bike, and pouring drinks for a living.
