Alicia C. Shepard is the author of the new book, Woodward & Bernstein: Life in the Shadow of Watergate (Nov. 2006). She spent the last four years teaching journalism, freelancing and working on her book. She interviewed more than 175 people connected to Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein and spent last year sifting through the new archival materials that the University of Texas bought from Woodward and Bernstein for $5 million in 2003. About the book: www.woodwardandbernstein.net

She is currently freelancing and teaching journalism at Georgetown University. She most recently covered the student massacre in April at Virginia Tech for the New York Times. Shepard also contributes to Washingtonian and People magazines, and has written for the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, New York Times and the Washington Post.

For nearly a decade, she wrote for American Journalism Review on such things as ethics, the newspaper industry and how journalism works - or doesn't. For that work, the National Press Club awarded her its top media criticism prize three different years. In 2003 she was a Foster Distinguished Writer at Penn State.

From 1982 to 1987, she was a reporter for the San Jose Mercury News. She is co-author of Running Toward Danger: Stories Behind the Breaking News of 9/11 (2002), about how journalists covered 9/11 and the role they played as modern-day keepers of calm on America's most terrifying day.

Shepard has traveled extensively in the U.S. and abroad. In 2002, she bicycled 517 miles from Amsterdam to Paris. In 1987, Shepard, her husband and one-year-old son, Cutter, set sail on their 32-foot sailboat, “Yankee Lady,” for the South Pacific. They spent three years cruising in the islands and she wrote about their adventures. They sailed to Japan and stayed for two more years writing, editing, teaching English and learning Japanese.

She graduated with honors in English in 1978 from The George Washington University and received a masters in journalism in 2002 from the University of Maryland.