She published her first professional newspaper article in 1985 as a high school student in
Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, an account of a
Tu B'Shevat tree planting ceremony for the
Detroit Jewish News. She worked as a reporter at The
Charlotte Observer
from 1992 to 1994 and for The Raleigh News and Observer from to 1994 to 1996. Pollack was a reporter for the
Baltimore Sun from 1996 to 2004. The Pulitzer citation stated the award was "for her compelling portrait of a baseball umpire who endured the death of a son while knowing that another son suffers from the same deadly genetic disease." From 2004 to 2013, Pollak was a producer and reporter for
This American Life. She is currently an independent journalist and adjunct professor at the
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. == References ==