Lisa Vorderbrueggen has been the political editor and columnist for Contra Costa Newspapers and Knight Ridder since late 2004. Prior to her political assignment, she covered regional growth and transportation at the Times.

She joined Knight Ridder in 1996 after working as the Carson City, Nev., bureau chief for the Reno Gazette Journal and as a Washington, D.C., correspondent for the Las Vegas Review Journal. She also worked as reporter, editor and columnist for the Nevada Appeal, a Carson City, Nev., daily.

Vorderbrueggen’s work has been recognized by the California Newspaper Publishers Association, Nevada Press Association and the East Bay Press Club. She earned her bachelors degree in journalism in 1989 at the University of Nevada, Reno.

A fifth-generation Oregonian, Vorderbrueggen lives in Martinez with her husband, Joe, in a lovely suburban house the couple will one day sell for an obscene sum of money in order to buy a sailboat and head for blue waters. After that, look for her byline in the travel section under “Tahiti.”