Click Here for details.
Save Save Save Save
By Bob Goldsborough
FOR THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Across a 28-year career as a copy editor and content editor at the Chicago Tribune, Jeffrey D. Carlson was an exacting copy editor with high standards and a keen desire to protect the newspaper's reputation for accuracy.
"He was consistently the copyeditor of choice for big stories," said John Chase, the Tribune's deputy metro editor for government and politics. "He did so much more than fix grammar and style -he combed through every sentence like a private investigator, catching things reporters and editors had missed, asking the questions a skeptical reader would ask. When you'd answered all his questions and agreed with his fixes, you felt so much better about what you were sending out into the world."
Carlson,68, died of renal cell carcinoma on April 21 at the City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, California, said Marcy Carlson, his wife of almost 44 years. A resident of Stevenson Ranch, California, since 2022, Carlson previously had lived in Schaumburg and Deerfield.
Born in Chicago in 1957, Carlson grew up in Deerfield and graduated from Deerfield High School. He attended Columbia College Chicago and the College of Lake County before earning a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Illinois Chicago in 1986.
Carlson did not begin his career in newspaper journalism. A music enthusiast, he first worked for Sound Unlimited, a record and video distributor near Skokie, where he met his wife. Hired to Sound Unlimited's order desk, he eventually headed that department before holding roles in the firm's art department, including working on a mailer that carried a column he authored.
In 1988, Carlson began working at the suburban Daily Herald, where he spent a decade as a reporter and an editor. He eventually became a sportswriter there, covering the Chicago Blackhawks.
In April 1998, Carlson left the Herald to join the Tribune as a copyeditor. He started on the same day as longtime Tribune columnist Heidi Stevens, who is now a syndicated columnist for the Tribune Content Agency.
"Jeff and I sat next to each other during the training, and I was so intimidated -I was 23 and a one-year reporting resident and had worked in one newsroom in Indiana -and Jeff immediately had a kind face and kind presence about him," Stevens recalled. "I immediately felt less nervous and less intimidated and less like I didn't belong here. That day honestly carried me through so many years at the Tribune. And every time I got to work with him in different departments over the years, on different shifts, I just felt like he was in my corner. And he was fantastic at his job exacting and tough and not afraid to call a writer out on what a writer needed to be called out on, but also he was so funny and so kind and had such a good heart."
Former Tribune chief copyeditor Stu Werner, who left the paper in 2019 to join the Washington Post, said reporters whose work Carlson edited "really appreciated the fact that this guy was not going to have them working without a net."
"He was going to ask the tough questions, and if there was something that didn't seem to quite add up, he was going to press it," Werner said. "His integrity was what stood out most to me. It was really important to him that we did things to the highest standards, and if that meant having an uncomfortable conversation with someone, he would do it. It wasn't personal. The best journalists appreciated that."
Colleen Kujawa, who has been the Tribune's opinion content editor since 2019, previously had toiled alongside Carlson on the paper's metro copydesk from 2012 until 2018.At that time, the night desk "was an intense place as we all worked to put the paper to bed," she recalled.
"Humor helps you manage in an environment like that, especially with repeat exposure to the darkness of news stories about violence and tragedy," Kujawa said. "Jeff was an elite wisecracker. He voiced frustrations that we all felt with razor-sharp zingers, and by doing so, he helped us get through our shifts and survive. He could come across as stoic and hardened sometimes, but when we all got to joking, I saw the light dance in his eyes."
Carlson copy-edited a 2021 series, "The Failures Before the Fires," a collaboration between the Tribune and the Better Government Association. The series, which was the result of a nearly two-year investigation, revealed that at least 61 men, women and children had died in 42 fires that had occurred after Chicago officials had been warned of major fire safety issues in their residential buildings.
Chase, who worked at the BGA at the time, was one of the editors of the series. He recalled Carlson's copyediting improvements.
"Jeff wouldn't let you get away with anything vague. If a sentence could be read two ways, he'd find both of them," Chase said. "He wasn't a copy editor who just caught typos. Jeff caught your assumptions and would want to make sure every sentence was airtight."
The series won a Pulitzer Prize for local reporting.
Carlson handled copy editing duties for nearly every major investigative and enterprise project published by the Tribune in the past six years. Most recently, he had overseen copy editing for many of the Tribune's stories about the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Operation Midway Blitz.
During his career, Carlson won the Tribune's Beck Award for outstanding editing, and in 2022, he was a finalist for the Robinson Prize for copyediting awarded by ACES: The Society for Editing, a national group of editing professionals, educators and students.
"The human touch he brought to his work -it also extended to being a coworker and a colleague," Stevens said. "He was just the best of us."
Carlson was an aficionado of boxing, and in 1988, he launched a magazine called Illinois Ringside. Carlson's father had been from Minnesota, and in 1993, Carlson authored a64-page book, "A Historical Album of Minnesota," which was part of a series of illustrated accounts of all 50 states.
Carlson never retired. Outside of work, he enjoyed writing songs, playing the guitar, penning poetry and following the Chicago Cubs, his wife said.
In addition to his wife, Carlson is survived by a son, Michael, who cohosts a popular theme park-oriented podcast, "The Ride"; a daughter, Katie; one granddaughter; and two sisters, Ann Miller and Leslie Carlson.
Services are private.
Bob Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.
View all Illinois public notices 24 hours a day - publicnoticeillinois.com
Member Log-In + Contact Us + Events + PressLines + Job Bank + Advertising Toolbox + Upload Pages
Subscribe to RSS headline updates from: Powered by FeedBurner
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Aug. 26, 2026 Media Contact Information: Cartwheel Emily Paisner (888) 500-2067 emily.paisner@cartwheelcare.org
$1 million grant from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois will help Cartwheel scale access to care in rural and underserved communities through 2028
CHICAGO — August 26, 2026 — Cartwheel Care, a telehealth mental health provider for K-12 schools, today announced plans to expand access to care for up to 100,000 students across Illinois, supported by a $1 million grant from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois (BCBSIL). The additional funding builds on an existing partnership between Cartwheel and BCBSIL, following a year of strong engagement and clinical outcomes. Cartwheel currently serves 40 Illinois school districts, and the grant will help expand services further into rural and underserved communities across the state through 2028. Mental health needs among Illinois students remain high. According to data from Lurie Children’s Hospital, approximately 50% of Illinois youth (ages 2–17) have experienced worsening mental health symptoms in recent years. At the same time, access to care has not kept pace: more than 80 of Illinois’ 102 counties have no practicing child psychiatrist, and the shortage is most acute in rural areas, where families often wait months for an appointment or travel significant distances for care. Cartwheel’s telehealth model is designed to remove the access barriers rural families face, like long waitlists and the need to travel to see a provider. By partnering with schools, Cartwheel provides licensed, Illinois-based clinicians with no waitlist, accepts all major insurance plans including Medicaid, and reaches kids and families where they already are, without requiring them to find or travel to an outside provider. “Every student experiences mental health challenges differently, and there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to supporting them,” said Dr. Juliana Chen, chief medical officer at Cartwheel. “Our goal is to meet students and families where they are, with practical support that helps them build skills, strengthen relationships, and feel more confident navigating challenges at school and at home. BCBSIL’s support is what allows us to bring that care to more Illinois communities.” “Supporting the health and well-being of Illinois youth is critical to building stronger communities,” said Brian Snell, president of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois. “The results we’ve seen through our partnership with Cartwheel demonstrate the impact that timely, accessible mental health services can have for students and families. This investment will help bring those services to even more communities across our state.” To date, four Illinois districts have received Cartwheel’s services through this grant: Steger SD 194 in Cook County and Will County, Troy CCSD 30-C in Will County, Mattoon CUSD 2 in Coles County, and Wolf Branch SD #113 in St. Clair County. In the first year of the program, more than 200 students were referred for care and completed more than 1,000 telehealth sessions. Appointments were scheduled in the same week with no waitlist. Sixty-eight percent of students served were covered by Medicaid or uninsured. Overall, 73% of students showed meaningful improvement in anxiety and depression symptoms on standard clinical screeners (GAD-7/PHQ-9). Additional districts where Cartwheel services are launching this fall include Litchfield CUSD #12, Panhandle CUSD #2, Leyden High School District #212, and Regional Office of Education #40. With the support of this grant, Cartwheel expects to expand into another 30 to 50 school districts, bringing access to care to a total of 100,000 students across Illinois. “Before this partnership, getting a student connected to care could take months,” said Jeffrey Peterson, director of student services & records at Troy CCSD 30-C. “Now our counselors can refer a student, know they’ll be seen within days, and are seeing real improvements as a result.” Through the grant, Cartwheel provides individual and family therapy, parent guidance, psychiatric evaluation and medication management, and specialized care programs for challenges like school avoidance, social media use, and intense emotions and behavior challenges. As reported in Illinois Policy, in 2025 about 25% of Illinois students missed at least 10% of the school year and this was more severe among low-income students, with 35.1% in that group chronically absent. Cartwheel’s school avoidance program delivers evidence-based care designed specifically for students struggling with school avoidance. In partnership with Cartwheel, Peoria Public Schools saw a 62% reduction in absences per student, along with decreases in suspensions and symptoms of depression and anxiety. Illinois school districts that want to learn more about this opportunity for the upcoming school year should visit: www.cartwheel.org/illinois. About Cartwheel Cartwheel is the nation’s largest and most trusted telehealth provider for K-12 schools, students, and families. Cartwheel partners with 350 school districts across 15 states to deliver comprehensive mental health services to students, families, and school staff. Founded in 2022 by educators and clinicians, Cartwheel combines evidence-based clinical care with technology to ensure every child has access to high-quality mental health support. Cartwheel accepts all major insurance plans including Medicaid and provides care at no cost to uninsured families. For more information visit: www.cartwheel.org. About Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois is the largest health insurer in Illinois, serving nine million members and operating in all 102 Illinois counties. BCBSIL is a division of Health Care Service Corporation, a Mutual Legal Reserve Company and an Independent Licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. Learn more at bcbsil.com and follow us on Facebook and LinkedIn.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Aug. 24, 2026 Media Contact Information: Mather Institute Cindy Droog, president, Sabo PR (616) 717-8654 cindy@sabo-pr.com
Free online tool by Mather Institute supports local planning, partnership and investments
EVANSTON, Illinois – Chicago has a new tool to help understand where neighborhood conditions support social wellness among older adults – and where thoughtful investment and partnership may expand opportunities. Mather Institute launched a first-of-its-kind free Social Wellness Map, which scores the 77 community areas in Chicago on social wellness – a measure of feeling connected with others and with a community – for adults 55 and better. Previous research shows strong social ties are one of the most important predictors of a happy and long life, and that neighborhoods and communities shape how people interact, support one another and build shared identity. Mather Institute developed the map in partnership with NORC at the University of Chicago. Designed as a planning and advocacy resource, the interactive map can help policymakers, community organizations, funders, planners and service providers explore local patterns, identify assets and consider where new investments may have the greatest benefit for older adults. “Social wellness is a crucial, yet often overlooked, part of healthy aging,” said Cate O’Brien, MPH, Ph.D., chief transformation officer at Mather Institute. “Because every community contains diverse histories, people and experiences, the map is intended to inform – not replace – local knowledge. The most useful next step is conversation. When organizations bring this data together with resident voices, they can better understand what is already working and what could be most beneficial to older adults and their communities.” The map is based on a new survey of more than 4,000 Chicago residents age 55 and better, combined with public data on community conditions, including walkability, economic factors and access to gathering places such as libraries, churches and community centers. Factors such as crime, lack of local businesses and poverty can hinder social wellness, but don’t tell the whole story. Users can view a side-by-side comparison of communities to explore how social wellness relates to health, happiness, income and other factors. Key findings include:
“Community leaders often have deep local knowledge, but need data to support the case for programs, funding and partnerships,” said Jennifer L. Smith, Ph.D., vice president of Mather Institute. “The Social Wellness Map offers another lens for understanding older adults’ experiences and for turning local insight into action.” High social wellness scores were not confined to one part of Chicago or to its wealthiest areas, suggesting that other factors such as neighborhood identity, belonging and longstanding social ties are also important to connection. Chatham emerged as a notable example, with a social wellness score of 8.14 out of 10, illustrating social wellness reflects aspects of community life beyond economic and safety indicators alone. Beverly received the highest community connectability score: 100 out of 100. Beverly is notable for its low crime rates, a strong family culture and several longstanding community gathering places. Jefferson Park stood out for having community conditions that support connection such as accessible transit, retail activity and established cultural gathering places. The map is free to use and does not require user registration. It can be explored at: https://www.matherinstitute.com/social-wellness-map/
About Mather and Mather Institute
Based in Evanston, Illinois, Mather is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1941 that is dedicated to a vision of changing the way society views aging. Mather creates Ways to Age Well℠ through programs, places and residences for today’s older adults. These include developing and operating communities that support older adults in pursuing wellness and fulfillment; sparking creativity and connections for older adults in Chicagoland and beyond; and through Mather Institute, conducting research and incubating innovation to help all live and age well.
# # #
Click Image to Find the IPA Disaster Checklist!