Elaine wrote her first review—of Dallas Theater Center’s Hamlet ESP—for her junior high school paper. Three decades and approximately 3 million words later, the Dallas native is a veteran journalist and editor with awards from the Associated Press, Women in Communications and Dallas Press Club. 

After a decade as a TV and film critic at the Corpus Christi Caller-Times and Toledo Blade, Elaine joined the Dallas Observer as theater critic in 2001. She has taught journalism and media criticism at Ohio State, SMU and Collin College. She holds a B.A. in theater from Trinity University and a Master of Liberal Arts from SMU.

She is now focusing her time on the Dallas Observer.