Sheila Ahern currently covers Mount Prospect, Wheeling and Northwest Suburban High School District 214, along with the elementary school districts in the area. She joined the Daily Herald in July 2005 after working at daily newspapers in Waukesha, Wis. and Frankfort, Ind. and graduating from Marquette University in Milwaukee with a degree in journalism.
She started working in the Daily Herald’s Lake County bureau covering Lake Villa and Lindenhurst before she was transferred to the Arlington Heights office in 2007. Since then, Sheila has covered everything from breaking crime news to school district redistricting, including the rise of Mount Prospect’s “American Idol” Lee DeWyze, and the $200 million project to rebuild Randhurst Mall.
Sheila was a finalist in the Chicago Headline Club Lisagor Awards in 2009 for her part in the coverage of the tragic Finnerty family fire in Arlington Heights. Sheila grew up in Arlington Heights and graduated from St. Mary’s Catholic School in Buffalo Grove and Buffalo Grove High School. She and her husband, a journalist with Modern Healthcare Magazine, live in Chicago with their young daughter.