For 35 years at NBC4, Colleen Marshall has asked, answered and informed.

But before she became a household name in Central Ohio, she was a kid in smalltown Pennsylvania with a passion for writing.

“I always, I loved to write. Even as a little, little kid. I would write poems and stories,” Colleen said. “I was on the school paper in junior high and then, by the time I got to senior high, I was thinking, ‘I really love to write.’ “

Colleen also loved politics. And a presidential scandal in the early 1970’s combined the two, sparking her love for journalism.

“I loved Watergate,” Colleen said. “I was a Watergate freak. And I loved everything about this notion that these journalists had uncovered this important part of American history, and essentially, toppled an administration. That they changed the course of this country, by the truth that they sought out.”

Over the last three decades, Colleen has interviewed future presidents, house speakers, and covered the aftermath of tragedies like 9/11.

But it’s the stories that hit close to home, like “A Journey Through Alzheimer’s,” or the healthcare crisis of Ohio’s first responders, that she finds to be the most significant.

“The most important work we can do is the work that impacts people in this community, because it’s the work that affects someone’s life.”