Terry Ponick

About

Writer and journalist Terry Ponick served as Music and Culture Critic for the Washington Times 1994-2010. In January 2010, he moved to the affiliated online Washington Times Communities (WTC) site. In January, 2014, Terry and the writers and editors of the Communities section spun off from the Times to become the independent site known as Communities Digital News (CDN). Succeeding Christian Toto as CDN's Music, Theater and Culture Critic and Editor, he eventually became the site's Managing Editor as well, serving in both capacities before the site closed its virtual doors in June, 2022. After a two-year, non-basement hiatus, he's about to launch a new political and cultural Substack column in late July, 2024. Stay tuned. Terry's outside publications include scholarly biographies of select New Formalist Poets in the Dictionary of Literary Biography series (2003), and the book "MENC: A Century of Service to Music Education," a commemorative volume published in May 2007. Other publications and pursuits: Terry published and edited "The Edge City Review," (1994-2005) a literary magazine that featured many of the New Formalist Poets including Dana Gioia, former Director of the NEA under President Bush. In addition to his work in journalism, Terry has over 30 years of experience as a manager, policy analyst, editor, and publicist. Under contract to the Federal government, he wrote and edited science policy documentation for the Clinton and Bush administrations at the National Coordination Office for Networking and Information Technology R&D (NCO/NITRD), a "virtual agency" associated with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). At NCO, he served as editor of the annual “Supplement to the President’s Science Budget” (formerly known as the “Blue Book”) from 1997-2001. Other contract assignments: work on publications for the Office of Naval Research (ONR) and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), he returned to NCO/NITRD in 2005 to assist the President’s Information Technology Advisory Council (PITAC) in writing and editing two key public reports dealing with cybersecurity and the future of technical education. He also contributed as contributing writer/editor of Congressional testimony presentations for the National Science Foundation's (NSF's) associate director. Specialties: Business, technology, stocks and bonds, performing arts and cultural politics.