Jodie back in Queensland with her dogs Boston and Sydney. Reporting on criminal activities is just part of a day's work for senior police reporter for The Courier Mail and CQUniversity Alumnus Jodie O'Brien (nee Munro).

"I love the adrenalin rush that comes with covering serious crimes like murders, house fires and other breaking news - the drop everything and rush out to a scene is basically what journalism is all about."

Police rounds can also often lead to some big and controversial stories.

"I was lucky enough to travel to Iraq in April 2008 to cover ANZAC Day and the start of the withdrawal of our 550 Aussie troops who were based in southern Iraq."

"The down side to the job is that you meet so many people who have lost loved ones and have to interview them. You wish you could bring their loved one back for them, but obviously that is not possible. Instead, all you can do is write a nice story about their loved ones so they can put in their scrapbook of memories."

Jodie has just returned to Queensland after spending almost 8 years working in the US.

She completed a Bachelor of Arts degree and an Honours degree in Journalism at the then CQU in between nights out dancing in Rockhampton. (She actually met her now husband, a then US marine, at the Flamingos Nightclub in Rockhampton at this time.)

Jodie started her full-time career halfway through her Honours degree at the then Rural Press-owned weekly newspaper The Capricorn Local News in Rockhampton in 1997. A few months earlier, she was one of two Honours students who were lucky enough to be sent to Indonesia to participate in a month-long internship at the Jakarta Post.

She moved to the US in September 1998, where she first worked on the copy desk of a daily newspaper in Western Pennsylvania, subbing and laying out pages.

After about a year at the newspaper, Jodie and her new American husband, Tom, moved to Charlotte, North Carolina. Here she worked as the city council reporter and then the chief police reporter at a Media General-owned daily newspaper outside of Charlotte, while also freelancing for a magazine owned by the Charlotte Observer.

A couple of years later, they moved to Asheville, NC, in the midst of the Blue Ridge and Great Smoky Mountains, where she worked as the night police reporter for a Gannett-owned daily newspaper and freelanced on the side for an outdoors magazine.

Despite loving the mountains, Jodie (originally from Mareeba, North Queensland) was tired of cold, snowy winters. The promise of more scuba diving and warmer weather called to Jodie and her husband and they eventually moved to Central Florida, outside Orlando, in September 2003.

Jodie worked for a daily newspaper - in one of the most media-competitive parts of Florida - first covering government before returning to her passion, being the chief police and court reporter.

Over the years Jodie has enjoyed a couple of stints as acting chief-of-staff, was lucky enough to pick up a couple of journalism awards along the way, covered too many murdered children stories, and remains amazed that Tom is always understanding of her receiving phone calls for breaking news in the middle of many nights or on weekends.

Jodie, Tom and their blue heeler all moved to Brisbane in May 2006, where Jodie worked for Gold Coast Publications as the city council and then education reporter for about nine months, before coming to The Courier-Mail in 2007.

They have now added another addition to their family a border collie and when not at work can be found out and about trying in vain to wear out their dogs, trying to find a way to travel or scuba diving as much as possible.