Eileen Norris may not be famous, but she could write the book on successfully managing a journalism career and parenthood.

Eileen was not originally on a track to attend college. After high school she found work as a secretary, and eventually took some classes at Triton Community College. There, a professor pulled her aside and told her she should pursue a writing career.

Three years behind her high-school classmates, Eileen entered NIU not knowing a soul. In a journalism class, Dr. Avi Bass encouraged her to apply at the Northern Star. She was hired as the Star’s police reporter. “I’m pretty sure it was because I had a car,” she says. She wound up spending the rest of her college career in a variety of Star roles. She credits Adviser Jerry Thompson with showing her the way. “He was unbelievably kind and smart.”

“The Star was a place to belong. I had never been part of a group or a clique before,” she says. “These were people who were passionate about doing good.”

After graduation and early stints at the Suburban Tribune and Crain’s, she moved to the American Medical Association, where she was senior editor of the AMA Encyclopedia of Medicine. Much of Eileen’s professional journalism career has been free-lancing, emphasizing health topics. She’s developed, edited or written several widely known health books. She was managing editor for “You: The Smart Patient,” a 2006 New York Times Best Seller by Drs. Mehmet Oz and Mike Roizen.

She was lead writer for 2010’s “The Smart Parent’s Guide to Children’s Health Care: An Insider’s Guidebook for Getting Your Kids Through Illnesses, Accidents and Checkups,” by Dr. Jennifer Trachtenberg. Due out this April: a book she edited, “The Available Parent: Radical Optimism in Raising Teens and Tweens,” by Dr. John Duffy.

Eileen knows that working behind the scenes as a writer or editor often means others get credit for the heavy lifting. But bylines aren’t as big a deal for her anymore.

“I think your first five to 10 years out of school you’re really keen on that. But it’s not all that critical. The work is most important.”

“My best double byline was having the kids.”

Eileen and her husband, Bruce Dold, editorial page editor for the Chicago Tribune, have two daughters, ages 26 and 24. Both have incorporated writing into their young careers.

“The kids saw the potential,” she says. “A writing and reporting background is something you can take through life and still do other things. We never pushed them. I just think they saw that we really loved what we did.

“It’s a great career for having it all. I could be a mom, and show up at those 3:30 volleyball games, and also have something to talk about

at parties.”