After 18 years as society columnist at the Houston Chronicle, Shelby Hodgejumped ship in October 2009 to join CultureMap as Editor-at-Large.While at the Chronicle, she covered a variety of subjects from Presidentialinaugurations in Washington D.C. to travels of the British Royal family in theU.S. Her main area of expertise was and continues to be Texas society — theblack tie galas, the fancy weddings, the swell parties. But since joiningCultureMap she has expanded her writing repertoire to include a variety ofsubjects of interest to Houstonians — business, design, a bit of politics andbreaking news when she gets the scoop on a hot happening.Shelby is a native of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. and a journalism graduate fromLSU.