Whether she is anchoring the weekend edition radio show, reporting from the field or publishing a story online, WGBH’s Cristina Quinn loves her work.

“I’m so glad that I’m doing what I’m doing. I’m doing what I love,” she said. “I’m producing radio and stories and telling these stories to a wide audience.”

A Dorchester native, Quinn graduated from Boston Latin Academy and UMass Amherst with a journalism degree. A self-proclaimed NPR junkie in her college days, she would tune in while getting ready for class. Before attending Emerson College’s media arts graduate program, she participated in the JET program and lived in Aizu in Japan’s Fukushima prefecture where she “got bit by the radio bug,” she says.

On a weekly 15-minute radio show called “Let’s English,” Quinn, as the station managers instructed, reported the civic news in English “unnaturally slowly” to an audience of mostly Japanese speakers. Though Aizu is a small city, its university attracts many foreigners. To help non-English-speaking natives and students, Quinn suggested that she speak at a more natural pace and the managers agreed.

Speaking more quickly allowed Quinn some airtime to create a segment of the show where she read essays and shared stories of being a foreigner in Japan. She called it “Word Up.”

“I was kickin’ it the ‘90s way,” she laughs.

Before leaving for Japan, Quinn got her first reporter gig writing a story for the Reporter about the owners of the P&J Bait Shop retiring and selling the establishment.

Upon coming back to the States, Quinn worked full-time and attended grad school part-time where she got an internship at WGBH.

“Because I was a journalism major [at UMass], there’s always that interest in telling stories,” she says. “I just kept my foot in the door.”

Quinn was the weekend edition anchor for a year and, for the past two months, has been a field reporter.

“What I set out to do in radio is to have those ‘Aha!’ moments or those ‘I’ve never thought of it that way’ moments for the listener,” she says. “That’s pretty cool. That’s like yeah! Got you thinking, didn’t I? Got you thinking.”

News stories often take an afternoon or a one-day turnaround called a “cut and copy” or a “wrap” in the business. With stories requiring Quinn to visit various locations, interview people or record natural sound, about a day is needed for a completed story that will be aired the next day. Feature pieces that are not as news-heavy take about a week. For a four- to four-and-a-half minute feature, anywhere from a 24-hour turnaround to a week is needed, depending on the urgency of the story.

“What I really like about radio is that there’s more intimacy there. There’s an intimate relationship between the listener and the producer, whoever’s on the other end, whoever’s in the studio, the voice,” she says.

Her job as a general assignment reporter at ‘GBH requires that Quinn be ready to write about just about anything. In recent weeks, she has reported about daily life in the town of Burlington, reaction to the Occupy movement in suburbia, and the dangers of texting while walking.

Quinn and her husband live in Dorchester, just two units down from her brother, Kenji, who lives next to her in-laws, the owners of the property. Because of the close proximity, the family calls it “The Compound.” Quinn’s mother, Toshiko, lives on Gallivan Blvd., just a ten-minute walk away.

“If I’m feeling motivated, I could walk to Mom’s, usually I drive,” she laughs.

“My mom’s Japanese and so you don’t leave your parents, you sort of stick around and take care of them,” she says. “It’s sort of a deeply rooted value there in staying close to home when it comes to the Japanese tradition, but I guess it’s pretty worldwide.”

Quinn and her brother grew up in St. Gregory’s, where they attended the parish grammar school and church. Her father, Joe, was originally from Savin Hill and a World War II veteran who came to be known as the voice of St. Gregory’s. His deep, baritone voice led the congregation in song for many years. He passed away in 2009.

Considering herself geeky, Quinn did her homework as soon as she got home from school and earned extra Girl Scout badges on her own time. Summers were spent playing at Walsh Park.

“I’ve made lifelong friends here. There are people with strong values and it’s a great neighborhood,” she says of her hometown. “I’m proud to be from here and proud to still be here. Right on!”