Media Academy Participants

Tony Baldwin joined the Commercial Appeal in Memphis as a retail advertising representative in 2002 and was promoted to major account executive last year. Before joining Scripps Howard, he was circulation director for the North and South Carolina region with PCL Media; a manager with Distributech in Charlotte, N.C.; and an accountant with Hayes & Associates in Omaha. The Arkansas native is a 1998 graduate of Grambling State University, where he was active in Students in Free Enterprise, the Marketing Club, Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity and the National Association of Black Accountants. He volunteers with several youth-oriented community programs including the Urban League, Big Brothers Big Sisters, HOPE and GAME.

As marketing operations manager for the Honolulu Advertiser and HonoluluAdvertiser.com, Stella Bernardo is responsible for improving workflow and communication between the newspaper's marketing division and the news, finance and production divisions. Since joining Gannett in 1998, she has worked at the Louisville (Ky.) Courier-Journal and the Lansing (Mich.) State Journal. She arrived in Honolulu in 2000 to assist with the dissolution of the joint-operating agreement between the Advertiser and the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, then became circulation projects manager for the Advertiser and later online projects manager for HonoluluAdvertiser.com. She earned a journalism degree with honors from the University of Texas at Austin.

A fifth-generation member of the Blethen family, which operates daily and weekly newspapers in Washington and Maine, Cal Blethen began his career in 2001 as an intern at the Seattle Times after graduating from the University of Washington. For three years, he worked several jobs in different departments to learn as much as he could about the newspaper. He spent most of his time in advertising, Newspapers in Education, the newsroom, and the editorial department. For the past six months, he has been a news reporter at the Blethen family-owned Yakima Herald-Republic in Central Washington. Beginning in April, he will supervise a new advertising services department with the goal of helping sales representatives create competitive marketing presentations for clients.

Toni Brothers has been the retail advertising manager at the Longview News-Journal in Texas since February 2002. Prior to taking this position, she spent a year as their national/preprint manager and worked as the international marketing representative for a heavy-duty parts manufacturer. A graduate of LeTourneau University, she has a bachelor's degree in business administration. She is a graduate of the Leadership Longview program and a volunteer for Junior Achievement, and is involved with several other community programs and activities. Married with two children—Brittany, 13, and Jacob, 4—she enjoys spending time with her family, reading and watching movies.

El Paso, Texas, native Julie Ann Contreras is deputy editor of the bilingual magazine Conexi„n, launched in May 2004 as a subsidiary of the San Antonio Express-News. The magazine is targeted to the city's unique demographic: Most of its residents are third- or fourth-generation Hispanic U.S. citizens. She has spent most of her newspaper career on the copy desks of the Express-News, the El Paso Herald-Post and the Albuquerque (N.M.) Journal. She has been a copy editor, wire editor and news editor, and also was a general assignment reporter at the Herald-Post and an assistant state editor at the Journal.

A team leader with the St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press, Maria Douglas Reeve has spent nearly all of her 16-year journalism career with Knight Ridder. She worked as a general assignment reporter, covered city hall and state politics, wrote a column for the features section, and then became an assigning editor, working as weekend editor and supervising cops and courts reporters. Her current responsibilities at the Pioneer Press include recruiting. She began her career at the Bradenton (Fla.) Herald, and then earned a master's degree in public affairs journalism at the University of Maryland. A former national board member of the Society of Professional Journalists, she is also regional director and past president of the Twin Cities Black Journalists.

As an assistant metro editor at the San Francisco Chronicle, Chuck Finnie manages and edits city government, politics and schools coverage. He joined the editing ranks in 2003 after 15 years as a reporter focused on government and legal affairs. Finnie, who has a master's degree from the University of Missouri School of Journalism, has worked at the Los Angeles Times, the Orange County Register, the Contra Costa Times, the San Francisco Daily Journal and SF Weekly, all in California, and the Legal Times, a weekly based in Washington, D.C. In 1997 he joined Hearst's San Francisco Examiner as a member of its City Hall bureau and later its investigative reporting team, where he wrote about –pinstripe patronage” and corruption in contracting under then-Mayor Willie Brown.

Ardua Harris has been a copy editor/page designer at the Kansas City Star since 1999. After graduating from Dartmouth College with a degree in psychology, she joined the Star's universal copy desk. After almost a year in news, she moved to features, where she learned design. Her current duties include laying out and designing daily and Sunday sections, and she edits some wire and entertainment copy. She was editor of "Kid City Star," a weekly section devoted to kids, for about a year before the section's demise due to budget concerns. She was responsible for planning the section, developing story ideas, editing the copy and working on the pages' design.

A native of Omaha, Neb., Yvonne Hawkins grew up as an avid Cornhusker fan but is now in recovery. She has been editor of the Sioux Falls (S.D.) Business Journal, a startup publication owned by the Argus Leader, since 2003. A 1989 graduate of Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, she began her career at the Herald-Dispatch in Huntington, W. Va., as a night police and general assignment reporter and then a copy editor. In 1992, she joined the Lansing (Mich.) State Journal as a copy editor, and later worked as assistant city editor, assistant news editor and news editor. She is a lay minister at Center of Life Church International in Sioux Falls, having earned her master of divinity degree in 2001 at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary. She enjoys arts and crafts, jigsaw puzzles, music, exercising and outdoor activities.

Randy Lewis is automotive/real estate classified sales manager at the Albany (N.Y.) Times Union, where he has earned six publisher awards and two salesperson of the year awards since joining the paper in 1999. He began his sales and management career with the Kirby Company in 1982, starting as a sales representative and working his way into sales management. He owned and operated a franchise for two years and then became regional manager, covering the eastern United States and parts of Canada. He lives in Clifton Park. N.Y. with his wife, Tracy, who is also in the newspaper business, and their three children: Eric, 17; Paige, 14; and Sydnie, 11. He enjoys football, baseball and hacking away on the golf course.

Jennifer Matts is the finance manager at the Centre Daily Times in State College, Pa. In her three years there, she has also worked as an accountant and finance supervisor.

A native of central Pennsylvania, she earned her bachelor's degree from Mercyhurst College in Erie, Pa. She is a member of the Advertising Media Credit Executives Association.

Osmin Martinez joined El Nuevo Herald in Miami as a copy editor in 1999 and was promoted to assistant copy desk chief in 2003. He earned his bachelor's degree in journalism at the University of Havana and started his journalism career in Cuba writing for several news media organizations. Before joining El Nuevo Herald, he was editor of the Spanish version of CubaInfo, a newsletter published by the Latin American Studies Department of Johns Hopkins University in Washington, D.C.

Alysia Oglesby was named picture editor at the Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch in September. Hired by the paper in 1999 as a staff photographer, she has traveled to Ghana, Uganda, South Africa, Ivory Coast and Kenya. She holds an associate degree in photography from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh and a bachelor's degree in journalism from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. She has had photojournalism internships at the Indiana (Pa.) Gazette and the Grand Rapids Press, the Muskegon Chronicle and the Flint Journal, all in Michigan.

Katie Oyan has been assistant city editor at the Great Falls (Mont.) Tribune since September. A 1999 graduate of the University of Montana School of Journalism, she began her daily newspaper career as a reporter at the Contra Costa Times in Walnut Creek, Calif. She returned to Montana in 2001 to join the Tribune as a reporter, and soon took up copy-editing and page design. She was an ASNE/APME fellow in 2002-03 and a Chips Quinn Scholar in 1997 and 2000.

Roxanna Pellin Scott has been an assistant sports editor at the Dallas Morning News since 2000, where she began her career as a sports copy editor after an internship in 1995. Her responsibilities include supervising 30 copy editors, handling breaking news at night and overseeing production of the daily sports section at night. She was one of two editors who led a team of reporters at the Summer Olympics in Athens. A graduate of the University of Iowa, she served as managing editor, sports editor and sports reporter at the Daily Iowan student newspaper. She is a former president of the Association for Women in Sports Media. She is married to Andy Scott, a night photo editor at the Morning News.

As an assistant managing editor at the News-Journal, a Gannett newspaper in Delaware, Mariso Porto is in charge of business, metro and sports. She began her career as a city government and environmental reporter for the Lakeland (Fla.) Ledger and worked at Florida Today and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. She was business editor at the Charlotte (Fla.) Sun-Herald for several years before being promoted to managing editor of the Venice Gondolier. In 1997, she became managing editor of the Coshocton (Ohio) Tribune, a daily in Appalachia, and was promoted a year later to editor of the Zanesville (Ohio) Times Recorder and the Tribune. After five years, she returned to Florida to become assistant managing editor for features at the Fort Myers (Fla.) News-Press.

Raised in Berkeley, Calif., Martin G. Reynolds started out as an intern at the Oakland Tribune in 1995 as a Chips Quinn Scholar and Hearst Award winner. He interned at the Dallas Morning News before completing school at San Francisco State University. He then joined the Tribune as a night cops and general assignment reporter, and then covered education and economic development in West Oakland. He spearheaded the Tribune's 2003 homicide package, which is up for numerous awards, and wrote about the role of black churches in trying to curb violence. This year he is running a pilot program with SFSU and the University of California-Berkeley, acting as a bureau chief/teacher for about 45 students who cover San Francisco and other areas the Tribune otherwise would not cover.

As an assistant metro editor at the Austin (Texas) American-Statesman, Erik Rodriguez oversees the Williamson County bureau and is responsible for the newspaper's coverage of one of the fastest-growing counties in the country. He received the post in October, after six years of reporting. Rodriguez has covered law enforcement, statewide and suburban issues, higher education and, most recently, Austin city government. He is a 1999 alumnus of the Chips Quinn program and part recipient of a 2000 Best of Cox award for the Statesman's coverage of the bonfire collapse at Texas A&M University. Rodriguez and his wife, Lori, live in North Austin.

Janeen M. Scripp has been with the Hartford (Conn.) Courant for 10 years, and currently is manager of financial operations. She started out as a cashier, and today oversees payroll, accounts payable and the cashier function. She has been a key contributor and team leader in several Tribune Company initiatives, including implementation of PeopleSoft, Kronos and other electronic benefits and pay systems. She is working toward a bachelor's degree in accounting. A native of Pittsburgh, she and her husband, Chuck, have two daughters, Magee, 14, and Arlee, 19.

Andre L. Smith was named sports editor at the Globe Gazette in Mason City, Iowa, in August. He began his career as sports editor at the Carthage (Mo.) Press, a 6-day-a-week newspaper, in1999, and went on to work as a sports editor at the Belvidere Daily Republican and as a sports writer at the Rockford Register Star, both in Illinois. He studied mass communications at Missouri Southern State University. He and his wife, Beth, have an 8-month-old son, Andre Jr.

As manager for the Dayton (Ohio) Daily News' mechanical maintenance and building services departments, Dave Thomas oversees 44 employees. He studied mechanical engineering in college and worked for Turner Construction for five years before joining the Daily News in 1999. He was involved in the construction and startup of the paper's Print Technology Center, which opened in 1999. As a U.S. Marine from 1989 to 1994, he served in the Persian Gulf War. He and his wife, Kristy, have two children: daughter McKenzie, 8, and son Logan, 4.

Ed Villescas is the major retail advertising manager for the Virginian Pilot in Norfolk, Va. He joined the newspaper in June after working as a regional advertising manager for Lee Enterprises in Madison, Wisc. and as strategic development sales manager for the Denver Newspaper Agency. Prior to the implementation of the Denver joint-operating agreement in 2001, he was the major accounts manager for the Denver Post and directed the retail account management group at the Indianapolis Star. He has spent the past 15 years in the newspaper industry and has worked for Gannett, Media News Group, Central Newspapers and Landmark Communications. He is married, has one child (Max), and lives in Chesapeake, Va.

Kierra M. Young joined the copy desk of the Gaston Gazette in Gastonia, N.C., as an ASNE/APME fellow. A site coordinator with the Boy Scouts of America's Explorers program, which targets high school students, she helps Explorers get a glimpse of what it means to work at a newspaper. The Kenner, La., native majored in English at Howard University and was introduced to journalism through a pilot program sponsored by the Freedom Forum. She attended weekly sessions led by a copy editor and the assistant city editor of the Washington Post, and wrote stories and edited copy for the journalism department's Community News newspaper. She was a Chips Quinn Scholar and interned at the Poughkeepsie (N.Y.) Journal.