Andy Bechtel
Andy Bechtel teaches editing and writing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He joined the faculty in 2005. Bechtel has nearly 12 years of experience in newspapers, most recently at The News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C., where he was wire editor. He also worked as a copy editor in the N&O sports department and in its Chapel Hill bureau. His other experience includes work as a copy editor and page designer at the News & Record in Greensboro, N.C.
Andy Brack
Andy Brack of The Brack Group is a former U.S. Senate press secretary and reporter who has a national reputation as a communications strategist and Internet pioneer. As a communications strategist, he's recently worked with the Australian Council of Trade Unions and the Charleston School of Law. Past projects included work for America Online, Commonwealth of Australia's Department of Health and Family Services, the Bertelsmann Foundation, Northpoint Communications and other organizations. He now publishes a weekly South Carolina legislative forecast, called S.C. Statehouse Report, and S.C. Clips, a daily news service.
Chuck Small
Chuck Small, worked for 22 years at daily newspapers in Indiana and North Carolina before taking a buyout in October from The News & Observer. At The N&O, he worked as a news copy editor, local slot, deputy news editor and, most recently, features copy editor. He co-created the newspaper's annual High School Journalism Day at UNC-Chapel Hill and developed print and online publications for high school journalists. He is now teaching a section of news editing at UNC-CH's School of Journalism and Mass Communication while he awaits word about his own future studies..
Doug Fisher
Doug Fisher teaches editing and reporting at the University of South Carolina. He is a veteran journalist who most recently spent nine years as a news editor for The Associated Press. His interests are in reporting, precision writing, ethics, media economics, and new ways to manage the increasing flow of information so that reporters and editors, as well as consumers, do not suffer “information burnout.” Fisher began his career in radio and television, became a newspaper reporter and then was a fellow in the Kiplinger Public Affairs Reporting Program at Ohio State University before joining the AP in 1983.
Edward Fenno
Edward Fenno is the managing member of the Fenno Law Firm in Charleston, S.C. His practice focuses primarily on media, intellectual property, technology and entertainment law – and his clients include mainly newspapers and TV stations. Mr. Fenno is a graduate of Princeton University and the University of Southern California School of Law. He is also a former professional tennis player, and is listed in Who's Who in America, Who's Who in the World and Who's Who in American Law.
Ian O'Brant
Ian O'Brant is a graduate of the University of South Carolina Department of Media Arts with an emphasis in film. After Stephen Spielberg refused to retire, Ian found a niche in online content generation, videography, and Web development at the Aiken Standard in Aiken, S.C. There he worked closely with the newsroom to develop practical methods of deploying traditionally print concepts to the Web, and to train print reporters to be multimedia reporters. From Aiken, Ian went to the Post and Courier in Charleston, where he constantly seeks new ways to streamline and expand the newsroom operation.
Jerry Bellune
Jerry Bellune is publisher of the Lexington County Chronicle.
Jon Wallace
Jon Wallace is Nation & World editor at The News & Observer. He has worked at newspapers for 20 years as a copy editor, reporter and photographer. He is also a freelance academic editor and writing tutor. His book "Keeping It Short and Sweet: A Practical Writing Guide for Academic Librarians" is due out in February 2010 from Chandos Publishing.
Heather M. Woolwine
Heather Woolwine has worked for MUSC since 2002 in the MUSC Public Relations office. Her academic background consists of honors bachelor's degrees in corporate communication and psychology, and she is pursuing a master's degree in communication at the College of Charleston. In addition to her administrative duties and strategic planning roles, she also coordinates interviews and media visits, locates experts, and facilitates news stories. She is a member of PRSA and SCPRSA, proudly adhering to the organization's national code of public relations ethics.
Margaret Cloud
Margaret Alford Cloud is an editor at the University of North Carolina Medical School. She manages a Web site and helps surgeons with articles, grant proposals and other projects. Earlier, she worked at the Lexington (Ky.) Herald Leader, Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service, The Seattle Times and The Philadelphia Inquirer. She has taught news writing at UNC.
Mary Helen Yarborough
Mary Helen Yarborough's 20-plus-year-career as a journalist has included newspaper reporting and editing, live reporting for international news services, covering Capitol Hill; and researching, editing and writing for specialized periodicals on the environment, labor and disaster communications. Currently, Yarborough is part of the MUSC Public Relations staff serving as copy editor and writer for The Catalyst, a weekly print and online publication. On her own time, she is author of the book "Disaster Planning Guide for Medical Facilities" (Thompson Publishing Group, Washington, DC); and freelances for Informa’s Pesticide & Toxic Chemical News.
Maurreen Skowran
Maurreen Skowran is a copy editor and slot at The News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C. She has taught editing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Skowran was the second secretary of ACES, and she created and coordinated its headline contest. Before moving to The N&O, she worked at small papers in Arizona and Texas.
Melanie Balog
Melanie Balog came to The Post and Courier in September 2005 as Sunday editor. In that role she coordinated Sunday centerpieces and weekend live event coverage, as well as serving as night city editor on Saturdays. All the while she was pushing for more content from the newsroom on the paper’s Web site, Charleston.net. Once the site was re-launched in 2007, she stepped up her role as the newsroom’s unofficial “web pusher,” which led to the creation of the newsroom web editor position in March 2008. Prior to coming to South Carolina, she spent nearly eight years at The Northwest Herald, a small daily in the far northwest suburbs of Chicago, where she started as a beat reporter and eventually became metro editor.
Pam Nelson
Pam Nelson has worked in newspapers for 32 years. She is a copy editor for the Features sections at The News & Observer, but she is temporarily assigned to the team setting up and implementing the new CCI publishing system at The N&O. She has won national and statewide awards for headline writing and has led seminars on headline writing and copy editing. Pam also writes a blog about grammar, usage and language at http://blogs.newsobserver.com/grammar.
Raymond S. Greenberg
Dr. Greenberg graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1976 with highest honors in chemistry, completed his medical studies at Duke University in 1979, a master of public health degree from Harvard University in 1980, and a doctorate in epidemiology at the University of North Carolina in 1983. He led Biostatistics and Epidemiology at Emory University, and served there as the first dean of the Rollins School of Public Health. Greenberg was appointed vice president for Academic Affairs & Provost at MUSC in 1995, and he was selected as president in 2000. The author of about 150 scientific publications, he is nationally recognized for his research on the causes of cancer. He holds two honorary doctorates and has been appointed to many national scientific advisory boards.
Van King
Van King is the dean of Queens University School of Communication in Charlotte. King began his career as an award-winning reporter and editor, retiring in 2004 after 11 years as the president and publisher of the News & Record in Greensboro. The paper has a daily circulation of 100,000 and also operates two online businesses: News-Record.com and GoTriad.com. He was an innovator on the Internet long before most other news organizations, helping lead the News & Record into the online world way back in 1993. Dean King brings front-line experience with the convergence of traditional and new media.
Wendy Parker
Wendy Parker is a free-lance writer and blogger. She formerly worked at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Parker was a sportswriter and Web editor.
Vicky Agnew
Vicky Agnew has been director of strategic communications at MUSC's Hollings Cancer Center since 2007. Before that, she directed public and media relations at the Cleveland Clinic in Florida and served as a senior manager at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. Vicky entered public and media relations in 2004 after 12 years as a print journalist at newspapers in South Caroliana and south Florida. She misses much about journalism -- but she has found that work outside reporting is purposeful as well.