RONNIE AGNEW
The Clarion-Ledger

Ronnie Agnew, 40, came to The Clarion-Ledger as managing editor in February 2001 and was promoted to executive editor in August 2002.

A native of Lee County, Agnew started his journalism career in 1984 as a reporter at the Greenwood (Miss.) Commonwealth. His first assignment was covering Mississippi Valley State University, a small historically black university in the rural Mississippi Delta whose claim to fame then was a little-known wide receiver named Jerry Rice. Since then, Agnew has worked for a variety of newspapers in Mississippi, Alabama and Ohio.

He spent seven years as a reporter and editor at The Cincinnati Enquirer. Agnew was managing editor of The Hattiesburg (Miss.,) American from 1993-97. From there, he became editor of The Dothan, Ala., Eagle, where he also had oversight of four other daily and weekly newspapers.

During his journalism career, Agnew has received a number of awards, and has led the various newspapers under his supervision to new levels of excellence. The Alabama Press Association named his newspaper "The Most Improved" while he was in Dothan. When he left Alabama's fifth-largest city, the governor of Alabama ordered the state flag flown over the capital building in honor of Agnew's service.

In 2000, Presstime Magazine named Agnew to its prestigious list of the Top 20 Journalists in the country Under 40. In 1998, Agnew's alma mater, The University of Mississippi, granted him an award of distinction for his service to Mississippi and to the field of journalism. In Agnew's first year at the helm of The Clarion-Ledger, the newspaper received the General Excellence award from the Mississippi Press Association and was recognized by the Mississippi-Louisiana Associated Press Managing Editors in several categories, including "Story of the Year." Agnew is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists and has been an advocate for diversity in newsrooms for years. He continues to mentor young journalists of color. Agnew is also active in the community. He attends Word of Faith Christian Center with his wife of 16 years, Cynthia, and their three children, Chris 11, Victoria 10, and Rachel 7. In addition to civic and community involvement, Agnew is a former fellow with the Maynard Institute at Northwestern University. He is also a graduate of the Gannett Senior Management Development Program.

LINDA AUSTIN
Greensboro News & Record

Linda Austin was managing editor of the News & Record, a 100,000 circulation daily in Greensboro, N.C., from 1999 - 2003. It recently took first place in general excellence — both print and online — in the state press contest against competitors twice its size. Before that, she spent 12 years at The Philadelphia Inquirer in a variety of roles, including business editor, graphics editor, assistant managing editor/finance and editor/publisher of the monthly PhillyTech magazine.

She currently is executive editor of the Fort Wayne (Ind.) News-Sentinel.

Her other newspaper credits include the Dallas Times Herald, The Straits Times of Singapore and the Winston-Salem Journal in North Carolina. A native of Charlotte, N.C., she is a graduate of the University of North Carolina School of Journalism.

LUCY BARTHOLOMAY
Boston Globe

Lucy Bartholomay is the deputy managing editor for design and photography at The Boston Globe. She joined the Globe in 1981 as a designer and was graphics editor for the Globe's 1983 Pulitzer Prize-winning magazine edition, "War and Peace in the Nuclear Age," which was cited for its excellence in graphics.

From 1987 to 1996 she was the art director of The Boston Globe Magazine. In 1996, she became design director for the newspaper and for the last five years has served in her current role as deputy managing editor.

In 2001 she oversaw the redesign and web reduction of the Globe and is currently heading up a team to build a strategy for reaching the 18-34market. Her work has been recognized by the Society of News Design, the Director's Club, P.O.Y., Graphics, Print, and Communication Arts.

Before working at the Globe, Lucy served as art director for the now defunct Real Paper and Boston Monthly.

DUDLEY M. BROOKS
Washington Post

Dudley M. Brooks is a 1980 graduate of Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland. After graduating with a degree in Fine Arts, Brooks taught beginning and intermediate photography at Bowie State University in rural Maryland while working as a Production Assistant for the WBAL-TV news department in Baltimore. In 1981 he relocated to Rockford, Illinois as a general assignment photographer for the Rockford Register Star newspaper.

Brooks joined the staff of The Washington Post in 1983 where he grew to maturity as a photojournalist. In 1992 he co-directed and photographed for the book and exhibition Songs of My People - African Americans: A Self Portrait. This was an aggressive and national photo documentation of the African American community using newly commissioned work from 53 African American photographers. The exhibition at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in

Washington D.C. was attended by 91,000 viewers with five additional versions of the show traveling around the world simultaneously.

Brooks is the recipient of awards from several organizations including the White House News Photographers Association, the National Press Photographers Association and World Press Photo in The Netherlands. He is also the winner of the 2000 Visa d'or for Daily Press, awarded in Perpignan, France, and the 2001 Robert F. Kennedy Award for International Photojournalism. He has covered major stories worldwide including the student uprising in Beijing's Tianamen Square, the first Papal visit to Cuba, catastrophic mudslides in Nicaragua and the mass murder/suicide of a religious cult in Uganda. For him, his most memorable assignments have been documenting the nation of Trinidad and Tobago for National Geographic magazine and the first free and fair elections in the Republic of South Africa for The Washington Post.

In addition to his ongoing goal of providing a balanced documentation of all cultures worldwide, he is also periodically photographing the cultural mainstays and evolutions in Cuban society.

JULIE BUSBY
Philadelphia Inquirer

Julie Busby is the New Jersey editor at the Philadelphia Inquirer. She has also worked as an editor in the features and business news departments at the Inquirer and held various reporting and editing roles in New Jersey.

As the New Jersey editor since 1998, she has led a staff that has won numerous state and regional awards for coverage of political corruption probes in South Jersey, issues/enterprise reporting, and for investigative work that led to the arrest and conviction of Rabbi Fred Neulander and two other men for the 1994 murder of the rabbi's wife.

Prior to joining the Inquirer in 1984, she was a reporter for the Courier Post, a Gannett-owned paper in Cherry Hill, N.J., and the Burlington County Times. She is a graduate of Bard College in upstate New York. She is married to a photographer, Joel Schwartz, and they live in Haddonfield, N.J., with their three daughters.

NAOMI HALPERIN
The Allentown Morning Call

Since 1995 Naomi has been director of photography at The Morning Call. (Daily circulation: 135,000; Sunday: 180,000.) Her responsibilities include supervision of a photo staff of 20 including 15 photographers in 5 bureaus, 2 imaging technicians and 3 picture editors. She is liaison with the day news editors, features editors and designers. She is involved in generating story idea, as well as overseeing the entire photo generation process from assignment, to editing through layout design. She coordinates special projects and has created regular in-house staff development opportunities such as on-location lighting workshops, video/multimedia courses and a multi departmental food styling workshop.

Prior to her current assignment at The Morning Call she was assistant photo department manager and staff photographer at The Morning Call. Before joining The Morning Call she was chief photographer and staff photographer for the Ocean County Observer.

Naomi graduated from Syracuse University with a BFA in Illustration and Editorial Design. She is the recipient of numerous awards for photography and editing from National Press Photographers Association Best of Photojournalism including 2002 honors, Pennsylvania Press Photographers Association and New Jersey Press Photographers Association including Picture of the Year competition. She has been a frequent speaker at APME conferences and a discussion leader at Poynter Institute.

RICHARD LUNA
Indianapolis Star

Richard Luna has been managing editor at The Indianapolis Star since July 2002. He is on the board of directors of APME and is program chair for the group's 2004 conference in Louisville. He also serves on the diversity committee of the Newspaper Association of America and is a former board member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.

Before coming to Indianapolis, Rich was managing editor at the Statesman Journal in Salem, Ore., from July 1999-July 2002. He began his career at his hometown newspaper, The El Paso (Texas) Times, in 1977. He joined the UPI wire service in St. Louis, Mo., in 1984, then transferred to the Houston bureau, where he was assigned until 1991. He has held reporting and editing positions at The Houston Post, Detroit Free Press and Wilmington, Del. News Journal. He is a graduate of the University of Texas at El Paso.

JOHN X. MILLER
Detroit Free Press

John has been in his current position as public editor for more than three years, after spending 3 years as managing editor of The Sun News in Myrtle Beach, S.C. His primary responsibilities in Detroit are handling corrections, accuracy/credibility and readership issues, setting up reader roundtables, representing The Free Press at public events and writing a bi-weekly column. He also has helped establish newsroom-wide "accuracy checklists,'' which have lowered the number of correction by 35 percent, worked with reporters and editors on beat reporting and directed content audits and training.

In Myrtle Beach, his primary responsibility was managing the daily news coverage. While there, he led an in-paper reorganization of content, teams that have successfully launched new publications and helped the newspaper win four Alvah Chapman Jr. Awards as the top performing newspaper at Knight Ridder.

From 1991 to 1996, he was Executive Editor at The Reporter newspaper in Lansdale, Pa., during which time the newspaper became recognized as one of Pennsylvania's best newspapers. He came to The Reporter from USA TODAY in February 1991, where he was deputy managing editor/sports. He began there as one of the original staff members in sports in 1982. At USA TODAY, he began as a copy editor and eventually became Olympics editor in 1986.

Prior to USA TODAY, he worked at the Charlotte Observer as a sports copy and layout editor for about 18 months. He began his career at the Roanoke Times & World-News in 1978 after graduating from Washington and Lee University with a bachelor's degree in journalism. During his three years in Roanoke, he was a reporter, news copy editor, state layout editor, slot editor, bonus section editor, and composing room editor.

John is a member of the Associated Press Managing Editors, the American Society of Newspaper Editors and is on the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education board, and the Pew Center for Civic Journalism's James K. Batten Award advisory board. He is an NABJ member and a founding member of the National Association of Minority Media Executives. He has been a Pulitzer Prize Juror, a discussion leader at the American Press Institute and an instructor at Howard University in Washington, DC.

DAVID NG
Newark Star-Ledger

David was named the assistant managing editor with The Star-Ledger in 2000. Prior to joining The Star-Ledger, he was at the Daily News in New York City for seven years where he was the deputy news editor, later the metropolitan editor and then the deputy managing editor. As metropolitan editor, he directed the coverage of the SwissAir crash that won the Daily News the first place prize in the AP spot news catergory in 1999.

Before that, he was at the New York Post where he was hired shortly after graduating from Marist College and worked for 13 years. At the Post, he started as a dictationist before being promoted to reporter. He covered general news, the police beat and education before being named the day city editor and later was named an associate managing editor.

This year he was selected as a Newspaper Association of America Minority Fellow. In 2002 he was honored as a New Jersey Minority Achiever. In 2001, he was awarded the Asian American Journalists Association's Outstanding Leadership Achievement as part of its Executive Leadership Program. He also was honored by his alma mater, Marist College, and the Retired Detectives Association of New York City for his work in journalism. He is currently a member of the AAJA and a former national board member.

BRUCE POTTER
Media General

Bruce Potter is director of news synergy for Media General's Publishing Division. He works with all of the chain's newsrooms on content-sharing, quality improvement and other initiatives. Previously, he worked in the newsrooms of The Richmond News Leader and Richmond Times-Dispatch for 14 years and directed the Publishing Division's Newsbank for 2_ years.

He is a graduate of Washington and Lee University, has an MBA from the University of Richmond, and is a member of American Society of Newspaper Editors and Associated Press Sports Editors.

SARA QUINN
Poynter Institute

Sara Quinn recently joined the Visual Journalism faculty at the Poynter Institute where she teaches on issues of design, convergence, visual storytelling and leadership. She was formerly assistant managing editor for visuals at the Sarasota Herald-Tribune and presentation director at the Wichita Eagle.

Sara has been a judge for the SND competition, served on the boards of SND and the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA), and won awards from those and other organizations. Also an illustrator, she has an MA from Syracuse University.

JAN WINBURN
Baltimore Sun

Jan Winburn is assistant managing editor for enterprise at The Baltimore Sun. She previously worked for The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Hartford Courant. In 1997, she was named one of Times-Mirror's 10 Journalists of the Year for her work improving writing at The Sun.

She edited "The Umpire's Sons" (by Lisa Pollak), which won the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for feature writing, and the serial "A Stage in Their Lives" (by Ken Fuson), which won the 1998 ASNE Distinguished Writing Award.

She has served as a Pulitzer Prize nominating juror and led numerous workshops on narrative writing. She is the editor of "Shop Talk and War Stories," a collection of journalists' essays on their craft, to be published in spring 2003.