The people behind The Dallas Morning News opinion pages.
Vice president and editor of the editorial page
Deputy editorial page editor
Assistant editorial page editor
Editorial writer
Assistant Editorial Page Editor for Suburbs
Editorial columnist
Editorial writer
Editorial writer
Tod Robberson
Editorial writer
Presentation editor
Presentation editor
Content coordinator
Keven Ann Willey
Position: Vice president and editor of the editorial page of The Dallas Morning News.
Born: Washington, D.C., raised in Tucson, Ariz.
Education: Attended University of Arizona, Colegio Cervantes (Guadalajara, Mexico) and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff where she was a walk-on varsity volleyball player. She is a graduate of the Management Development Program sponsored by the Kellogg Graduate School of Management and the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University; and in 2001 was named a Hoover Fellow at Stanford University.
Honors: Editorial pages under her direction have been finalists for the Pulitzer Prize three times. She has won individual awards for news writing, column writing and editorial writing -- including National Headliners honors from the Press Club of Atlantic City and awards from The Associated Press Managing Editors Association, the Best of the West contest and the Arizona Press Club.
Professional organizations: Named to the Pulitzer Prize Board in 2008. Board member of Tate Lecture Series at SMU; former board member of National Conference of Editorial Writers. Former president of Texas APME, the First Amendment Coalition of Arizona and the Valley of the Sun Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. Founding board member of First Amendment Funding, Inc.
Personal information: Married to custom tour guide Georges Badoux.
Editorial Responsibilities: Overall responsibility for the opinions pages of The Dallas Morning News. This includes supervising staff and content for the Editorial pages, Viewpoints and Community Opinion pages, Points Sunday commentary section, letters to the editor and the nation’s first Editorial Board blog, DallasMorningViews.
Hobbies: Hiking, biking, bird watching, quilting, reading. Most of all: solving the world’s problems around the dinner table surrounded by good friends, delectable food and fine wine.
Previous employment: The Associated Press in Phoenix; worked 22 years at The Arizona Republic beginning in 1980, as a reporter she covered school boards, murders and eight national conventions; named political columnist in 1989, named editorial page editor in 1998. Joined The Dallas Morning News as vice president and editorial page editor in 2002. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, and she has been featured on National Public Radio, CNN, C-SPAN and numerous other television and radio stations nationwide.
Sharon Grigsby
Position: Deputy editorial page editor
Born: Waco, Texas, but spent most of her youth in the quaint country town of Hewitt before fleeing first to Baylor, then on to New York and Detroit. Dallas area resident since 1980.
Education: Graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Baylor University in 1978 with a bachelor's degree in political science and journalism.
Personal information: Married to another native Texan, Clay Morton. Their older son Matthew is in his third year at the University of Texas at Austin and son Pierce is a freshman at the University of Kansas.
Hobbies: Discussions of politics and literature with Clay, Matthew and Pierce until the wee hours; regular pre-dawn seven-mile run (i.e. "how she stays sane") and traveling every chance she gets.
Editorial responsibilities: Assists the editorial page editor with overall responsibility for the opinion pages of The News, supervising the staff and content of the editorial pages, letters pages and Viewpoints.
Previous employment: She's worked in most every nook of The Dallas Morning News since 1980 -- including as Metro editor, political editor, national editor, features editor and founding editor of The News' religion section. Translation: Sharon knows just enough about any subject to be dangerous. She spent time at newspapers in the East and Midwest before deciding to return to Texas, where people don't make fun of her accent -- well, not as much, anyways.
Michael Hashimoto
Position: Assistant editorial page editor
Born: Sept. 11, 1958, San Francisco
Education: Almost graduated from the University of Texas at Arlington on the six-year plan. Just missed by three hours. Seriously. Graduated from Kimball High School in Dallas, 1976.
Honors: As an assistant and deputy metro editor for The News, supervised several stories and other projects that won state and regional awards. Same with time spent as an assistant sports editor. In each case, it was someone else's work that I'm happy to take credit for today. Won several state and regional sports writing awards in college, not that they helped me graduate.
Personal information: Married to Jacquielynn Floyd, a columnist for The News' Metro section. No children, despite the fine schools in Flower Mound, but we do have three charming cats.
Editorial responsibilities: Supervising our in-house editorial columnists, including editing the fine prose of William McKenzie and Rod Dreher, two peas from vastly different pods, and regular contributors Carl Leubsdorf and Mark Davis. Writing editorials. Managing selected editorial/op-ed projects.
Previous employment: Joined The News in November 1983 as a copy-desk lackey for our award-winning Sports Day. Worked my way up to assistant sports editor. Changed kayaks in October 1992 for a spot in the metro department, ultimately filling a number of roles: suburban zone editor, assistant night city editor, day assistant metro editor (focusing on police and courts coverage), night city editor and deputy metro editor/city editor. Before The News, I spent two fun-filled years as the sports editor at the now-defunct Arlington Daily News, which is the source of some great stories to tell over beers.
Rodger Jones
Position: Editorial Writer
Born: Oct. 16, 1950, Cleveland, Ohio
Education: Bachelor's of Arts in Journalism, Ohio State University, 1975
Honors: Editor of award-winning efforts on state and regional topics including the Oklahoma City bombing and trials, life sentences to Texas prisons, fear of crime in Dallas
Other professional interests: Steering Committee member of Friends of Sam organization to endow the Sam Attlesey Scholarship at the University of Texas, named for the late state politics writer of The News (www.friendsofsam.org)
Hobbies: History and Texas history, cooking, gardening, following Cleveland Indians baseball, driving trips in Texas, live music, esp. the DSO & New Orleans jazz
Personal: Son of a sports writer. Married to Garland ISD educational diagnostician Joy Jones. Three grown children, twin grandchildren
Previous employment: Since joining The News in 1986 served as city editor on the Metro Desk, then as state editor, for 10 years. Previously was copy boy, reporter and city editor at the Columbus (Ohio) Citizen-Journal, and producer of sports talk show at Cleveland radio station WJW
Michael Landauer
Position: Assistant Editorial Page Editor for Suburbs. Started at the Arlington Morning News as a copy editor in 1997.
Born: Nov. 7, 1974, Detroit, Mich. Grew up in west Houston.
Education: Journalism degree from Texas A&M University, 1997. Editor of The Battalion, Fall 1996. Attended the 2003 Persuasive Writing Seminar at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies.
Honors: Won a 2001 Katie Award for column writing; several Suburban Newspaper Association awards.
Hobbies: Watching sports, all sports. Live music, especially Texas country. Driving trips.
Personal information: Married in 2003 to his wife, Holly.
Editorial responsibilities: The lead editorial writer for Collin County; helps manage letters to the editor and guest commentary for the Collin County Opinions page.
William McKenzie
Position: Editorial columnist; he has been at the newspaper since July 1991.
Born: June 7, 1954
Education: The University Of Texas, bachelor of business administration, 1976
Honors: He won a 1996 and 2000 Headliner Foundation award for editorial writing. He also has been a finalist for prizes in other commentary contests and also served as a Pulitzer Prize Juror. In 1987, he edited "A Newer World," a collection of political essays.
Civic interests: He has been an editorial member of Ohio Wesleyan University's Civic Review. He has been an active volunteer and board member for homeless organizations in Dallas and Washington, DC, and he serves as an elder of First Presbyterian Church, Dallas.
Hobbies: Playing golf, following professional baseball, studying Texas culture and reading history
Personal information: A native of Fort Worth who lived in Washington, D.C., for 12 years, Mr. McKenzie and his wife now reside in Dallas.
Editorial responsibilities: He writes editorials and columns on Congress and the presidency, national politics, Texas government, education reform and a variety of cultural issues.
Previous employment: He edited the Ripon Forum from 1981 to 1991 in Washington, DC In 1980, he served on John Anderson's presidential campaign.
Jim C. Mitchell Jr.
Position: Editorial writer; has been at The Dallas Morning News since 1984
Born: Jan. 23, 1954
Education: Loyola University with a bachelor of arts, political science; Northwestern University with a master of science in journalism; Herbert J. Davenport Fellowship, University of Missouri, Columbia; Program in business and economics reporting
Honors: Certificate of Merit from the American Bar Association for public service reporting. An honorable mention in the Robert F. Kennedy Award competition for coverage of the problems of the disadvantaged. First place in the New York State Bar Association 1980 Media Awards for a report by the Times-Union newspaper in Rochester on police brutality; first place award in the 1981 New York State Associated Press competition for a report on drunken driving; 1989 Katie Award from the Press Club of Dallas for best business reporting for "After the Fall."
Hobbies: Tennis, reading
Personal information: Married, one son
Editorial responsibilities: Responsible for editorial coverage of business and economic issues
Previous employment: Times-Union in Rochester, NY
Colleen McCain Nelson
Position: Editorial writer.
Born: Bismarck, N.D.; raised in Salina, Kan..
Education: Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Kansas with a bachelor’s degree in journalism. Editor of The University Daily Kansan.
Honors: Press Club of Dallas Katie Award for spot news. School Bell Award for outstanding series and Little Red Schoolhouse Award for education reporting.
Hobbies: I'm perpetually training for the next marathon and am planning to run Boston in 2008. Kansas basketball, travel and tennis also are favorite pastimes.
Personal information: Married to fellow Jayhawk and journalist Eric Nelson. Raising a dog named Phog.
Editorial responsibilities: Writing editorials. Primarily responsible for coverage of City Hall, air quality and energy issues.
Previous employment: Joined The Dallas Morning News in 2000 as an education reporter. I covered the 2004 presidential campaign, traveling the country with the candidates, and wrote about state campaigns in 2002. I spent a few years writing about Dallas City Hall and covered two mayoral campaigns. Before coming to Dallas, I worked for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and The Wichita Eagle.
Tod Robberson
Position: Editorial writer
Born: January 2, 1957 in Denver, Colo.; raised in Houston.
Education: Bachelor of science in communications/journalism from Texas Tech University; master of arts in Arab Studies from Georgetown University School of Foreign Service.
Personal information: Married to theater director/playwright Catherine Hopkins. Our daughter, Fiona Robberson, attends middle school at Lakehill Preparatory School in East Dallas.
Hobbies: Tennis, sailing, reading, taking stuff apart and putting it back together again (I think it’s a guy thing).
Editorial responsibilities: Write editorials primarily focusing on Latin America and international issues of interest to North Texas readers.
Previous employment: International correspondent for The News from 1997-2007, based in Bogota, Panama and London with coverage responsibilities in the Middle East, Afghanistan, Europe and Latin America. Previously spent 10 years as foreign correspondent and assistant foreign editor at the Washington Post. Also worked as correspondent for Reuters news agency in Lebanon, Cyprus, Iraq, Syria and El Salvador.
Nicole Stockdale
Position: Presentation editor
Born: Nov. 12, 1977, in Wayne, Neb., but did most of her growing up in Wichita, Kan.
Education: Graduated cum laude from Wichita State University in 2000 with a bachelor’s degree in communication (emphasis journalism) and political science (emphasis electoral politics). Named Elliott School of Communication’s overall outstanding senior.
Hobbies: Blogging about copy editing at A Capital Idea. Playing devil’s advocate. Reading nonfiction (and an occasional celebrity rag). Taking road trips. Rooting on the WSU Shockers.
Editorial responsibilities: Coordinating content and visual presentations for Editorial, Viewpoints and Points pages - which includes originating editing, copy editing and graphics/photo production. Working with the deputy editor and senior designer to create edgy and stimulating pages.
Previous employment: Started at The Dallas Morning News in 2003 as a copy editor on the Universal Desk; she joined the Editorial Board in October 2006. Nicole began her journalism career at The Wichita Eagle. In 1999, she was the political and communciations intern at EMILY's List in Washington.
Jarrett Rush
Position: Presentation editor
Born: Oct. 4, 1973 in Kansas City, Mo. Moved to Arlington in the third grade.
Education: I graduated with a degree in Communication from the University of Texas at Arlington in May 1997.
Personal Info: I am dating a wonderful woman who is a teacher in Mesquite. I’m enjoying living in Dallas proper after spending my growing-up and later years in the suburbs of Tarrant County. I like spending time with family and friends when I can.
Hobbies: reading, writing, watching too much junk TV. I like sports in general, but baseball is my game. I follow the Kansas City Royals and Texas Rangers baseball teams. Too keep my skills sharp in case either of those teams needs a back-up third baseman I play softball on Sunday nights.
Editorial responsibilities: To work with the senior editors and content editors to conceive and present layouts that engage our readers and reflect our content.
Previous employment: I am a child of Belo. After graduating from college I took a job at the Arlington Morning News working in the sports department. I transferred later to the news operation and eventually found my way downtown to the mothership.
Betsy Simnacher
Position: Content coordinator.
Born: June 29, 1951, in Dallas. Raised in Houston.
Education: A bachelor’s in journalism from Texas Tech University and a master’s in journalism from the University of Texas at Austin.
Civic interests: Member, Cedar Hill Library Board and Zula B. Wylie Library Friends.
Hobbies: Reading and playing with computers. Photography, digital and analog, including darkroom work when possible.
Personal information: Married to Metro reporter Joe Simnacher. We have two sons.
Previous employment: Two previous tours of duty at The Dallas Morning News. A former copy editor at The Austin American-Statesman. A freelance writer, with clips from (where else) The Dallas Morning News, as well as other Texas and national newspapers, Texas Parks & Wildlife, Design NJ, and a lot of now-defunct publications. Most recently, adjunct journalism instructor at North Lake College in Irving.
Editorial responsibilities: Copy editor for the Community Opinions pages and the Letters.
