THE EDUCATION FRONT

Holly covers higher -- and sometimes lower -- education for The Dallas Morning News.

Vice president and editorial page editor
At The Dallas Morning News since late 2002, Keven developed her interest in politics early. When her family lived in Washington, D.C., her mother used to take Keven as a baby in her bassinet to the U.S. Senate gallery to watch the likes of Everett Dirksen and Estes Kefauver debate the issues of the day. Three decades later, Keven was a political columnist for The Arizona Republic in a state that for most of the '80s and '90s was best known for impeaching, indicting or otherwise politically impaling its governors. Her editorial pages in Texas and Arizona have three times been finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. Keven studied briefly in Europe and Mexico before graduating magna cum laude from Northern Arizona University and starting (but never finishing) a master's program in Spanish literature. She is a member of The Pulitzer Prize board, enjoys hiking and biking, and lives with her chef husband in downtown Dallas.

Melody Townsel is the parent of DISD fifth-grader, an active PTA member, and the president of an independent PR firm, Townsel Communications.

Assistant editorial page editor

Michael oversees the Letters team, and he works with teachers, students and community columnists through the popular Voices program. He and his team take regular folks and transform them into prolific and powerful pundits. He started Voices and the weekly Sounding Off feature on the Community Opinions pages with six people in 2002. Now more than 1,500 people are raising their voices on the local pages through the two programs. A graduate of Texas A&M, Michael and his wife, Holly, and their dog, Parker, live near White Rock Lake in Dallas.

Rawly Sanchez is deputy chief of staff for the Dallas Independent School District. He was formerly principal of Adamson High School.

Deputy Editorial Page Editor
Running the day-to-day operations in Editorial for the past four years has been Sharon's dream job, plugging her back into the passion that led her to journalism: the hope of leaving this world a better place. She's most proud of her role this past year in Editorial's campaign to help lift up the southern half of Dallas and narrow the opportunity gaps between it and the north. Sharon joined The News' newsroom as an editor in 1980 after graduating from Baylor and working in New York and Detroit. She and her husband are blessed with two sons: a UT-Austin junior and a freshman Jayhawk at the University of Kansas. Sharon's idea of play is a pre-dawn seven-mile run or a Hill Country antiquing foray - sometimes on the same day.

Tony Tovar is principal at Sunset High School

Bill joined The News in 1991, after spending 12 years in the wilds of Washington, D.C. The University of Texas grad worked there for 1980 presidential candidate John Anderson and then edited the Ripon Forum. Texas drew Bill back home to join the editorial board, where he writes editorials and a weekly column. The Fort Worth native spearheaded the launch of Texas Faith, a weekly online discussion about religion, politics and culture. He has followed George W. Bush closely and extensively covered Texas politics and the state's water needs. He and his wife are raising enthusiastic twins.