Post staff sees new faces, changes

Emily Ford

Sarah Campbell, education reporter,copydesk. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

Scott Jenkins-- Photo by Wayne Hinshaw, Salisbury Post May 2008

Karissa Minn

Shelley Smith, 07-30-10

By Elizabeth Cook

ecook@salisburypost.com

The Salisbury Post’s news staff has gained some new faces and new job titles in recent months.

Scott Jenkins, who started with the Salisbury Post in 1999 as a reporter, has been promoted to news editor. He is responsible for assigning news stories and photos and for planning the paper’s daily news budget.

A West Virginia native, Jenkins graduated from UNC-Charlotte and worked for the Daily Independent and Independent-Tribune before coming to the Post in 1999.

He has covered police and emergency services, courts, schools and government, winning awards from the N.C. Press Association, N.C. Working Press and ARC of North Carolina.

For some time he focused on Kannapolis and Cabarrus County and was the Post’s lead reporter on the closing of Pillowtex in 2003.

He has also worked in recent years as assistant managing editor, night editor and assistant editor for public affairs.

Jenkins is married to Joy Jenkins, the Rowan-Salisbury School System’s teacher of the year last year and the current Northwest Region teacher of the year. They live in Salisbury and attend Concord First Assembly.

Jenkins can be contacted at 704-797-4248 or sjenkins@salisburypost.com.

Jenkins reports to Editor Elizabeth Cook. Also reporting to Cook are Ronnie Gallagher, sports editor; Jon Lakey, photo chief; Deirdre Parker Smith, editor of the Post’s online edition, book page and home and garden page; Katie Scarvey, features editor; and Chris Verner, opinion page editor.

Four people have joined the Post’s reporting staff or moved into full-time reporting positions in recent months:

• Shelley Smith covers crime, emergency services, the courts and Rockwell.

A native of Salisbury, Smith graduated from Salisbury High School and the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. She came to the Post from the Avery Journal Times in Newland, where she had worked more than two years.

She joined the Post as city hall reporter last year and moved to her current beat following the retirement of Jessie Burchette.

The daughter of Clay and Martha Smith of Salisbury, she is a member of First United Methodist Church and lives in Salisbury.

She can be reached at 704-797-4246 or ssmith@salisburypost. com, and she has a professional Facebook page.

• Sarah Campbell covers education, including public and private schools and area colleges. She also covers the town of Cleveland.

A native of Greenville, N.C., and a graduate of East Carolina University, Campbell worked at the Kinston Free Press as a reporter and copy editor before joining the Post in February as a copy editor. She moved to the education beat following the resignation of Kathy Chaffin, who is pursuing other writing and publishing opportunities.

Campbell lives in Salisbury.

She can be reached at 704-797-4683 or scampbell@salisburypost.com, and she has a Facebook page.

• Emily Ford is covering city government, business, Spencer and the N.C. Research Campus.

A native of South Dakota, she graduated from the University of South Dakota in 1992 and moved to Salisbury to join the Post as a reporter.

She worked for three years until her son was born in 1995, and has been doing freelance work for the Post.

Ford has won several journalism awards through the years, including Duke University’s Green-Rossiter Award in 2007, given in recognition of outstanding newspaper coverage of higher education in North Carolina.

She and her husband, Charlie Brown, have three children and attend St. Luke’s Episcopal Church. Brown is chief district court judge for Rowan County. Ford’s beat does not include court coverage or partisan politics.

She can be reached at 704-797-4264 or eford@salisburypost.com, and she has a Facebook page.

• Karissa Minn, who joined the Post at the end of January, covers county government, politics, transportation and the environment.

A native of Delaware, she graduated from UNC Charlotte and worked at the Thomasville Times before joining the Post. She lives in Woodleaf with her husband, Mark.

She can be reached at 704-797-4222 or kminn@salisburypost.com, and she has a Facebook page.

While everyone has an area of responsibility or beat, all staff members do general assignment work and fill in for each other when needed.

Other members of the Post’s news staff and their contact information are:

News

• Mark Wineka, columnist, 704-797-4263, mwineka@salisburypost.com. Also on Facebook.

• Shavonne Potts, reporter, covers health and human services, China Grove and Landis and will also provide some court coverage. Reach her at 704-797-4253, spotts@salisburypost.com and on Facebook.

Photography

• Jon Lakey, 704-797-4202, jlakey@salisbury post.com.

Opinion page

• Chris Verner, 704-797-4262, cverner@salisburypost. com.

Copy desk

• Paris Goodnight, 704-797-4255, pgoodnight@salisburypost.com.

• Andy Mooney, graphic artist and page designer, 704-797-4245, amooney@salisburypost.com.

Web/Continuous News

• Deirdre Parker Smith, web editor, 704-797-4252, dpsmith@salisburypost.com.

• Jeremy Judd, web content manager, 704-797-4280, jjudd@ salisburypost.com.

Sports

• Ronnie Gallagher, 704-797-4287, rgallagher@salisburypost.com.

• Mike London, 704-797-4259, mlondon@salisburypost.com.

• Bret Strelow, 704-797-4258. bstrelow@salisburypost.com.

• David Shaw, part time, sports@salisburypost.com.

Features

• Katie Scarvey, 704-797-4270, kscarvey@salisburypost.com.

• Cindy Hesprich, 704-797-4243, chesprich@salisburypost. com.

• Sarah Hall, part-time, 704-797-4271, shall@salisburypost. com.

• Elizabeth Cook is editor at the Salisbury Post. Contact her at 704-797-4244 or ecook@salisburypost.com. She is also on Facebook.

General addresses

• Business, bizbriefs@salisburypost.com

• Education, education@salisburypost.com

• Letters to the editor, letters@salisburypost.com

• Sports, sports@salisburypost.com

• TimeOut arts and entertainment news, timeout@salisburypost.com

• Town crier, weekly calendar, towncrier@salisburypost. com

• Lifestyles news for People & Places, births, etc., lifestyles@salisburypost.com.