Lora Abernathy is originally from West Virginia. She is a graduate of Marshall University where she obtained her B.A. degree in 1999.
Prior to joining The Times-Gazette, she worked as the Senior Project Manager for Public Affairs at JSN & Associates, a political consulting and grassroots lobbying firm in Dayton. She also worked with her husband, Gary, in his political consulting business, Abernathy Strategies. Before leaving West Virginia, she was the Director of Marketing and Project Management at Clayman & Associates, a forensic psychology firm based in Charleston.
It was through her political work that she took a strong interest in the public relations aspects of the political business, which eventually became a launch pad for her into the area of Web design.
Lora has designed Web sites for candidates for elected office such as judicial candidates, state senate candidates and one of the gubernatorial candidates in West Virginia during the 2008 election. She has also designed Web sites for small businesses and organizations.
Lora has been married to Gary, a Highland County native, since 2002. She has four step-children, two step-grandchilren and two dogs. She spends her spare time training and competing in triathlons.
After graduating from Hillsboro High School, Lori enrolled at the University of Dayton and played on the school's softball team. During her junior and senior years of college, she was an intern with The Times-Gazette. She obtained an English degree in 1998, with a focus on journalism, and began working full time at The Times-Gazette.
Lori was the sports editor at the newspaper for seven years before becoming copy editor.
In her extra time, she volunteers at the Highland County Dog Pound and spends time with her own five dogs.
Meredith Creek is a native of Rhode Island, moving to Ohio in the late 1980s.
She is a 2000 graduate of Hillsboro High School and a 2006 graduate of Wilmington College where she obtained a Bachelor of Arts in journalism/public relations and psychology. She is currently pursuing a masters degree at Lindsey Wilson College in Columbia, Ky.
Before joining The Times-Gazette in 2007, Meredith worked in various customer service and management positions. During college, she was editor of The Wilmingtonian, and a staff writer for The Witness from 2003-06.
As a Times-Gazette staff writer, she regularly covers Greenfield School Board, Highland County Criminal Justice Advisory Committee, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife and the Ohio Department of Transportation, along with county government, event previews, breaking news and more.
Meredith is the daughter of Pam Booth and Larry Creek, has five sisters, 12 nieces and nephews, and a cat named Ollie.
Brenda Earley has been with The Times-Gazette for 21 years. She started out working in the front office handling the classifieds. In 1993, she was promoted to the position of circulation manager, a position she still holds to this day.
Brenda is married, has one child and two grandchildren.
Jeff Gilliland is a Hillsboro native. He is a graduate of Southern State Community College and attended Morehead State University with a dual major in journalism and physical education before meeting his future wife.
Jeff began his career in the journalism field in 1983 as sports editor at what was then The Press Gazette in Hillsboro. He left that position in 1990 to work for the Jack Schluep family owned newspapers in Greenfield. He worked for the weekly The Hillsboro Times for two years, then moved on to the Greenfield Daily Times where he eventually became editor. In 1996, he returned to The Times-Gazette as associate editor, a position he held until 1998.
After a couple years in the insurance field, Jeff returned to The Times-Gazette again in 2000 as Greenfield editor and for the past few years has served as assistant editor. He was a slow-pitch softball official and park manager for 18 years and a high school basketball official for 11 years.
Jeff has been married to the former Elaine Vance for 21 years. He has one step-son, two sons and two step-grandchildren.
Sharon Hughes is a Hillsboro native; the daughter of Phyllis Smith and Wayne Hatfield, both deceased. She is a graduate of Hillsboro High School and has attended Southern State Community College.
She worked for Robert Shaw Controls for 14 years, before joining The Times-Gazette's advertising team in 1984.
Sharon is the president for Travel and Tourism, a board member for the Highland County Humane Society, the Highland County Senior Citizens Center and has served on the board for the Highland County Chamber of Commerce, serving one year as chairman. She is also a member of the Hillsboro Rotary Club, a member and inductee into the Women's Hall of Fame and ran for Highland County Commissioner in 2008.
She has been married to Earl for 38 years, but the love of her life is her grandson, Colby. She enjoys camping, cooking and being outdoors.
Sharon Kersey has been with Brown Publishing for 33 years. She began as a sales representative at the Washington Courthouse Record-Herald. She held that position for 12 years before transferring to the Wilmington News Journal.
Sharon then moved on to become the advertising director for The Times-Gazette and was here for 14 years. In 2007, she then moved back to the News Journal as advertising director and was recently named advertising director again for The Times-Gazette, taking on a dual role for both papers.
She and her husband, Gary, reside in Wilmington. They have three children, Gena, Nina and Chuck.
Chuck Miller has been an advertising representative with The Times-Gazette since 1992, focusing on the Greenfield and Chillicothe areas.
He was a buyer and a manager in the retail industry for 23 years before moving into advertising, a career in which he has been successful for 26 years.
Chuck is a member of the Greenfield Rotary and the Chillicothe Chamber of Commerce.
Chuck is originally from the Bainbridge/Bourneville area in Ross County. He resides in Wilmington with his wife, Carol, and he has one daughter, Chrissy.
Mickey Parrott is originally from Kentucky but moved to Hillsboro in 1998. She studied accounting and business finance at Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond, Ky.
Mickey has been with The Times-Gazette since 2002. She began as a sales representative and was promoted to the position of advertising manager in early 2008.
She is a member of the Hillsboro Uptown Business Association and an affiliate member of the Highland County Board of Realtors.
Mickey shares a home with Doug McLaughlin and has two adult daughters, Kellie and Beckie.
Steve Roush is a 1991 graduate of Hillsboro High School. He received his bachelor's degree in 1996 from Ohio State University and later earned his master's degree in journalism from the school in 2002.
As a graduate student, Steve was a teaching assistant and a lecturer at OSU, teaching a reporting and editing class.
He began his newspaper career as sports editor of The Times-Gazette in 1997. In 2002, he accepted the position of executive sports editor of The Griffin (Georgia) Daily News. He returned to his hometown newspaper in 2004, serving as the assistant editor.
A year later, Steve accepted an editorial management position at the News-Argus in Goldsboro, N.C., where he was employed until April 2007. Since May 2007, he has been managing editor of The Times-Gazette.
Over the years, Steve has won numerous journalism awards for design, column writing, photography, headline writing, sports writing, special sections and community service.
Steve currently serves on the Highland County Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors. He is the son of Ken and Judy Roush of Hillsboro. He and his wife, Helen, reside near Hillsboro.
Ann Runyon-Elam was born in Dayton and was raised in Samantha, but has always called Hillsboro her hometown.
She graduated from the class of 1988 from Fairfield High School in Leesburg. She then moved to Hillsboro to take care of her grandparents.
Ann started working for The Times-Gazette in July 1994 in the mailroom. From November 2000 to October 2009, she worked in the circulation department. She is now working our advertising department doing ad entry.
Ann has been married to David since December 1994. In her spare time, she enjoys going to car shows with David, and shopping with her mom and her two nieces, Emberly and Pyper.
Pam Stricker has served as group publisher for Brown Publishing's southwest region and as publisher of the Wilmington News Journal since 2000. She was named publisher of The Times-Gazette in October 2009.
Pam has many years of leadership in the media industry with Thomson Newspapers, the Cincinnati Enquirer and with Brown Publishing.
As southwest group publisher, she oversees the Wilmington News Journal, the Washington Court House Record-Herald, the West Union People's Defender, the Georgetown News Democrat, the Ripley Bee and the Hillsboro Times-Gazette.
Tennille Turner is a 1994 graduate of Fairfield Local and Laurel Oaks Career Development Center. She received her associates degree from SouthEastern Business College, also known as Daymar College, in Chillicothe.
Tennille just recently joined The Times-Gazette as our business office assistant and coordinator of the legal advertisements. She brings with her 14 years of experience in the finance industry.
Her free time is dedicated to supporting her children in their education and whatever sport is in-season. For the past five years, she has assisted with coaching the Leesburg girls youth softball and soccer leagues and volunteers with the Fairfield PTO.
She is the daughter of Jason Beatty of Bainbridge and Carol Walker of Leesburg. She has one sister, Tessa Kerns, of Leesburg and one nephew, Jarius Evans.
Tennille lives in Leesburg with her fiance George (Punkie) Beatty, her two daughters, Shelby and Shaynelle Turner, and George's son, Christian Beatty.
Josh Walker grew up in Hillsboro. He graduated from Capital University with a degree in political science.
Upon graduation, he completed the Marine Corp's Officer Candidate School, in Quantico, Virginia. He will be continuing his training upon receiving his commission. Before joining The Times-Gazette, he also worked for the Ohio House of Representatives and the Sierra Club, where he designed newsletters for multiple political uses.
With a strong interest in media and sports, Josh was a natural fit as sports editor for The Times-Gazette.
Katie Wright has been a staff writer for The Times-Gazette since May 2007. She regularly covers Highland County government, Hillsboro City Council, civil and criminal trials in Highland County Common Pleas Court, agriculture issues, breaking news and feature stories. She also publishes a weekly opinion column.
Prior to joining The Times-Gazette team, Katie served as a legislative aide to Rep. David Daniels in the Ohio House of Representatives, where she managed Rep. Daniels' office, directed all communications, and assisted district residents with state government issues. She also served as campaign manager for Daniels' successful reelection in 2006.
A 2004 graduate of home school, Katie was president of Clinton County Right to Life from 2005-2007, and is a graduate of the Morton C. Blackwell Leadership Institute's Campaign School, Fundraising School, and Broadcast Journalism School.
Her opinion columns have been published in World Net Daily, the Wilmington News-Journal and The Times-Gazette.
Katie lives on a farm in Clinton County with her family.
