With an interest in the environment and education, Sonia came to Patch in June 2010 with several years of experience covering the local news in Maryland, Delaware and New York City.

She launched the Riverdale Park-University Park Patch site in the summer of 2010, before moving onto her role as the Associate Regional Editor of Prince George's County Patch sites in Nov. 2011.

I'm a child of the eastside of Baltimore County and have lived here most of my life — first in Middle River then in Perry Hall, where I graduated from high school.  I now live in Towson.

I'm a county history junkie and have a fondness for all the places that make my "hometown" special. You'll frequently find me hiking around Oregon Ridge with my dog or grabbing a slice at Pizza Johns in Middle River.

Over the years I've worked for a number of area publications including The Times in Perry Hall, The Avenue and The Journal Northeast as well as writing for Reuters news service.

For much of the last decade I was a reporter for Patuxent Publishing Co.'s community papers in Baltimore County as its senior politics and government reporter.

I've won numerous state, regional and national awards for coverage of stories such as the Joseph Palczynski spree killings and hostage standoff in 2000, coverage of Hurricane Katrina, as well as state and local government coverage.

I've also been honored for my investigative work which includes stories involving the Community College of Baltimore County, the hiring of a health officer who was not licensed to practice medicine in Maryland and an investigation that led to the indictment of a sitting county councilman for theft from his campaign finance account.

While at Patuxent, my political blog was honored as the best in the Maryland-Delaware-DC region. I continue to blog about politics for Patch.

I appear each Thursday morning in the 7 o'clock hour where I talk about local politics on WBAL 1090 AM. I've appeared regularly on a number of that station's programs and have made guest appearances on Midday with Dan Rodricks on WYPR 88.1 FM.

I also co-hosted the "All Politics is Local" radio show on WCBM 680 AM.

You can find me on Facebook and on Twitter.

Susan is an associate regional editor in Anne Arundel County, MD, and manages eight Patch sites. She was the founding editor of Annapolis Patch (then called Greater Annapolis Patch) that launched in September 2010 as the first site in the county. Prior to joining Patch, Susan worked for The Washington Times newspaper and locally as the editor of Chesapeake Family magazine. Susan has a master's degree in journalism from American University and a bachelor's degree from George Mason University. She can be reached at susan@patch.com or 410-419-3338.

For any advertising concerns contact Tara at 
Tara.Hayes@Patch.com.

Kathleen F. Miller was raised on Bainbridge Island. Her favorite childhood memory is of playing on the tire swing attached to the tree house her father built in a Madrona as a birthday gift.

Her first paying freelance gig was covering Bainbridge High School's football games for the Bainbridge Review while she was a senior at BHS.  She graduated from the University of Washington with degrees in Journalism and Business Administration. She was inducted into the Department of Communications Alumni Hall of Fame in 2004 in honor of her work mentoring students.

Prior to having children and launching her career as a freelance writer, she worked as an editor in a large publishing company, in public relations for nonprofit organizations and as a copywriter for GE Capital. She specializes in writing about health, parenting, business and travel.

Born in Washington, DC (at the now-closed Columbia Hospital for Women in Northwest), Sean has lived in four different Rockville ZIP codes on and off throughout his life.

He attended Lucy V. Barnsley Elementary in Rockville before graduating from Sherwood High in Sandy Spring in 1995. He is a 1999 graduate of Penn State University and—not surprisingly to anyone who knows a Penn Stater—a big Nittany Lion fan.

Sean spent 10 years at The Gazette, first as a community reporter covering Poolesville and Gaithersburg and then, for three years, as an education reporter covering MCPS, Montgomery College, the University System of Maryland and state and national education issues. From 2007 to 2010, he covered four sessions of the Maryland General Assembly as a political writer for The Gazette of Politics and Business and for The Gazette's regional section.

Sean and his wife Nicole were married in August 2009 in State College, PA. (WE ARE! both Penn Staters.) They bought a home in unincorporated Rockville (Aspen Hill) in 2010.

Phil Meyer is Professor Emeritus in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and was inducted into the North Carolina Hall of Fame in Journalism in the spring of 2008.  He joined the Journalism School in 1981 and served as Knight Chair in Journalism Professor from 1993-2008.  Prior to joining the school, he held a number of reporter and research positions at various media outlets. 

He has won numerous awards including the 2005 Sigma Delta Chi Distinguished Service Award for Research About Journalism (with Scott Maier). He was named a Fellow of Society of Professional Journalists in 2005. In 2004, the Newspaper Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication gave him its Professional Freedom and Responsibility Award. And in 2000 he received the American Association for Public Opinion Research Award for Exceptionally Distinguished Achievement.

Meyer is the author of several books including The Vanishing Newspaper:  Saving Journalism in the Information Age and Precision Journalism:  A Reporter’s Introduction to Social Science Methods.  Journalism Quarterly in 2000 listed this book as one of the 35 significant books of the 20th century in journalism and mass communication; and the American Association for Public Opinion Research, observing its 50th anniversary in 1996, listed it as one of 50 significant books on public opinion research.

He received his B.S. in technical journalism from Kansas State University and his M.A. in political science from the University of North Carolina.

Steven Berlin Johnson is a pioneer in the web world, as a co-founder of FEED, Plastic.com, and Outside.in, which was acquired by Patch in March of 2011. He also co-created Findings.com, which launched in late 2011. Steven was the 2009 Hearst New Media Professional-in-Residence at The Journalism School at Columbia University, and served for several years as a Distinguished Writer in Residence at NYU’s Journalism School. He is a bestselling author of seven books, and won acclaim and a Newhouse School Mirror Award for his 2010 Time Magazine cover story, "How Twitter Will Change the Way We Live." 

Speaking of Steven's editorial prowess, check out this video based on Steven's book, Where Good Ideas Come From, which was named one of the best books of 2010 by The Economist.

Brian was Editor-in-Chief of Time Out New York magazine before coming to Patch. Before that he worked for a variety of publications both online and off, including Details magazine, New York Magazine, and the old, dearly departed Sidewalk.com. He has written for numerous publications, from the New York Times magazine to Harper's Bazaar. He graduated from Bowdoin College and got an MFA in creative writing at Columbia University so he could put his novel in a drawer with distinction. He lives in Manhattan with his beautiful wife, adorable son, angelic daughter and the world's most dog-like cat. He’s proud as hell of what the Patch team has built.

Ken Paulson is president and chief executive officer of the First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University and in Washington, D.C.

Previously, Paulson served as the editor and senior vice president/news of USA Today.  He is now a columnist on USA Today’s board of contributors, writing about First Amendment issues and the news media.

Throughout his career, Paulson has drawn on his background as both a journalist and lawyer, serving as the editor or managing editor of newspapers in five different states.

He also is past-president of the American Society of News Editors, the nation’s largest organization of news media leaders.

Paulson also was the host of the Emmy-honored television program “Speaking Freely,” seen in more than 60 PBS markets nationwide over five seasons, and the author of "Freedom Sings," a multimedia stage show celebrating the First Amendment that continues to tour the nation's campuses.  

He was an early advocate of making newspaper content available online, launching online newspapers in both Florida and New York in 1993.

For 12 years, Paulson was a regular guest lecturer at the American Press Institute, speaking to more than 5,000 journalists about First Amendment issues. He was honored with the API Lifetime Service Award. In 2010 and 2011, he served as chair of the PBS Editorial Standards Review Committee.

In 2007, Paulson was named fellow of the Society of Professional Journalists, “the highest honor SPJ bestows upon a journalist for extraordinary contributions to the profession.” In 2008, he  received the Robert S. Abbott Memorial Award for Meritorious Service in Mass Communications from the Southern Regional Press Institute. He has also been elected to the Illini Publishing Hall of Fame at the University of Illinois.

He is a graduate of the University of Illinois College of Law and the University of Missouri School of Journalism. He also has served as an adjunct professor at Vanderbilt University Law School. In 2008, he received an honorary doctorate in Humane Letters from American University.