Before becoming South Orange Patch editor, Marcia Worth spent a year writing and guest-editing a number of local Patch sites. 

Elizabeth Moore is the Regional Editor of Patch for Essex County. She spent 15 years as a reporter for the Newark Star-Ledger and spent 1 1/2 years doing Public Relations for Essex County's Vocational Technical Schools and was the host of the television show "Inside Essex County." A graduate of UC Berkeley, she worked at The Oregonian newspaper in Portland, Ore., before moving to the East Coast. She lives in West Caldwell with her family.

Calendar editor extraordinaire Jeanne Thiemann  was a self-described soccer mom prior to joining Patch. Active in her hometown of West Caldwell, she and her husband have two children, two cats and one puppy. Before she became a mom she worked in facilities management and now serves as a Cub Scout leader, softball coach, school lunch aide and church secretary. 

Christina, a native New Jerseyan, currently resides in Caldwell. 

After spending a billion years (ok, 30) in banking & programming, Christina is now a Calendar Editor for Essex County Patch.   She is a confirmed Disney-holic.

email:   rebecca@Patch.com

phone:  973-908-1209

Rebecca has spent most of her career in and around music, having held licensing positions at eMusic, The Orchard, Sony Music, and Universal Music.  She loves taking long drives with her husband while they use the car stereo to critique all kinds of music, both new and old.  She is a die-hard Devils fan who has traveled around the world, and now lives two blocks from the New Jersey hospital where she was born.   These days she’s trying to do her best to balance motherhood with the hockey season and rock concert schedules, and can’t wait until her son is old enough to go to both!

I am a resident of South Orange and a SHU alum.  I love this town and hope to let the masses know of the great things that happen within it.

Laura Griffin was a full-time newspaper writer for more than 20 years at The Dallas Morning News, The St. Petersburg Times and elsewhere before becoming a freelancer. Her freelance work has appeared in The New York Times, USA Today, CNBC.com, Dallas Family Magazine and, of course, Patch.com. She taught magazine writing and public affairs reporting as a adjunct professor at universities in Texas ,and after teaching remedial writing at Essex County College, she thought it was time to get back to doing what she likes best, writing. She's covered everything from earthquakes and hurricanes and other natural and manmade disasters to school boards, city hall, law enforcement, courts and social services. She is excited to get back to daily local journalism as the editor of the Millburn Patch because she thinks it's the news that matters most to people.

Email: Joseo1981@yahoo.com

Phone: 201-314-1342

Hometown: West Orange

I've always been an avid writer and a huge sports fan. One day, during my second year in college, one of my fraternity brothers said that I should try to be a sports reporter. I went to The Montclarion (Montclair State University's paper) and was sports editor for two years and managing editor for one.

After that I worked at the Verona-Cedar Grove TImes, covering high school sports for two years, winning seven journalism awards during that time.

When I'm not covering high school sports, I'm usually watching pro sports at home. Outside of sports, I love to play chess, I play lots of video games and I'm addicted to fantasy sports.

I am a cultural historian and arts advocate. My life has been words—teaching and writing. My passion is speech without words—art and music.  After years of introducing students to the arts, I turned to the arts in our town West Orange. As a volunteer founding member and officer of the West Orange Arts Council, I want everyone to know and enjoy all the arts—visual, spoken, performing, participatory. I will be writing about the art beat in West Orange—who & what are  happening.  Join in!  ....A formal profile can be found by going to Read More.

Carolyn writes the About Town column for South Orange Patch.  She also writes articles for SO, Maplewood and Livingston Patch, as well as for Baristanet, about local businesses, food, real estate and education.  She lives in South Orange with her husband and two children, and she is working toward her M.A. in Journalism and Education from NYU.   

Danielle's passion for storytelling has taken her around the world. She grew up in Parsippany, headed south to the University of Maryland for four years and now lives in Manhattan. After several years in sports television features production, she has recently started to focus on health and environmental reporting.

Ben is a former literary agent and the owner of the store Kitchen a la Mode: Accessories for Cooking & Entertaining, located in the heart of downtown South Orange. His passion for all things food, literary and South Orange kind of made him the perfect candidate to write the local food column for Patch. He calls South Orange home where he lives with his wife and newborn son.

Kitchen a la Mode can be found at 19 South Orange Avenue in South Orange.

Warren Westura brings more than 30 years of photography experience. He's 
been published by New Jersey Newsphotos, the *New York Times*, American 
Profile, Madison Square Garden, the* Daily Record, *the *Bergen Record*, 
Starbucks and the Associated Press. Contact him at photographybywestura.com.

Marilyn Lehren works at the South Orange-Maplewood Adult School and writes for Patch, often on education-related stories. She also takes beautiful photographs.

I am a cooking coach and teach people how to cook different cuisines at my home. I also teach at people's homes and the Maplewood/South Orange Adult School. 

I write for the Local as well as my own blog (Sharing Plate) where I post healthy, quick recipes for weeknight dinners.

I'm a 36-year-old sportswriter who lives in northern New Jersey. I'm currently a Metro New York Beat Writer covering the New York Knicks and the New York Giants. I'm also a contributor to a couple of publications, like SLAM Magazine, and now the Patch franchise. I also make Podcast and local radio guest appearances and am an avid tweeter: www.twitter.com/TBone8 

Joyce is a licensed speech and language pathologist and a freelance writer with a background in film/media studies as well. As an instructor at Marymount Manhattan College and Long Island University, she taught courses in voice and diction and public speaking. Back in the day, she was an Off-Off-Broadway improvisational actress. Writing about the arts, historical sites, and doing profiles is what she likes best. She welcomes comments and questions from readers about her articles.

Kathleen O'Malley, a West Orange native, has lived in Jersey City and Hoboken for the past 20+ years but still loves South Mountain Reservation and the tree-lined streets of the suburbs. She is a freelance writer and scientific and medical publishing veteran with over 20 years' experience. She also owns a fashion consulting/retail business in Jersey City called World of Style Vintage. 

Having been interested in gardening since she was a teenager, Katie is currently in training to become a Master Gardener through the Rutgers Cooperative Extension. In 2008 she moved to South Orange and when she's not busy with her son or with her writing, she has been transforming her small yard into a wild jungle.

Sonya Kimble-Ellis is a freelance writer and editor who writes about business, education, entertainment, human interest, beauty and interior design. Her work has appeared in Scholastic's classroom magazines, Black Enterprise, The New York Daily News, Celebrity Hairstyles, Kitchen Solutions, Matters, Upscale and other publications and Web sites (Atlantapost.com & CharlesandHudson.com). She is the author of the children's activity books Math Puzzlers (Scholastic) and Traditional African American Arts & Activities (John Wiley & Sons), and a biography for teens titled Bill Cosby: Entertainer & Activist (Chelsea House). She recently published a children's picture book titled The Sandcastle Kids: A Mayan Adventure (www.thesandcastlekids.com).

Having moved to Maplewood in 2002, Lauren Bright Pacheco is now on her second home here because she enjoys paying high taxes. Just kidding. A writer and television producer by trade, she was drawn to Maplewood's quaint, charming town and its feisty, interesting community. Her Shop Localista column will celebrate the many reasons to shop at, eat in and explore the intriguing array of businesses we're fortunate to have here in town. When she's not writing, Lauren is busy running about looking after her two kids, miniature Schnauzer puppy and husband. She also manages to devote a substantial chunk of time to shopping—locally, of course!

Lori Sender is a freelance writer for such publications as The New York Times, NPR online, Ridgewood Patch, and NewJerseyNewsroom.com.

I am the Village President of the Township of South Orange Village, Essex County, New Jersey.

Antonella Rao is a photojournalist based in West Orange.

Starting with a love for sports photography, she soon discovered a passion for all types of photojournalism. A magna cum laude graduate of New York's Marist College, where she earned her degree in art history, Rao worked as an intern in New York City for Francesco Carrozzini, the celebrity portraitist. She now works exclusively for Patch.

Rao works with a Nikon D90 and various lenses, depending on conditions and environment. Her photography heroes are Ami Vitale and Henri Cartier Bresson, whose legacies  inspire her to constantly strive for achievement and innovation in the field of photojournalism.

Rao has been shoved, smacked, questioned, thrown out of locations; praised, thanked and asked to return again soon; but, then again, her career is just beginning.

Don't miss out! Rao is available for private photography projects as well. Contact her at rao.antonella@gmail.com.

Andrew is a senior at Seton Hall University, in the process of obtaining his bachelors degree in Journalism along with a minor in Jazz Performance. He has been freelancing for Patch since February of 2010, covering mostly  government meetings and high school sports.

He also works as an editor and contributing writer for The Aquarian Weekly, New Jersey's oldest music and art newspaper. Go ahead and introduce yourself if you see him around.

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.

Jeff Jarvis is the associate professor and director of the interactive journalism program at the City University of New York’s new Graduate School of Journalism.  He also blogs about media and news at Buzzmachine.com; is consulting editor of Daylife; writes a media column for the Guardian, and consults for media companies.

Prior to his current responsibilities, Jarvis held positions including president and creative director of Advance.net; creator and founding editor of Entertainment Weekly; Sunday editor and associated publisher of the New York Daily News; TV critic for TV Guide and People; a columnist for the San Francisco Examiner; assistant city editor and reporter for the Chicago Tribune and reporter for Chicago Today.

Jarvis is the author of What Would Google Do?