Editors and Writers
Publisher & Editor: Dave Wheelan has thirty years experience in institutional development and communications, working for such organizations as the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Foundation, Appalachian Mountain Club, The Nature Conservancy, Audubon-California, Trust for Public Land, and the University of California, Berkeley. He also served as Vice President of Development and College Relations at Washington College, where he graduated in the Class of 1980.
Art Director: Jean Dixon Sanders has been a painter and graphic designer for the past thirty years. A graduate of Washington College, where she majored in fine art, Jean started her work in design with the Literary House lecture program. She lives with her husband, two teenagers and two demanding cats in Sewall’s Point, Florida. The illustrations she contributes to The Chestertown Spy done with watercolor, colored pencil and ink. She paints Fine Art Daily, which can be seen at http://jeandsanders.blogspot.com
Senior News Editor and Columnist: Nancy Taylor Robson is the former Baltimore Sun writer, who has been growing food and flowers on Maryland’s Upper Eastern Shore for 30 years. She is a certified Maryland Master Gardener. She’s also the author of Woman in the Wheelhouse, which details the six years she worked on coastal tugboats, earning her operator’s license, and author of the award-winning coming-of-age novel, Course of the Waterman.
Video Editor: Kurt Kolaja has over thirty years experience in film and video production. While on assignment Kurt has been tear gassed in Washington, DC, pelted with fried chicken at a NASCAR race, and attacked by hookers in Paris. He has carried cameras into locker rooms and operating rooms – down coalmines, and into deserts. He shot the first launch of Space Shuttle Columbia. Kurt was ringside for a Lenox Lewis knock out, assured Dan Quayle that he looked perfectly fine standing in the pouring rain, and trembled while pinning a microphone on the chest of Sophia Loren. Currently in production is an independent film, ‘Band Together’.
Contributing Editor and Marketing Consultant: James Dissette is the founder of monthly community newspapers in Oregon, Michigan and on the Eastern Shore, including the Chestertown-based Eastern Shore Milestone. He is the 1971 winner of the Sophie Kerr Award for Creative Writing, and most recently published Fierce Blessings, a collection of poems in 2008. He is a partner at Chester River Press and recently designed their current publication, Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey as translated by Alexander Pope and is currently working on his book, A Hungry Moon.
News Editor: Melissa McIntire has worked for The Washington Times, The Kent County News, and the American Cancer Society. She has a Bachelor of Science in communication from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville where she majored in journalism and minored in speech communication and English. She has lived and traveled all over the world, but is currently making her home in Worton with her husband, son, and an overweight bulldog.
Arts & Lifestyles Editor: Kelly Castro has written for publications and corporations, including Baltimore Magazine, Private Air, Urbanite, and the Smithsonian Institution. She has an M.F.A. in fiction writing and is currently working on a collection of short stories. She lives in Chestertown with her husband, Alex and cockapoo, Phoebe, and thinks it’s the greatest little town ever.
Webmaster & Designer: Chris Foster is the founder and president of 985 Media Group, and a member of the Chestertown Spy team since its inception. While proud of his nickname “code-monkey, Chris has designed award winning websites and brands since 2007. Prior to starting 985 Media Group, Chris was a senior director at can’t remember the name of the old firm where you worked. A native of Baton Rouge, Chris also serves with the Louisiana National Guard and served with the armed services in Bagdad in 2008.
Contributing Writer: John Mann is a native of Baltimore, MD. After successfully hiking the 2175 mile-long Appalachian Trail in August 2005, John joined Echo Hill Outdoor School in Worton as part of the teaching staff. In March, 2007, John became a member of the 400th Anniversary Shallop Crew that traced John Smith’s voyage around the Chesapeake Bay. He incorporates cultural history and his love for the Chesapeake region in every aspect of his work. He was recently published in the “ Delmarva Quarterly.” And for the past three years, John has been the head coach of a Kent County Parks and Recreation youth basketball team.
Pet Watch Editor: Dan Meadows has spent the past 15 years in publishing as a writer, editor, graphic designer, blogger and publisher. He was a founding member of the Chesapeake Bay boating publication Nor’easter Magazine in 2001, had a stint as the editor of The Mariner in 2009, served as editor and publisher of his own regional pet community publication, Pet Companions Magazine in 2007-08, and even published a collection of short fiction. Lately, his blog, The Watershed Chronicle (http://watershedchonicle.wordpress.com), has drawn some interest and praise for his coverage of local media, among many other varied things. Dan also spent a year and a half as a veterinary technician and has recently started volunteering at the Humane Society of Kent County. He and his two dogs have relocated to the Chestertown area after spending most of his life in Cecil County.
Green Editor: Marty Fujita (1954-2010) was an evolutionary biologist whose book, Archipelago: the Islands of Indonesia, co-authored with Gavan Daws, celebrates the travels and discoveries of the great naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace. Fujita was the founding director of the Nature Conservancy’s Indonesia program, and more recently co-founder and current president of Food for Thought, a farm to school program in Ojai, CA. Marty also served on the board of Johnson Ohana Charitable Foundation.
Fortnightly Editor: Fairfax Wheelan (1856–1915) was the founder of Fairfax Wheelan & Co., and has been channeled by his namesake and publisher since 2008. Born in San Francisco, he attended school in Ireland, and later graduated from Harvard in the celebrated class of 1880. During his life, Wheelan was editor of the Young Californian, the Crimson and the Berkeley Beacon. In addition to running his family’s business, he was a frequent contributor to local and national journals and magazines, as well as a leading figure in reform politics in San Francisco. While first and foremost a businessman, Fairfax Wheelan believed in, and successfully passed along to his family, the importance of art, good writing, clean government, and the joy of imagination.
Technology Adviser: Kirk Mastin is a film maker, writer and social media strategist based in Seattle WA. Kirk is the founder of ‘Lo-Fi, Hi-Style Inc.’ (lofihistyle.com), a website dedicated to teaching people how to create and distribute viral video using social media. Kirk travels the country teaching digital storytelling and social media strategy to businesses and government agencies. Kirk’s personal work with the Flip Video camera is featured by technology editor David Pogue of the New York times, and his short films documenting the ‘fixed gear’ bicycle culture have been seen and written about by people all over the world. Kirk’s goal is to nurture others to create compelling content for the Internet without the need for expensive equipment or large production teams.
Contributing Writer: Brandon Righi graduated from Washington College in 2007. He flirted with the idea of becoming a professor, leading to a brief encounter with graduate school (at William and Mary) before deciding to ride out the world-wide recession by doing some travelling. Currently he lives in Cork, Ireland, with his wife, where he writes about their experiences, pens freelance articles, and works in retail. The Righis’ travels are chronicled at Éire Apparent; eireapparent.blogspot.com.
Contributing Writer: Katherine Honold Righi has been a development intern, sandwich shop waitress, swim coach, corporate researcher and a store clerk at a Golf Shop. She is a 2008 graduate of Washington College, where she majored in history, minored in earth and planetary science and was involved in several different campus activities, including The Elm. She currently lives in Cork City, Ireland with her husband where she writes, works, travels and enjoys the Irish culture.
2010 Interns
Natalie Butz has been the News Editor of the Washington College newspaper The Elm for the past three semesters. She will be serving as a foreign correspondent for The Elm when she studies abroad in Ireland this fall. Natalie is an English major with a minor in psychology and creative writing and hopes to teach elementary school after she graduates.
Garrett E. Byron is the former editor-in-chief of The St. Paul’s School’s newspaper, The Page. He is currently studying at the University of Maryland’s School of Agriculture, concentrating in Enviornmental Science & Policy. A Baltimore native, Garrett has had a smooth transition into becoming a true “Chestertown Spy”.
Alice Horner was born and raised in a big family in Baltimore, MD, and came across the bay to attend Washington College in 2007. Deciding to attend an Elm newspaper meeting on a whim, she soon became a regular staff writer, copy editor, and then news editor. After taking a semester off to study abroad in South Africa, she returned for her junior year as news editor, and will serve as editor-in-chief of The Elm this coming year. A sociology major and creative writing minor, she’s also interested in art and environmental issues, sushi, blogging, and trying every type of coffee she can find.
Molly Tilghman arrived in Chestertown in 2001 after eight years traveling the world as a Foreign Service dependent. She was the editor-in-chief of her high school newspaper The Columns, and is currently attending American University with a major in Journalism. When she’s not studying the AP Style Handbook or scouring the New York Times for typos, she enjoys reading, entertaining her golden retriever, and devotedly following tennis.
