Editorials represent the institutional opinion of the St. Petersburg Times, which is why they are not signed. These are the members of the editorial board, which is charged with debating, analyzing and presenting those opinions to readers.
Tim Nickens, 50, grew up in Jeffersonville, Ind., and received a bachelor of arts degree from Indiana University. After a year at the Journal-Gazette in Fort Wayne, Ind., he joined the St. Petersburg Times as a reporter in 1983. He worked for the Miami Herald from 1990-1995 before returning to the St. Petersburg Times. He was an editorial writer, political editor and assistant managing editor/metro before rejoining the editorial board in December 2004. He became editor of editorials in September 2008. He and his wife, Bridget, live in St. Petersburg with their two daughters.
tnickens@sptimes.com
Joni James, 41, is a native of North Carolina and a 1989 graduate of Wake Forest University. She worked for newspapers in Winston-Salem, N.C.; Indianapolis; Rochester, N.Y.; and Eugene, Ore., before moving to Florida in 1996. She joined the St. Petersburg Times in 2003, after working as a reporter for the Orlando Sentinel, the Miami Herald and the Wall Street Journal. Before joining the editorial board in 2008, she worked as a political reporter, deputy Tallahassee Bureau chief, an assistant city editor and state editor. She and her husband, Mark Howerton, live in St. Petersburg with their daughter.
jjames@sptimes.com
Robyn Blumner, 46, grew up in Glen Cove, N.Y. She graduated from Cornell University with a degree in industrial labor relations and from New York University School of Law. She is admitted to the New York State Bar. She worked for 10 years as director of American Civil Liberties Union affiliates in Utah and Florida, before joining the editorial board in 1997. She writes a nationally syndicated Sunday column on civil rights, civil liberties, workers’ rights and gender issues. She lives in St. Petersburg with her husband, Damian Cristodero.
rblumner@sptimes.com
C.T. Bowen, 48, is a native of Olean in southwestern New York state. He earned a degree in mass communications from St. Bonaventure University and worked at the Jamestown Post-Journal and Syracuse Herald-Journal and Herald American before moving to Florida in 1987. He was a Pasco County-based reporter, bureau chief and columnist at the Tampa Tribune before joining the Times in 1998. He and his wife, Mary Beth, a public school teacher, live in Land O’ Lakes with their sons, Ryan and Kyle.
cbowen@sptimes.com
John Hill, 44, joined the Times editorial board in 1996. He was raised in Tampa, studied international relations at the University of South Florida and spent 1984 in Britain following the coal miner’s strike. Before joining the Times, he covered local and state government for The Ledger in Lakeland and was a computer-assisted reporting specialist for the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Hill lives in Tampa with his wife, Sue.
jhill@sptimes.com
Diane Steinle, 55, grew up in North Carolina and earned a journalism degree from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. She has been a reporter and editor for Times Publishing Co. since 1984 and a member of the Times editorial board since 1989. In 2005, she won first place for editorial writing in the Society of Professional Journalists’ national award competition. She lives in Clearwater and has two adult sons.
dsteinle@sptimes.com
Jim Verhulst, 49, grew up on a farm in Prophetstown, Ill. He graduated from the University of Chicago with a bachelor’s in behavioral science and from the University of Illinois with a master’s in journalism. He was a reporter and editor at the Concord (N.H.) Monitor for six years before joining the national desk of the St. Petersburg Times in 1987. He has held several positions at the Times, including editing the national report, the front page, the Neighborhood Times regional section and was a deputy metro editor before becoming editor of the Sunday Perspective section in 2006. He joined the editorial board in 2008. A resident of St. Petersburg, he is married and has two sons.
verhulst@sptimes.com
Editorial Staff
Mike Fasso, Copy Editor
Mike Fasso, 46, was born in Valdosta, Ga., and graduated from Eckerd College with a degree in American Studies. He has worked at the Times since 1981.
fasso@sptimes.com
Eric W. Lacker, Letters Editor
Eric W. Lacker, 59, has worked at the St. Petersburg Times since 1977. He has been in the Editorial Department since 1981 and has served as Letters Editor since 1995. Born in Dallas, Texas, he grew up in Pinellas County. After graduating from the University of South Florida in 1971, he began his newspaper career at the Tampa Times in 1972. He has been married for 26 years to Marti Newbold. They have two children, Will, 23, and Kati, 19.
elacker@sptimes.com
Samantha Puckett, Editorial page designer
Samantha Puckett, 35, was born in Los Angeles, Calif., and graduated from the University of South Florida with a degree in creative writing. She has worked at the Times since 1997.
spuckett@sptimes.com
News
