I started out with Patch running around St. Louis County doing business listings in summer of 2010. When Patches started going live, I began freelancing for Maplewood-Brentwood. My main gig was covering Maplewood Richmond Heights sports. I also took charge of the Blue Devils Facebook page. (Go ahead and Like it now!)

I've been full time with Patch since October, 2011, as an Associate Local Editor, AKA a 13th editor.

Before Patch I was a freelance photographer, a staff writer/photographer for a West County school, and photograper for the St. Louis Suburban Journals.

Ryan Martin is an Associate Regional Editor for Patch.com in St. Louis.

Doug Miner and Lindsay Toler are the editors of Affton-Shrewsbury Patch.

Doug, a Maplewood resident, also works as editor of Maplewood-Brentwood Patch. Doug graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in industrial design. His first job was with Nike research and development, though he transitioned into journalism after shooting for newspapers. He's covered St. Louis Cardinals (both football and baseball) and St. Louis Blues as a stringer for the Associated Press. He joined Patch as an editor in November 2011.

Lindsay, who works primarily as a community editor across St. Louis, helps ensure that your contributions to the site get featured in the newsletter, on the front page and in social media. She's a Dallas, TX native who moved to St. Louis just in time to watch the Cardinals beat the Rangers for their 11th World Series win. Lindsay studied journalism and sociology at the University of Missouri. Before St. Louis Patch, she served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Moldova, a tiny country tucked between Romania and the Ukraine.

Affton-Shrewsbury Patch was launched in December 2010 by Andrew Dana Hudson, who left in May 2012 to move to the West Coast.

I'm the Social Media Miner for Patch.com's sourthern neighborhoods. While our local editors are at city council meetings and high school football games, I look for stories in places people meet online. You'll see me all over Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Storify and more digging for stories and asking residents what's going on in their neighborhoods.

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.