In April 2008, the New River Voice transitioned from a biweekly print newspaper to an online-only publication. In May 2009, the Freedom Foundation of Southwest Virginia was incorporated as a nonprofit to support and publish the New River Voice. In January 2010, the New River Voice established its Editorial Advisory Board.
Letters to the editor are welcome. Signature, address, and telephone number are required for confirmation. Letters can be sent via e-mail to voicemail(at)newrivervoice.com.
Editor & Publisher: Tim W. Jackson
Managing Editor: Taryn Chase Jackson
Current Interns: Debbie Armstrong, Lindsey Macdonald, Jimmy McKenna, Christine Pooré, Elly Schulte, Saskia Snuffer
Regular Contributors: Christine Brownlie (”SpiritWalk”) John Hildreth (”Walking in Pembroke”/music reviews), Wes Jamison (”SpiritWalk”), Steven McClain (”SpiritWalk”), Colleen Redman (”Postcards from Floyd”), Charles Smith (”Charles Snarls”), Kathryn Welch (”Blogging from Bburg”)
Patrick Beeson is the Content Manager for the Scripps Interactive Newspaper Group in Knoxville, Tennessee, where he manages content-related projects and develops best practices for Web journalism. Beeson has worked in interactive media for seven years, beginning as the editor for the award-winning student news site DatelineAlabama.com at the University of Alabama, and then as part of the Web team at The Roanoke Times/roanoke.com. It was in that position where he was instrumental in earning accolades from the Online News Association, Newspaper Association of America, and the Virginia Press Association among others. Beeson has also been on the adjunct faculty of the University of Tennessee, and is a regular lecturer on subjects of technology and journalism. Beeson earned his B.S. in communications from Appalachian State University in 2002, and his M.A. in communications from the University of Alabama in 2005.
Melissa Chessher has more than 20 years of experience in the magazine field as both a writer and an editor. She worked on the launch of Real Simple, the largest magazine launch in Time Inc. history, and Gusto, a healthy living magazine for Latin American women. She also has held several magazine-staff positions, including fitness editor and staff writer at Cooking Light; executive editor of Weight Watchers magazine, and senior editor of American Way, the in-flight magazine of American Airlines. She has written on women’s issues, health, travel, and food for more than a dozen national consumer publications, including Self, Health, Marie Claire, Fitness, Men’s Health, and Parents magazines. She is also the co-editor of Looking for Lockerbie, a collection of images and essays that seek to redefine the site of the Pan Am 103 Disaster, a terrorist act that claimed 35 Syracuse University students’ lives. Chessher is the chair of the magazine department and director of the graduate program in magazine, newspaper, and online journalism at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. She teaches classes in magazine writing and editing and received the Senior Class Award for Teaching Excellence in 2006. That same year her investigative feature for Self magazine on the challenges faced by women who work while undergoing treatment for breast cancer was part of a special issue publication that earned a National Magazine Award in the category of personal service.
Bill Kovarik is a Professor of Communication at Radford University. He is a journalist and historian who has worked with wire services, daily newspapers, and national news magazines. He teaches science and environment writing, media history, and media law. He is a graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University (1974), the University of South Carolina (M.A., 1983) and the University of Maryland (Ph.D., 1993). His Ph.D. dissertation, “The Ethyl Controversy,” explored the role of the news media in protecting the public interest in a scientific controversy over leaded gasoline and safer alternatives. Kovarik has also served on the faculty at Virginia Tech and the University of Maryland. His professional experience as a journalist includes reporting and editing for Jack Anderson, the Associated Press, The Charleston (S.C.) Courier, The Baltimore Sun, Time-Life Books, Business Publishers, and the National Center for Appropriate Technology. He is a co-author of The Forbidden Fuel (1982, 2010) with Hal Bernton and Scott Sklar, Mass Media and Environmental Conflict (1996, with Mark Neuzil), and author of Web Design for the Mass Media (2001). He was recently the 2009 Canwest Global Media Fellow at the University of Western Ontario. Kovarik serves as an academic representative on the board of directors of the Society of Environmental Journalists and as an Editor of Appalachian Voice.
Jenn Burleson Mackay is an assistant professor of journalism at Virginia Tech in the Department of Communication. One of her main teaching areas is multimedia journalism. In addition to teaching, Mackay studies journalistic ethics and credibility. She is the Teaching Standards Chair for the Media Ethics Division for the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. She has worked for several newspapers including The Roanoke Times. Mackay also worked in television news at WJHL-TV, a CBS affiliate in Johnson City, Tenn. While she was in graduate school she supervised a student-staffed online magazine. Mackay earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She received her master’s degree in journalism and a doctorate degree in mass communication from the University of Alabama.
Patsy Sims is the author of The Klan, Cleveland Benjamin’s Dead, and Can Somebody Shout Amen!, which was named a Noteworthy Book by The New York Times Book Review. She also co-authored the narration for the award-winning documentary “The Klan: A Legacy of Hate.” Her work has appeared in The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post Magazine, Texas Observer, and most major American newspapers. Her most recent book is the anthology Literary Nonfiction Learning by Example. She has received a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship and is associate editor of River Teeth, a journal of narrative nonfiction. She is currently the Director of the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Nonfiction program at Goucher College.
Dan Smith is editor/co-founder of Valley Business FRONT magazine in Roanoke. He was recently elected to the Virginia Communications Hall of Fame at Virginia Commonwealth University and has more than four decades in journalism. He has won awards for writing, editing, design, and photography, as well as for his Public Radio essays. His service awards include those for environmental education, business advocacy, support of the arts and marketplace ethics. He is the founder of the Roanoke Regional Writers Conference and initiated the Arts Council of the Blue Ridge’s Writers Workshop Series. He is a two-time Arts Council Perry F. Kendig Award winner. He is involved in a number of community organizations. He was the Virginia Business Journalist of the Year in 2005. He has written three books, with a children’s book near completion and work has begun on a novel. He is married to Christina Koomen, has a son, daughter, and granddaughter and is a native of Asheville, N.C.
Russ Walker is an experienced editor and newsroom manager specializing in online media organizations. 
He most recently served as executive editor of Grist.org, a Web magazine focusing on environmental and sustainability issues. Prior to Grist, he was assistant managing editor for nation and world at washingtonpost.com where he managed a ten-person staff of editors, news producers and reporters focused on building unique online components to complement the daily journalism of The Washington Post. Walker joined washingtonpost.com in Jan. 2001 as senior producer of Washtech.com, a site providing original coverage and serving as a portal for news produced by four Washington Post Co. publications covering the Washington region’s dynamic technology community. Walker was appointed Business editor in 2003 and took on an assistant managing editor role in Sept. 2005, supervising the site’s politics, nation, world, business and technology sections. He supervised the online coverage of the 2006 midterm elections and the 2008 presidential primaries. Prior to joining washingtonpost.com, Walker was online director of FreedomChannel.com, a political video Web site that covered the 2000 elections, and he was an editor of health care policy and an international affairs publications at the National Journal Group. Before entering the world of journalism, he worked as a congressional aide on Capitol Hill and as a public affairs staff person for a nonprofit health care policy association. Walker is a 1990 graduate of Vanderbilt University and a native of Columbia, Kentucky. He lives in Seattle with his wife, food writer Kim O’Donnel.
Previous Contributors: Chris Arvidson, Bobby Bell, Sara Blankenship, Theresa Burriss, Karen Cairns, Jamie Caudle, Eliott Chamberlin-Long, Tracy Cohn, Ashlee Cossaboon, Sandra Daniels, Rick Dickinson, Dennis DuBuc, Brian M. Erskine, Russell Gregory, Todd Guill, Shannon Hardwicke, Chuck Hussey, Gene Hyde, Anna Jackson, Stevan Jackson, Meredith Jones, C.R. Kasprzyk, Bill Kovaric, John C. Leonard, Glen T. Martin, Molly McClintock, Leslie Miller, Jim Minick, Adam Neal, Kevin Nunley, Teresa O’Bannon, Rick Robers, Steven Salaita, Katelyn L. Sherwood, David Simpkins, Walter Simpkins, Laura Spielman, Paul Stanley, Tim Thornton, Darrell Thorpe, Rick Van Noy, Victoria Via, Jonathan Webster, Beth Wellington, Eric West, Pat Woodruff
Previous Interns: Amy Davis, Randy Deel, Jessie Dunn, Kelly Flynn, Meghan George, Holly Hinte, Anna Keffer, Christian Keese, Matt LaBelle, Jenna Miller, Kylie Morris, Josh Nash, Karaneese Payne, Christine Pizzo, Sarah Sandridge, Brian Seay, Rachel Shapiro, George Smith, Sawyer Smith, Wheatley Stefan, Sally Zaki
Previous Community Advisory Board: David Bernard, Molly McClintock, Elizabeth McCommon, Regis McKoy, Stuart Mease, Amanda Melniczek
Original Print Design: Kristin Edwards, Sue England
Web Design: Charles Buechel
Contact Information
New River Voice
P.O. Box 1411
Radford, VA 24143
Phone: 540.808.2136
Fax: 540.808.2119