Editorial Board

Meet the Tri-City Herald editorial board

Gregg McConnell

Gregg joined the Tri-City Herald Oct. 24, 2011 as the eighth president and publisher in its 64 year history. Gregg a 36–year newspaper veteran is a Montana state native.

He began his newspaper career working after school at the weekly newspaper in Polson, Montana and spent the first couple years of his career as a reporter and photographer for the Glendive Ranger-Review in Glendive, Montana.

He moved from the newsroom to advertising and in 1979 he joined Scripps League Newspapers as Advertising Director for their paper in Hamilton, Montana.

He spent 13 years with Scripps League Newspapers during which time he served as publisher at two of the company’s California newspapers.

He moved to Washington State in 1992 to work with Sound Publishing’s newspaper network and later spent five years as the general manager for non-daily operations with Skagit Publishing in Mount Vernon.

He served on the board of directors of the Washington Newspaper Publishers’ Association from 2002 to 2005.

He joined MediaNews Group in 2005 and returned to Northern California to lead the Lake County Record-Bee and its related operations. In 2008 he was promoted to publisher of The Reporter in Vacaville and the Daily Democrat in Woodland. In 2009 he became publisher of that company’s newspapers in Chico, Oroville and Paradise, California.

McConnell and his wife, Diane, have two grown sons: Cory, 33, and Lucas Shuck, 23, two grand-daughters and an English Springer Spaniel named Sadie.

E-mail Gregg McConnell

Chris Sivula

Editorial Page Editor Chris Sivula has worked at the Herald off and on since 1982, holding a variety of positions, including reporter, copy editor and assistant city editor before joining the editorial board in 2002.

He is a Seattle native and graduated from the UW with a degree in journalism. As a reporter, Chris covered the city of Kennewick, the state Legislature, Hanford, energy, health and science.

During 1988-89, Chris was a fellow in the Knight Science Journalism program at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He returned to the Herald in 1991 and lives in Kennewick with his wife, Betsy, is a reitred schoolteacher. They have one fabulour and amazing daughter, Lauren.

E-mail Chris Sivula

Laurie Williams

Executive Editor Laurie Williams joined the Herald in 1984. As a reporter in the Tri-Cities for 11 years, she covered business, courts, crime and city and county government. She worked her way through the ranks of assistant city editor and city editor before her promotion in 2000 to assistant managing editor. She was named executive editor in 2011 and oversees daily newsroom operations.

She is a longtime member of the Society of Professional Journalists and served six years on the organization’s national board of directors, representing the Pacific Northwest.

She grew up in Montana and Colorado and has a journalism-political science degree from the University of Montana.

She lives in Kennewick with her husband, Mark, an elementary school teacher, and their son Ryan.

E-mail Laurie Williams

Ken Robertson

Ken Robertson worked at the Tri-City Herald from 1976 to 2011 and managed the Herald newsroom since 1991 until he retired.

He previously was a managing editor and a reporter at The Helena (Mont.) Independent Record. He grew up in Helena and graduated from the University of Montana in Missoula.

He did his master's work in ancient history at the University of Alberta in Edmonton.

He is a past chairman of the Pacific Northwest Newspaper Association's Education Committee and served on PNNA reviews of journalism programs at Northwest's universities. In the Tri-Cities, he is a longtime board member of Junior Achievement and a past board president. He also is a member of the Foundation Board or Delta High School.

He is married to Patti A. Robertson, a private piano teacher, and has three sons and three granddaughters.

E-mail Ken Robertson

Shelly Norman

Editorial writer Shelly Norman was a familiar face in the newsroom before joining the editorial board in September 2005.

She'd spent six years as a part-time copy editor before she was recruited to join the board. As a self-described "conservative soccer mom," Norman brings a valuable perspective to the board's deliberations.

Norman lives in Pasco with her husband, Tom. They have three children -- Chet, Niki and Kaitlin -- who are threatening to leave the nest.

Before joining the Herald staff, Norman wrote a syndicated newspaper column and is the former editor and publisher of KidSake family magazine.

Norman is a graduate of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, with a bachelor's degree in communications.

E-mail Shelly Norman

Lori Lancaster

Editorial writer Lori Lancaster is the only native of the Mid-Columbia on the Tri-City Herald Editorial Board.

Lancaster was born in Richland and grew up near Basin City on a farm her family pioneered in Block 20 of the Columbia Basin Irrigation District.

She graduated from Connell High School and Washington State University with a degree in communications, and an emphasis in journalism.

Lancaster worked as a reporter and city editor at The Herald in Everett, as an assistant metro editor at the San Francisco Examiner and as the legal affairs editor at the San Francisco Chronicle before returning to the Basin a few years ago.

She is the marketing director and business administrator of the Benton Franklin Fair & Rodeo. Lancaster lives in Richland.

E-mail Lori Lancaster

Marie Cimmiyotti

Marie Cimmiyotti serves in a temporary position on the editorial board as our Reader Representative. She joined us in June 2012 for a four-month engagement and has the singular assignment of bringing a fresh perspective to a board that’s in danger of becoming overly insular.

Cimmiyotti was born and raised in Hermiston, where her father was a longtime farmer. Her father’s strong ties to the agricultural community left her with a deep appreciation of the industry’s importance to the Mid-Columbia’s economic future.

After high school, she moved to Boise to attend ITT Tech. In late 2005, Cimmiyotti decided to move to the Tri-Cities to study marketing and public relations with Marylhurst University online.

Her love and passion for meeting new people, and finding ways to connect them together for a cause, led her to open her own marketing firm, BeanSprout Marketing & PR, in early 2011.

Today, she dedicates herself to helping businesses grow and make a difference in our community.

When she is not working, she enjoys spending time with her two boys, camping, traveling and volunteering at Ruth Livingston Elementary School in Pasco.

E-mail Marie Cimmiyotti

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