Colleen McBrinn
NEXT Editor and Assistant Editorial Page Editor

After graduating in 1996 with a journalism degree from the University of Oregon in Eugene, I adopted the sweetest Rottie mix and headed to Yakima, Wash., for my first real job as a reporter. My one-year plan became four - I loved all the incredible outdoor opportunities and had a cool job. Along with reporting, I started a weekly teen section at the Yakima Herald-Republic that continues today.

In fall 2000, I moved to Seattle to be an education reporter for The Seattle Times. I began my latest adventure in October 2002, as assistant editorial page editor and editor of NEXT. For fun, I mountain bike, hike, snowboard, travel, read and run - nearly all of which Tamu, my 90-pound pooch, does along side me.

As NEXT editor, I work with the freelance team and edit everything that appears on the page and online. My goals for NEXT: To give young people a forum to inspire each other and to spark change, and to prove wrong the widely held belief that young people ooze apathy. I welcome any feedback on what you see and/or what you'd like to see in NEXT. E-mail me at cmcbrinn@seattletimes.com or call 206/515-5655. cmcbrinn@seattletimes.com or NEXT@seattletimes.com.

Before coming to The Seattle Times, my wife, Connie, and I lived nine months in San Salvador, El Salvador, working for the country's largest newspaper, La Prensa Grafica. There we explored the tiny Central American country, as well as battled monstrous bugs, scorching heat and my mother.

I am the middle child of immigrants who illegally entered the country in the early 70s. I was born and raised in Los Angeles. Since 1997, I have been a proud member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ). The publications I have worked for include the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner and the Yakima Herald-Republic. I have a journalism degree from San Francisco State University. I am 27.

I was Web director for the nonprofit journalism watchdog News Watch. I also helped run the Web version of the NAHJ student publication, Latino Reporter.

There are four members of my generation currently working full time for The Seattle Times Company. I started working at the paper, in the stockroom, during the summer when I was 15. Since then, I've done it all: plate-making twice, news aide, ad services, research, news assistant and a few non-memorable jobs.

NEXT is our way of letting an important, sometimes overlooked voice of the community to be heard. It is an extension of our family's and our newspaper's ongoing efforts to give voice to everyone in the community.

When I was a summer intern at The Oregonian in Portland, I had to put together a report on how young people were portrayed in the paper. Everyone chuckled about how little had changed in the years since the last group of interns had put together the same report. Six and a half years later, I'm happy to be a part of some real change. My hope is that eventually, young people won't need their own page in the newspaper.

About me: I'm 26. I've been at The Seattle Times since April 2000 and now help create special projects for seattletimes.com. Before this, I was a copy editor at The Oregonian and The Capital Times in Madison, Wis. I graduated from Washington State University with a bachelor's in journalism in 1997.

As a news artist for The Seattle Times, I have been designing feature pages, illustrating stories and creating infographics for the past five years. I previously art directed The Seattle Times' award-winning publication "mirror." Journalism and design have been in my blood for as long as I can remember. I got my start spending hours on high school and college newspapers, and producing a music and vegetarian culture 'zine called "Buttrageous." As the designer of the NEXT page, I have enjoyed the challenge of creating something that is "exciting" and "new," and yet, "fits in with the rest of the paper."

Tasteless, sexist, ageist, biased, ignorant, arrogant, half-baked, inflammatory zealot. Each sweet syllable more lovely than the last, joining a chorus of adjectives used to describe me during my first six months here as The Seattle Times editorial cartoonist. I joined the staff from Oregon State University where I majored in biochemistry, graphic design and liberal studies but in truth focused solely on honing my sarcasm, skepticism and satire. The cartoons created there earned local, regional and national awards including the John Locher Memorial Award award. I'm 27 and married with a beautiful daughter and a son.

As the current bulwark of youth on the editorial staff, I am looking forward to the unique perspective that NEXT will bring.

My first brush with journalism was in college, as an intern at NBC4 in Washington, DC. It took a psychology degree from the College of William & Mary in 1997, a job at the Northwest Flower & Garden Show, an encouraging husband, and returning to school at the Art Institute before I wound up at The Seattle Times in September 2000. Now, I do online design for seattletimes.com, including the NEXT site.

I spend much of my spare time playing with/doting on my dog, Nox, a flat-coated retriever. My husband, Matt, & I travel whenever the bank account and vacation hours allow, but otherwise just enjoy watching movies at home and spending time with our friends and family.

I joined The Seattle Times in 1991 and had been associate editorial page editor, including membership on The Seattle Times Editorial Board. I've been a Times editorial page columnist and editorial writer. Before joining The Seattle Times, I spent much of my career in the Midwest, plus a stint as an editor in Anchorage, Alaska. I'm a native of Chicago.

I was a Journalism Fellow of Stanford University and am a member of the National Conference of Editorial Writers. At The Seattle Times, I have written a column of commentary and opinion focused on Seattle's Eastside communities and growth-management issues, as well as editorials on the Pacific Rim, economy and trade.

I have made frequent reporting trips to Asia and was a member of the U.S.-Japan Editor's Conference. I first visited China in 1984 as a visiting editor with The People's Daily, Beijing. I also covered a wide range of national and international events - political conventions, presidential campaigns and changes in Eastern Europe.

If I could, I would spend most of my time fishing, pretending to be Ernest Hemingway and reading "Big, Two-Hearted River" for the umpteenth time. I like the outdoors, good writing and salmon on 60 feet of line. Favorite Hemingway quote about writing: "All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they really happened and after you have finished reading one you will feel that it all happened to you, and afterwards it all belongs to you." ("An Old Newsman Writes," Esquire, 1934.)