John Stephens is the Local Editor for Sierra Madre Patch. Before joining the Patch team, John spent three years the Managing Editor of a small chain of weekly newspapers including Pasadena Independent and the Arcadia, Monrovia and Sierra Madre Weeklies.

Nephele Tempest is a writer, editor and literary agent. Born in New York City and raised in Connecticut, she earned an undergraduate degree in English from the University of Chicago before returning to the east coast. Nephele started her career in publishing working for Simon & Schuster, Inc., then continued in a number of diverse positions related to sales and writing, including as a financial advisor for a major brokerage firm and later as a marketing writer for several mutual fund companies. In 2002, she relocated to the Los Angeles area, where she began work as a freelance writer and editor. She now lives in Pasadena, California.

David Ely is the Sports Editor for all Patch.com sites in the San Gabriel Valley. David has been with Patch.com since Oct. 20, and for the eight month prior to joining Patch.com, David worked as a staff writer for the Daily Press in Victorville. David's originally from Charlotte, N.C., and he graduated from the University of North Carolina in May 2009 with a B.A. in Journalism and Mass Communication.

David loves all sports but he's particularly into basketball and football. David's a big fan of the Carolina Panthers, and it embarrasses that people's first thoughts of North Carolina are either the Andy Griffith Show or NASCAR.

Matt Burch is a freelance journalist living in Los Angeles. He'll soon be joining the Patch team as the Local Editor of Arcadia Patch. You can reach him at matthew.mburch@gmail.com.

Dan Abendschein is the local editor for Altadena Patch.  He has been working as a reporter since first publishing freelance journalism work at several weekly papers on Maui in 2004, and has worked as a full-time journalist in Southern California since 2007.

Originally from New Jersey, Dan Abendschein has lived in Southern California since 2005, and in Pasadena since 2007.  Dan spent five years of his childhood in Stockton, California and seems to keep moving back to the Golden State

David was born and raised in Southern California. He has been working in the Media/Internet industry for 18 years. David is your patch.com Sales Director/Regional Publisher for Southern California. He will be happy to assist you in any way to help your business grow and be recognized in your community.

Jennifer Smith is an intern at South Pasadena Patch. She graduated in May from the University of Southern California with a major in print journalism and a minor in communication and the entertainment industry. At USC, she was a member of Troy Camp, wrote for the Daily Trojan newspaper and worked as a freelancer for Campus Circle Magazine. 

Justin Chapman is a 25 year old graduate of UC Berkeley, a former elected official of the Altadena Town Council, a current appointed official of the ACLU Pasadena-Foothills Chapter Board of Directors, a freelance journalist, and a habitual traveler.

Maria has been a freelance writer for the San Gabriel Valley since 2008.  News publications written for include the Sierra Madre Weekly, the Arcadia Weekly, as well as the local site Hometown-Pasadena.

Maria is commited to telling other people's stories accurately and genuinely. She is a fan of the SGV, having recently lived in Pasadena for a few years.

Kristi Kellogg is a relentless and resourceful correspondent working exclusively for Patch. She holds a Master's degree in English from California State University Northridge. Her writing has been published in Pasadena Star-News, L.A. Splash, The Northridge Review, and Island Fox, as well as prestigious academic journals.

She contributes to the following Patch sites: Eagle Rock, South Pasadena, Arcadia, San Marino, La Cañada, Montrose, Sierra Madre, Altadena, and Echo Park.

Nicole Pajer is an established freelance writer and has contributed to many national and international publications. Recently she has written for world-renowned Dr. Khalsa Soram (featured on the Dr. Oz show), A Distinctive Style magazine, Peppermint magazine, Capitol Records and Walt Disney Interactive Studios, as well as contributed to several books. A native of Michigan, Nicole attended Michigan State University, before moving to Los Angeles where she currently lives.

Sandy Gillis has co-authored a number of books about the San Gabriel Valley including Hometown Pasadena and At Home: Pasadena, which takes readers on a tour through some of the Pasadena area's most fabulous homes and gardens including many in Sierra Madre. Between writing assignments, Sandy even manages to find time to tend to her own garden. In fact, if you've ever bought roses at Leonora Moss, there's a good chance they came from her backyard!

Caesar is a freelance writer who has covered high school and college sports for the Redlands Daily Facts, Fontana Herald News, San Bernardino Sun and the Riverside Press Enterprise. He has a BA in journalism from Cal State Fullerton, where he covered men's soccer, softball and track and field for The Daily Titan.

Tiffanie Ma was born and raised in Southern California. She graduated from the University of San Diego with a B.A. in Sociology and a minor in Visual Arts. In addition to Patch, she has also contributed to the Pasadena Weekly. Her favorite pastimes include practicing yoga, playing guitar, and surfing. She lives to discover, loves her coffee, and likes initiating social change.

James Carbone's life is a study of cultures that's expressed through his passion for photography. Bilingual, the son of a Mexican mother and Italian father who was a portrait photographer, Carbone was born in Los Angeles. From an early age, Carbone read through the books of great photographers: Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Frank, Mary Ellen Mark. "Seeing all those great images started my obsession with photography," Carbone says.

For the past ten years Carbone has studied under Mary Ellen Mark, a world-renown documentary photographer. James Carbone's specialty is shooting digital and black and white film, using classic documentary photography skills. His work is characterized by human touch. With his intimate and interactive style, Carbone generates personal and heartwarming images of people in their natural environment. Since 2000, in Oaxaca, Mexico, he has documented the day-to-day life of the Lopez family, pepenadores (literally "sorters") who struggle to survive by scavenging plastic bottles in a garbage dump. He is currently collecting the photos for an upcoming book.

View his website at jamescarbone.com

Alaena is a Dallas native who was drawn to Los Angeles by the weather and opportunities for great stories. She earned a master's degree in journalism from USC's Annenberg School and a bachelor's degree in English from Trinity University.  Her work has appeared on ABCnews.com and KCET's SoCal Connected. 

Bill Peter is a freelance journalist living in Sierra Madre. He and Sierra Madre Patch Local Editor John Stephens during his tenure at Beacon Media have been working togther to cover all things Foothills for the past three years.  Bill has contributed for 13 years to a number of publications including the Beacon Media's  Sierra Madre Weekly, Arcadia Weekly, Monrovia Weekly, Temple City Tribune and the Pasadena Independent. He provides music reviews to the Glendale News-Press and maintains a website devoted to music of the San Gabriel Valley, Peters Music News.com, a service of Beacon Media.  He has written for several trade magazines as a member of the paint and coatings industry.

Matt Hormann is a Pasadena-based freelance writer. His "History Buff" column for the online magazine Hometown-Pasadena.com has proved one of the site's most well-read ongoing features, and now he is bringing his talents to San Marino Patch.com. As a writer of weekly history columns for the Sierra Madre, Monrovia, Montrose, and Arcadia Patch web sites, Matt unearths the interesting and sometimes surprising backstories of the towns we know and love.

Matt's passion for historical research is matched only by a love of film, a subject which shows up often in his articles. (Who knew, for instance, that D.W. Griffith shot some of his earliest films in Sierra Madre?)

Born in New York and raised in Pasadena, he attended the L.A. County High School for the Arts, and is a graduate of Cal State University Northridge, where he received a B.A. in English.

1. Born in Queens, New York  and raised in Denver, Co., Morris Newman is a Los Angeles-based author and columnist specializing in real estate, housing, architecture and city planning. He has degrees from the University of Colorado (philosophy) and UCLA (architecture). He is married to LA Times staffer Sharon Bernstein, who share four children among them.

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.

Jeff Jarvis is the associate professor and director of the interactive journalism program at the City University of New York’s new Graduate School of Journalism.  He also blogs about media and news at Buzzmachine.com; is consulting editor of Daylife; writes a media column for the Guardian, and consults for media companies.

Prior to his current responsibilities, Jarvis held positions including president and creative director of Advance.net; creator and founding editor of Entertainment Weekly; Sunday editor and associated publisher of the New York Daily News; TV critic for TV Guide and People; a columnist for the San Francisco Examiner; assistant city editor and reporter for the Chicago Tribune and reporter for Chicago Today.

Jarvis is the author of What Would Google Do?