I am a follower of Christ who believes evangelism is a loving lifestyle best modeled by Jesus Christ and not by thumping folks over the head with a thick book and condemnation.

Politically, I am disillusioned with both parties, recognizing the good in each, but also recognizing that political ideologies are based on a Utopian view that humanity is incapable of achieving. Consequently, the ideologies serve to divide, not unite.

That said, I wish the bipartisan bickering would stop and collaborative efforts would be the rule, but that will not occur. Sigh. So I look for the best in the candidates and eschew divisive partisan politics with a vengeance.

Rick Nagel is a Geneva resident, born and raised. He graduated from Geneva Community High School and has a journalism degree from the University of Illinois.

With more than 27 years of newspaper experience—as a reporter and editor for The Geneva Republican, editor-publisher of The Beacon News and, most recently, as vice president of editorial for Sun-Times Media, West Region—Rick may well be the saltiest Geneva journalist on the face of Planet Earth.

He's a lifelong Geneva Vikings fan, former president of the Northern Illinois Newspaper Association and serves on the Geneva High School Athletic Hall of Fame committee.

Rick lives on Geneva's East Side with his wife, Paula, also a GHS graduate, their two daughters, Kathryn and Tricia, and very strange, column-writing dog, AJ.

After studying journalism at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Charles worked for almost three years right after graduation at the Wausau Daily Herald newspaper in Wisconsin, covering K-12 and higher education.

Before that Charles honed his skills as an intern at the Naperville Sun and then the Kane County Chronicle.

Charles grew up near Batavia and remembers venturing into that city for school field trips to Fermilab and roller skating at Funway. He's back on familiar turf and ready to tell your stories.

During my 20-year career as a newspaper journalist, I served as a  writer, editor, copy editor and page designer at publications in Michigan, Kentucky, Illinois and Florida. I am now a graduate student, pursuing a master of science degree in clinical psychology at Benedictine University in Lisle, Illinois.

I spent seven years covering state and local politics for daily newspapers in eastern North Carolina. I cut my teeth reporting on municipal and county government at The Daily Southerner before quickly moving on to start a new political beat at The Wilson Daily Times.

In addition to politics, I wrote feature articles about numerous subjects, but many pertained to local history. I wrote about eastern North Carolina during the pre-colonial period -- exploring the countryside with a local archaeologist for signs of Native American settlements -- during the revolutionary period as well as the Civil War period. I also interviewed several World War II veterans for a living history project.

I left journalism and North Carolina in the summer of 2007 to move to DuPage County, Illinois to try my hand at corporate writing. Caught up in a round of layofffs I decided to return to the profession I love. I now work as a freelance journalist writing for multiple Chicagoland publications and Web sites.

Chris grew up in Joliet, attended Providence Catholic High School in New Lenox and graduated from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale in May 1994 with a bachelor's degree in journalism. He has covered high school sports for several newspapers since 1999, including the Daily Herald, Beacon News, Courier News, Sun Publications, St. Charles, Batavia and Geneva Republican, Wheaton Leader and Warrenville Post.

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.