Personnel

ADMINISTRATION

Jay Seaton | Administration/Publisher

Carefully straddling the iron divide between the newsroom and the business operations.

Education: Jay holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin at Madison and received his juris doctorate from Kansas University in 1996.

Bio: Jay is a native of Manhattan, Kansas. Prior to his arrival at the Sentinel in August 2009, Jay was a corporate and commercial litigation partner at the law firm of Lewis Rice in Kansas City, Missouri. Prior to his position at Lewis Rice, Jay worked in toxic tort litigation at the law firm of Shook Hardy & Bacon.

Personal: Jay has two children, Katherine and Beck. Jay enjoys water skiing, snow skiing, cooking, travel, cycling, college sports, wine and reading.

Darrel Allen | Director of Business Development

970-256-4240 | [email protected]

Darrel is project manager for new opportunities, oversees IT operations, and assists the Human Resource Director.

Education: Bachelor’s degree in marketing from Mesa State College.

Bio: Darrel is a native of the Grand Junction area and currently lives in Fruita. He has worked for The Daily Sentinel since 1991. He also served his country for 16 years in both the U.S. Army and U.S. Army Reserves including a yearlong deployment to Iraq in 2003–2004. He attained the rank of Sergeant First Class.

Personal: Darrel is married to Amy Allen. They have two sons. Darrel’s interests include his kids’ activities, the outdoors, golf, hockey and beer. He believes, “One should never be afraid to try the local fare.”

ACCOUNTING

Kathy Rodgers | Senior Accountant

[email protected]

Bio: Kathy lived in South Dakota and Wyoming prior to moving to Grand Junction in 1981. She has been employed with The Daily Sentinel since 1988. She started out in the Composing Dept (now Graphics) and worked there for 3 years before moving to the Accounting Dept in 1992 as an accounts payable and data entry clerk. In January of 2007 her duties were expanded to include payroll and assisting the Controller.

Personal: Kathy is married to Matt and they have 2 grown boys. She enjoys camping, ATVing, traveling, reading, hanging out with friends and family, and the summers!

ADVERTISING

For advertising information: Call 970-256-4289

Bryce Jacobson | Chief Revenue Officer

970-256-4218 | [email protected]

Bio: Bryce is the Chief Revenue Officer of Seaton Publishing with radio stations and newspapers in Manhattan, Kansas and Grand Junction, Colorado. Jacobson grew up in the newspaper business on the circulation side before becoming Publisher of the Craig Daily Press in 2005. Prior to joining Seaton in January, he served as the Director of Shared Services for Swift Communications, managing digital revenue and all advertising-related partner and vendor relations.

Jennifer Campos | Advertising Manager

970-256-4384 | [email protected]

Jennifer works with the sales team to bring new advertising and marketing solutions to help businesses in the Grand Valley grow.

Education: Attended elementary through high school in the Grand Valley. Bachelor’s of Science from the University of Colorado in Boulder, School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

Bio: Jennifer was promoted to Advertising Manager and helps to oversee the Advertising Department. Previously, Jennifer worked as the Classified Manager, and as an Account Executive at The Daily Sentinel. Before joining the Sentinel staff, she worked in San Francisco and Yakima, Washington.

Personal: Jennifer grew up in Grand Junction and returned to the Grand Valley with her husband, Omar, to raise their children. When not at work, she can be found playing tennis, hiking or cheering on her kids at their activities.

Melody Henni | Multimedia Specialist

970-256-4215 | [email protected]

Responsible for maintaining and growing current and new advertisers on the local level. Sells advertising products including display newspaper ads, special sections, inserts and online advertising.

Bio: Born in Denver and raised on the Western Slope.

Personal: Melody is married to Randy Henni. They have two daughters and one son. Melody enjoys spending time with her family and friends. Hiking, boating, fishing, travel and shopping are some of her many hobbies.

Judy Shay| Multimedia Specialist

970-256-4284 | [email protected]

Jackie Roy | Multimedia Specialist

970-256-4260 | [email protected]

Lucy Carlson | Multimedia Specialist

970-256-4346 | [email protected]

Lucy is responsible for building and maintaining relationships with local business owners in search of building their brands through radio, digital, and print advertising.

Having spent her childhood in two places - first in west Michigan and later in Yampa, CO - Lucy is proud to argue that the Western Slope is the greatest place to call home. Her rural upbringing and love of local history is exactly what drew her to a position at GJMI - a company that champions community.

In her free time, you can find Lucy in the live music scene, at home curled up with a good book and her cat, or traveling to see her family and friends scattered across the U.S.

CIRCULATION

Tracy Gibson | Circulation & Classified Director

970-256-4241 | [email protected]

Tracy manages the day-to-day operations of the Circulation, Transportation & Classified departments which sell, manage, maintain, distribute and deliver the newspaper across western Colorado and eastern Utah. Tracy also serves as the manager of the Newspapers in Education effort at The Daily Sentinel to facilitate the use of the Sentinel as a learning resource in local schools.

Bio: Tracy is a native of Grand Junction. She began working for the Sentinel as a customer service representative in June of 1980 while still attending Central High School. Within a year she was promoted to the data processing department and later named to the position of business systems computer supervisor. In 1999 she rejoined the circulation department as sales & marketing manager. She was subsequently promoted to circulation manager, and then later to her current position of Circulation Director.

Personal: Tracy has three children: Landon, Bryan and Kenady. In her spare time she enjoys gardening, cooking, camping and riding her ATV.

Irene Vigil | Assistant Sales Center Manager

970-256-4212 | [email protected]

EDITORIAL

Dale Shrull | Managing Editor

970-256-4252 | [email protected]

Dale leads a team of talented and dedicated journalists.

Education: Bachelor’s in journalism, Metropolitan State College of Denver

Bio: Dale is a Western Slope Colorado native born in Glenwood Springs and raised in New Castle.

He joined the Sentinel sports department on April 1, 2013.

He wrote a book about his hometown of New Castle and its rich history of coal mining, railroads and wild-west roots.

Prior to finishing college at 31-years-old, he worked in a variety of fields, some of those include coal mining, garbage collection, cemetery worker, pizza delivery (Dale was robbed three times!), cook, bartender, janitor, waiter, construction worker, carpenter, forklift operator, truck driver and disc jockey, to name a few.

Andy Smith | Editorial Page Editor

| [email protected]

Charles Ashby | Legislative/Political Reporter

970-256-4310 | [email protected]

Charles covers state and local politics and the Colorado Legislature.

Education: Bachelor of Science Degree in Journalism from the University of Colorado in 1986.

Bio: Charles has worked in newspapers across Colorado and in a handful of other states since graduating from college, but has covered politics and the Legislature in Colorado since 1997, working at the State Capitol Building in Denver for various daily newspapers in the state. Now he lives in Grand Junction, but still goes to Denver during the legislative session.

Personal: Charles is an unaffiliated voter who has never been registered in a political party since he became eligible to vote.

James Burky | Sports Reporter

970-256-4247 | [email protected]

Education: Graduated from Metropolitan State University of Denver (2020)

Bio: James is a Westminster, Colorado native and a proud graduate of MSU Denver and Standley Lake High School. He made it to The Daily Sentinel after being Editor in Chief of his college newspaper, The Metropolitan, and lending his hand as an intern and freelancer at various newspapers on the Front Range.

Personal: James is a dedicated "father" to his cat, McGonnagal. He loves all music, but his heart truly belongs to hip hop. When not listening to music, he's either reading by the river, cheering for the Los Angeles Rams or watching Gilmore Girls. There is no in between.

Nathan Deal | Reporter

970-256-4206 | [email protected]

Education: Bachelor's degree in journalism from Auburn University in 2017.

Bio: Nathan grew up in southeast Alabama before enrolling at Auburn to follow his journalism dreams. He covered Auburn softball and football, among other sports, in his final two years on the Plains. He then covered sports for the Muskogee Phoenix in Oklahoma from March-November 2018 before moving to Grand Junction.

Personal: Nathan lives with his two dogs, Rudy and Samson, and enjoys exploring the mountains, running, playing basketball, watching football and soccer, cinema, and going to the occasional show at Red Rocks.

Tammy Gemaehlich | Community News Coordinator

970-256-4232 | [email protected]

Tammy coordinates all aspects of community news through numerous columns, calendars, briefs and stories.

Bio: Tammy joined The Daily Sentinel in 1980, working in the circulation and accounting departments. After a 13-year absence from the Sentinel, she returned to the newspaper’s accounting department in 1998, joined the newsroom in 1999, and was named the community news coordinator in 2004.

Sam Klomhaus | Reporter

970-256-4312 | [email protected]

Education: Bachelor's degrees in journalism and psychology from the University of Colorado Boulder.

Bio: Sam joined the Daily Sentinel as a general assignment reporter in June, 2021. He has bachelor's degrees in journalism and psychology from the University of Colorado Boulder.

Previously, he worked as a reporter for the Livingston Enterprise in Montana and The Mountain Mail in Salida, Colorado, and as a soccer blogger for The18.com.

Personal: Sam grew up in Silt and is an avid skier, mountain biker and soccer player.

Chris Magninie | Sports Editor

970-256-4265 |[email protected]

Keeping the Grand Valley informed on local, regional and national sports stories.

Education: University of Colorado

Bio: Chris is mostly a Colorado native (was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, but moved to Colorado at 6 months old) who grew up on the Front Range. After graduating from CU, Chris worked at the Rocky Mountain News as an agate clerk — coding box scores and all the other scores, schedules and results that appear on the Scoreboard page. Joined The Daily Sentinel in September of 2003 as a sports copy editor/designer.

Personal: Chris and his family love spending time outside when the weather is nice, hiking, walking and biking. Chris and family also love to travel having visited 13 different countries and numerous states during the course of their travels.

Gretchen Reist | Audience Engagement Director

970-256-4254 | [email protected]

Education: Graduated Penn State University with a B.A. in German and a secondary major in Russian.

Bio: A Fulbright Scholarship led Gretchen to Munich, Germany after college where she remained for two years while teaching English as a second language. After pondering obtaining TESOL certification, she opted instead to turn her focus toward media, having been particularly inspired by a mass media instructor during her time at Penn State.

Since that time, she has worked in commercial production, documentary production, network television and film exhibiting and served as a moderator for the RMPBS Community Cinema series.

In 2018, she launched the podcast series “Crossing the Divide” in conjunction with RMPBS and Mesa County Libraries.

She has been with the Daily Sentinel since 2021.

Personal: Gretchen has two human children and two canine kids. In her free time, you can find her trail running, hiking, nordic skiing and indulging in a glass of wine...or two.

Dan West | Reporter

970-256-4236 | [email protected]

Education: Journalism degree from Boston University

Bio: Dan started his journalism career as a reporter for The Block Island Times in Rhode Island. He went on to edit a weekly newspaper in Maine and was Managing Editor of The Estes Park Trail Gazette before coming to the Sentinel. At the Sentinel he has worked as a reporter covering city government and now edits the editorial page.

Personal: Dan and his wife live in Palisade with their two dogs. They enjoy the variety of outdoor recreation opportunities on the western slope including skiing, hiking and mountain biking.

Dennis Webb | Reporter

970-773-4274 | [email protected]

Covers energy and natural resource issues, and serves as a regional reporter based out of western Garfield County.

Education: Bachelor’s degrees in political science and communications, minor in Spanish, University of Akron, Ohio.

Bio: Dennis was born and grew up in Ohio, and worked in reporting and editorial page jobs at newspapers in Medina and Canton, Ohio, before moving to Colorado in 1989. Over more than 18 years he served as managing editor and in other newsroom positions at what is now the Glenwood Springs Post Independent before joining The Daily Sentinel in 2008.

Personal: Dennis is married to Joyce Webb, a professional ceramicist. No kids, three dogs. Enjoys mountain climbing, running, biking, hiking, back-country skiing, travel, photography, reading, collecting and playing stringed musical instruments. Long-suffering Cleveland professional sports fan who was there in person for The Drive, but not as a Broncos fan.

Ann Wright | Features Editor

970-256-4224 | [email protected]

Ann is the editor for newsroom’s various feature pages and publications: Off the Clock, Lifestyle, You Saw It, Food and Home & Garden.

Education: Bachelor’s degree from Taylor University in Upland, Ind.

Bio: Ann is a Colorado native. She has worked at The Daily Sentinel since 1997 in the positions of Copy Editor, Reporter and Features Editor.

Personal: Ann is married and has two children. She enjoys running, reading, knitting, cycling, skiing, hiking, theater, art and live music.

Larry Robinson | Photographer

Education: Larry graduated from Auburn University in the fall of 2022 with a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism and a minor is Sociology.

Bio: Growing up in south Alabama, Larry grew up with the generational love for all things sports and the SEC. He wrote sports stories and columns for the Auburn student newspaper, The Plainsman, for over a year before falling in love with visuals and switching to the photo department as the photo editor. Before joining the Sentinel, he covered Atlanta Braves baseball for USA Today as a freelancer and interned at the Lincoln Journal Star for 6 months.

Personal: Larry absolutely loves college and pro sports and the drama that accompanies each. You will always catch him with a basketball or football game on his horizontally flipped phone, regardless of region, or time. He has an adult black cat named Lightning that he’s raised since 2013. He enjoys going to the gym, mountains, all things weather, gaming with friends and being a nice person to others.

SPECIAL SECTIONS

Stephanie Moos | Special Sections Staff Writer

(970) 256-4330 | [email protected]

Stephanie Moos took over Penny Stine’s long-held position with the Daily Sentinel as Special Sections Staff Writer in May 2022. Stephanie creates content for the special sections department to promote Grand Valley businesses, events and activities, and she also produces content for Western Colorado Real Estate.

Education: Bachelor’s degree in mass communications from Colorado Mesa University.

Bio: Stephanie is a Colorado native who grew up on the Western Slope and attended college at Colorado Mesa University. She is excited and grateful to do what she loves most - creating stories to inspire others. She enjoys working with the Daily Sentinel, meeting people from all walks of life and sharing their stories.

Personal: Stephanie enjoys spending time with her family and exploring the great outdoors. She loves skiing, kayaking, camping, traveling, backpacking and getting outside.

PRODUCTION

David Drayer | Print Coordinator/Paginator

970-256-4239 | [email protected]

Bob Eicher | IT Manager