Karina was born in Latvia, grew up in the East Bay and attended UC Santa Cruz and the City of New York Graduate School of Journalism. Her journalism experience includes working for the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson, the Stockton Record, the Associated Press in Moscow and Reuters in New York. Karina speaks Russian and Spanish and has lived in various Latin American countries.

When Karina is not busy running PetalumaPatch, she enjoys biking, dancing and gardening. She is also a mentor with Mentor Me Petaluma and volunteers at the Petaluma Animal Shelter.

Christian Kallen has lived in Healdsburg since 1990, more or less, with time off for the Internet boom and bust. He delivers multiple media solutions for web partners, and shares historical perspectives on his adopted home town in Now and Then on Patch.

Starting in 1999, I was a community reporter, contributor, and Hamilton Dispatch columnist for the Novato Advance.  I'm excited to join Novato Patch and its great team of contributors.

Michelle is the calendar events editor for North Bay Patch sites. She grew up in the Bay Area, creeping north from Saratoga with a 30-year layover in San Francisco before making her way to Marin County. She attended San Jose State and San Francisco State, honing her writing skills along the way. She has worked as an editor and writer; eventually gathering enough poetry to publish "Jackknife and Light," which was shortlisted for the National Poetry Series and the PEN West Awards. Her poetry has been translated and published in Russia by the poet Alexander Ulanov.

Dave is a San Francisco native and lifelong Bay Area resident who has covered sports at every level for 30-plus years, starting when he worked part-time for the Marin Independent Journal while attending Redwood High School. Dave remains one of the nation's leading authorities in fantasy football and is quite involved in youth sports, serving, among other things, as the President of the Castro Valley Girls Softball League.

I made two great decisions at the end of 2011: Moving to Napa and joining the Patch.com's Wine Country Team!

My little slice of Heaven is in the Oak Knoll district, where I plan to be farming organic fruit and veg, while enjoying my neighbor's fermented home-grown grapes!

My bigger slice of Patch-Heaven is managing the fabulous Patch Advertising Managers (from Healdsburg, to Sacramento, to Palo Alto and in between) who help businesses partner with patch.com to increase their community awareness and grow their clientele.

I love meeting new people, making new friends, doing yoga and teaching people how to enjoy "raw food for real life" uncooking. In my soare time, as a raw food chef, my joy comes from inspiring people to eat REAL, whole foods in their freshest, nutrient- dense form.

As a Patchy, community-loving staffer, I love evangelizing patch websites that help us all stay connected to the REAL information that matters to us, our families and our neighbors. Making people's lives ridiculously easy and fun is Patch's mission, and I'm thrilled to be part of the Patch team in Northern California.

Justin Medley is an Advertising Manager for Patch.com. Originally from Alabama, he graduated from Auburn University in 2006 and obtained a B.S. in Marketing. Justin comes to Patch with experience in social media marketing and digital advertising focusing on marketing and branding strategy.  Justin is dedicated to helping businesses fulfill their marketing goals.

justin.medley@patch.com

Lori is passionate about her family, friends, and community!  Her new venture with patch has added "helping her business partners to patchercize their marketing" to her list of passions.

A native of Sonoma County, being involved in local Chambers of Commerce, being a Chamber Leadership Graduate, and involved Leadership Alumni, working with many local non profits,  having a husband in a local small business, 2 children in local schools, and a successful career in multi media advertising…..she is vested in our community, and is passionate about your success!

Tom has written for a variety of trade publications and newsletters through his years as a businessman. He is a restaurateur and a former PG&E employee who has been involved in several start-up ventures. Tom has been active with local issues, has served on San Ramon School's Site Leadership Committee and chaired the Novato Community Strategic Plan Oversight Committee. He grew up in San Francisco and moved to San Rafael during his senior year of high school. After graduating from Terra Linda High, he attended College of Marin and earned a degree in management from St. Mary's College in Moraga. Tom is particularly interested in the fiscal challenges faced by the public schools and the business community as well as drug and alcohol education among teens.

Nick has been writing since a young age and has published many articles in magazines as well as online. Along with the articles written for Patch he has written for Men's magazines and covered a variety of topics including Parenting, Lifestyle, Health & Fitness, Sports, Travel, and more. Along with being part of the local Rohnert Park community, he looks forward to contributing to the online Patch community. For more information visit www.NickWalden.com.

Julie Weinstock worked as managing editor for several magazines, including Epicurean Rendezvous, a series of restaurant guides in six cities across the country.

She left the publishing world to work as an assistant to the president and executive winemaker of Napa Valley’s Cosentino Winery in 1996, and eventually was named president of the company.

Since leaving the winery in 2007, Weinstock has worked as a marketing and project consultant to wineries and other small businesses. She holds a BFA in Creative Writing and is always looking for opportunities to write.

Rayne Wolfe is a native Californian who has lived in Petaluma for fifteen years. A third generation San Franciscan who grew up enjoying all the cosmopolitan delights that city offers now enjoys discovering fun after dark destinations in the Wine Country for Petaluma Patch.com. A former S.F. Chronicle/Examiner columnist and former reporter for the Press Democrat she knows what's hot after dark and can connect the dots between restaurants, theaters, saloons and shops.  You can reach Rayne at newsyrayne@gmail.com

John began his business career in 1974 as advertising director for St. Louis Music, St. Louis, MO. In 1983, he moved up to creative director for Peavey Electronics, Meridian, MS. In 1988, his family moved to Orange County, CA, where he became the communication director for Fender, the worlds largest instrument manufacturer.

In 1991, Fender moved their offices to Scottsdale. Not wishing to live in Arizona, John struck out on his own and handled the marketing/communication for Alesis Studio Electronics, Roland US and Samick, all manufacturers in the music products industry.

In 1996, he was recruited by NAMM, the International Music Products Association, to take the reigns as communication director for the entire music products industry.

In 2000, John's father passed away and, now empty-nesters, he and Brenda moved back to St. Louis to help manage the estate. Thay returned to Southern California 4 years later and John became a consultant for companies in and out of the music industry.

In 2007, John drove up to Petaluma to meet with a new client, fell in love with the town, talked the new client into hiring him full time, bought a house on 5th street, created the “Petaluma Pete” character and started producing community-oriented videos.

Nicole R. Zimmerman has traveled solo to seven countries, including South Korea, New Zealand and Brazil.  Her essays have been published in the Los Angeles Times and in The Best Women's Travel Writing 2009. She  attends the MFA in Writing program at the University of San Francisco and lives with her partner on an 80-acre sheep farm in Penngrove. Nicole blogs on the writing life at http://paper-pencil-pen.blogspot.com/. 



David Korman is a photographer, writer and promoter. He currently living in Penngrove, CA. David photographs live music and events and is passionate about supporting local, live, and independent musicians. David is a recent graduate of Ithaca College in Ithaca, NY.

The son of a Pennsylvanian and a Hoosier, I was born in Southern California and spent my youth reading classic literature at night, studying all things mathematical during the day and playing basketball at any waking moment in between. 

In 2005, I graduated from California State University, Long Beach, with a major in English (creative writing) with a minor in print journalism.  After college, I went on to hold positions and write for Option Magazine, The Log Newspaper and Crittenden publishing.

After my wife, Stephanie, and I discovered the gem that is Northern California on several vacations and trips, we moved from sunny Hungtington Beach to beautiful Petaluma in 2008.

I feel tremendously lucky to be able to live up here and enjoy the relaxing climate, the good people and the great wine.

Regina is a law student and a second generation Petaluman. 

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?

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.