Email: Crystal.Huskey@patch.com

Phone: (770) 235-6755

Hometown: Missionary Kid, but Snellville resident of seven years

Birthday: March 7

Bio: Crystal was born in Florida and moved to the Netherlands at the age of 2. She grew up as the child of missionaries who worked in refugee communities, an experience that shaped her worldview.  

She has an undergraduate degree in Religion and a graduate degree in International Relations. Her work has been featured in the Foreign Policy Association, Women's Views on News, Conflict Solutions International, Our Town Gwinnett Magazine and Atlanta area Patches. She was a piano and voice teacher in the Snellville community for five years (and continues to teach a few local families).  She has a strong passion for community journalism and giving locals a voice.  

She and her husband, Paul, have two perfect children.  

Beliefs:  At Patch, we promise always to report the facts as objectively as possible and otherwise adhere to the principles of good journalism. However, we also acknowledge that true impartiality is impossible because human beings have beliefs. So in the spirit of simple honesty, our policy is to encourage our editors to reveal their beliefs to the extent they feel comfortable. We hope that the knowledge that our beliefs are on the record will cause us to be ever mindful to write, report and edit in a fair, balanced way. And if you ever see evidence we failed in this mission, please let us know.

Politics: I consider myself moderate, and, while I always have a strong opinion, I often can see both sides.  I believe in voting for the person, not the party, and do not vote along party lines.

Religion:  My faith is one of the most important things in my life.  I'll tell you more over coffee!

Local Hot Button Issues: What do you think are the most important issues facing the community? Quality of life seems to be on the forefront of residents' minds. We want a place where we can live, work and play, while sending our children to top quality schools.

Fortunately, we have organizations like Snellville Tourism and Trade and a strong economic development team, which includes city planner Jon Davis and Economic Development Director Eric Van Otteren. With the addition of a new city manager and a city council and mayor that care deeply for the community, I believe things are headed in a positive direction.

Deanna Allen is the local editor for the Barrow Patch. She is a native of Georgia who grew up in Jackson County, attended elementary, middle and high school locally and moved just 50 miles away for college. After graduating in 2006 from Piedmont College with a bachelor's degree in mass communications and political science, she worked as a reporter for the Barrow County News before taking a job as a copy editor and page designer with the Gwinnett Daily Post. After about a year, Deanna returned to writing as a features and lifestyles reporter for the Daily Post and then signed on in November 2008 with Patch. She lives in a quiet subdivision in Winder with her two Boxer bulldogs, Louie and Sophie. When she has free time to herself, she enjoys reading and catching up on her favorite TV shows.

My journalism career started as an intern for the Baltimore Evening Sun. My first full-time newspaper job was in Fort Lauderdale at the Sun-Sentinel, where I covered small business and the boating industry. Later, I moved on to Jackson, MS as a business writer for the Clarion-Ledger. I worked for the Charlotte Observer for four years in its business news department, where I covered the utility industry and small business.

Joy is the editor of Lilburn-Mountain Park Patch. Previusly, she was the editor of Snellville Patch, which she launched in December 2010.

Hunt took a keen interest in writing at a young age and brings more than 20 years of professional journalism experience to Patch. Since September 2010, he has served as the Local Editor for Smyrna-Vinings Patch. Prior to that, he served as the Sports Editor of The Sunday Paper located in West Midtown. Born at Georgia Baptist Hospital (now Atlanta Medical Center, located just on the fringe of Midtown), Hunt was raised in Atlanta and has worked at several news outlets across the city and region. A former on-air personality for what is now known as mtvU, Hunt has enjoyed stints behind the mic in radio and television, but recognizes that his true expressive love is the written word. A graduate of both The Lovett School and North Carolina State University, Hunt is excited about the new opportunities here at Midtown Patch. Hunt lives in Midtown, doesn't take himself too seriously and sometimes talks in what has been described as a mumble-drawl-lisp.

Melissa grew up in the Patch town of Lilburn and currently resides in another Patch town, Loganville.  As a life long resident of Gwinnett County, she is enjoying getting to spend more time in the local communities and working with local businesses.  She comes from a sales and marketing background in the music industry. 

Interested in advertising on Patch?  She can be reached at melissa.collins@patch.com or (678) 575-8499.

Bill is the former Public Information Officer for Forsyth County Government, a veteran news reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and a freelancer for Associated Press. He now owns his own political consulting firm  and is the proud grandfather of Alex, Caleb and Mason.  

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.