Philip Gailey, 62, grew up on a farm outside Homer, Ga., and received a degree in journalism from the University of Georgia. He worked at the Atlanta Constitution, the Miami Herald, the Washington Star and the Washington bureau of the New York Times before joining the St. Petersburg Times as Washington bureau chief in 1987. In 1991, he was named editor of editorials. He also is a company vice president and a member of the Times Publishing Co. board of directors. He lives in St. Petersburg with his wife, Joyce O'Neal Gailey. They have a son, Daniel. 
pgailey@sptimes.com

Tim Nickens, 47, grew up in Jeffersonville, Ind., and received a bachelor of arts degree from Indiana University. After a year at the Journal-Gazette in Fort Wayne, Ind., he joined the St. Petersburg Times as a reporter in 1983. He worked for the Miami Herald from 1990-1995 before returning to the St. Petersburg Times. He was an editorial writer, political editor and assistant managing editor/metro before rejoining the editorial board in December 2004. He and his wife, Bridget, live in St. Petersburg with their two daughters.  
tnickens@sptimes.com

Robyn Blumner, 45, grew up in Glen Cove, N.Y. She graduated from Cornell University with a degree in industrial labor relations and from New York University School of Law. She is admitted to the New York State Bar. She worked for 10 years as director of American Civil Liberties Union affiliates in Utah and Florida, before joining the editorial board in 1997. She writes a nationally syndicated Sunday column on civil rights, civil liberties and gender issues. She lives in St. Petersburg with her husband, Damian Cristodero.
rblumner@sptimes.com

C.T. Bowen, 47, is a native of Olean in southwestern New York state. He earned a degree in mass communications from St. Bonaventure University and worked at the Jamestown Post-Journal and Syracuse Herald-Journal and Herald American before moving to Florida in 1987. He was a Pasco County-based reporter, bureau chief and columnist at the Tampa Tribune before joining the Times in 1998. He and his wife, Mary Beth, a public school teacher, live in Land O' Lakes with their sons, Ryan and Kyle. 
cbowen@sptimes.com

Jon East, 50, grew up in Winston-Salem, N.C., and received a degree in journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He worked at the Ocala Star-Banner and the St. Petersburg Evening Independent covering city and county government before joining the Times editorial board 20 years ago. He writes about education, state and local government issues. He lives in Clearwater with his wife, Janice, and has two daughters, Megan and Erika, who attend UNC-CH and the University of Florida. 
jeast@sptimes.com

Greg Hamilton, 49, grew up in and around Philadelphia and received a BA in journalism from Temple University. He worked for several years as a reporter and editor for newspapers in Philadelphia, New Jersey and New York. He came to the St. Petersburg Times from Newsday on Long Island in 1984 and became the Times' Citrus County bureau chief in 1988. He joined the editorial board in 2002. He and his wife, Julie, live in Inverness. They have four adult sons.
ghamilton@sptimes.com

John Hill, 42, joined the Times editorial board in 1996. He was raised in Tampa, studied international relations at the University of South Florida and spent 1984 in Britain following the coal miner's strike. Before joining the Times, he covered local and state government for The Ledger in Lakeland and was a computer-assisted reporting specialist for the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Hill lives in Tampa with his wife, Sue Carlton. 
jhill@sptimes.com

Bill Maxwell, 60, was born in Fort Lauderdale, was reared as a migrant farm worker and grew up in several cities on the U.S. East Coast. He graduated from Bethune-Cookman College with a double major in English and history. He then earned a master's degree in English Language and Literature from the University of Chicago and studied journalism at the University of Florida. He first joined the Times editorial board in 1994, left in 2004 to teach at Stillman College in Tuscaloosa, Ala., and returned to the Times in 2006. He lives in St. Petersburg and has two adult children.
bmaxwell@sptimes.com

Jack Reed, 60, grew up in Orlando and earned degrees from the University of South Florida and the University of Central Florida. He has worked for the Times since 1982 and joined the Editorial Board in 1996. Among his awards are a Pulitzer Prize and a John S. Knight Journalism Fellowship at Stanford University. 
jreed@sptimes.com

Diane Steinle, 54, grew up in North Carolina and earned a journalism degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She worked for newspapers in North Carolina and South Carolina before moving to Pinellas County in 1984. She covered several Pinellas city governments, Pinellas County government and the Pinellas school district for the Evening Independent and the St. Petersburg Times before joining the Editorial Board in 1989. She lives in Clearwater and has two adult sons.
dsteinle@sptimes.com

Jeff Webb, 50, joined the Times' editorial board in 1992. He grew up in Tennessee, enlisted in the U.S. Air Force when he was 18 and left four years later to study World Literature and Business Administration at Delaware State College in Dover, Del. He began his newspaper career in 1978 with the Delaware State News and went on to work in various writing, editing and management positions at The Times in Trenton, N.J., and the Herald-News in Passaic, N.J. He lives in Spring Hill with his wife Nancy.
jwebb@sptimes.com

Gina Bowden-Pierce, 49, was born in East Orange, N.J., and grew up in various cities in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Florida, graduating from Clearwater High School. She earned a BJ from the University of Missouri, and worked for the Abilene Reporter-News, Dallas Morning News and American Lawyer Newspapers, primarily as a copy editor and designer. She returned to Florida in 1990 at the Orlando Sentinel, where she added magazine editor to her portfolio. She joined the Times in 2001. She lives in St. Petersburg with her husband, Tom, and their two cats.
gbowden@sptimes.com

Mike Fasso, 43, was born in Valdosta, Ga., and graduated from Eckerd College with a degree in American Studies. He has worked at the Times since 1981.
fasso@sptimes.com.

Eric W. Lacker, 56, has worked at the St. Petersburg Times since 1977. He has been in the Editorial Department since 1981 and has served as Letters Editor since 1995. Born in Dallas, Texas, he grew up in Pinellas County. After graduating from the University of South Florida in 1971, he began his newspaper career at the Tampa Times in 1972. He has been married for 24 years to Marti Newbold. They have two children, Will, 22, and Kati, 17. 
elacker@sptimes.com