Shelisa BaldwinStaff positions: Assistant Design Director, Associate Editor, Web Team Member
Most memorable thing you’ve done in the past year: Got married!
One item on your bucket list Visit Rome. And Greece. And the whole world.
If you could be any superhero, who would you be? Ms. Marvel.
What is something hard that you’ve had to do in your life? Serve an LDS mission. It was hard but also the best and I would do it all over again.
Daniel BraithwaiteStaff positions: Assistant PR Director, Associate Editor
Dream job: I want to be an author, but who knows when that will come to fruition. So (in the meantime), I am hoping to work in the publishing industry with authors who have made it.
Favorite book: Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series is my “go-to” for a little light reading. Most memorable thing you’ve done in the past year: the birth of my fourth child on my birthday.
Favorite vacation spot: Anywhere with access to water and fishing equipment. If you’re not fishing, then it isn’t really a vacation.
Mackenzie BrownStaff positions: PR Director, Twitter Manager, Associate Editor
Most memorable thing you’ve done in the past year: Got an internship with the New Era!
What’s something hard you’ve had to do in your life? Vertically ascend over sixty feet using only a couple of ropes and my muscles when I was spelunking. I am not a strong person.
If you could have dinner with anyone, you would choose: Gandhi or Emma Smith or Abraham Lincoln
Carissa BurtonStaff positions: Art Director, Associate Editor
Major and minor: Chemical Engineering, Editing
Unique hobbies and interests: Chess, playing musical instruments (piano, tenor sax, flute, organ, and carillon), and mountain biking
Favorite book: The Stormlight Archive series by Brandon Sanderson
Favorite vacation spot: Zadar, Croatia
Charlotte ChampenoisStaff positions: Pinterest Manager, Associate Editor, Web Team Member
Hometown Originally from Allerød, Denmark. I moved to Provo, Utah, in the summer of 2002
Most memorable thing you’ve done in the past year: I served in the Germany Berlin Mission, returning from my mission August 2014.
What is something hard that you’ve had to do in your life? Wait.
Do you speak any foreign languages? Fluently: Danish, German, . . . and English
Shanna ClaytonStaff position: Teaching Assistant
Most memorable thing you’ve done in the past year: Flew to Oakland and back to Utah in one day just to get proposed to in front of the Oakland Temple. I said yes.
Unique hobbies and interests: Ballroom dance; learning new skills and life hacks via YouTube
Do you speak any foreign languages? Does Latin count?
Leah DavisStaff positions: Assistant Managing Editor, Design Team Member
If you could be any superhero, who would you be? Elastigirl from the Incredibles, because she can bounce back after tough stuff.
If you could have dinner with any person (living or dead, real or imagined), who would it be? My great-grandmother, Mary Alice Will
One item on your bucket list: Visit Washington, D.C. in the springtime when all the flowers bloom.
Bethany HailstoneStaff positions: Assistant Managing Editor, Design Team Member
Dream job: Dance teacher
Favorite book: The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emma Orczy
Most memorable thing you’ve done in the past year: I got to help out with and perform in the Payson Temple Cultural Celebration.
Favorite vacation spot: Big Canoe in the North Georgia mountains
Emily HalesStaff positions: Social Media Director, Associate Editor, Web Team Member
Dream job: Editing novels for a major publishing house
Most memorable thing you’ve done in the past year: Won a Harry Potter trivia competition.
What must you always have on your person? An e-reader
What is something hard that you’ve had to do in your life? Accept that suffering from depression and anxiety doesn’t make me a bad person.
If you could be any superhero, who would you be? Female Thor
Mark HalesStaff positions: Facebook Assistant Manager, Copyeditor, Web Team Member
Favorite book: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Favorite quote: “Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.” —Oscar Wilde
Favorite band/singer/group? Florence + the Machine
If you could have dinner with any person (living or dead, real or imagined), who would it be? Ellen DeGeneres
Katie HollingsowrthStaff positions: Art Advisor
Most memorable thing you’ve done in the past year: I applied for and received an ORCA grant; I had the opportunity to travel to Europe in order to research about theatrical adaptations of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice
Personal motto: “Never give up! Never surrender!” —Galaxy Quest
One item on your bucket list: One item on my bucket list is to read all the novels by Jane Austen. I have Mansfield Park left.
Favorite book: Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
Do you speak any foreign languages? ASL
Courtney JohanssonStaff positions: Assistant Instagram Manager, Copyeditor, Design Team Member
Dream job: Travel writer
One item on your bucket list: See the Northern Lights
Most memorable thing you’ve done in the past year: I got married to my best friend!
If you could have dinner with any person (living or dead, real or imagined), who would it be? Ronald Reagan
Bryn LarsonStaff positions: Facebook Manager, Associate Editor, Web Team Member
What is something hard that you’ve had to do in your life? Choosing between going on a mission or staying at BYU to see where a relationships would go. (I chose to stay and I ended up marrying the guy I stayed for.)
Personal motto: “If you judge people, you have no time to love them.” –Mother Teresa
Favorite vacation spot: Outer Banks, North Carolina
Adam MclainStaff position: Research Assistant
Dream job: Editor in Chief at Tor
Most memorable thing you’ve done in the past year: I was homeless for two weeks! That was pretty fun. I lived out of my car and slept on a really comfortable couch.
Unique hobbies and interests: I love making movies. I’ve been awake 48 hours straight working on movies two times in the past two years.
Favorite band/singer/group? Celine Dion and Josh Groban.
Abby PaceStaff position: Managing Editor
What must you always have on your person? A clipboard.
One item on your bucket list: Become trilingual. (I speak Italian and English and I’m hoping to learn Russian.)
Favorite quote: “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” —Oscar Wilde
What is something hard that you’ve had to do in your life? Come home from a mission and rebuild my life.
What is your perfect pizza? Buffalo mozzarella, cherry tomatoes, pistachios. TRUST ME.
Jessica PorterStaff positions: Assistant Managing Editor, PR Team Member
Favorite quote: “Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t, you’re right.” —Henry Ford
Unique hobbies and interests: I like to beat box.
Favorite vacation spot: Coromandel Bay, New Zealand
If you could have dinner with any person, who would it be? My sister, Christy.
Rachel RubioStaff positions: Instagram Manager, Associate Editor, PR Team Member
Dream job: App Developer, so I can work from anywhere in the world
Most memorable thing you’ve done in the past year: I rode a glass-bottom boat in Misamis Oriental, Philippines
Unique hobbies and interests: I really love capsule wardrobes. I only use about 20 pieces of clothing (including shoes) for three months. I put the rest away. I rotate the pieces every 90 days.
What is your perfect pizza? Bacon BBQ Deep Dish from Giordano’s
Do you speak any foreign languages? Yes. Tagalog, Cebuano, Spanish, & Mandarin
Erin SteenblikStaff positions: Assistant Pinterest Director, Assistant Web Director, Associate Editor
Favorite quote: “The only way out of the labyrinth of suffering is to forgive.” –John Green
If you could be any superhero, who would you be? Kitty Pryde of the X-Men
Favorite vacation spot: The San Juan Islands in Washington State
Most memorable thing you’ve done in the past year: Driving to Las Vegas for a Weird Al concert with my fiancé and getting back to Provo at 5:30am the next morning.
Allen WarnerStaff positions: Web Director, Copyeditor
Favorite book: Bloodline by Kate Cary
Unique hobbies and interests: I like to do pottery. I’ve had a wheel since I was 15.
If you could be any superhero, who would you be? Spider-man, of course
One item on your bucket list: Build a treehouse.
Do you speak any foreign languages? Lithuanian and Spanish
Nicole WhitworthStaff positions: Assistant Social Media Director, Associate Editor
Dream job: Mentoring at an addiction recovery center
Favorite quote: “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” —Hamlet
If you could be any superhero, who would you be? Loki (I understand he’s a villain, but there is so much potential).
What is something hard that you’ve had to do in your life? Hiked the last four miles (of a ten mile hike) up Table Mountain (near Tetons) in flip-flops.
Marvin K. GardnerStaff position: Editor in Chief
Position at BYU: Teaching professor, Department of Linguistics and English Language, College of Humanities
Current favorite quote: “The mercy and grace of Jesus Christ . . . encompass the promise of everlasting peace to all who will accept and follow Him and His teachings. His mercy is the mighty healer, even to the wounded innocent.” —Boyd K. Packer, October 2014
Personal motto: “Try to get along.” (I heard my dad say this often as he and my mother were raising eight sons and one daughter.)
If you could have dinner with any person (living or dead, real or imagined), who would it be? My wife.