Welcome, Brianna Wray

Most of us who work at The Times are old enough to remember when a "phone" was something with a rotary dial, and a camera was a completely separate device that you put rolls of film into.

I'm happy to announce that we've added a staff member who grew up with cellular phones and digital cameras, and who has exceptional skill with the modern technology that we all now use to produce this newspaper each week.

Brianna Wray joined The Times this month and will provide reporting on Waitsburg news and many of the people who live here. She is also taking on much of the layout work on the paper, as well as handling our website and expanding our social media efforts.

Brianna moved to Walla Walla earlier this year with her husband, Matt. Matt is a musician who grew up in Walla Walla and graduated from Wa-Hi in 1995. Matt's grandmother, Jo Shay, is familiar to many area music fans as grandma in "Grandma and the Boys."

Brianna is a native of Tennessee who moved to Florida as a teenager and then to Seattle as a young adult.

She and I share the rare privilege around here of being University of Washington alumni and proud Husky fans. She graduated last year with a degree in Interdisciplinary Visual Arts.

Since moving to Walla Walla, Brianna has been working part-time for Lane Gwinn at Ten Ton Art & Coffee in Waitsburg. There she is a production assistant and teacher of printmaking, video editing and book making. She will continue in that job while working for us part time as well.

We're very grateful to have her.

Thank you to Dena

Dena Martin has officially relinquished her Times reporting pen (and keyboard) to focus on her new career at the Columbia County Planning and Building office.

In the four-plus years she worked for The Times, Dena was a valuable asset for us and for the Waitsburg community. She reported on government and local people and organizations with a knowledgeable and community-minded voice. And her writing was second to none. We will miss her greatly.