Biography

Matt Ledger became a Walker County citizen in 2000, a transplant from the suburbs of Milwaukee, along with being a devout Green Bay Packer fan, or “Cheesehead.” He and his wife Sheila, a teacher at Chattanooga Valley Elementary, moved South following one trip to Chattanooga in 1999. He studied photojournalism at the University of Wisconsin La Crosse. Since then he has been behind the camera for 15 years. Matt began shooting sports and news features, filling the pages of the Walker County Messenger since 2005. Multimedia expansion of the newspaper’s website led to video inserts, which led him to become the lead videographer in 2007 for the Messenger. Writing for education and features beats followed in 2009, along with the cop & courts beat later. Matt recently received a second-place award for education writing from the Georgia Press Association, following numerous photojournalism awards, including a 2010 first place for photo essay.

Biography

Christi McEntyre moved to Walker County and began working as a staff writer at the Walker County Messenger in November of 2009. She graduated from Berry College in 2008, where she received her bachelor’s degree in English and creative writing with minors in anthropology and Spanish. A native of Marietta, Christi has adapted well to the mountains of northwest Georgia and likes to spend her free time hiking, camping and trying her hand at organic gardening. When not outside, she enjoys devouring dystopian novels, promoting sustainable lifestyles and spread-ing the teachings of the great gorilla Ishmael.