Journalism Education :: Texas A&M University

Journalists-in-Residence Spring 2007

The Journalists-in-Residence for Spring 2007 are Roy Bragg, Sue Owen and Kathleen McLeroy.

Roy Bragg graduated with a B.A. in Journalism from Texas A&M University 27 years ago. He served as Battalion City Editor in the Summer and Fall of 1979 and was the paper’s editor in the Spring 1980 semester. His professional career began with two short reporting stints, totalling three months, at the Sherman Democrat and Huntsville Item, respectively. He then spent three years at the Bryan-College Station Eagle, most of it as the paper’s regional reporter, covering news and writing features from the counties surrounding Brazos County. He joined the Houston Chronicle’s suburban desk in 1983 and moved to the nascent state desk as the paper’s first “State Rover” in 1988. For the next six years, he covered major breaking news when he wasn't trolling the back roads for off-beat and unnoticed stories. Bragg moved to the San Antonio Express-News in 1994. In 12 years, he has moved throughout the building. Bragg has worked as a reporter for the Metro, Business, Projects and Lifestyle departments. He has covered the environment and technology and had three separate stints as a columnist. He wrote sports for the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, served several incarnations as a general assignments reporter, and wrote magazine stories for the paper’s Business Express weekly tabloid for a year. For the last three years, he was the paper’s National Reporter. In December 2006, he was named the paper’s Writer-At-Large. (February 12-16)

Sue Owen, a former Battalion staffer who graduated from A&M in 1994, is the features copy chief for the Lifestyle section of the Austin American-Statesman. As a copy editor and page designer, she has worked on every section of the paper—news, business, sports, opinion—and also served as the assistant metro editor for the Statesman's news bureau in Williamson County. Most recently she was the copy editor on a major news project, the Statesman's month-long series on racial expulsions across the U.S. after the Civil War, and in her day-to-day job she works to improve coverage of books, food, movies, clubs and the local live music scene, as well as increasing amounts of breaking news and Legislature stories for the Web. (March 19-23)

After Sue's visit on-campus, she decided to start a blog for Aggie Journalists: http://aggiejournalists.blogspot.com/. Check it out!

Kathleen McElroy has been editor since May 2006 of news administration at the New York Times, but her career at the newspaper began in 1991. She has been deputy sports editor, associate managing editor and editor of the dining section. Her work in sports included being the on-site editor at the 1996 Atlanta and 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics. Before joining the Times, she was a copy editor and slot editor at The National, an all-sports daily, and sports copy editor and layout editor at Newsday. She also has worked as a reporter and editor at the Austin American-Statesman, Huntsville Item and Bryan/College Station Eagle. She received her B.A. degree in Broadcast Journalism from Texas A&M in 1981. McElroy is pursing a master’s at New York University, Gallatin School of Individualized Study, where she studies the relationship between journalism and mass culture. Her publications include a chapter on track and field in Nike Is a Goddess: The History of Women in Sports, published by Atlantic Monthly Press in 1998. She is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists and the Culinary Historians of New York. (April 16-20)