Here’s wishing the happiest of birthdays to three terrific journalists…
Shannon Buggs is director of communication at the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Houston. A 1992 graduate of Harvard, Shannon earned a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern in 1994 and interned at the Houston Defender, the Houston Post and the Dallas Morning News before settling in at the News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C., where she reported on local and state government issues. She joined the Chronicle in 1999 and, for more than ten years, wrote a popular personal finance column. She left the Chronicle last year to found and run Meta-Four Houston, a nonprofit spoken-word poetry group for youth ages 13 to 19. Find Meta-Four’s Facebook page here and its Twitter feed here. She started work for the university last fall.
Jonah Kessel is an independent photographer, videographer and web and print designer located in Beijing, China. A 2005 graduate of St. Michael’s College in Burlington, Vt., Jonah free-lanced pictures to the Burlington Free Press. He spent three years as visual director of the Tahoe Daily Tribune in South Lake Tahoe, Calif., before becoming a photo and design consultant working in exotic places like Algeria. He moved to Beijing two years ago to become the creative director at the China Daily. Johah went freelance again in November. Find his personal web site here. Jonah turns 31 today.
Rob Smoak is a visual journalist for the Enterprise of Beaumont, Texas. Previously, Rob worked at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and at the Sun News of Myrtle Beach, S.C. Find his blog and portfolio here. Rob turns 44 today.
Shannon, Jonah and Rob share a birthday with actors Yasmine Amanda Bleeth, William Rankin “Will” Patton and Margaret Theresa Bradley (better known as Marla Gibbs); musicians George Alan O’Dowd (better known as Boy George) and Burl Kle Ivanhoe Ives; sports greats Stefanie Marie “Steffi” Graf (tennis), Eric Arthur Heiden (speed skating), Kevin Edward McHale and Samuel Perkins (both basketball); novelists Józef Lewinkopf (better known as Jerry Kosiński) and Harriet Beecher Stowe; Cuban revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara, presidential press secretary-turned-TV journalist Pierre Emil George Salinger, photojournalist Margaret Bourke-White and gazillionaire Donald John Trump.
In addition to Flag Day, today is Family History Day and World Blood Donor Day. Seriously.
Best wishes, all! Have a wonderful birthday today!
