Last week, Piper Pavelich, one of the reporters who works tirelessly to bring you the news each week, bid her farewell. Her departure is bittersweet. We wish her well with her future personal and professional life, but The Lincoln County News family is losing a wonderful young journalist.
Her departure opens another opportunity for an aspiring journalist to get involved in our community. We had planned on being able to announce that our newsroom was going to be full once again, as you may have noticed two new bylines in the paper over the past couple of weeks, but that announcement will have to wait.
For three whole days, the intrepid Molly Rains held down the fort as the only full time general assignment reporter. Fortunately, that was short lived as we welcomed Ali Juell and Christina Wallace to the newsroom on June 9.
We are excited that they both chose to join us here, and are looking forward to working with them to bring you the local news each and every week.
Ali Juell grew up in northern California and Hawaii and just graduated from the University of Texas at Austin where she studied journalism and government. She said it’s her personal goal to make government at every level more understandable and accessible for people. She will be responsible for the towns of Damariscotta, Edgecomb, Newcastle, and Whitefield.
Ali worked at several publications including Bloomberg News, the Texas Tribune and the Houston Chronicle before coming to Lincoln County. Most of her recent work covered housing issues in California and Texas, but she has experience reporting on other topics like the environment and healthcare access.
In her free time, Ali enjoys working out and making pasta by hand. She loves to cook and try new foods, so she looks forward to diving into Maine’s seafood scene.
Christina Wallace recently graduated from the University of Maine, Orono where she studied journalism and music. During college she assisted the Bangor Daily News and ProPublica, specializing in investigative journalism. She will covering the towns of Bremen, Bristol, Nobleboro, and South Bristol.
While at UMaine, Christina conducted four separate investigation pieces. She said she is excited to be able to work here in Lincoln County and is looking forward to getting to know the community better.
On the personal side, she is an avid reader, musician, opera lover, and horror movie fanatic. She says she is always on the lookout for her next favorite hiking trail.
Every young reporter who moves into Lincoln County to begin their journalism career at The Lincoln County News experiences some degree of challenges. As an outsider, they come into conversations that can be decades in the making. Please welcome them into our county, and help them feel at home in this wonderful community. Reporting is a difficult job on its own, and can be even more trying, and also rewarding, in a small, intimate area.
As the season turns to summer, we are feeling the rejuvenation of spring, with fresh faces and ideas in the newsroom. Thank you to Ali and Christina for joining the LCN family, and for all of you in the community for making them feel at home.
