Danielle Jones is a seasoned media leader and community advocate who has spent over two decades at the Ann Arbor Observer. Danielle’s commitment to her community is defined by her role as a co-founder of Drive Forward. Launched alongside two fellow local mothers, the nonprofit mission is rooted in equity and mobility, providing free driver education to students in Washtenaw County to break down barriers to independence and employment. A true Michigander, Danielle’s personal life is anchored by her family and the bittersweet transition of an approaching empty nest. She and her husband, Bob, are the proud parents of Lily, currently attending Michigan State University, and Bobby, who attends Pioneer High School.

Brooke Black is a Vermont native and former nomad. She has worked as a long-haul truck driver and a Peace Corps Volunteer, hiked the Appalachian Trail and biked across America, and worked as a lunchlady and heavy equipment operator for the U.S. Antarctic Program. As editor in chief, she aims to share stories, spotlight people creating community and change, and present challenging situations with accuracy, objectivity, and fairness. 

Amy Sumerton has lived in Ann Arbor for twenty-five years. For the last twenty or so, she worked at 826michigan, a nonprofit writing and literacy organization for K-12 students. A lifelong reader and writer, her experience as an editor is varied, including stints at a university press, a vanity press, and a couple of literary journals, editing everything from footnotes to poetry to literary fiction to nonfiction to horror to humor to bibliographies to mystery to YA to academic texts to science fiction and beyond. More importantly, she was voted Class Bookworm by her fifth-grade classmates. She’s worked at the Ann Arbor Observer since 2021. She’s married to an AAPS teacher, and they have two kids, Vi and Abe, both avid readers and writers. They also have two cats you can read about here.

Courtney Sidor has worked at the Ann Arbor Observer since 2011, and has been the Marketing and Revenue Director since December 2025. She’s worked in every department at the Observer, with the exception of production design. She began her career as Advertising Coordinator, and has had multiple positions including Advertising Director, Circulation and Administrative Assistant, and Contributing Writer. (For those wondering, her least favorite position was circulation management.) She has experience in broadcast, print, and digital media, and uses that knowledge to develop marketing strategies, campaigns, and annual schedules for Ann Arbor Observer advertisers. Before Courtney began her career at the Observer, she worked as a contributing writer at Ambassador Magazine in Birmingham, Michigan, and wrote on-air scripts at CBS Television for CW50 Detroit and Michigan Matters on WWJ-TV. She enjoys reading fiction (never nonfiction, she has tried), baking bread (Covid hobby), and spending time with her two children, husband, friends, and Old English Sheepdog (his name is Mr. Winston).

A graduate of the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, Tabi Walters has been doing graphic design and illustration work since 2002. Joining the Ann Observer in 2007, she started off as a freelance designer, and is now one of our social media content creators, senior graphic designer, and staff illustrator. Having grown up in the Ann Arbor area, she has loved getting to know this town more through Exploring A2 Videos on TikTok. Tabi loves to read a good story, drink a nice cup of tea, make her own art, publish her own coloring books, enjoy a nice walk in County Farm Park, and embark on new crafting adventures. You’ll often see her around town trying new foods, making new friends, and making videos.

Jen Taylor grew up on Ann Arbor’s north side and graduated from Commie High back when people still called it ‘Commie High.’ After 30 years in the San Francisco Bay Area working as a writer and editor, she moved back to Michigan during the height of the pandemic to be near family. Her adventures have included hiking the John Muir Trail, studying Zen Buddhism, and teaching English in Thailand. She loves kayaking, arthouse movies, and 19th century novels. She can often be found listening to bluegrass at the North Star Lounge, paddling on Argo Pond, or doing watercolors in Ypsi. She feels lucky to be able to connect Ann Arborites with the city’s wealth of events, and says “don’t forget the Observer when you’re planning your next event!”

In September 1983, a “nervous but excited” Patricia Garcia walked into the Ann Arbor Observer’s offices above Kiddie Land children’s store on the corner of Main and Washington for her first day as a part-time ad sales representative. Garcia, then twenty-eight, had run a small daycare out of her home, but now that the youngest of her three daughters was in preschool she was ready for a new challenge…

Read the rest of Patricia’s Ann Arborite profile here.

In the late 1970s, John Hilton was working nights installing windshield wiper motors in Ford Granadas at the Wayne assembly plant. One morning, he stopped at the former Kroger on Broadway St. and saw “a little green stand with Observers in it.” The discovery would change his life…

Read John’s full Ann Arborite profile here.