A 1993 graduate of James Madison University, Lynette earned a master’s degree from the University of Texas and then worked as a features designer and copy editor for the Columbia (Mo.) Daily Tribune and a designer and production coordinator for Price Waterhouse in Arlington, Va. She joined the Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk in 1997 as a designer, left for a year to design features at the Post-Herald of Birmingham, Ala., and returned to the Pilot in 2000, where she designed mostly business pages. She also taught journalism as an adjunct at Virginia Wesleyan College. She left the Pilot again in 2007 to attend yet more grad school — this time at the University of North Carolina. She earned her Ph.D. three years ago and began teaching at ASU in Boone, N.C., in 2010. Find her web site here. Lynette turns 42 today.