The Spectrum Web Team

Daneen Akers finds that at the end of the day, stories are still what she believes in, the “substance of things hoped for.” After several years spent writing, editing, and project managing for large companies, she’s back in school finishing her M.A. in English at San Francisco State University. While she comes from a long line of Adventists, she did flirt with the idea of cutting her Adventist ties (a common post-college temptation). Instead she decided to dig deeper, staying within her heritage in order to help bring change. She values the opportunity to help promote conversation through Spectrum, and as the online reviews editor, she’s constantly looking for books and films that the Spectrum audience would enjoy. She’s married to Stephen Eyer, a filmmaker, and “mom” to Pali, the world’s most adorable dog. All three of them attend Second Wind, in San Francisco.

Alita Byrd has been writing for Spectrum since 1995, when she was a journalism and English student at Columbia Union College in Washington, DC. Since then, she has written extensively about Rwanda for Spectrum, covering the trial of a Rwandan Adventist pastor in the international court in Tanzania, and traveling to Rwanda to interview survivors of the massacre. Alita earned a master’s in the history of international relations from the London School of Economics in 2001. She served on the staff of National Geographic magazine and Preservation magazine in Washington DC and was the editor of a national business magazine for students in South Africa. Now she lives with her husband in Dublin, Ireland, where she works as an online journalist for the national broadcaster. A cat lover, she edits the Interviews Section of the web site.

Alexander Carpenter, a fifth-generation Adventist, was home-schooled, church-schooled, public-schooled, and attended a self-supporting academy before graduating from Andrews University summa cum laude (Religion and English Literature) in 2003. He took a year to explore the Indian film industry in Mumbai before beginning graduate school. Now he's completing his M.A. in critical theory, film, and religion at the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley. Since 2006, Alexander has been a new media consultant for the Center for American Progress and the editor of the Spectrum Blog. He is the Online Communications Manager for the San Francisco-based Interfaith Power and Light environmental org and sits on the board of The Beatitudes Society. An adjunct instructor on cinema at Pacific Union College, he attends the El Sobrante Church.

Bonnie Dwyer, like Alita Bryd, began writing for Spectrum as a student. She is a journalism graduate of La Sierra University and California State University, Fullerton. After many years of writing news stories and investigative pieces for Spectrum, she became its editor in 1998. Watching the web site development, dreaming about new possibilities, and constantly working on the next phase of the site has been one of the major joys of her job. She says it has required creative thinking about basic things like conversation and time. She lives in Granite Bay, California with her husband Tom and son Mark, and they are all members of the Roseville SDA Church. It is there she has learned that abstract ideas about church need to be balanced with the practical realities of participating locally. The family dog Ella, now 16 years old, rarely leaves the front porch.

Leigh Johnsen, Spectrum’s associate editor, is a native Californian. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Pacific Union College, a master’s from Andrews University, and a doctorate in early American religious history from the University of California at Riverside. He lives in Rocklin, California, with his wife, Colleen, daughter, Kelsey, and an extremely bright but misguided Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier named Alegre. A 1968 Porsche sits in his garage, where he is lovingly restoring it to its original splendor. Leigh has worked on the ever-expanding Spectrum web site since its inception in March 2001, serving as web master. He also edits the Sabbath School commentary, creates the weekly polls, and manages the archives.

Jonathan Pichot, Drupal software guru, is the technical expert on the web team. He also edits the Collegiate Blog. Born in the United States, into an Adventist family that had recently immigrated to America from France, he grew up in the small town of Berrien Springs, Michigan, and finished high school having attended no more than two schools (Village SDA, Andrews Academy). His French ancestry is very much a part of his identity. Other interests are the philosophy and practice of education, emerging web technologies, and serious journalism. He feels the online community has reinvigorated his interest in the Adventist church, and says it is comforting to find others who ask the same questions and are open to a more vulnerable discussion of religion.

Johnny A. Ramirez came to Spectrum as an intern in late 2006 and immediately began helping with many things including Cafe Hispano whose partnership with Adventism's largest lay organisation in Spain, AEGUAE, he organised. Before crossing the puddle, Johnny worked in ministry as an intern at the Hollywood SDA Church and also at LA Voice-PICO and is a proud alum of Azusa Pacific University. He is now completing an M.Th. in practical theology and Christian ethics at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland and can often be heard complaining about the weather there. A third-generation Seventh-day Adventist and ordained as an elder, Johnny is a member of the Loma Linda University Church in California.