PUBLICATIONSTAFF
Richard G. Johnstone, Jr.
Executive Editor
Richard G. Johnstone, Jr. has served as President and CEO of the Virginia, Maryland & Delaware Association of Electric Cooperatives since August 2016. Prior to that, he served for 17 years as Executive Vice President of the VMDAEC.
Johnstone, 61, has worked at the Association for over 33 years. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Richmond, Johnstone majored at UR in both journalism and speech communications. He joined VMDAEC in April 1985 as manager of its communications and public relations department and editor of Rural Living magazine. Before coming to VMDAEC, he worked for seven years at the Virginia State Bar, principally as editor of the bar’s monthly magazine.
Johnstone has been active for years in the business community in Virginia and the cooperative community nationally. He currently serves as a board member and is past president of the Virginia Cooperative Council and is a former board member and president of the Virginia Society of Association Executives. He received VSAE’s highest honor, the CEO Award of Excellence, in December 2016.
He also serves on the executive committee and the board of the Better Business Bureau of Central Virginia. In addition, he is a member and past president of both the Rural Electric Statewide Managers Association and the Rural Electric Statewide Editors Association.
Johnstone and his wife, Blair, live in Midlothian and have two grown children, Katy Johnstone Hurtz and Ethan Johnstone.
Bill Sherrod
Editor Emeritus (2005-2020)
Much beloved by the cooperative community, Bill Sherrod served as editor of Cooperative Living magazine until his passing in June 2020. Bill was with the Association since 1994 and also served as vice president of the communications and public relations department. Prior to his service with the electric cooperatives association, he edited community newspapers in lower Delaware and Central Virginia. Bill received the association’s Distinguished Service Award for his exemplary contributions to the industry and his spirit will live on in the pages of the magazine.
Steven Johnson
Editor
Steven Johnson is editor of Cooperative Living magazine. Prior to joining the association, he worked for 13 years as managing editor and senior communications adviser at the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. He has received more than 20 regional and national writing awards for reporting on issues related to electric co-ops ranging from Hurricane Katrina to autistic youth. Steven was previously a reporter and editor at several Virginia newspapers. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Mississippi and graduate degrees from the University of Virginia. He is a member of the journalism wing of the Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame in Iowa.
Laura Emery
Field Editor & Social Media Coordinator
Laura Emery is field editor and social media coordinator of Cooperative Living magazine, published by the Virginia, Maryland and Delaware Association of Electric Cooperatives for the members of 12 electric-distribution cooperatives in Virginia. Laura has been with the Association since 2000. She writes local pages content for member cooperatives as requested, as well as the monthly Say Cheese column. Laura also writes several cover stories a year with accompanying photography and assists with the Cooperative Living Facebook page. A Pennsylvania native, Laura grew up in rural Virginia and enjoys country living with her family. In addition to rural living, she enjoys writing, party planning, photography, interior decorating and spending time with her husband and children.
Janet Bailey
Production Manager
Janet Bailey is the production manager for Cooperative Living magazine. Her primary job responsibility is to ensure the magazine prints correctly and she is the staff liaison with the plant that publishes the magazine. There are 14 versions of each magazine published 10 times a year, monthly with combined March/April and November/December issues. The current pressrun each issue is over 575,000 copies and each version has varying quantities based on address lists provided by each member co-op. She designs layouts for the magazine and proofreads and fact checks all pages. Janet has been on the magazine staff since 1991. She is a native of Chesterfield County, Virginia, and lives in Moseley.
John Grott
Production Coordinator
John Grott is production coordinator for Cooperative Living magazine. He joined the staff in 2019 and his primary responsibility is to design and layout the state-wide pages of Cooperative Living. Prior to coming to VMDAEC, John has practiced graphic design for over 25 years in a variety of creative environments such as state and county governments, academia, food distribution and the electric industry.
John is a Hoosier from Indiana. He has a BA in graphic design from Indiana University and an MFA in visual communication from VCU. John enjoys golf, running and biking, photography and spending time with his wife and two children.
Jim Robertson
Creative Services Specialist
With more than a decade serving electric cooperative members in Missouri and North Carolina in a communications role, Jim Robertson joined the Virginia, Maryland & Delaware Association of Electric Cooperatives in early 2020. He earned his Certified Cooperative Communicator credentials through the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association in 2016 and continues to serve VMDAEC and its member cooperatives with graphic design, writing, photography and other creative services. Jim was born and raised in the Buffalo, NY, area and graduated from Niagara University, where he played NCAA Division I baseball. He also enjoys landscape and portrait photography.
Nina Jacobs
Administrative Coordinator
Nina Jacobs joined the VMDAEC team in 2015 as an Administrative Services Manager after working with CarMax for ten years as an Executive Assistant. Her duties included accounting, administrative support for the scholarship foundation and overseeing day to day needs of the employees. With over 15 years of administrative experience she is now assisting the Cooperative Living team with various duties that include subscriptions, magazine distribution and lending a hand with advertisements.
Nina is a cum laude graduate of Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, NC. She was born and raised in Bernardsville, New Jersey. She resides in Henrico VA with her puppy Charlotte. Nina enjoys bird watching, nature walks, reading and needlepoint.
Amanda Cunningham
Advertising Sales
Amanda Cunningham joined the Virginia, Maryland & Delaware Association of Electric Cooperatives in 2002, doing graphics-design work for Cooperative Living magazine and the Association’s member cooperatives. Her career path evolved as she began helping the advertising-sales staff with their growing marketing needs. Today, she heads up the advertising department and enjoys helping her clients, Virginia communities and new businesses grow through Cooperative Living. Amanda is a native of the Richmond area and a graduate of George Mason University.
Tommy Campbell
Design & E-Media Coordinator
Tommy Campbell has been with the Virginia, Maryland & Delaware Association of Electric Cooperatives since the Spring of 2017. He joined the association as the Design & E-Media Specialist, providing design work for Cooperative Living Magazine and the association, as well as online web and social media development. Tommy’s background is in graphic design, both print and web, marketing and publications. He has over 20 years of experience in the industry in various positions. Prior to coming to VMDAEC, he was the Creative Director for a non-profit, military association for many years. Tommy is a native of Virginia and a graduate of Radford University.
Contributors
Paula Steers Brown
Contributing Columnist
Paula Steers Brown has been writing a gardening column for Cooperative Living since 2001. She received her Master of Arts in English from Tufts University and has taught honors and AP English for 15 years at Douglas Freeman High School in Henrico County. Paula has lectured on gardening topics and designed perennial gardens around Virginia. She started gardening with her grandparents in Kentucky at age 5 and is now devoted to exploring nature with her own grandchildren. She loves literature, art, and travel.
Anne Dellinger
Contributing Columnist
Anne Dellinger is a contributing columnist for Cooperative Living magazine. She writes the Kids’ Korner feature.
She graduated from Bridgewater College with a degree in biology and began a teaching career in Rockingham and Shenandoah counties. Later, after moving back to the family farm, she opened a private pre-school, which she operated for 28 years. Along with her late husband Doug, she helped manage a beef cattle operation and raised Percheron draft horses.
Anne has a son, a daughter and two granddaughters. Now retired, She enjoys time for family, nature walks, hiking, traveling, gardening and volunteering at a therapeutic horseback riding center.
Carl “Spike” Knuth
Contributing Columnist
Spike began studying birds and fish as a youth in his native Wisconsin, which ultimately led to interest in all flora and fauna. He moved to Virginia in February 1974 to take a position with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, where he produced fishing and hunting guides, created art and stories for Virginia Wildlife and other publications, was involved in radio and television programming, and compiled a weekly Outdoor Report for publication. He retired after 30 years but remains active in painting, illustrating and writing. He and his wife Susie reside in Mechanicsville.
Margo Oxendine
Contributing Columnist
Margo Oxendine’s journalistic career spans more than three decades, and has garnered dozens of state and national writing awards for reporting and column writing.
She has also written a PBS documentary, “Back Road to History: Bath County,” a play, “Over Here, Over There,” and two books, one of historical photographs, “Images of America, Bath County Virginia,” and “A Party of One,” a compilation of 65 of her favorite newspaper and magazine columns.
Her hobbies might be called reading, singing and minding her own quiet business.
She has lived and played in Key West, Florida, and San Francisco, California. Now, she makes her home in the lovely green mountains of Hot Springs, Virginia. Margo likes to think she is “retired,” yet she still writes for The Recorder newspaper in Monterey, Virginia; the Virginian-Review newspaper in Covington, and a column for Cooperative Living magazine, “Rural Living.”
Dan has worked or consulted with electric cooperatives in different capacities for more than 33 years. In addition, he has published writings and taught on a variety of subjects, from woodworking to finance and accounting, to photography. Part of his photography resume includes selection as a winner in Life magazine’s World Photography Contest.
Dan has degrees from Wingate College, Appalachian State University and the University of Richmond. He has been married for over 50 years and loves to travel, fish, try new restaurants and spend time with his teenage grand kids.
Changing Lives: Power Line Worker Program makes a difference
Julie Thompson Manning was concerned about her youngest son, Charlie. Coming out of high school in Midlothian, Va., he was still looking for the right path to follow. His one passion was climbing, whether it was on an indoor rock wall or with friends in the West Virginia mountains.
The answer came in the mailbox.
A 2018 feature story on the Gaff-n-Go Lineworkers’ Rodeo in Cooperative Living caught the eye of Manning, whose family had recently moved to Southside Electric Cooperative territory in Powhatan.
“This would be perfect for Charlie. He could climb for a living. Yes, he would have to be interested in this!” Manning recalls thinking.
Manning invited her son to lunch — “food is a great motivator,” she notes. She showed him a video about the Power Line Working Training School at Southside Virginia Community College, a program created with the help of electric cooperatives in Virginia, Maryland and Delaware.
Two weeks later, he asked for contact information and enrolled in the 11-week course that provides a foundation for a career in the electric lineworker industry. He excelled at the school and was employed even before graduation day.
“Can you imagine the joy I felt?” his mother asks, saying her son has a career he loves. “This all came from a move to the country, from a magazine that happened to be in my mailbox, to a picture of a man on a pole, to a shared lunch, to a video that changed a life forever.”
Today, Charlie, 21, works for the city of Estes Park, Colo., where he can climb the Rockies and utility poles to his heart’s content. His mom gives a big shoutout to SVCC for helping a boy become a man.
“He tells me often how much the people of Estes Park admire the lineworkers and all they do to keep the electricity flowing in their mountain city,” Manning says.
Want to motivate your son or daughter similarly? Check out southside.edu/.
MAKING A SPLASH. Christina Edwards of Woodford, a Rappahannock Electric Cooperative member, sent us this photo. “COVID-19 hasn't kept my four-year-old grandson, Connor James, from enjoying summer!“ she wrote.
How are you enjoying your summer? Got any photos you’d like to share with us? Send them to [email protected]
STAR POOCH. Ruckus had a great Fourth of July! Did you? Thanks for sharing this photo, Amanda McLellan!
If you’d like to share your favorite July Fourth photos with us for consideration in next year’s Say Cheese column, you can share them in the comments below or by emailing them to [email protected]
