About Navarre Press

Madi is the social media and web coordinator at Navarre Press, joining our team in March 2021.

In May 2020, she graduated from the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Alabama where she studied Strategic & Visual Communications. While attending school, she took an art studio minor, concentrating in screenprinting. Taking full class loads, working full time as a Residential Assistant on campus, participating in clubs and working internships has made her a great multi-tasker!

She is also an artist, working in acrylic, watercolor, POSCA art, graphic art, graphic illustration and more! Before working for Sandpaper Marketing, she was a freelance artist and graphic designer. She worked with some comedians from a Spotify podcast to do their Podcast album artwork, helped start up a few small businesses and did puppy portraits for a living.

Madi is the middle child, with two older siblings and four younger siblings. 

When she’s not doing art, she’s playing video games or binging Netflix. Her cat, Bean, keeps her company by walking on the keyboard while she’s using her computer. In Bean’s free time, she begs for a second breakfast and vocalize. Bean also wakes up early, encouraging Madi to get out of bed for the first breakfast of the day.

Bean will have company soon, since Madi is adding a German shepherd puppy to her family.  

Superpower: Saitama-like abilities

Kryptonite: Zac Efron with plastic surgery

Melisa is a graphic designer at Navarre Press and has been with us since the beginning of 2020. She is very detail-oriented and works hard to always be the best she can possibly be. Melisa was born and raised in Navarre and has a son, Jason, and two dogs, Bailey and Oliver Queen.

Melisa graduated from the University of West Florida with her Bachelor of Arts in Communication with a concentration in Advertising and an art minor. She received three Silver Addy Awards in the local American Adverting Federation Pensacola competition. She also had two pieces of artwork were displayed at the UWF Spring Foundations Exhibition 2018 and one of which won the Laser Images Award at the Fine Arts Exibition at Pensacola Interstate Fair in 2018.

Melisa also loves videogames. She has been gaming for as long as she can remember, starting on the Nintendo 64 with Super Mario 64 and Donkey Kong 64. Her favorite game is Super Mario Sunshine on the Game Cube. She use to spend most of her time playing League of Legends on her desktop, and her favorite champion is Annie (if you can’t tell by her outfit). If you find her off of work and out of the house, she’s probably playing Pokemon Go!

Her motto is - “Have a problem? Fix it.” She believes you shouldn’t just sit and complain, but work on a solution to make things better. She doesn’t believe in the saying “it is what it is.” Any situation can be turned around!

Superpower: Making others smile

Kryptonite: Food, Food, Food

Born in New Market, England (very cool – only he missed out on most of a dialect spare a few words), Thomas is a graphic designer and has been with our family since 2017. He and his wife Ashley have a darling daughter Emmy and son Owen.

Thomas is a bit of a Spiderman admirer and says he most closely identifies with none other than Peter Parker. In fact, if you were to look at his desk right now, Spiderman figurines are there lending their creative inspiration to Thomas.

Thomas played basketball and football in high school, but he enjoys watching all sports. But if the office walls could talk – he is really an Orlando Magic fan! He also said if the art/designer gig didn’t work out, he would have studied marine biology. He did play drums once for a punk rock band (admittedly horribly). Thomas – keep your day job.

If he could be anyone for a day – it would be a billionaire (any one will do). A billionaire probably would not notice the dollars he could spend in a day. Thomas says the three traits that define him are loyalty, imaginative and open-mindedness. And his motto is “Grow through what you go through.”

Superpower: Resilience though he wishes it were telekinesis

Kryptonite: Junk food (anything with peanut butter)

Kaitie is our community reporter at Navarre Press, emphasis on the community. She loves covering stories about people, businesses, events, schools, pretty much any story where she can spread sunshine. She’s also our video guru. If a picture is worth a thousand words, one of Kaitie’s videos is worth a million. 

Kaitie loves music, playing guitar, piano or ukulele, while singing at the top of her lungs any chance she gets. Kaitie says it brings her joy to play and sing in the praise team at her church, First Baptist Church of Navarre. She has a dog named Luna (half black lab, half miniature golden retriever) who she loves with her whole heart.  She is a proud alumna of Florida State University and loves cheering on her Noles. In Kaitie’s spare time, you can find her somewhere near the ocean, either surfing at the beach with friends or soaking up the sunshine on a boat with her family. She has never met a stranger and will go up and talk to anyone because she just loves people.

Superpower: Outgoing personality 

Kryptonite: Free food and cute animals

Brian is our sports writer who makes our high school athletes look like the superstars they are. His coverage is unmatched in northwest Florida. Brian eats sports for breakfast and breathes it all day, although he does other great coverage for us in different areas. But he really shines in his sports coverage. Brian takes a genuine interest in the people he writes about and usually finds a unique angle for a story. He has been part of our family for six years. 

He played basketball in high school, but he wasn’t quite tall enough to play it beyond it. The office’s favorite trivia game is to guess Brian’s age – you would be surprised by the answer. But we all figured out his secret when he went to St. Augustine recently and posted photos of himself drinking from the historic Fountain of Youth. Now we are all planning a trip.

Brian says he would like to be Michael Jordan for a day – no surprise there. He chose the greatest basketball player of all time. He and Meighan enjoy life with Greyson the wonder dog, who keeps them both busy with his stubborn will. They enjoy going to the beach, traveling and just relaxing in front of the TV. 

Brian has written and published a book,  “Perfect Run as No. 1” about the University of Findlay’s run to a championship which produced one of the greatest seasons in college hoops history. 

Superpower: Great instincts and eternal youth

Kryptonite: Peanut M&Ms

Sandi has been with our work family the longest – because she started the family. Yes, she owns Navarre Press and Sandpaper Marketing, but she really is the chief cook and bottle washer, toilet scrubber, trash taker-outer, decision-maker, shopper and everything else it takes to manage two businesses. She chose three words to describe her role – fulfilling, creative, and problem solving. All done with no complaints. 

When she isn’t working – she is still working. But she enjoys cycling, reading and baking. We enjoy the baking and cooking hobby the most. Red velvet cake, banana spice cake, taco soup, chili – it is all delicious. 

When asked which character (movie or novel) she most identifies with, she said anyone having to do with truth, justice and the American way – duh. For that reason, around the office she is known as Wonder Woman. Her current favorite quote is “Working hard for something we don’t care about is called stress. Working hard for something we love is called passion.” – Simon Sinek 

How does Sandi recharge from her non-stop schedule? By passing out on the couch and sleeping the day away – nope! She exercises (elliptical and rowing) while listening to inspirational music…and maybe a little dancing. She loves spending time with her family. Her two beautiful daughters, Claire and Emily and her two sons, Erik and David give her much to be proud of. And, her husband John is her best friend and her rock. If she could be anyone for a day, she would be one of her daughters to see herself through their eyes so she could improve.

Superpowers: Creativity and problem-solving

Kryptonite: Impatience

After more than 20 years at another area newspaper, Wendy decided it was time to make a change for the better. Now, she finds her way to Navarre Press every day and has fallen in love with the community and the newspaper. 

The Illinois transplant moved to the Panhandle in the mid-1990s and has never regretted it. She  and her husband, Mladen, moved here for the beautiful water and once spent all of their free time at the beach. Then they had three children in four years and their focus shifted to the playground in the backyard.

Their children, Emma, Lucy and Nathaniel, are all in undergraduate or graduate school, with the house emptying out right about the same time as Wendy came to the Navarre Press as editor.

When she’s not planning, editing or writing, she binge-watches Netflix and Amazon Prime shows and she’s always looking for new recommendations. She also swims at the community pools, including Holley by the Sea where she and her husband own land, goes for walks in the neighborhood or the beach and thinks about doing big projects at home, which usually don’t even get started.

If she could be anyone for a day, she would be herself, with a lot more money. She would use that money to buy a small condo on the beach or a cabin in the woods, or both. Mostly, though, she focuses on making the most of the life she has and savoring every day.

Superpower: Laser focus 

Krytonite: Fruity candy

Melinda is our customer experience specialist and is a Pensacola native who spent years in Mississippi before moving back to Florida. While she works, her dog Bear makes new friends at his Navarre doggy daycare. The Road Dogg Rescue pup is having his best life there, where he consistently chooses friends who are twice his size. 

She has been married to Michael Parnell, one of our medical heroes, since March 2011. 

Before she came to Navarre Press in April 2021, she taught high school in Kiln, Mississippi, which is rumored to be the Moonshine Capitol of the United States. She taught her students graphic design, entrepreneurship, personal finance, technology and business law. 

At Navarre Press, when she’s not helping customers or coworkers, Melinda is spending her lunch hour at the beach in “The Chair.” The Chair, which is never very far from her side, is a deluxe beach chair with a canopy over the top and a pull-out table. The best part though is that she can carry it as a backpack. 

You might also find her fishing the reefs off Navarre Beach in her kayak and taking photos when she’s not reeling in a fish. 

Nearly a year before she started working here, she met Publisher Sandi Kemp at a kayak fishing tournament on Navarre Beach. 

She plays the piano for fun, but isn’t quite ready to join Production Manager Dickie Williams in his Not Quite Fab band. 

Superpower: She can solve problems,  large and small. 

Kryptonite: Any ice cream truck

Dickie is the production manager at Navarre Press and has been with us for 16 years. He designs and lays out Navarre Press each week. He works with all our great writers to come up with exciting ways to present the stories they write. You may have seen him taking photos at the Navarre high school football games. Go Raiders! 

Born in Boston, MA, he graduated from Greater Lawrence Vocational-Technical School in Andover, MA where he studied graphic design and was captain of the track and cross country teams. He then enlisted in the US Marine Corps in 1976 and was stationed in Washington, DC as a member of the USMC Silent Drill Team and in Quantico, VA as a member of the USMC All-Marine Track Team. 

He’s also an artist working in oils, acrylics, charcoal, colored pencil, almost any media including computer illustration. (Sometimes he does caricatures). He love all sports and has played on semi-pro hockey and baseball teams in New England. He ran for the Whirlaway Racing Team in Methuen, MA. 

He married his wife Wendy 36 years ago and came to Gulf Breeze 27 years ago.

He’s a musician and singer. He plays the guitar, bass and piano. When he’s not here at the Navarre Press you may find him at a local concert venue around the Gulf Coast performing as ‘Paul McCartney’ in his Beatles Tribute Band, ‘Not Quite Fab’. 

Superpower: The ability to fly

Kryptonite: Inkie

Bethany has been at Navarre Press since August 2020 and she may be the quietest member of the team. Her service dog, Archer, may have the hardest job. He spends his day napping and accompanying Bethany unless she releases him to “go make a friend.” Archer makes as many friends as he can, particularly on Tuesdays when he helps Bethany in the newsroom. 

She has lived in Florida 10 years, spending four years in England before that. She has also called Utah and California home. 

When not at work, she volunteers with a lot of local veteran organizations to help veterans get connected with the resources they need.  She also enjoys spending time with her family and riding her motorcycle.

Before Navarre Press, she was a staff accountant at another business for three years, and before that, she was in the Air Force for 11 years.  She worked in aircraft maintenance and traveled the world, mostly places in Europe and the Middle East and did two tours in Iraq.

Her family makes her happy and she enjoys numbers because they make sense to her. 

She has been married for 16 years to her husband, Allen.  They have one son who is 9 years old. Allen is a registered nurse and mostly a homebody. Their son is completely the opposite and is very outgoing. They camp, ride horses, to go the beach and explore new places as a family. 

Superpower: Staying calm in chaos  

Kryptonite: Fish and chips

Cameron, who helps with distribution, was born in upstate New York surrounded by family. With 28 aunts and uncles and even more cousins, family was cemented as a priority for Cameron from day one. 

He later moved to Navarre, graduating from Navarre High School and pursued a degree in Biology. He has a great passion for reptiles and has been an avid keeper all his life. From African clawed frogs to western hognose snakes, there are very few reptiles he has not cared for. 

When he’s not busy with family or animals, Cameron enjoys reading fantasy novels from writers like Tolkien, Patrick Rothfuss, and George R.R. Martin. He uses such writing as inspiration for himself, writing Dungeons and Dragons campaigns for his friends. 

Superpower: Random trivia facts

Kryptonite: Chinese food