Meet the Team
Introduction to the newsroom team that reports relevant information to you and your family
Kerry Miscavage
PublisherKerry Miscavage is the first female publisher of the Times Leader Media Group, Wilkes-Barre.
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Times Leader Media Group operates and publishes in downtown Wilkes-Barre and includes the Daily and Sunday Times Leader, Sunday Dispatch, Abington Journal, timesleader.com, theweekender.com, GOlackawanna.com and additional publications and websites. Times Leader has been operational in the downtown for over 115 years.
Miscavage is a longtime Times Leader employee with deep roots in the community, working at the media company for more than 28 years.
Miscavage is a Wilkes University graduate and lives with her husband, Michael, in White Haven and their two dogs Bear and Arya. She is a member of these community non-profit organizations: Greater Wyoming Valley Chamber of Commerce, Diamond City Partnership, Dress for Success of Luzerne County, Circle Centre for the Arts, YMCA and most recently the Nepa Alliance and the Kirby Center.
Joe Soprano
Executive EditorJoe Soprano is the Times Leader Media Group's executive editor. Contrary to popular belief, he did not cover the Lincoln assassination for the paper, but he is working on his fourth decade at the TL. View Bio
He's been known to enjoy the products of some of the area's microbreweries and can be found most fall Saturdays on the sidelines at Beaver Stadium.
Roger Dupuis
EditorNews Editor Roger DuPuis has spent 20-plus years in the business, many of them working nights and weekends. That tends to bring out the cranky side in him, but we forgive him for that.
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His association with the Times Leader dates back to 2013, though he left for two years to work in the big city (well, Harrisburg).
For all that, he's not a terrible writer. He's constantly giving the reporters guidance and feedback, including some of the most important advice: Always use spellcheck, remember there's a hyphen in Wilkes-Barre, write [expletive] in place of vulgarity, and please hold your phone horizontally when taking video.
He believes passionately in the paper and the profession. Even after reading the comments on our website and Facebook page daily.
When he isn't at work, he's either sleeping or chasing trains.
Jennifer Andes
ReporterJennifer Learn-Andes once breathed the same air as Mother Teresa. That is perhaps not as sainted as it sounds - Jen was covering a visit by the famous nun to a church in Schuylkill County. Around our newsroom, however, Jen is venerated for her kindness, professionalism, and dedication to covering Luzerne County government with the community's best interests at heart. View Bio
She has earned the trust of political leaders from both parties with her fairness and accuracy. Jen started working at the Times Leader as in intern in 1991 while attending Wilkes University.
A Carbon County native, she is a proud mother and grandmother who enjoys spending time with her family and simple pleasures like sitting down with a good Sudoku puzzle.
Mary Therese Biebel
Features writerFeatures writer Mary Therese Biebel interviews artists and actors, bee-keepers and bird-watchers, chefs and celebrities and just about anyone else with an interesting story to share. View Bio
As one half of the Times Leader's "test kitchen" staff, she's just as willing to tell readers about the pudding she burned as the lentil soup that had her "taste testers" begging for more.
MT's favorite hobbies are hiking and back-packing, which are activities she and her husband, fellow TL reporter Mark Guydish, enjoy undertaking together.
Kevin Carroll
ReporterKevin Carroll is a reporter just making the switch from the Times Leader's nighttime news coverage to the TL sports department. He's hoping to have more success covering local sports than he did playing them, which shouldn't be a tough bar to clear. View Bio
His betting column "On the Money" could be seen every Monday, unless he's on a cold streak, in which case it shouldn't be seen at all.
Outside of work, Kevin enjoys spending time at his hometown West Pittston Library and watching professional wrestling, society's greatest artform.
John Erzar
Sports WriterIt would be difficult to find a bigger fan in the Wyoming Valley of the Baltimore Ravens, Washington Nationals and Cleveland Cavaliers than John, better known as Erz. A failed musician, he also loves the music of Marillion, Opeth, Black Label Society and Ghost as well as 1980s heavy metal.View Bio
Erz also owns two cats, including one recently adopted from the Luzerne County SPCA, and is a huge advocate of adopting adult cats because he believes they are overlooked at animal shelters. He also plays in the Wyoming Valley Adult Baseball League.
Mark Guydish
ReporterThe seventh of nine children raised in West Hazleton, Mark Guydish came to the Times Leader after trying his hand at opening a bicycle shop, repairing electronic shipping systems, working as an EMT and proofreading scholarly articles for niche journals. View Bio
He has bicycled across the country, hiked the Appalachian trail through three states (not all at once), briefly driven a steam locomotive and jumped out of a perfectly good airplane (strapped to an experienced parachutist).
He wisely married feature writer Mary Therese Biebel, who lets him commandeer some 80 square feet of their sunroom for a different Lego layout under the Christmas tree each winter.
Gabrielle Lang
NewsieGabrielle Lang (she/her) is the Entertainment Writer for The Weekender. Gabrielle writes “the fun news” by chasing local events, music, and entertainment for The Weekender. View Bio
In her free-time, she enjoys gardening, martinis, NFTs, and lake-life.
Derek Levarse
Sports WriterDerek Levarse has been writing for the Times Leader since 2006, primarily covering Penn State football. His predecessor, Jerry Kellar, remains a major inspiration and one of the most fondly remembered presences in the Valley.
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As a Pittsburgh native and Penn State grad, he has found the widely varying fandoms found across NEPA to be one of the best things about the area, having worked with supporters of teams from Philadelphia to Seattle (and most places in between).
As for himself, he is a lifelong fan of the Pittsburgh Penguins and maintains that Zarley Zalapski is the greatest name in sports.
Ed Lewis
Courts and Crime ReporterEd Lewis covers crime and courts for the Times Leader, a beat he has covered since 1999. He is a graduate of Hanover Area High School and King's College, Wilkes-Barre, with degrees in criminal justice and political science.View Bio
Margaret Roarty
NewsieMargaret is the latest addition to the newsroom, already out covering local events and meetings. Margaret is an avid film lover with a soft spot for Jane Austen adaptations and anything starring James Spader. View Bio
When she isn't obsessively logging films into her letterboxd, she can be found sipping red wine and cuddling her orange cat, Jack.
Ashley Bringmann
PaginatorAshley Bringmann is a paginator and obituary clerk for the Times Leader. She has been with the company since 2022. She graduated from Wilkes University in 2018 with a BA in English.View Bio
Hannah Simerson
ReporterHannah Simerson is a Times Leader reporter covering the Wilkes-Barre area. The Wilkes University graduate and current Rosemont College student loves books and films, specifically those within the horror genre. She currently resides in Wilkes-Barre with her cat, Zombie.View Bio
Lyndsay Bartos
PaginatorLyndsay Bartos is a paginator for the Times Leader. She has been with the company since 2018.View Bio
Bill O'Boyle
Reporter and ColumnistBill's weekly Beyond the Byline column regularly transports readers back to the glory days of Plymouth, Pennsylvania in the 1950s and '60s, when dinner time was family time, there was never a shortage of neighbor kids to start a baseball game, and you could still enjoy a CMP at Golden Quality or a cherry Coke at Rea & Derick. (We know some of you may need to look up those last two.)
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But of course Bill's contributions to the paper and the life of the community run much deeper. He is a prolific reporter with deep connections, whose stories on business, politics and everyday people reach all corners of the Wyoming Valley.
Bill O'Boyle is very sentimental. He values family and friends, fishing in Canada, Fantasy Football, golf and dancing to the oldies. He still misses his cat, Lily, and he misses more his parents -- not to mention his hair. He is a fan of New York sports teams — Yankees, Knicks, Giants, Rangers -- and Notre Dame and Penn State. He looks forward to judging the annual Plymouth Kielbasa Festival and he always has time to watch NCIS reruns, Law & Order, sports of all sorts, movies, Seinfeld, Two and a Half Men, Leave It To Beaver, The Blacklist and not much more on his big screen TV. He despises short-sleeved shirts, but loves the beach except for the sand and saltwater. He has been a volunteer for Victory Sports for adults with mental and/or physical challenges and Teeners’ League Baseball, Make-A-Wish, his church and more.
Mitchell Hall
PaginatorMitchell Hall is a Sports Paginator who has been with the Times Leader since June 14th, 2022. He enjoys writing short stories in his personal time and sitting down to the latest episodes of The Mandalorian with his family. If he's not in the office, he's hanging out with his friends and family whenever he gets the chance.View Bio
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