The Editorial Team

TONY MECIA

FOUNDER & EXECUTIVE EDITOR

Tony Mecia is the founder and executive editor of The Ledger. He’s an award-winning former Charlotte Observer business writer and editor. After leaving newspapers, Tony was a freelance writer and then covered business as a staff writer for a national magazine. He and his wife have three children. They live in south Charlotte in the Olde Providence area.

Lindsey is The Ledger’s assistant editor and helps shape and organize our newsletters, podcast, social media and other material, while also writing about local communities, nonprofits, small businesses and other topics. In addition to her writing and editing responsibilities, she produces The Charlotte Ledger Podcast. She is a graduate of UNC Chapel Hill and lives in NoDa with her puppy, Winston.

LINDSEY BANKS

ASSISTANT EDITOR

Named “best email to land inside your inbox” and an “operation [that] continues to scoop all of us” by Charlotte Magazine.

The Business Team

AVA MIKEAL

DIRECTOR OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

Ava joined The Ledger in May 2025 and serves as the director of business development. A Charlotte native, she recently returned to her hometown after graduating from UNC Chapel Hill in 2025. During her time at UNC, she was the advertising director at The Daily Tar Heel, the university’s student-led newspaper. At The Ledger, Ava focuses on operations, brand awareness, sponsorships and growing strategic partnerships.

BRIE CHRISMAN

OPERATIONS MANAGER

Brie is the Ledger’s operations manager. She is founder and CEO of Boss Co, a business operations and systems strategy agency. Her team focuses on creating streamlined processes on the back end of companies, like The Ledger, so business owners can focus on what they do best. Brie and her team have been working with The Ledger since October 2020 and handle operations strategy, human resources, events and customer support.

DANI HARPER

LEDGER SUPPORT

Dani is a part-time member of the Ledger support team and one of the main faces behind the support@cltledger.com inbox. Dani supports our readers and sponsors with: subscription troubleshooting, event listings, sponsorship inquires and other opportunities, payment troubleshooting, and more!

Regular Ledger Contributors

Carroll Rogers Walton, Fútbol Friday writer | Carroll's Bio | Contact
Craig Paddock, Ways of Life editor | Craig's Bio
Darrell Horwitz, Ways of Life writer | Darrell's Bio
Doug Miller, Associate editor | Doug's Bio
Ely Portillo, Transit Time writer/editor with WFAE | Ely's Bio
Ken Garfield, Freelance writer | Ken's Bio
Kevin Young, Photographer | Kevin's Bio | Contact

Carroll Walton is in her third season covering Charlotte FC for Fútbol Friday, The Ledger’s weekly newsletter about Charlotte’s Major League Soccer franchise. She covered sports for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution for nearly 20 years and co-authored “Ballplayer” with Hall of Fame third baseman Chipper Jones of the Atlanta Braves. She returned to Charlotte in 2014. She freelances for several publications and lives with her husband and three sons.

Craig Paddock edits the Ways of Life newsletter. Craig worked for nearly 20 years as a copy editor and page designer at The Charlotte Observer before leaving the newspaper in 2010. He is now a senior lecturer at UNC Charlotte, teaching journalism and other communication subjects. He has lived in Charlotte since 1992.

Darrell Horwitz compiles short obituaries for the Ways of Life newsletter. Darrell moved to Charlotte from Chicago in 2019, where his freelance writing included covering Chicago’s pro sports teams in print and on the radio, as well as being published multiple times in “Chicken Soup for the Soul.” Darrell has written for multiple Charlotte media outlets, including the Ways of Life obituaries newsletter, something he never imagined doing, but something he thoroughly enjoys.

Doug Miller is a contributing editor to the Ledger who oversees the Ledger’s weekend editions and special projects. Doug worked at The Charlotte Observer from 2003-2020, where he was regional investigations editor. He graduated from the University of Delaware in 1992 and worked at newspapers in North Carolina and Savannah, Ga., before launching Miller Swimming, a swim coaching business. He is also co-owner of Aquatic Adventures, a kayak outfitter on the Catawba River.

Ely Portillo is a frequent contributor to the Transit Time newsletter. Ely leads the newsroom and directs all coverage at 90.7 WFAE, Charlotte’s NPR news source. Before joining WFAE in 2022, he worked at the UNC Charlotte Urban Institute. From 2009 through 2019, he covered news about Charlotte’s growth, development and growing pains as a journalist at the Charlotte Observer. That’s when he started covering transit issues, and he (naively) assumed the city’s transit plan would be a bit further along by now. A graduate of Harvard University and UNC Chapel Hill, he lives in Charlotte with his wife and two children.

Ken Garfield is a frequent contributor to the Ledger’s Ways of Life obituaries newsletter, which explores the lives and legacies of interesting, everyday Charlotteans. Ken is a freelance writer and editor in Charlotte, helping charitable causes tell their stories, families celebrate the lives of loved ones with obituaries, and authors write books. He spent 21 years at The Charlotte Observer as an editor, reporter and columnist, including covering faith and values for more than a decade.

Kevin Young is the Ledger’s contributing photographer/videographer. He films and produces the Ledger’s award-winning “Flyover Friday” series, creates videos and photos of the Charlotte FC soccer team for the Ledger’s Fútbol Friday newsletter, and contributes aerial photographs to enhance Ledger articles about growth and development. Kevin is the CEO of The 5 and 2 Project, a full-scale video production company founded here in Charlotte that serves clients across the country. He’s won 10 Telly Awards, 3 Charlotte Magazine BOB Awards and was a 2020 Charlotte Ledger 40 Over 40 recipient.

Lawrence Toppman, Arts critic | Lawrence's Bio
Michelle Crouch, Healthcare contributor in partnership with NC Health News | Michelle's Bio
Steve Dunn, The Charlotte Ledger Podcast host | Steve's Bio
Steve Harrison, Transit Time writer with WFAE | Steve's Bio
Sucharita Kodali, Election coverage | Sucharita's Bio | Contact
Ted Reed, Airport reporter | Ted's Bio
Tim Whitmire, Business consultant, CXN Advisory | Tim's Bio | Contact

Lawrence Toppman is The Ledger’s arts critic and the author of The Ledger’s Larry At-Large column. Larry has written about culture as a reporter and critic for 50 years, 40 of them at The Charlotte Observer. He has appeared in more than 90 Opera Carolina productions, singing with the chorus since 1983 in seven languages. He joined The Ledger in October 2023 as a critic-at-large, writing reviews and commentary about the performing and visual arts roughly three times a month. His wife and two cats assist him with intelligent observations and supportive purring.

Michelle Crouch covers health care in the Charlotte region through a partnership between The Ledger and North Carolina Health News, a nonprofit digital publication. Michelle is an independent journalist with 20 years of experience who as a freelancer has penned stories about health, parenting and other topics for a variety of national outlets. She previously worked as a reporter and editor for The Charlotte Observer.

Steve Dunn is a frequent host of the Charlotte Ledger Podcast, in which he interviews past Charlotte Ledger 40 Over 40 winners about their accomplishments and life lessons. Steve is a South Mecklenburg High School graduate who came back to Charlotte after law school and practiced business and employment law for over 20 years. He now works as a mediator with Miles Mediation & Arbitration.

Steve Harrison is a frequent contributor to the Transit Time newsletter, which The Ledger publishes in partnership with 90.7 WFAE, Charlotte’s NPR news source. Steve is the political reporter for WFAE, and before going to public radio, he worked for more than 20 years at The Miami Herald and The Charlotte Observer.

Sucharita Kodali is a contributor to the Ledger’s Election Hub and an analyst in the retail industry. She is a longtime Charlotte resident and advocate of voter education.  She’s written popular voter guides that were distributed on Reddit and joined forces with The Ledger in 2023 to create a comprehensive, unbiased and consistent source of information about every candidate and election in Mecklenburg County and beyond.  

Ted Reed covers the airport and its American hub as The Ledger’s airport reporter. He has covered airlines for The Miami Herald and The Charlotte Observer. He was also a staff writer for US Airways.

Tim Whitmire has been an advisor to The Ledger since the publication was in its idea phase, and he assists The Ledger team with strategy ideation and execution. Tim came to Charlotte in 2000 to work at The Charlotte Observer and later served as Charlotte correspondent for The Associated Press. In 2011, he co-founded the F3 free men’s workout movement, which has spread from a single Charlotte location to sites across the world. His consultancy, CXN Advisory, offers strategic business advisory services for growth-focused organizations that want to align around core objectives and execute effectively against them. He and his wife live in Elizabeth.

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