CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – As Clarksville Now embarks on its 11th year covering local news, the reporting team has grown to include seven journalists: The editor, three news reporters, a marketing specialist, a news clerk/video journalist and a sports reporter.
Here’s an introduction to each member of the team and what they do to serve our readers.
Chris Smith is the editor-in-chief of Clarksville Now and joined the team in July 2020.
Smith is originally from Athens, Alabama, and spent half of his childhood in Haddon Township, New Jersey. He began his journalism career after getting his master’s degree in English at Auburn University.
“I had plans of becoming a professor, but after teaching for a few semesters during graduate school, I realized that it wasn’t for me,” Smith said. “I had a real passion for journalism, though, born in my years working for fun at the college newspaper. I started as a copy editor at a small daily in 1993 and worked my way up from there.”
Smith resides in Clarksville with his wife, Kate, who is the Youth Services coordinator for Tennessee State Library and Archives. The couple has three nearly grown children.
Smith has worked in local journalism for 22 years and loves his role at Clarksville Now. “I enjoy balancing the adrenaline rush of breaking news with the power of investigative journalism that makes a difference in the community,” he said.
When Smith isn’t keeping Clarksvillians informed, he likes to relax after work by “cooking dinner while drinking beer and listening to loud music.”
Many may not know that Smith is also a published fiction author.
“My novel ‘Salamanders of the Silk Road’ was published in 2016 by Lanternfish Press, and I’ve had several short stories published in literary journals,” Smith said.
Life advice Smith lives by: “Change the world, one step at a time.”
Roylee “Lee” Erwin is senior reporter and photographer at Clarksville Now and has worked in local radio and media since 1979.
Erwin has been a reporter at Clarksville Now since it launched in April 2010.
He is a Clarksville native and attended Midwestern Broadcasting School in Chicago. He has lent his voice to local radio and his presence to emcee events for more than 40 years.
“I enjoy being out in the community, working with people at events and activities, and sharing information about the good news with the community,” Erwin said.
Erwin devotes most of his time to covering events, but in his spare time he enjoys watching old movies and TV shows, collecting dinosaur stuff, riding his motorcycle or bicycle, walking, exercising, working on plastic models and going to flea markets.
He has nieces in Clarksville and Hopkinsville, and a cousin in Washington he enjoys talking to. He said while he can’t have pets where he lives, he wishes he could have a dog.
Erwin loves the saying, “Remember you are absolutely unique, just like everybody else.”
Keely Quinlan is a news reporter at Clarksville Now who primarily covers crime, courts and education. She joined the team in September 2020.
Quinlan grew up in a military family and moved all over the country, including time in South Korea. When she was 7, her family moved to Clarksville after her dad joined the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment at Fort Campbell.
Quinlan is a graduate of New York University and recently earned her master’s degree in Social and Cultural Analysis.
Her calling to journalism was born from being interviewed about her life experience.
“I think I truly realized I wanted to go into journalism when I was profiled by the Washington Post in 2015 for a series on children of fallen service members,” Quinlan said. “I was a freshman in college and still figuring out what I wanted to pursue as a career. I saw how that story and series came together, and how the reporter took the worst and most painful experience of my life and turned it into something beautiful and poetic. I wanted to do that for other people.”
Quinlan’s father was killed overseas in 2007 while deployed to Afghanistan. Her family stayed in Clarksville, and she considers this her home.
Quinlan is the oldest of her parents’ three daughters. Her sister Madeline is 22 and the youngest, Erin, is almost 18 and a senior in high school. She also has a dog named Louie, a tabby cat named Harlow, and a lot of fish.
Working at Clarksville Now has been a great experience for Quinlan.
“I have the privilege of working on stories that open eyes in the community to new perspectives, and that feels like really important work,” she said. “I love the Clarksville Now team, and that we truly function as a unit. I also love that most everyone in the community appreciates what we do and that there’s never any shortage of feedback — good or bad.”
Quinlan has an irrational fear of waves after seeing the film “Poseidon” as a child, has been a vegan for eight years (but admits if she had to choose a last meal it’d hands-down be her Uncle Danny’s Carolina-style baby back ribs), and pre-pandemic she loved going to concerts, out to bars with friends and traveling.
A word of advice she keeps close to her is: Never look to others for your own happiness. Love yourself first and the rest will follow.
Casey Williams is a news reporter and content editor at Clarksville Now and primarily covers government and business. He joined the team in June 2019.
Williams is a native of Cunningham and earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Tennessee at Martin. He earned his master’s from Austin Peay State University.
Williams had a love for writing and was able to expand on it.
“I wanted a job that would allow me both to write and to help people in Clarksville,” Williams said. “I feel like CNow helps inform the community and keep everyone on the same page. I’m thrilled to be part of that.”
He resides in Clarksville with his wife of almost five years, Megan, and their two dogs, Roxy and Dante.
Williams loves theater, especially Shakespeare, plays the bass guitar and collects vinyl records.
When he’s not writing for Clarksville Now he enjoys spending time reading, playing tabletop games like D&D and streaming on Twitch.
The best advice he’s ever received was from his grandmother: “You always have time to help someone else.”
Tavia Smith is the client content specialist for Clarksville Now and joined the team in September 2019.
Smith (no relation to Chris Smith, but she jokes they are cousins) is a native of Hopkinsville, Kentucky, and moved to Clarksville in 2008 to work at the local newspaper.
Her passion for journalism began when she was 17 years old. After attending the Minority Journalism Workshop Camp at Western Kentucky State University, she knew she wanted to be a journalist.
Smith later earned a scholarship and attended Western Kentucky University, becoming a first-generation college grad. She worked on the college newspaper and the yearbook, and worked three summer internships before graduating.
“I always loved to write, even as a little kid. I’ve always been a quiet person, and writing was how I expressed myself,” Smith said. “Journalism forced me to interview people and use my voice to tell other people’s stories. It was always a huge honor to me. Journalism has really helped me develop as a person, learn about life and appreciate all it brings. I’ve met so many people who have touched my life and been an inspiration.”
Writing marketing content has been a fun, creative style of writing that she’s enjoyed learning as part of the Clarksville Now team.
She enjoys baking complex desserts with her kids, crafting, party planning, traveling and reading, and she is known for picking up various and random hobbies (charcuterie board design, bartending, obituary writing, plant collecting, genealogy and searching, pop-up restauranteering, and the list will go on). She also enjoys writing poetry and working on writing and photography/scrapbooking projects.
Smith resides in Clarksville with her husband of 10 years, Eddie, their 3-year-old daughter, Elliana, and their foster son. They have a mischievous Maltese-Shih Tzu named Osito.
Life advice she lives by: Simply apply the Golden Rule at Matthew 7:12. She firmly believes that gratitude and kindness go a long way.
Angela Peterson is a visual journalist and news clerk at Clarksville Now and first joined the team as an intern in September 2020.
Peterson is originally from Nashville and graduated from Austin Peay State University in May 2020.
Her love for acting led her to pursue a career in news and journalism.
“I wanted to be a conduit for other people’s stories. Originally, I had a theater background going into college and was looking for something similar that was more financially reliable. But then I really fell in love with news and specifically the people that make it possible.”
Peterson specializes in video creation at Clarksville Now.
“I love getting to be a part of this community, and to get to know the people here,” Peterson said. “I’ve experienced so much in such a short amount of time, and every person that I have done a story with has contributed to this community in their own way.”
Peterson comes from a large family and has more than 20 siblings, with the oldest in her mid-20s and the youngest 2 years old. Peterson is the fifth oldest.
“I have an amazing mother and two dads (that being my biological and stepfather),” she said. “I have three dogs: two pit bulls, Spike and Shadow, and one dachshund/Yorkie mix, Gizmo.”
Peterson doesn’t eat red meat, but her co-worker Quinlan almost has her persuaded to become a vegetarian, because “fish have feelings.” She loves to play video games and is an anime enthusiast. She’s also starred in and filmed a few plays and short films/documentaries.
Peterson loves the saying comparison is the thief of joy. “I have often found myself comparing myself to others and asking questions that invalidate the experiences I have been through,” she said. “However, I have realized through experience that I will be where I need to be when I need to be there. This advice has saved me from heartbreak in the face of rejection.”
Neil Adam Rye is the sports reporter at Clarksville Now and joined the team in July 2019.
Rye, a native of Clarksville, has always had a love for sports and played baseball and basketball at Montgomery Central High School. He graduated from Austin Peay with a degree in communications and sports broadcasting.
“I went for sports broadcasting and it was fun working on the broadcasts for APSU, but I took a number of writing courses and did my internship through Jimmy Trodglen and I’d go cover games. I found myself really loving it and saw myself doing it for a future.”
Rye first worked for the Kentucky New Era in Hopkinsville and fell in love with reporting.
What he enjoys most about writing is encouraging young athletes.
“I love what I do. I love spotlighting the immense amount of talent the city has to offer which can sometimes be overlooked. You have to look at the past to see how many student-athletes who went on to play and make an incredible living doing what they love. They didn’t have CNow when I was in high school, so to get these kids exposure is the most rewarding part of my job,” he said. “When I get those thank-you’s, it’s really rewarding for me. … My love for sports and the ties I have in this community – that’s what I do it for.”
He’s really close to his mom, who is his best friend. “She’s someone I confide in. I don’t know how I’d do life without her,” he said. “My love of sports came from my father. On Saturday, we’d go to a ball game.”
Rye has a girlfriend, Rachel, whom he adores, and an 11-year-old border collie named Baxter, who’s more like a son.
He enjoys self-improvement books and transcendental and mindful meditation, and he is extremely competitive in anything. “If it’s a competition, I’m trying to win it,” He said. “I’m all-in, no holds barred.”
Rye started a men’s slow-pitch softball team through Clarksville Parks and Recreation, and he also plays on a travel softball team.
Advice he lives by is from his granddad. “He told me to do what you love and you will never work a day in your life.”