Charles Apple

We’re wishing the happiest of VizEds birthdays today to Michelle Valenzuela, an editor at The News & Observer of Raleigh, N.C. Michelle turns 41 today.

Michelle joined VizEds in its formative days as ShellyVal, back when she was the features editor of the Fayetteville Observer. For a long time, she was a moderator and a frequent participant.

After 13 years in Fayetteville, Michelle moved moved to Raleigh in 2005 to become the designer of the newly-minted Durham News, published by The News & Observer twice a week in Durham county. Not long after, she was promoted to the bureau chief position in Durham.

Then she found herself riding atop one of the biggest stories in the nation: the Duke lacrosse case. Many of the articles you’ve seen over the past few couple of years were broken by Michelle’s team.

Michelle, her daughter, Anna Louise and her
husband, Nacho, who passed away last summer.
—

Earlier this year, Michelle was moved to downtown Raleigh to become Assistant Capitol Editor. She helps oversee The N&O’s statehouse coverage.

As a result, Michelle doesn’t design pages any more. Take a trip down Shelly’s design memory lane here.

Visit Nacho’s memorial page here.

Michelle shares a birthday with RedEye designer Brandon Stuck, singers Madonna and Vanessa Carlton, actor Robert Culp and — believe it or not — both Frank Gifford and Kathie Lee Gifford.

Best wishes, Michelle!

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 16th, 2007 at 5:23 am and is filed under Happy birthday, News design, VizEds Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.