As Chattanooga City Council members contemplate Mayor Tim Kelly's suggested budget for next year, one newly elected member has proposed creating a staff position to help council members pursue their district priorities.
Joan McClane is two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist who has led enterprise reporting efforts at the Times Free Press for a decade. McClane earned her undergraduate and graduate degrees in journalism from the University of Alabama and has covered business, education, the court system, government and nonprofits since joining the newspaper's staff in 2007.
She has received the national Casey Medal for writing about children and families and the national Sigma Delta Chi award from the Society of Professional Journalists for her feature writing. She has also been a finalist for the Livingston Award for young journalists, the Dart Award for coverage of trauma and the American Society of Newspaper Editors' Award for Distinguished Writing on Diversity.