Staff
Mark Hibbs, editor
Mark manages the CoastalReview.org website and coordinates news coverage. A native of coastal North Carolina, Mark joined the staff in 2015 after more than 20 years with the Carteret County News-Times. He took the reins as editor of Coastal Review in September 2016. He has won numerous awards for his reporting from the North Carolina Press Association and others. Recognition for his work includes the 2021 Media and the Law Awards of Excellence sponsored by North Carolina Bar Association for a series of stories on private property rights versus the state’s coastal regulatory authority. He’s a graduate of the University of North Carolina Wilmington.
Office: 252-393-8185, ext. 601
Mobile: 252-241-8778
email: markh@coastalreview.org
Jennifer Allen, assistant editor
Born and raised in Swansboro, Jennifer Allen graduated from Appalachian State University in 2002 and picked up a second degree from UNC-Charlotte the following year. She joined the staff of the Carteret County News-Times in Morehead City in 2005 and completed her master’s at UNC-Wilmington in 2008. Jenn spent nine years writing and editing at the News-Times before joining the staff at the Town of Beaufort in 2014, where she served as public information officer and town clerk. On June 1, 2017, Jenn came aboard as assistant editor for Coastal Review. She has also written for Our State Magazine and other regional and statewide publications. She lives in Morehead City with her husband James and their pups, Zaphod Beeblebrox, or Z, Octavius, but for short, they call him Gus, and Ivy Harriet.
Office: 252-393-8185, ext. 602
Mobile: 252-723-3149
email: jennifera@coastalreview.org
Trista Talton, staff writer
Trista Talton joined Coastal Review as staff writer Feb. 1, 2022, but she has covered coastal issues for us since our publication’s inception. She is a native North Carolinian and graduate of Appalachian State University. Her career as a journalist spans more than 20 years, most of which has been reporting on issues in southeastern North Carolina. Her reporting experience includes more than 10 years of covering the military, including an embed with Marines in Kuwait leading up to the start of the war in Iraq in 2003, time in New Orleans with North Carolina National Guardsmen in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and offshore patrols of New York and New Jersey aboard a Coast Guard cutter following the Sept. 11 attacks. She lives with her husband and two sons in Jacksonville.
Office: 252-393-8185, ext. 603
Mobile: 910-388-5580
email: tristat@coastalreview.org
Contributing Writers, Photojournalists
Capt. Gordon Churchill is a lifetime angler and longtime guide on the North Carolina coast. He has written about fishing in various publications for more 30 years. He is the author of two books, “Flyfishing The Southeast Coast” and “Speckled Trout In The Surf.” He currently resides in Carteret County.
Gilbert M. Gaul won Pulitzer Prizes in 1979 and 1990 and has been a Pulitzer Finalist four other times. He is the author of five books, including “The Geography of Risk: Epic Storms, Rising Seas and the Cost of America’s Coasts,” published in 2019. He has been coming to the Outer Banks for four decades.
Catherine Kozak has been a reporter and writer on the Outer Banks since 1995. She worked for 15 years for The Virginian Pilot. Born and raised in the suburbs outside New York City, Catherine earned her journalism degree from the State University of New York at New Paltz. During her career, she has written about dozens of environmental issues, including oil and gas exploration, wildlife habitat protection, sea level rise, wind energy production, shoreline erosion and beach nourishment. She lives in Nags Head and covers the Outer Banks and the northeast coast for Coastal Review. [obxreporter03@gmail.com]
Eric Medlin is a history instructor at Wake Tech Community College in Raleigh. He has a master’s from North Carolina State University and received his bachelor’s from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. Inducted in 2024 into the North Caroliniana Society, a nonprofit dedicated to the promotion of increased knowledge and appreciation of North Carolina’s heritage, he is a lifelong native of the Tar Heel State who loves writing about and exploring it. Eric’s family is from the South and his father currently lives in Carteret County. Eric’s first book, “A History of Franklin County, North Carolina,” was published in October 2020 and is available on Amazon. His current book project is a history of the North Carolina furniture industry.
Dylan Baker Ray was raised in Greenville. His love for photojournalism began in high school where Ray worked as a photographer and cartoonist for to the school paper. After receiving a degree in photojournalism at Randolf Technical Institute, he moved to the Crystal Coast to become the chief photographer and eventually photo editor during his 15 years at the Carteret County News-Times. He has accrued more than 20 North Carolina Press Association awards in photojournalism and continues his work documenting and preserving the residents and their lives along the Southern Outer Banks. He lives in Beaufort with his wife and daughters.
Heidi S. Skinner has worked at Newport Garden Center for the last 30 years or so. She wrote the gardening column, In the Garden, for The Newport Voice for several years. She is the author of 16 books and counting. Coming from a long line of gardeners and farmers, she finds intrigue in all plant-related things. There are more flower pictures on her phone than pictures of her grandkids … just ask any of the grandkids.
Kip Tabb is a freelance journalist living on the Outer Banks. He has covered a wide range of community interest stories and true tales of the history of coastal North Carolina, as well as environmental and related topics, for a number of publications. Along with Coastal Review, his articles have appeared in the Outer Banks Voice and Milepost Magazine. In addition to his history and environmental writing, he also writes book and music reviews. He also plays mandolin and can strum a guitar.
