About Us

Kathy Grant Westbrook :

Kathy Grant Westbrook

Kathy is a 1985 graduate of Campbell University. She has written extensively for numerous North Carolina publications, including Our State and The Sampson Independent. She brings experience, energy, and enthusiasm to her feature-writing for mountolivetribune.com.

Rudy Coggins :

Rudy Coggins

Just recently beat cancer. I’m an NC Press Association award-winning writer & photographer who is a diehard East Carolina and Clemson football fan. My best hobby is mixology and I love anything associated with WWII.

Steve Herring :

Steve Herring

Steve Herring has 45 years of community journalism experience and is an award-winning photographer and reporter having covered a wide range of topics from local mother-daughter tea parties to national politics.

Herring, the son of the late Robert and Alma Herring, grew up in Mount Olive. He is a 1970 graduate of Southern Wayne High School and a 1972 graduate of Mount Olive College.

He joined the Mount Olive Tribune staff in January 1977 as a reporter/photographer. Herring worked at his hometown paper for more that 30 years also serving as sports editor before being name editor, a position he held for more than 20 years before retiring. He went on to work another decade at the Goldsboro News-Argus before retiring for a second time in November of 2020.

Herring and his wife Renee, a retired nurse, have two sons, Troy Herring of Greensboro, and Matthew Herring of Mount Olive, and an 11-year-old granddaughter, Audrey, of Greensboro.