Joan Garrett has been a staff writer for the Times Free Press since August 2007.
Before becoming a general assignment writer for the paper, she wrote about business, higher education and the court systems. She grew up the oldest of five sisters near Birmingham, Ala., and graduated with a master's and bachelor's degrees in journalism from the University of Alabama.
Before landing her first full-time job as a reporter at the Times Free Press, she wrote for the The Shelby County Reporter, the The Tuscaloosa News, The Anniston Star and the Hartford Courant.
This year, she was named as a national finalist for the American Society of Newspaper Editors' Award for Distinguished Writing on Diversity. She is also the 2010 winner of Society of Professional Journalists' Green Eyeshade Award for feature writing and the 2010 winner of the Tennessee Associated Press Managing Editors' award for feature writing.
Joan enjoys watching Lost on DVD, driving, eating spaghetti and listening to country music, but her true love is telling stories in newsprint.
Contact Joan at 423-757-6601 or jgarrett@timesfreepress.com.
Recent Stories »
Before people in the Tennessee Valley told stories of shingles rattling and roofs torn clean in half and children shivering in bathtubs for cover, before the long day of April 27, 2011, Paul Barys didn’t feel too appreciated.
Brainerd High Principal Charles Joynes offered a stern wake-up call to a group of self-described "white guys" Thursday night when he spoke to the Chattanooga Tea Party.
Brainerd High School Principal Charles Joynes, who has led the troubled school for three years and recently spearheaded an effort to reach young black men there, will be moved from his post this year.
In a 1,000-plus page biology textbook used to school Hamilton County students, the origin of human life takes up a mere chapter. The chapter, one of nearly 40, doesn’t show the well-known picture of a monkey evolving to man, but it does say primates evolved.
It took a room full of men and women to move the 212-pound, slimy mammoth into its new exhibit in the Tennessee Aquarium on Thursday morning. But he didn’t put up much of a fight, not even a wiggle.
School board members haggled over how to handle an unexpected $1.3 million addition to their budget for next year at Thursday night's board meeting.
Before age restrictions forced Ben Scott to retire from the Drug Enforcement Administration in 2010, the Chattanooga-area native traveled the world before settling as resident agent in charge of his hometown office.
Charles Boling Sr. didn’t drink alcohol before killing his wife, his son and himself, but a toxicology report shows he did have painkillers and possibly other opiates in his system.
The girls were called to the auditorium over the crackling public address system. Five minutes later the boys made their way to the gym. Neither group knew what was coming, but for Brainerd High School Principal Charles Joynes this was his moment to step in and father.
If you ask 17-year-old Jassiem Robertson when and why he started sagging his pants down low, he’ll tell you he doesn’t really remember. “I’ve been sagging since the cradle,” Robertson said, sitting outside Howard School of Academics and Technology, waiting for the bell to ring so he can shimmy his shorts a little lower than teachers will allow.
