At a glance: Oklahoma City Thunder national anthem playoff performers

Carla Hinton, an Oklahoma City native, joined The Oklahoman in 1986 as a National Society of Newspaper Editors minority intern. She began reporting full-time for The Oklahoman two years later and has served as a beat writer covering a wide variety of news, including social services, transportation, minority affairs and Oklahoma City Hall.



Hinton also serves as assistant editor and editor of the local news section for several years, but she is perhaps best known as The Oklahoman's religion editor, a post she has held since June 2002. She has enjoyed learning about the many different world religions in her role as religion editor and doesn't consider it a bad thing when colleagues refer to her as "the church lady."



Career highlights have included meeting renowned evangelist Billy Graham and covering local reaction to the election of a new pope after the death of Pope John Paul II. In her spare time, Hinton enjoys reading suspense novels (ala James Patterson), watching HGTV shows and keeping up with the activities of her two grown sons and (almost grown) daughter

Brandy McDonnell, also known by her initials BAM, writes stories and reviews on movies, music, the arts and other aspects of entertainment. She is NewsOK’s top blogger: Her 4-year-old entertainment news blog, BAM’s Blog, has notched more than 1 million page views a year for the past two years. Raised on a crop and cattle farm near Lindsay, McDonnell started her journalism career in seventh grade, when she was elected reporter for her school’s 4-H Club. Taking her duties seriously, she began submitting stories to The Lindsay News and worked for the local weekly through high school. An Oklahoma State University graduate, she will celebrate her 10th anniversary at The Oklahoman in May 2012.