About Ryan Jerz

I’m 34 years old and a 2007 graduate of the Reynolds School of Journalism’s Interactive Environmental Journalism Masters Program at the University of Nevada, Reno. The program focused on innovation as a tool to get citizens to participate in the public process through journalism. Not to get too heady, but the key, as we found, was in the way stories and issues are framed.

I am married to Christy and we have two kids, The Boy and The Girl. We’ve been in Reno for the past 14 years and have built pretty good lives here. We have friends we love and we like the area. We take part in community events, care about schools, love downtown, and love the Wolf Pack.

I’ve had a presence on the Web since 1999 in various ways. My current site is mrjerz.org, a blog I use to practice writing for an audience, occasional journalism, general malcontentedness, and testing out new things. I’m also working on a local news site about Reno that I hope to turn into the definitive information destination for the area. If you know something, contribute.

I’ve been with the Nevada Commission on Tourism for over two years and handle all aspects of multimedia for our website. I shoot photos and video, edit and upload to various places on the web. I also serve as the managing editor for our blog. In the time I’ve been working for NCOT, we’ve seen a major shift in website activity toward visuals by being able to directly engage potential visitors to Nevada through the use of YouTube, Flickr, and other social media avenues.