The Winona Times and Carroll County Conservative staff are pleased to welcome a new publisher and a new designer to the team.
Tish Butts will take over the helm as editor and publisher, succeeding Amanda Sexton Ferguson, and Erin Estrada joins the team as the part-time designer.
If Butts and Estrada's names sound familiar, it's because they're not strangers to Montgomery and Carroll counties, nor are they strangers to the Times and Conservative. The two Montgomery County natives worked under Sexton Ferguson earlier in their careers. Butts, who lives in Kilmichael, served as a staff writer for the papers from 2015 until 2017, and Estrada, who lives in Winona, worked as a designer in 2017.
Tish Butts
As a lover of history, it's fitting that Butts is making history herself. Butts is the first African-American woman to hold the position of editor and publisher for The Winona Times and The Carroll County Conservative.
"I am honored to be considered for the position," Butts said. "I'm happy to be home holding such a position. I want to be beneficial to the community, the staff, The Winona Times, Carroll Conservative, and Emmerich Publishing as a whole."
Butts has been out of the newspaper business for a few years, but she's never been far from the love of writing and learning. She worked as an ELA and a History teacher in two school districts before deciding to homeschool her two sons, Gabriel Ransom, 9, and Ian Butts, 8. She began as a substitute teacher in 2018 for the Grenada School District. Then in 2019, she worked in the Coffeeville School District as a sixth and seventh grade ELA teacher during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
As an ELA teacher, Butts increased the skills of nearly all of her sixth-grade students. In 2020, she taught in the Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District as an ELA teacher to 84 eighth graders previously considered "low" achievers. As with her prior school district, Butts said more than 80 percent of her students had showed significant growth by the third nine weeks of the academic year, despite the pandemic.
Before working as a staff writer for The Winona Times and the Carroll County Conservative, Butts was a public affairs specialist and historian for the Army Reserve Medical Command in Pinellas Park, FL. From 2007 until 2008, she wrote for Soldier Magazine and Warrior Medic magazine. In 2009, she moved back to Mississippi and worked for the Vicksburg Post from 2009 to 2010. In 2011, she worked as a public relations intern for the Hattiesburg Police Department.
From 2011 to 2013, she was a graduate assistant with the School of Mass Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern Mississippi, where she wrote feature stories about USM alumni and students for MCJ Journal, was a guest lecturer for Communications Theory, and taught Media Writing to underclassmen.
Erin Estrada
Estrada, whose maiden name is Winstead, was born and raised in Winona. She graduated from Winona High School and was accepted as a freshman to Mississippi State University in 2011. In 2013, Erin applied and was accepted into the graphic design program at MSU's College of Architecture, Art, and Design, where she earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 2015.
She is happily married to her husband of seven years, Nick. They have two daughters, Madilynn, 4, named after Erin's late father, Joey Winstead, Emma Col, 2, who is named after Nick. They have two cats and three dogs, as well, so, "It's safe to say there is never a dull moment at the Estrada home." The Estrada family belongs to First Baptist Church of Winona. She considers herself blessed that the Lord has allowed her to raise her kids in the church she was brought up in herself.
Estrada is the newest addition to The Winona Times and The Conservative as a designer. She is also the owner of Erin Estrada Designs, where she is a freelance designer and fine artist. She loves to sketch, paint, and create all she can.
She is also an active member in the Junior Auxiliary of Winona as Public Relations chairman, and this is her third year in this position. Erin also serves as JA's Words of Encouragement chairman. She is passionate about heading this project in particular because, "We never know what the children in our schools are dealing with daily. The simple act of chalking kind words and art for them on the sidewalks as well as hanging encouraging posters in the hallways at their schools can bring light to their day."
Butts and Estrada join staff writer LaKeadra Coffey, advertising consultant Marsha Alexander, and bookkeeper Dani Poe on the Montgomery Publishing team.
To contact Butts, email her at publisher@winonatimes.com, to contact Estrada for all design needs, email graphics@winonatimes.com.
