Detroit — The Plastics News editorial department is announcing several new hires and promotions.
The new hires are:
• Amy Steinhauser has joined the staff as art director. Amy and her family moved from Brooklyn, N.Y., to the Detroit area three years ago, and most recently she was a designer at Tweddle Group. Prior to that, she had extensive editorial experience, including as art director, at well-known brands such as TV Guide, Blackbook and The Onion.
Amy, who has a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from the Pratt Institute, joined Plastics News in May.
• Erin Sloan has joined the staff as web producer. A Detroit-area native, she was most recently a digital journalist, copy editor and page designer at the Traverse City, Mich., Record-Eagle daily newspaper.
Erin, who has relocated with her family to Plastics News’ Detroit headquarters, has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from West Virginia University, where she was editor-in-chief of The Daily Athenaeum student-run newspaper. She’s won numerous awards, including a 2017 Sigma Delta Chi award for investigative reporting.
The promotions include:
• Don Loepp is now editorial director for the Global Polymer Group. In his new role, Don adds responsibility for overseeing the three lead editors at the group’s three rubber publications: Rubber & Plastics News and Tire Business in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, and European Rubber Journal.
Don remains editor of Plastics News and editorial director of the group’s two European-based plastics publications: Plastics News Europe and Plastics & Rubber World.
He joined Plastics News as a staff reporter in 1991 after working for eight years at daily newspapers in Wisconsin and Virginia.
• Rhoda Miel has been promoted to assistant managing editor. Rhoda joined Plastics News in 2000, initially as a staff reporter based in Detroit. She was promoted to news editor in 2014. In her new role, she will manage the newspaper’s Detroit-based staff reporters, copy desk, video team and research department.
Rhoda is a 1984 graduate of Central Michigan University who worked for 15 years as a daily newspaper reporter in Michigan prior to joining Plastics News.
• Steve Toloken has been promoted to assistant managing editor. He first joined Plastics News in 1997, and he was the newspaper’s Washington, D.C.-based reporter until 2006. He then relocated to Hong Kong, where he contributed on a freelance basis, and he rejoined the staff as a Guangzhou, China-based reporter, and then Asia bureau chief.
Steve returned to Washington in 2014 and was promoted to news editor-international. He is a journalism graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Steve will continue to report as well as manage the newspaper’s four work-from-home reporters.
Before joining Plastics News, he worked at daily newspapers in Virginia and Illinois.
• Jordan Vitick has been promoted to special projects editor. She joined Plastics News in 2017 as a copy editor and reporter. She now leads our coverage of Women Breaking the Mold, Rising Stars and Best Places To Work companies.
Jordan previously worked as a multimedia editor for Michigan.com, which operates the Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News. She graduated from Wayne State University with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and minor in psychology.
“I’m excited to announce these staff changes in the editorial department,” Loepp said. “We are adding very talented journalists to our already strong staff, and it is especially gratifying to promote some very deserving team members.
“In my new role as editorial director, I also get the chance to work with the best team of editors covering the global polymer sector,” he added. “I look forward to sharing ideas and working together more closely than ever.”