Authors
- Carlos Alcalá, columnist for the Sacramento Bee
- Stefanie Cruz, news anchor for Good Day Sacramento
- Alan O’Connor, Sacramento’s baseball historian
- Jocelyn Munroe, author of Sacramento’s Land Park
Stefanie Cruz
As a news anchor for Good Day Sacramento, on the CBS/CW station, Stefanie Cruz covered Delta and Dawn’s two-week journey in the Sacramento River. She was inspired to write the book after she and her family went to the river to see the whales. It turns out, the same day, the whales started their journey back to the ocean. Stefanie and her family waited near Rio Vista all day, but the whales didn’t show up.
Stefanie has worked at TV stations around the country for more than a decade. Before coming home to Northern California, Stefanie worked in Hartford, Connecticut. She also worked for a TV station in the Quad Cities, where she met her husband. Stefanie got her TV start in the small border town of Yuma, Arizona.
Stefanie lives in Sacramento with her husband and young son.
- Visit the Delta & Dawn: Mother & Baby Whales' Journey main site.
- View Sacramento Magazine's coverage of Stefanie and her book Delta & Dawn.
- View Kidaround Magazine's cover of Stefanie and her son Grant.
Carlos Alcalá
Carlos Alcalá has lived all his life in California, which accounts for his irrational affection for dry, grassy hillsides and dull, scrubby oak trees. He grew up reading Mad Magazine, which accounts for his irreverent outlook on everything, including history. However, there is no accounting for his interest in onomastics, which, by the way, is not something dirty. Onomastics deals with the origins of names, and it has been his interest ever since he developed the Street Whys idea for a column in The Sacramento Bee. He has worked for (or at least drawn a paycheck from) The Bee since 1992 and has been a columnist since 2002. His recent columns can be seen (even read, if you have to) at www.sacbee.com/alcala/. Street Whys is his first book.
Alcalá graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a degree in Economics from Stanford University, so why does he waste his time with dusty books and word play, instead of getting a good job? Nevertheless, his Jewish mother should be pleased that eventually he settled down and married a nice Jewish doctor. He has three children and lives in Sacramento with his wife. Occasionally, he does the dishes and makes the bed.
Photo courtesy of Linda Smolek and Inside Publications.Alan O’Connor
Alan O’Connor grew up in Sacramento and graduated from McClatchy High School and the University of California, Davis. He has always had an interest in history, particularly the history of California and Sacramento. O‘Connor grew up going to school with children of Solons players and going to Solons games at Edmonds Field. He is a member of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) and the Pacific Coast League Historical Society. He is also a member of the board of directors of the Sacramento County Historical Society, and has provided input to the Solons website at http://members.tripod.com/~acorns/solons/.
For several years O’Connor has displayed the History of Sacramento Professional Baseball 1886-1976 in the Sacramento Room of the Central Branch of the Sacramento Public Library, as well as in the History Center at the Sacramento Discovery Museum and in many Sacramento Public Library branches. He was the historian for the Golden Empire Council of the Boy Scouts of America throughout the 1980s and ‘90s, and was principal author of The History of the Golden Empire Council, BSA. He has also written numerous journal articles about Scouting history, and has spent the last few decades producing historical displays at Scouting and community events. O’Connor has worked at the California Department of Aging (CDA) since the 1980s, and is currently a health program specialist with the Multipurpose Senior Services Program (MSSP), which provides care management and other services that keep frail seniors in their communities and out of nursing facilities.