Election ’08: Unleashing the Cyber-watchdogsAgenda | Speakers | Fellows | Resources | BlogFellowsRyan Alessi is a political writer for the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader where the government news team is creating online tools to enhance the newspaper's reputation as a premier source for political news in Kentucky. Before joining the Herald-Leader in February 2003, he worked for Scripps Howard News Service in Washington, D.C. as a general assignment reporter and Washington correspondent for the Ventura County (Calif.) Star. Alessi graduated from Ohio University with a Bachelor of Science in journalism. Email: Richard A. Bard is deputy world editor of The Miami Herald. His employment at The Herald began in 1975, starting as a copy editor, then moving up to assistant news editor, Viewpoint editor, national editor and taking his current position in 1999. As national and deputy world editor, Bard has supervised the newspaper's Washington correspondent and military affairs correspondent, among other duties. Since September 2007, he has managed The Herald's Political Currents Web site and now oversees all world desk multimedia initiatives. Bard received the Phil Joyce Award for his contributions to the Association of Opinion Page Editors and shared in the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news for Elian Gonzalez coverage. A graduate of Wheaton College with a Bachelor of Arts in political science, he earned a Master of Arts in political science at the University of Oklahoma and studied the United Nations in a semester program at Drew University. Email: Taylor Batten has worked at The Charlotte Observer since 1995, where he is on special assignment as elections editor. He supervises The Observer's online politics talk show, The Primary Source, which appears at peaks during the campaign season, as well as other online tools that expand the newspaper's political coverage. Batten's earlier jobs at The Observer have ranged from business reporter, county government reporter and state government reporter to night city editor, government editor, copy desk chief and front-page editor. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in public policy from Duke University and a master's in public policy from Harvard. Email: Christine L. Bedell is government editor of The Bakersfield Californian, promoted to that position in February after nearly three years as assistant news editor for the newspaper. She has worked at The Californian since 1998 where she started as a reporter covering medical issues and later had county government and special projects beats. Bedell was Santa Maria city reporter for Santa Maria (Calif.) Times from July 1995 to April 1998, following a University of Missouri-supervised stint as Washington. D.C. correspondent for the Spokane Spokesman-Review. She has won awards from the Inland Press Association for local news writing, The Bakersfield Californian Golden Quill Award for Reporting, the Kern Press Club General Reporting Series by Multiple Authors Award, Business/Economic Story Award and General Reporting Series by Single Author Award, and the George F. Gruner Prize for Meritorious Public Service in Journalism. Bedell graduated magna cum laude from the University of Missouri-Columbia with a degree in print journalism and minor in Spanish. Email: Nancy M. Cook is associate producer for National Public Radio where she is the election Web producer for NPR.org. Cook has been a freelance reporter for NPR since 2005, while spending two years as staff writer for The New Bedford (Mass.) Standard-Times and more than a year as general assignment reporter fr foor NPR Rhode Island affiliate WRNI. She won regional Associated Press awards for Radio Reporting in General News and Continuing Coverage categories and the Christopher Light Editing Prize at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism for the student who shows greatest promise as an editor. Cook holds an English literature degree from Carleton College and a Master of Arts in journalism with concentration in newspapers from Columbia. Email: Pamela J. Gentry created BET's first online political blog as senior political producer/Washington bureau chief for the network, a job she's held since August 2005. Earlier, she was senior producer and Washington bureau chief for CBS/BET Nightly News, Washington, D.C. political producer for C-SPAN, associate administrator for external affairs at Department of Health and Human Services, and worked at W*USA-TV Channel 9 in Washington, D.C. as associate producer, show producer and assignment editor. Before moving to Washington, Gentry was a general assignment reporter for East Tennessee and Southern Kentucky at WATE-TV Knoxville, Tenn., Tennessee state desk reporter for The Knoxville Journal, and Tennessee metro reporter for WATO-WETQ Radio in Oak Ridge, Tenn. She has been honored by the New York National Association of Black Journalists, Department of Health and Human Services for distinguished service, National Coalition of 100 Black Women for outstanding professional achievement, City of Houston and Texas Southern University for service to improve health status of African Americans, American Women in Radio and Television and Best of Gannett for a black history news series and National Women's Political Caucus for two series. Gentry also received an Emmy nomination in spot news. She earned a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Detroit-Mercy. Email: Peggy L. Girshman is executive editor, Consumer Publishing/CQPolitics.com for Congressional Quarterly. The Web site covers presidential politics, polling and fundraising, and (more prominently) congressional races. CQ is known for "handicapping" every House, Senate and gubernatorial race in the country, and writing detailed stories of the candidates and the issues. Previously, Girshman had several jobs at National Public Radio, including a stint as deputy senior national editor in the late 1990s and more recently, five years as assistant managing editor, followed by a year as managing editor, Newsroom 2.0. She was senior medical producer for Dateline NBC, a senior producer for a public television production company and held positions at various Washington, D.C., television stations. Girshman has won Peabody Awards for health policy coverage and an Emmy and CINE Golden Eagle award for a documentary called "Killer Virus." She graduated from the University of Michigan with a Bachelor of Arts. Email: Eugene T. Kiely is Washington assignment editor for USA Today, focusing on government watchdog and accountability issues. Previously, he worked at The Philadelphia Inquirer, starting as Trenton statehouse reporter, moving to Bucks County editor, deputy Pennsylvania editor and finally Pennsylvania editor where he built and maintained a Web site for the newspaper's political coverage. While Pennsylvania state editor, Kiely coordinated and helped edit the breaking news coverage of the Amish schoolhouse shooting, honored with a 2007 Sigma Delta Chi award. At the Bergen Record in Hackensack, N.J., as Trenton bureau chief, he was editor for "Open for Business," a series that won the 1996 John Oakes award. Kiely studied at Livingston College at Rutgers University, majoring in journalism and English. Email: James L. Kuhnhenn is a national political reporter at The Associated Press, specializing in the flow of campaign money and its use for campaign media. He moved to AP after nearly eight years with Knight-Ridder Newspapers, first as assistant news editor, than as national correspondent. Kuhnhenn also had a long career with The Kansas City Star from 1983 to 1998, culminating in assignment as Washington bureau chief. There, he was part of the reporting team that won the James K. Batten Civic Journalism award in 1996. Kuhnhenn has also received a Keystone Press Award. He majored in journalism with a minor in English at Pennsylvania State University, earning a Bachelor of Arts. Email: Pilar Marrero is senior political writer for La Opinion in Los Angeles, contributing also to BBC World Service and Pacific News Service. She has worked for La Opinion since 1990, serving as general assignment reporter, City Hall reporter and columnist in addition to political reporting. From 2001 to 2004, Marrero was a columnist for La Estrella in Fort Worth. During that period, she contributed to special editions of Harvard University's Nieman Report Magazine. Before joining La Opinion, Marrero's employers included the weekly newspaper Negocios y Finanzas and Los Angeles-based Noticias del Mundo where she was a reporter and assistant editor. Among her honors are the 1992 National Association of Hispanic Publications Outstanding Prize for Reporting on Latin America, 1996, 1997 and 1998 Interamerican Press Association team awards, and 2006 New America Media National Award. Marrero holds a degree in communications from Andres Bello Catholic University, Caracas, Venezuela. Email: Amanda R. Michel is working with more than 1,800 citizen journalists to produce competitive coverage of the presidential election in her role as director of Huffington Post's OffTheBus. She came to the Internet newspaper Huffington Post in July 2007 after working at Assignment Zero, collaboration between journalists and citizen journalists co-sponsored by Wired Magazine. Previously, Michel worked as communications director at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society, and during the 2003-2004 campaign season as a member of John Kerry's Internet team and the national director of Generation Dean. Along with colleagues from the Kerry-Edwards campaign, she helped co-found the New Organizing Institute. Michel is a contributor to "Mousepads, Shoeleather, and Hope," a book on the Dean campaign's approach to organizing and technology. She studied at the University of Vermont as a Vermont Scholar, as well as the University of Augsburg in Germany, graduating with a degree in philosophy. Email: Kathie Obradovich is political editor of The Des Moines Register. She collaborates with online staff in planning and executing online political coverage, oversees the reporters who provide content and coordinates their efforts with those of photo, video and data staff. During the campaign preceding the Iowa caucuses, the Register gained a partnership with Google that showcased the newspaper's online reporting, and won a National Headliner award for the online caucus coverage. Before joining the Register in 2003, Obradovich was Des Moines Statehouse bureau chief for Lee Enterprises' five daily newspapers, including the Quad-City Times, Davenport, Iowa. She worked at the Quad City Times from 1987-1993, except for a brief stint at the ill-fated St. Louis Sun. At the Quad City Times, Obradovich's jobs ranged from night cops reporter and various city, county and court beats, to assistant city editor and regional editor. Her honors include Iowa Associated Press Managing Editors first place for online special project for Iowa caucus coverage, Des Moines Register employee of the year and Gannett Newspaper Newsroom Supervisor Award. Obradovich is a graduate of Iowa State University with a bachelor's in journalism/mass communication. Email: Chuck Plunkett is a reporter at The Denver Post covering Denver's preparation for the 2008 Democratic National Convention and the presidential primary. Formerly, he was an investigative reporter, among other assignments, at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Plunkett started his journalism career as a business writer at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, moving to the city desk and ultimately the state desk before going to Pittsburgh in 2001. He won a 2007 Best of the West second place in growth and development reporting, a 2006 Wirth Chair Award from the University of Colorado at Denver for a series on Colorado's water, and first place for best agriculture story in 2006 from Colorado Press Association. Plunkett has an undergraduate degree in English from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from the University of Pittsburgh. Email: Phillip H. Reese is focused on combining maps with election-related data in his work as reporter/data analysis for The Sacramento (Calif.) Bee. Before joining the Bee in 2005, he was a reporter/data analysis for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and, from 1999-2002, a reporter on the crime and courts beat for the Greensboro (N.C.) News & Record. Reese won first place in 2007 National Low Income Housing Coalition Awards, news series first place in 2006 PASS Awards from the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, honorable mention in 2006 John B. Oakes Award for Environmental Reporting from Columbia University, and honorable mention in 2006 Al Nukkula Award for Police Reporting from the University of Colorado. He holds an undergraduate degree in English from North Carolina State University and a graduate degree in English from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Email: Niki Sullivan is a political reporter and blogger at The (Tacoma, Wash.) News Tribune, moving to the political beat in January from features reporter, a role she held from February 2006 through 2007. She blogs at blogs.thenewstribune.com/politics (Political Buzz) and blogs.thenewstribune.com/gritcity (GritCity). Sullivan is also student publication adviser at the University of Washington-Tacoma. Previous jobs include legislative session reporter for The Associated Press and intern and freelance reporter for The (Portland) Oregonian. Sullivan is a graduate in speech communication of Oregon State University. Email: William V. Theobald is a correspondent for Gannett News Service, starting there in May 2005 as a general assignment correspondent, then moving to cover Washington, D.C., for the Salem Statesman Journal and Fort Collins Coloradoan, and now for the Nashville Tennessean plus three other Tennessee newspapers, as well as Michigan newspapers such as the Lansing State Journal, Port Huron Time Herald and the Battle Creek Enquirer. Theobald had a 15-year career at the Indianapolis Star, starting as night assistant city editor and holding such positions as head of statehouse bureau, Sunday editor, public life reporter, philanthropy/values reporter, projects reporter, business reporter and assistant business editor. He helped launch a Faith and Values section and was part of the team that designed and installed a new computer system in the newsroom. Investigative projects Theobald produced at the Star won many state awards, a Kent Cooper Award from Indiana Associated Press Managing Editors, Inland Press Association investigative reporting honors, and two national awards, the George A. Polk Award and Society of Professional Journalists National Public Service award. Earlier, he participated in the startup of the now-defunct St. Louis Sun, after ten years at the (Davenport, Iowa) Quad-City Times where he also won news-writing awards. Theobald is a journalism graduate of the University of Iowa and has a graduate degree in pastoral studies from Loyola University, New Orleans. Email: Lauren H. Vicary joined msnbc.com as political editor in March 2007 where she manages a team of multimedia journalists and oversees a consortium of media partners, delivering original, comprehensive and innovative news and information. In February 2008, Vicary's politics section, http://www.politics.msnbc.com, had its biggest months ever with 162 million pageviews. The Decision '08 subsection is currently the number-one topic on the entire site, which set an all-time site record of 1.4 billion pageviews. Prior to joining msnbc.com, Vicary spent more than eight years at The Associated Press in the Washington bureau where she served as senior political producer. She helped launch the company's online video network and was part of the team awarded the AP Chairman's Prize. Vicary also served as an assignment manager and producer for AP television, covering politics and the presidential and congressional elections since 1998. Before her tenure at the AP, Vicary worked as an anchor and reporter, and as a program director for both PBS and Time Life Video and Television. Vicary earned a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Pennsylvania and studied at Edinburgh University in Scotland. Email: Richard S. Wagoner is assistant metro editor, politics and science for The Seattle Times, a role he's held since March 2005. In February, Wagoner asked citizens to report on their Washington precinct caucuses; the 90 reports posted were the best-read online feature that day. Before becoming political editor, he was assistant metro editor, health from December 2003 through February 2005. Previously, Wagoner worked at the (Spokane, Wash.) Spokesman-Review as a reporter, assistant city editor and city editor. While there, he helped direct and edit Randy Weaver coverage that was a Pulitzer finalist in 1993 and edited a series that won National Press Club's environmental reporting prize, the Loeb award for financial reporting and George Polk award in 1994. Wagoner edited a project that won the Livingston Award for national reporting in 1995 and edited another Loeb award winner in 1996. He began his journalism career as a photographer/reporter for the Oroville (Calif.) Mercury-Register. Wagoner is a journalism alumnus of the University of Oregon. Email: Russ Walker is assistant managing editor, nation and world at washingtonpost.com, part of a team responsible for covering the 2008 elections. Walker joined the staff of The Washington Post's Web site in January 2001 after a year as online director of FreedomChannel.com, an early effort to give citizens unfiltered online access to multiple political perspectives. Previously, he served as editor at National Journal Group's American Health Line and U.N. Wire, press secretary to Rep. Tom Barlow, D-Ky., public affairs staffer at National Health Council and legislative correspondent for Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev. Walker graduated with high honors in history from Vanderbilt University. Email: Martin Wisckol has been politics reporter for The Orange County (Calif.) Register since 1998. His use of technology has evolved over the years, from computer analysis of campaign contributions to blogging to the recently launched OC Political Pulse instant polling site. For the future, Wisckol plans a Wiki-like Buzzopedia for Orange County politics. Before moving to The Register, he worked as Miami bureau reporter for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Jacksonville City Hall enterprise reporter for the (Jacksonville) Florida Times Union, investigative reporter for (Detroit) Metro Times and staff writer at the (San Diego) Times Advocate (now The North County Times). Among Wisckol's honors are a public service award from Florida Society of Newspaper Editors, second place for investigative reporting from Southern Journalism Awards, first place in governmental writing from Florida Press Club, second place for feature reporting from Society of Professional Journalists and a finalist for public service award in category of newspapers under 50,000 from Associated Press Managing Editors. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from San Diego State University. Email: |
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