Experience

Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation

• United States
• Museums, Historical Sites, and Zoos
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Editorial consultant

  • Aug 2018 - Present

  Responsibilities include writing op-ed columns and other material for foundation officials, coordinating social media, fundraising, publishing books, editing internal and external communications and newsletters, writing and editing grant applications, including two successful applications with the National Endowment for the Humanities and one with the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, developing education curricula, augmented reality programming, podcasts, documentary films and radio shows. I have secured the copyrights to two books that we will republish under the auspices of the foundation. I have helped create an institute that has received grants from private foundations and governmental institutions aimed at educating people about the incarceration and related social justice issues.



Northwestern University Medill School

• United States
• Higher Education
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Adjunct Professor of Journalism

  • Dec 2019 - Dec 2020

  Responsibilities include working with graduate schools in the Medill Washington program to develop enterprise reporting and coordinating with media clients to fill their need for stories on a variety of topics.



USA TODAY

• United States
• Newspaper Publishing
• 700 & Above Employee

• Washington enterprise editor

  • Feb 2012 - Aug 2018

  I supervised investigative reporting out of our Washington bureau and oversee the military, White House and money in politics reporters. One of our White House reporters, Gregory Korte, received the Gerald R. Ford award for White House reporting during that period. Reporting I directed on the secret ratings for Veterans Affairs nursing homes was a finalist for the 2019 IRE Freedom of Information Award. Our work has exposed problems in the military's propaganda programs, shown the growing influence of outside money in local elections, revealed how the president has expanded the use of executive power through presidential memoranda and tracked the failures and successes of the Affordable Care Act. I drove content online quickly, created rich packages with video, audio and photography and mastered SEO to increase our readership.

• White House and politics editor

  • Jun 2011 - Feb 2012



Investigative Project on Terrorism

• Managing director

  • Aug 2010 - Jun 2011

  I managed and directed coverage for this nonprofit group. During my tenure, we increased our web traffic by more than 50 percent, set an annual fundraising record and more than doubled our online production. I did a variety of TV and radio appearances around the world, including on TimesNow in India, Fox News, Canadian TV, WUSA and Fox 5 in Washington and CNN.



USA TODAY

• United States
• Newspaper Publishing
• 700 & Above Employee

• National security editor

  • Apr 2005 - Aug 2010

  I supervised our coverage of the Pentagon, the intelligence community and military homefront issues. During that time, our reporting on IEDs and MRAP vehicles led Defense Secretary Robert Gates to make buying MRAPs his top priority. That turned into a $50 billion government program. Gates later credited our work in his memoirs, Duty, while Vice President Joe Biden personally told me our reporting "saved thousands of lives."



The Associated Press

• United States
• Media Production
• 700 & Above Employee

• Sacramento bureau chief

  • Mar 2001 - Apr 2005

  I supervised all political and government coverage for California, including the 2003 recall election of Gov. Gray Davis. Our bureau handled all news for the world's largest news organization for California from east of the San Francisco area, north of Modesto to the Oregon and Nevada state lines.



Los Angeles Times

• United States
• Newspaper Publishing
• 700 & Above Employee

• Ventura editor

  • May 2000 - Feb 2001

  Edited staff-generated copy and coordinated the weekend San Fernando Valley edition.



The Tampa Tribune

• various

  • 1987 - 2000

  Political reporter, Washington correspondent, metro columnist, night metro editor, political editor, senior editor for news, business and weekend.



The Montgomery Advertiser

• reporter

  • 1985 - 1987

  Covered local government, the environment, politics and special projects. Edited and wrote much of a special section on the life and times of Gov. George Wallace and was part of a two-reporter team that investigated corruption in the greyhound racing industry in Alabama that resulted in a series of criminal convictions.