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Staff Biographies

IRE Conference News Web site is staffed by students from four journalism schools: the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, the Philip Merrill School of Journalism at the University of Maryland, the University of Missouri School of Journalism and American University’s School of Communications.

The editors are faculty from the four schools, including American University Assistant Professor Roseanne Robertson, Medill Assistant Dean Ellen Shearer, Missouri's Washington director Wes Pippert, Maryland Associate Dean Chris Callahan and Maryland lecturer Steve Crane. In addition, Medill Associate Professor Mary Coffman will supervise the video section of the site and American Associate Professor Wendell Cochran and Shearer will lead a computer-assisted reporting project for the site.

The student reporters are:

REKA BALA, 25, is a graduate student at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, and is the Washington correspondent for the Imperial Valley Press in El Centro, Calif., this spring in Medill’s Washington program.  She graduated in 1999 from Washington University in St. Louis with a double major in International Studies and Spanish. She will also be interning this summer with Bloomberg News in New York.

CARLA CORREA, 23, is a graduate student at the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism and is also an intern on the metro and features copy desks at The (Baltimore) Sun as well as a part-time copy editor for Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services. She worked for one year as a reporter and copy editor at The Cecil Whig in northeast Maryland before attending Maryland. She has also interned at The (Wilmington, Del.) News Journal and American Journalism Review, and was copy chief of her undergraduate newspaper, the University of Delaware's Review.

RANA CULOTTA, 24, is a graduate student in the Interactive Journalism program at American University. She is the assistant to the associate director of the National Communication Association.

EMILY DAGOSTINO is a graduate student at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University and currently is in the Washington program as the Medill News Service reporter for Wisconsin's Madison Capital Times. She is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame.

JOSEPH EATON, 30, is a graduate student at the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism. Before returning to school for his master’s degree, he reported for Oregon Health Forum and the Asian Reporter in Portland.

GEOFFREY EMEIGH, 25, is a graduate student in American University’s weekend Interactive Journalism program. He works as an editorial assistant for the Association of the United States Army in Arlington, Va., where he writes for the association’s monthly newspaper, AUSA News. The paper covers Army personnel, defense industry and Defense Department topics, in addition to congressional and national security issues. He also writes press releases, and informs local and national media of association symposia and other events.

LAUREN EVOY, 27, is a master's student in the Interactive Journalism program at American University. She is a technical writer in Arlington, Va., and is looking for a journalism job.

KATIE FILIPCZYK is a graduate student in American University's Interactive Journalism program. She is a native Washingtonian and lives in Chevy Chase; Md. Katie is a reporter for LRP Publications and covers the civil service reform beat for Federal Human Resources Week.

STEPHANIE R. FOSNIGHT, 24, writes from Washington for the Biloxi (Miss.) Sun Herald as a reporter for Medill News Service, part of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. She grew up in Mesa, Ariz., but attended college in St. Paul, Minn., her town of birth. She has bachelor's degrees in English literature and philosophy from the College of St. Catherine, where she was editor-in-chief of the campus newspaper. She has covered community news, cops, the arts, Chicago’s housing issues and has also worked as a grade school languages teacher.

MAREN GOLDBERG, 25, is a graduate student in American University's Journalism and Public Affairs program and an editorial intern at Moment Magazine, an independent bimonthly Jewish journal. She earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration and Spanish studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1999. She was a program coordinator at Rotary International in Evanston, Ill., and before that she helped coordinate a project that helped teach basic marketing and accounting skills to business owners in Turrialba, Costa Rica.

LANA GROSS is finishing her graduate degree at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. She is currently reporting from Washington for KVIA in El Paso, Texas, for the Medill News Service. Upon graduation in June, Lana hopes to return back to the Midwest to further her journalism career.

MAKEBA SCOTT HUNTER, 28, is a graduate student at the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism. She interned this spring with BET.com and free-lanced for the Gazette newspapers in Maryland, and will intern this summer on The (Baltimore) Sun’s features desk. A New York City native, she attended the LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts and graduated from the University of Virginia with a degree in history in 1996. Before coming to Maryland, she worked at the Associated Press and Discovery Communications.

CHERYL JOHNSTON is a master's student at the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism who is working this summer as an intern reporter on the features desk of The (Baltimore) Sun. She worked this spring for American Journalism Review, writing pieces for the Free Press section and fact-checking articles, and also free-lanced features for Northern Virginia weekly newspapers. She earned an English degree in 1998 from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and copyedited for a couple of medical imaging journals, wrote and edited for an online magazine, and worked as an editorial assistant in book publishing before returning to school.

JONATHAN M. KATZ, 23, is military affairs correspondent in Washington for the 44 Lee Newspapers, including The Times of Northwest Indiana and North County Times (Calif.). Now in his third quarter as a graduate student in Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, he graduated from the NU College of Arts and Sciences in June 2002 with a B.A. in history and American studies. This summer, he will work with the investigative unit at CNN in Atlanta before traveling to Jerusalem to report with the Associated Press in the fall.

JESSICA KIMPELL is a graduate student in the Medill School of Journalism. Currently she is in the schools Washington program as the health reporter for Medill News Service; previously, she was the Washington correspondent for the Biloxi Sun Herald in Mississippi. She graduated from the University of Minnesota with a degree in political science and spent time at the White House as an intern in the speech offices of the vice president.

ALYSON KLEIN is a graduate student in the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism. A graduate of SUNY-Binghmaton, she taught eighth-grade English in Baltimore City before returning to school for her master’s degree. She has been interning at The (Baltimore) Sun since February and will continue to do so through August.

LUCIANA LOPEZ, 27, is a graduate student in public affairs reporting at the University of Maryland, where she was the crime and justice reporter this spring in the Washington bureau of Capital News Service. She is interning this summer for The (Baltimore) Sun and will begin a two-year internship this fall at The (Portland) Oregonian. She previously worked for several magazines, including National Geographic, spent time as a biomedical research policy reporter for a Maryland newsletter company, and completed internships at American Journalism Review and The Washington Times.

TIMUR LOYNAB, 26, is a recent graduate of the print journalism program at American University. He served as both an editor and a reporter for The American Observer, an online publication produced by journalism graduate students from AU’s School of Communication. He previously worked for a Washington, D.C., law firm and served as a consultant for a local foundation. Originally from Kabul, Afghanistan, he now lives in Northern Virginia.

STEPHEN MATHER, 27, is a graduate journalism student at the University of Maryland and currently an editorial assistant at American Journalism Review. He also free-lances articles for The Journal newspapers in Maryland and Virginia and for Outlook, the faculty and staff newspaper at the university. Steve earned a bachelor’s degree in geology from Tufts University and a master’s in hydrogeology from University College London and worked for three years as an environmental consultant in England.

LYDIA X. MCCOY, 22, is a graduate journalism student at the University of Maryland. She received her bachelor’s degree in 2002 from Hampton University, where she was editor in chief of the student newspaper, Hampton Script. She has interned with the Scripps Howard Foundation in Washington, D.C, and as a general assignment reporter for the Knoxville (Tenn.) News Sentinel. This summer she will work on the copy desk and report for the Scripps Howard News Service. The Little Rock, Ark., native hopes to one day touch the lives of the next generation of journalists by teaching.

CAT McDONALD is a master's candidate in Interactive Journalism at American University and a native Washingtonian. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Brown University and is pursuing a career in radio journalism.

MAC McLEAN, 26, is a graduate student at American University. He is a congressional correspondent for the Capitol Pulse, a news service that provides summaries of congressional hearings.

MICHELLE MEYER, 28, is the Washington correspondent for the St. Joseph (Mo.) News-Press and the Lee Papers in Montana. Previously, she worked as a reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, covering suburban municipal government after graduating with a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Missouri at Columbia in 1998. This summer, she will travel to South Africa to work as a courts reporter at The Star in Johannesburg.

RICHARD O. MOORE, 28, is a master's student in Interactive Journalism at American University. He is a computer security analyst at the Rand Corp.

SARAH REID is a graduate student in the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.  After a number of years working in tech publishing, Sarah is eager to jump into the broadcast industry as a producer.

NICK SEELEY, 24, is a graduate student at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, and is working this summer in Medill’s DC news service as a correspondent for The Waterbury (Conn.) Republican-American. He spent a previous quarter as an intern for Pulitzer-prize winning investigative journalist Pam Zekman; in the fall he will travel to Phnom Penh to do an internship at the Cambodia Daily. He received his bachelor's degree from Cornell University and worked as a playwright and screenwriter before coming to Medill.

KRISTIN SETTE, 25, earned her master’s degree in journalism from the University of Maryland this spring after working as education reporter in the Annapolis bureau of the school’s Capital News Service. Sette worked for two years covering school boards and local government for The Observer-Reporter in Washington, Pa., and she has interned at The (Baltimore) Sun and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. She is a 1995 graduate of Duquesne University in Pittsburgh.

ERIC J.S. TOWNSEND, 23, worked for a year as a sports reporter at The Middletown (Del.) Transcript before coming to the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism, where he earned his master’s degree this spring. He covered transportation issues in the Annapolis bureau of the college’s Capital News Service during the Maryland legislative session, and has also interned at the American Journalism Review, The (Wilmington, Del.) News Journal and The Hartford (Conn.) Courant. He is a 2001 graduate of the University of Delaware.

WILLIAM WAN, 22, is a graduate student at the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism. Born in New York, but raised in the prairie lands of Canada and the Mississippi delta, he earned a bachelor’s degree with highest honors from the University of Chicago. He has held internships at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Cox Newspapers Washington bureau and The Arizona Republic, and will intern this summer for The Washington Post. Wan has also studied in five continents and has written online, magazine and broadcast news.

JAMIE WELLINGTON, 22, is a graduate public affairs reporting student at the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism. She received a bachelor’s degree in computer science and a minor in journalism from The George Washington University in 2002. She has contributed pieces to Outlook, University of Maryland’s faculty and staff newspaper, as well as two of the university’s student publications.

DAN WILCOCK, 26, is a masters student at the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism. He is currently interning at American Journalism Review and is scheduled to be the agricultural and environment reporter this fall in the Annapolis bureau of the college’s Capital News Service. The Lansing, Mich., native holds a degree in political science from Kenyon College, and has lived in Burkina Faso, Italy, Japan, Morocco, and Switzerland.

NATHANIEL ZIMMER, a graduate student in Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, writes for the York (Pa.) Daily Record and Newsday as a reporter for Medill News Service in Washington. He has covered both the Evanston City Council and the Chicago City Council and written art, book and movie reviews for publications in Chicago and New York. He is a graduate of Haverford College.

BRETT ZONGKER, 21, is a graduate journalism student at American University.He is a free-lance writer in Washington, D.C,. and recently completed a term as editor-in-chief of the American University student newspaper, The Eagle.

The editors are:

CHRISTOPHER CALLAHAN is associate dean of the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, where he is senior editor of the American Journalism Review. A former Washington correspondent for the Associated Press, Callahan specializes in political and governmental reporting, uses of the Internet for journalists, investigative reporting, online journalism, ethics and diversity issues in the newsroom. He is the author of “A Journalist’s Guide to the Internet: The Net as a Reporting Tool,” and has conducted seminars and workshops for IRE and NICAR as well as the Society of Professional Journalists and the National Conference of Editorial Writers.

MARY COFFMAN is an associate professor in Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and co-director of its Washington program, Medill News Service. She is the former assistant bureau chief for Post Newsweek Stations, a former correspondent for Capital Broadcast News, and a former reporter, producer and anchor at WTVN-TV (ABC), WOSU-TV (PBS) and WCMH-TV (NBC), all in Columbus, Ohio. She also served as a public information director for the Ohio Civil Rights Commission.

STEVE CRANE is an alumnus of the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism who now serves as Washington bureau director for its Capital News Service. He also teaches reporting and writing courses at the college. Before coming back to the college, Crane was a deputy metro editor and statehouse reporter for The Washington Times, and a reporter for The Parkersburg (W.Va.) Sentinel. He is a member of the board of the Regional Reporters Association in Washington.

WESLEY G. PIPPERT has been an associate professor of journalism and director of the Missouri School of Journalism’s Washington Program since 1989. Previously, he was with United Press International for more than 25 years. He was UPI’s lead reporter on the Watergate coverage, covered the Carter White House and Congress, and was senior UPI correspondent in the Middle East. A Congressional Fellow, he also has had fellowships at Harvard’s Institute of Politics and the University of Michigan. He was press aide to Sen. Charles H. Percy, R-Ill., and special assistant to Rep. Paul H. Henry, R-Mich. Pippert is the author of six books.

ROSE ANN ROBERTSON, director of writing programs in the School of Communication at American University, teaches editing and reporting and has been part of developing and teaching new courses in online journalism. She is director of the Weekend Master of Arts programs in interactive journalism and news media studies. She worked for several Illinois newspapers and The Milwaukee Journal before joining The Associated Press in Chicago in 1983. She later become a national editor at AP in Washington. Robertson has been teaching journalism since 1978 and has been at American University since 1993.

ELLEN SHEARER is assistant dean and professor at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and co-director of the school’s Washington program, Medill News Service. She teaches the graduate students who report from Washington for the news service. She is co-author of the book “Nonvoters: America’s No-Shows,” has written chapters in four others books and is a regular contributor to The American Editor magazine. She is a member of the board of the Washington Press Club Foundation and coordinates judging for the White House Correspondents’ Association’s annual awards. Previous to joining Medill in 1994, she was administrative editor for New York Newsday, an executive at Reuters and chief of several bureaus for United Press International.