IRE - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Member of the Awards Committee
- Associated Press / IRE Board ( Chair )
- Associated Press / IRE Board ( Vice Chair )
Job Titles:
- Training Director
- Journalist
Adam M. Rhodes is a first-generation Cuban American journalist whose work primarily focuses on queer people and the criminal justice system. Their recent work has examined HIV treatment access in Puerto Rico, HIV criminalization in Illinois, and a homophobic capital murder trial in the state. Rhodes was most recently a staff writer and social justice reporter at the Chicago Reader, and they have been published in outlets including BuzzFeed News and The Washington Post.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Finance Committee
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Alejandra Cancino, Board Member
- Injustice Watch / IRE Board ( Vice Chair )
- Senior Reporter at Injustice Watch
Alejandra Cancino is a senior reporter at Injustice Watch, a Chicago-based nonprofit newsroom investigating the Cook County court system. Her award-winning work focuses on the intersection of government and business and combines data with personal stories to expose systemic failures.
Most recently, she co-authored a five-part narrative series detailing how lower-income Chicago tenants are trapped in unsafe buildings, forced to pay rising rents even as many of their landlords are allowed to shirk their responsibilities. Through an unprecedented data analysis, she and a co-reporter identified hundreds of buildings in Chicago where tenants faced eviction as the city was suing their landlords over unsafe conditions and exposed how laws and systems created to help tenants were failing.
Earlier in her career, Cancino covered manufacturing, economic development and labor as a business reporter at the Chicago Tribune. There, her investigative stories revealed how some corporations took advantage of an Illinois' tax incentive program aimed at creating jobs even while laying off workers. Her reporting led to public hearings, an increase in the program's transparency, and a de-facto moratorium of special tax breaks for large corporations.
Cancino also spent a year as an editor training emerging journalists at City Bureau. She is a former president and board member of the Chicago Headline Club, the local chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. In that role, she co-created a mentorship program aimed at training young journalists of color in FOIA and other investigative skills.
Cancino is a proud University of Florida alum. Go Gators! Social Media: @writeralejandra.bsky.social
Job Titles:
- Director of Member Services
Job Titles:
- Chairman of the Audit Committee
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Ana Ley, at - Large
- Journalist
- the New York Times / IRE Board ( Chair )
Ana Ley, a journalist with 15 years of experience, is a reporter at The New York Times. Previously, she worked at five newspapers, including the San Antonio Express-News in San Antonio, Texas; the Las Vegas Sun and Las Vegas Review-Journal; and at the Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, Virginia, where she was a reporter and then editor.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Andrew Lehren, Board Member
Job Titles:
- Member of the Conference Committee
Anna López joined IRE in August 2021. As director of partnerships, she leads efforts involving fundraising, sponsorships, fellowships and scholarships, business partnerships and related new initiatives. Before joining IRE, she served four years as program director for National League of Cities. Before that, she served twice as executive director of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and also served as executive director of Unity: Journalists of Color.
She has 20 years of experience leading and fundraising for nonprofit organizations.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Awards Committee
- Chairman of Awards Committee
- the 19th ( Chair )
Job Titles:
- Chairman of the Finance Committee
- Member of the Audit Committee
- Member of the Conference Committee
- Member of the Executive Committee
- Member of the Governance Committee
- President
- President of the Board of Directors
- Brian M. Rosenthal, President
- Reporter at the New York Times
- the New York Times / IRE Treasurer - Chair
- the New York Times, President
- the New York Times, Treasurer
Brian M. Rosenthal is an investigative reporter at The New York Times and a Pulitzer Prize winner. Before joining The Times in 2017, he worked as a beat reporter covering state government, first for The Seattle Times and then for the Houston Chronicle. He won the 2020 Pulitzer in Investigative Reporting for a series of stories about predatory lending in the taxi industry, and he was part of a team that won the 2015 Pulitzer in Breaking News for coverage of a deadly mudslide. He also was a finalist for the 2017 Pulitzer in Public Service for revealing that Texas was secretly denying special education to tens of thousands of children with disabilities. He also has won an IRE medal, a national Emmy Award, the George A. Polk Award (three times) and the Selden Ring Award for Investigative Reporting, in addition to being named a finalist for the Anthony Shadid Award for Journalism Ethics. He grew up in Indiana and graduated from Northwestern University. Twitter: @brianmrosenthal
Job Titles:
- Member of the Conference Committee
Job Titles:
- Journalist of Color Investigative Reporting Fellowship
Chris Vachon returned to IRE in 2023 serving as the conference manager overseeing the annual NICAR and IRE conferences. Prior to that, she worked at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (RCFP). Before RCFP, she was employed at IRE as the director of partnerships for almost four years. Prior to her first stint at IRE, she worked for 13 years at the national SPJ headquarters in Indianapolis. Previously, Vachon worked as a sales representative for Standard Register Co. and assistant dean of students at Purdue University. She earned a bachelor's degree in elementary education from Ball State University in Indiana and a master's degree in higher education administration from Bowling Green State University in Ohio.
Job Titles:
- Managing Editor of Indigenous Investigative Collective
Job Titles:
- Chairman of the Conference Committee
- Member of the Board
- Member of the Executive Committee
- Member of the Governance Committee
- Vice President
- ABC News / IRE Board ( Chair )
- ABC News / IRE Vice President - Chair
- Cindy Galli, Board Member
- Executive Producer of ABC News
Cindy Galli is the Executive Producer of ABC News' award-winning Investigative Unit. She oversees a team of network correspondents, reporters and producers specializing in investigations ranging from government fraud and corporate corruption to racial injustice, consumer and environmental issues. Most recently, her team was recognized with three national Edward R. Murrow awards for reporting on inequities in policing, the Jeffrey Epstein case and illegal logging in the Amazon. Cindy also oversees collaborative investigative projects between ABC News and local stations and affiliates around the country. A member of IRE since 1994 and a longtime consumer investigative reporter, her work has garnered regional and national awards over 25 years of reporting. Cindy got her start with ABC's San Francisco station, KGO-TV, before joining the investigative team at Inside Edition in New York, moving to ABC News in 2011. Cindy was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area and is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley.
Job Titles:
- Director of Technology and Online Resources
- Reporter, Data Specialist and Web Developer
Job Titles:
- Member of the Conference Committee
Job Titles:
- Member of the Conference Committee
Job Titles:
- Member of the Contest Committee
Job Titles:
- Member of the Conference Committee
Job Titles:
- Member of the Conference Committee
- Marshall
Job Titles:
- Chairman of the Audit Committee
- Member of the Awards Committee
- Member of the Executive Committee
- Vice Chair of the Audit Committee
- Texas Tribune / IRE Board ( Vice Chair )
- Texas Tribune, Chair
- Texas Tribune, Secretary
Job Titles:
- Temple University ( Co - Chair )
Job Titles:
- Director of Data & Research Services, Academic Adviser to NICAR
- Director of Data and Research Services
- Reporter, Data Journalist
David Herzog is a veteran investigative reporter, data journalist and educator with more than 25 years of experience. He's a Journalism Professions professor at the Missouri School of Journalism and serves as the academic adviser to the National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting. He is also the director of data & research services at IRE. Before joining the school and IRE in 2002, Herzog spent nearly 15 years as a newspaper reporter and editor. He's worked for the Providence Journal, The Baltimore Sun and The (Allentown, Pa.) Morning Call.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Audit Committee
Job Titles:
- University of Maryland ( Chair )
Diana R. Fuentes was named executive director of IRE in April 2021. She oversees the grassroots nonprofit of nearly 5,000 members from around the world, dedicated to improving the quality and diversity of investigative journalism. She has more than 35 years of award-winning journalism experience, from police reporter and statehouse bureau chief to political editor and publisher. A second-generation Texan who is fluent in Spanish, Fuentes has a bachelor's from the University of Texas at Austin and a master's from Texas State University. She has leadership roles in numerous professional organizations.
Before joining IRE staff in July 2022, Doug Meigs was managing editor of scholarly journals based out of the University of Nebraska Medical Center's Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Neuroscience. Previously, he was executive editor of Omaha Magazine. He has written for The Omaha World-Herald, Indian Country Today, The Wall Street Journal, Quartz, CNN, The South China Morning Post, China Daily, Foreign Policy and other media outlets. He graduated from the University of Missouri School of Journalism and has taught at the University of Hong Kong Journalism and Media Studies Center and University of Nebraska at Omaha Department of English.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Conference Committee
Job Titles:
- Director of Diversity & Inclusion
Francisco Vara-Orta brings 17 years of newsroom experience to his role as IRE's first director of diversity and inclusion. Vara-Orta joined the IRE staff in February 2019 as a training director. While working as a trainer, he has conducted sessions on managing data and investigative reporting for journalists across the United States and internationally. He has worked for a variety of online and print publications, including Chalkbeat, Education Week, the San Antonio Express-News, Austin Business Journal, Los Angeles Business Journal and the Los Angeles Times. He earned a master's degree in investigative/data journalism at the University of Missouri and a bachelor's degree from St. Mary's University in San Antonio.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Finance Committee
Job Titles:
- Executive Producer at ABC10
Job Titles:
- Hyuntaek Lee / Board Member
- Journalist
Hyuntaek "Tag" Lee is a journalist with 15 years experience. He is currently an assistant editor for the Business & Technology desk at The Chosunilbo, a major newspaper in Seoul, South Korea. Previously, he held several positions at the newspaper, including staff writer for the Breaking News desk, job news "jobsN" team leader, staff writer for the World News desk and assistant editor for the World News desk. In addition, Lee has been teaching at the Yoonseyoung Journalism School at Ewha Womans University since 2018, and 40 of his students have gone on to become journalists. It's a 100 percent tuition-free university. A strong advocate for local journalism, Lee has led efforts to get the work of 12 local media outlets displayed on the main pages of major web portals. This may sound weird to people outside of Korea, Lee notes, but it is a meaningful accomplishment in the world of journalism in his country. Lee also teaches at Chosun Journalism Academy, an internal pro-bono institution for journalism students at Chosunilbo. And he is active in the Journalists Association of Korea, where is sub-chairman of the Special Committee on Web Portal Strategy. He previously worked as a staff reporter for JoongAng Ilbo, a newspaper in Seoul, and worked to help establish JTBC TV. He also was a Hubert H. Humphrey Fellow at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University, among other accomplishments. Lee participated in the IRE Data Bootcamp for Educators in 2022.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Conference Committee
Job Titles:
- Member of the Contest Committee
Job Titles:
- Member of the Conference Committee
Job Titles:
- Wall Street Journal ( Chair )
Job Titles:
- Member of the Finance Committee
Job Titles:
- Managing Editor
- Member of the Board
- Member of the Conference Committee
- Member of the Executive Committee
- Member of the Governance Committee
- Vice Chair of the Conference Committee
- Cox Media Group / IRE Board ( Chair )
- Cox Media Group / IRE Board ( Vice Chair )
- Cox Media Group / IRE Board of Directors - Chair
- Cox Media Group / IRE Executive Committee at - Large Member
- Cox Media Group, at - Large Officer
- Jodie Fleischer, Board Member
Jodie Fleischer is managing editor, investigative content, for Cox Media Group. Previously, she was an investigative reporter for WRC-TV in Washington, D.C. She's earned several of journalism's top honors including a duPont-Columbia Award, an IRE Award for Innovation, and numerous regional Murrow and Emmy awards. In 2015, she was recognized by the FBI director for her investigation of sovereign citizens that led to a dozen arrests and a change in state law. Her reporting on deadly police shootings helped change Georgia law to limit special treatment for officers. Jodie also exposed fraudulent activity which prompted the closure of a drug rehab run by the Church of Scientology, and her government corruption investigations have led to numerous indictments and resignations. Jodie also worked for WSB-TV in Atlanta and stations in Orlando and South Carolina. She's a graduate of the University of Florida. Twitter: @jodienbc4
Job Titles:
- Member of the Conference Committee
- Vice Chair of the Conference Committee
- Washington Post ( Vice Chair )
Job Titles:
- Member of the Conference Committee
Job Titles:
- Member of the Awards Committee
- Injustice Watch ( Vice Chair )
- Vice Chair of Awards Committee
Job Titles:
- Member of the Conference Committee
- Member of the Executive Committee
- Secretary
- Vice President
- Vice President of the Board of Directors
- Josh Hinkle, Vice President
- KXAN 's Director of Investigations and Innovation
- KXAN / IRE Board ( Chair )
- KXAN / IRE Board Secretary
Josh Hinkle is KXAN's director of investigations and innovation, leading the station's 12-person duPont and IRE Award-winning investigative team on multiple platforms. He also leads the Austin-based NBC affiliate's political coverage as the executive producer and host of "State of Texas," a weekly program - and companion podcast - focused on the Texas Legislature and elections, seen in 14 markets statewide. His work on the show has been honored three times with the national Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Television Political Journalism.
In 2018, the Society of Professional Journalists selected "Fallen," an investigative documentary Hinkle produced about fatal police shootings and officers' mental health training, as the recipient of the national Sigma Delta Chi Award for Best Documentary. The same year, "DENIED," an investigative project he produced about police transparency during in-custody death cases, won an Emmy for investigative series. In 2019, he launched the station's first podcast series, "Catalyst," which has been honored twice with a National Edward R. Murrow Award in the podcast category in 2020 and 2022, while a collection of "KXAN Investigates" digital projects Josh led also won a national Murrow in the multimedia category those same years. He and his team have continued to win numerous Emmys for other ground-breaking work.
Before arriving in Austin, Josh worked as a reporter, anchor and producer in Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Columbia, Missouri; and Oklahoma City. In addition to serving as IRE Board vice president, he serves on the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas Board of Directors. He also serves on the Solutions Journalism Network's advisory council and is a member of the SPJ and the Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists (NLGJA). Josh earned his bachelor's degree in journalism and Spanish from Oklahoma State University, then his master's degree in journalism and public policy from the University of Missouri. Josh teaches broadcast and documentary journalism at St. Edward's University in Austin. Twitter: @hinklej
Job Titles:
- Member of Awards Committee
- Member of the Conference Committee
Job Titles:
- Chairman of the Governance Committee
- Member of the Conference Committee
- Member of the Executive Committee
- Secretary
- Secretary of the Board of Directors
- Kate Howard, Secretary
- Reveal / IRE Board ( Chair )
- Reveal / IRE Board, Secretary
Kate Howard (she/her) is an investigative editor on the projects team at Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting. Previously, she spent four years as managing editor at the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting, a nonprofit newsroom by Louisville Public Media. There, Kate oversaw a team of five reporters and edited the investigative podcast Dig, which won an IRE Award and was nominated for a Peabody. Previously, Kate spent nearly 14 years as a newspaper reporter, including stints at The Newport Daily News, The Tennessean, The Florida Times-Union and the Omaha World-Herald. She is a trainer with the Ida B. Wells Society, a member of the board of HOBY Youth Leadership's Tennessee chapter and a Big Sister with the Big Brothers Big Sisters organization. Howard is based in Louisville, Kentucky.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Contest Committee
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Committee
- the Markup / IRE Board ( Chair )
- the Markup, at - Large Officer
Job Titles:
- Training Director
- Data Visualization Specialist
Laura Jael Kurtzberg is a data visualization specialist, cartographer, and a news applications developer with a particular interest in environmental stories. Laura has worked at the intersection of data journalism and design with organizations like InfoAmazonia, Ambiental Media, WLRN Public Media, and Mongabay.
She earned her MFA in Interactive Media from the University of Miami and a BA in Information Science from the University of Arizona. She remembers her first forays into data and communication with groups at Biosphere2 (the space colony training ground featured in 'Spaceship Earth') and The Santa Fe Institute (a complexity science research center).
In her free time, Laura enjoys reading fiction, trying to learn how to play the lever harp, and crocheting!
Job Titles:
- Training Director
- Puerto Rican Journalist and Training Director for IRE & NICAR
Laura Moscoso is a Puerto Rican journalist and training director for IRE & NICAR. Laura is an educator focusing on data, visualization tools, and media literacy. She has a bachelor's degree in Creative Writing from the University of Puerto Rico and a master's degree in Journalism from Universidad Rey Juan Carlos I in Madrid. She has worked in a variety of newsrooms, including Prensa Comunitaria, El Nuevo Día, El Mundo (Spain), the Center for Investigative Journalism, and Todas. In 2018 she contributed the non-fiction piece Monta mi guagua for the book Santurce y 8 crónicas de viaje, a publication of the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico.
Lauren Grandestaff is the Director of Content. She oversees the training and editorial teams as well as manages the programming for IRE's events including its three major conferences. She has a bachelor's degree in sociology with an emphasis on queer theory and social inequalities and a master's degree in library science with an emphasis on inequitable access to information - both from the University of Missouri. Lauren has been with IRE since 2011.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Finance Committee
Job Titles:
- Member of the Awards Committee
- Chairman of Awards Committee
- Marketplace ( Chair )
Job Titles:
- Reporter at San Antonio Express - News
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Journalist for the Hechinger Report
- Marina Villeneuve, Board Member
- the Hechinger Report / IRE Board ( Chair )
Marina Villeneuve is an investigative journalist for The Hechinger Report based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 2023, she graduated from Columbia University's Lede Program in data journalism and was a USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism National Fellow for a broadcast series she led on sexual abuse in Massachusetts public schools. She worked for six years as a statehouse reporter for The Associated Press in Maine and New York.
Job Titles:
- USA Today ( Chair )
- USA Today - Vice Chair
Job Titles:
- Member of the Conference Committee
Job Titles:
- Member of the Audit Committee
- Member of the Awards Committee
- Member of the Executive Committee
- Member of the Finance Committee
- Treasurer
- Treasurer of the Board of Directors
- Howard Center for Investigative Journalism, Secretary
- Howard Center for Investigative Journalism, Treasurer
- Mark Greenblatt, Treasurer
Mark Greenblatt is the executive editor of the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
Previously, Greenblatt was the senior national investigative correspondent at Scripps News in Washington, D.C., where he worked and mentored other investigative journalists for more than a decade. Greenblatt, a nationally award-winning journalist with nearly 25 years of experience, has worked for local TV stations, networks, newspapers and multi-episode deep-dive podcasts. He regularly collaborates with national and global partners such as Reveal, ProPublica, USA Today and The Toronto Star, among others.
Greenblatt is a past president and former treasurer of the Fund for Investigative Journalism. He is a longtime IRE member dating back to his early days as a student volunteer at IRE's headquarters at the University of Missouri, where Greenblatt was student president of the journalism school.
Job Titles:
- Missouri University ( Chair )
Job Titles:
- Tampa Bay Times ( Chair )
Job Titles:
- Member of the Contest Committee
- Independent Journalist ( Elected )
Job Titles:
- Member of the Audit Committee
- Member of the Conference Committee
- Member of the Executive Committee
- the New York Times ( Board Chair )
- the New York Times / IRE Board ( Chair )
- the New York Times, President
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Member of the Finance Committee
- Mary Hudetz, Board Member
- ProPublica / IRE Board ( Board Representative )
- ProPublica / IRE Board ( Chair )
- ProPublica Reporter
Mary Hudetz is a ProPublica reporter based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She has spent the better part of the past decade reporting on federal policy and Indigenous issues. She previously worked for The Associated Press and the Seattle Times as a reporter, and is past president of the Indigenous Journalists Association, formerly known as the Native American Journalists Association.
Job Titles:
- CBS Los Angeles ( Chair )
Job Titles:
- Nebraska Journalism Trust
Job Titles:
- Co - Founder
- Member of the Finance Committee
Job Titles:
- Member of the Contest Committee
- Paroma Soni, Board Member
- Politico / IRE Board ( Vice Chair )
Paroma Soni is a data and graphics reporter for POLITICO in New York, where she covers trade policy, agriculture and immigration for professional audiences. She was previously an associate visual journalist with FiveThirtyEight, where she worked on several graphics-driven investigations into election denial, abortion access and economic policy. She was a Delacorte Fellow at Columbia Journalism Review, where she investigated online censorship and press freedom in India as well as the systemic murder of journalists in Mexico - both long-form data projects that were named finalists for the SAJA Awards. She has contributed to many other publications, including The Markup's "Still Loading" series on internet speed disparity which won several awards, including the IRE Philip Myer Award, the 2023 Sigma Award and four SABEW awards. She has also been a video producer at BuzzFeed India in Mumbai, where she was born and raised. She has a master's degree in data journalism from Columbia University.
Job Titles:
- Senior Training Director / IRE Training Committee Staff Liaison
Job Titles:
- Member of the Audit Committee
- Vice Chair of the Audit Committee
- ProPublica - Texas Tribune ( Vice Chair )
Job Titles:
- Director of Marketing
- Director of Marketing and Outreach
Rashika Jaipuriar is the director of marketing and outreach. She oversees all of IRE's marketing and social media initiatives and manages many of IRE's fellowship programs. Before joining IRE, Rashika was a reporter at the Indianapolis Star covering central Indiana's growing immigrant communities. In a previous role at IndyStar, she covered trending news and helped grow the newsroom's TikTok account. Rashika also has experience in video journalism, previously working at NBC Nightly News in New York. She is a graduate of Syracuse University.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Finance Committee
Job Titles:
- Toronto Star ( Co - Chair )
Job Titles:
- Russian Journalist and Standford Fellow
Job Titles:
- Member of Awards Committee
- Retired
Job Titles:
- Member of the Conference Committee
Job Titles:
- Chairman of the Governance Committee
- Vice Chair of the Governance Committee
- Arizona State University ( Vice Chair )
- Independent ( Chair
Job Titles:
- Member of the Contest Committee
Job Titles:
- Reporter at Los Angeles Times
Job Titles:
- Member of the Audit Committee
- the Messenger
Job Titles:
- Member of the Audit Committee
Job Titles:
- Consultant
- Member of Awards Committee
Job Titles:
- Member of the Contest Committee
- CBS New York ( Chair )
Job Titles:
- Member of Awards Committee
- Retired