MINNESOTA PUBLIC RADIO - Key Persons
Allison Herrera joined APM Reports in November 2023 as a senior reporter. She previously covered Indigenous Affairs for KOSU in Tulsa. She received an Emmy Award nomination for her work on a Reveal investigation that centered on criminal justice in Oklahoma. Herrera also produced a podcast with Bloomberg. The podcast, In Trust, won a 2023 Loeb Award. It investigated how federal policies over the last few decades resulted in the transfer of mineral rights from members of the Osage Nation to white owners. The podcast won a Loeb Award. Herrera also reported for PRX's The World, where she investigated the global surrogacy industry in Ukraine and the issue of reproductive rights in Argentina. For Colorado Public Radio, she worked as the climate and environment editor. Herrera's Native ties are from her Xolon Salinan tribal heritage; her family's traditional village is in the Toro Creek area of the Central California coast. She splits her time between Minnesota and Oklahoma.
Chris Julin is a producer, editor and sound designer. He's worked on dozens of podcasts and radio documentaries. Chris started making audio stories in the days of typewriters and cassette tapes. He's been a reporter, producer and editor at public radio stations large and small. Projects he's worked on have won a variety of awards, including the Edward R. Murrow and the Peabody.
Curtis Gilbert is a senior editor at APM Reports and Minnesota Public Radio. His 2022 podcast Sent Away, produced in partnership with KUER and The Salt Lake Tribune, won the top national prize in investigative business journalism, the Barlett & Steele Award. His work has appeared on NPR, Reveal and public radio stations around the country as part of APM's Public Media Accountability Initiative. Along with his colleague Tom Scheck, he produced a series of stories in 2016 that led to the closure of the largest privately run juvenile correctional facility in Minnesota. He also contributed to the Peabody Award-winning podcast In the Dark. In addition to his work in audio journalism, Curtis has also won three regional Emmy Awards for a series of viral web videos designed to demystify complex issues in the news. In 2007, he was one of 10 American journalists awarded an Arthur F. Burns Fellowship, which allowed him to spend two months reporting at Deutsche Welle in Bonn, Germany. Curtis is a graduate of Macalester College, where he also teaches a class in narrative journalism. He grew up in rural central Maine and now lives with his wife and son in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Job Titles:
- Correspondent
- Senior Producer
Emily Hanford is host of the hit podcast Sold a Story, the second-most-shared show on Apple Podcasts in 2023 and one of Time Magazine's top three podcasts of the year. Sold a Story has garnered some of the highest honors in journalism, including a du-Pont Columbia award, an Edward R. Murrow award, an IRE award, two Scripps Howard awards, a Third Coast Impact award and a Peabody nomination. Emily has been covering education for American Public Media since 2008. She has won numerous awards for her work, including the EWA Public Service Award in 2019 for Hard Words and an award from the American Educational Research Association for Excellence in Reporting on education research. She has been working in public media for 30 years. She is a frequent speaker and moderator. Emily is the mother of two adult sons. She is based in the Washington, D.C. area and is a graduate of Amherst College.
Jeremy Cubas resigned from his $110,000 a year job as Gov. Mike Dunleavy's pro-family policy adviser after Alaska Public Media and APM Reports revealed that Cubas defended Hitler, used racist slurs and said a man raping his wife is "an impossible act."
Kate Martin joined APM Reports in October 2023 as a senior data reporter. She most recently served as the sexual violence and health reporter at NBC News, where she filed hundreds of state and local level records requests related to infant deaths. She contributed to an investigation that revealed more than 160 babies died in incidents involving nursing pillows since 2007. The team created a first-of-its-kind analysis based on public records and internal federal data to tell the story. A month after that investigation ran, the Consumer Product Safety Commission approved the first safety requirements for nursing pillows to prevent infant deaths.
Prior to her work at NBC, Martin was the lead investigative reporter at Carolina Public Press, where she served as the lead data reporter on an 11-newsroom project that examined the outcomes of sexual assault prosecutions in North Carolina. After the stories ran, North Carolina's governor signed a law that eliminated two loopholes on consent. Another project, on the rarity of rural sexual assault nurse examiners, led state legislators to create a SANE nurse training hub at Fayetteville State University, an HBCU. Following this reporting, Congress approved $30 million per year to train and retain SANE nurses in rural tribal communities through 2028. Her work has earned dozens of statewide honors. She lives in North Carolina and graduated from the College of Charleston.
New York teacher Kevin Glynn was once a big fan of the Common Core, but he says the standardized testing that's come along with it is reducing students to test scores and narrowing what gets taught in schools.
Robert Beadles made his name by making unfounded election claims and backing candidates who share his radical beliefs. But an investigation found that he has repeatedly cited antisemitic propaganda and outlandish conspiracy theories.
Job Titles:
- Deputy Managing Editor
- Deputy Managing Editor of Investigations
Tom Scheck is the Deputy Managing Editor of Investigations. Prior to his promotion, he was a founding member of APM Reports. His reporting on mismanagement and allegations of maltreatment at a northern Minnesota juvenile treatment center led to the facility's closure. He also contributed to a story that revealed that administrators within the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency downplayed a controversial study on hydraulic fracking on water quality. He also revealed that a Covid-19 testing company cut corners to make money during the pandemic. As a reporter for MPR News, Scheck also contributed to an investigation into the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, which won several national awards including an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Award. His work has appeared on NPR, Marketplace, ProPublica and Reveal. Scheck also teaches data journalism at the University of Minnesota's Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communications. Prior to his work at APM/MPR News, Tom worked for Indiana Public Radio. He's a graduate of Syracuse University.