Investigative journalism is a rarefied skill. Our seasoned editorial team follows the truth wherever it leads — through terabyte-sized databases, around roadblocks and directly to the heart of a story.
Center for Public Integrity staff
John Dunbar
John has been CEO of the Center for Public Integrity since Nov. 15, 2016. He is the creator of Consider the Source, the Center's ongoing investigation of the impact of money on state and federal politics. He returned to the Center in 2011 after spending two years as director of the "Connected" project at the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University where he investigated the political influence of the telecommunications and media industries.... More about John Dunbar
Nesima Aberra
Nesima Aberra is the Audience Engagement Editor at the Center for Public Integrity, where she works on editorial strategy, social media content, and membership cultivation. She joined the Center in September 2017 after completing her graduate degree in International Media at American University. Her previous experiences include reporting at Vox, strategic communications at Neimand Collaborative and nonprofit marketing at Mission Asset Fund.... More about Nesima Aberra
Ashley Balcerzak
Ashley Balcerzak joined the federal politics team in 2017, her second stint at the Center for Public Integrity after covering state and local politics as an American University Fellow in 2015-2016.... More about Ashley Balcerzak
Lateshia Beachum
Lateshia Beachum is a reporter on the federal politics team. She joined the Center for Public Integrity in 2016 as a Kellogg Investigative Reporting Fellow for the Center’s Economic Injustice and No Way Up projects.... More about Lateshia Beachum
Jared Bennett
Jared Bennett is the Center's business reporter. Previously at the Center he worked as digital editor and reporter. He worked as a digital producer at WBUR, in Boston, before joining the Center's digital team in the summer of 2014. Jared graduated with a master's degree in multimedia journalism from Emerson College in 2014 and a bachelor's degree in English literature from SUNY Geneseo in 2011.... More about Jared Bennett
Dorothy Betts
With 35 years of administrative experience, calm demeanor and excellent judgment, Betts is an integral part of the Center's operations. Her previous role at the Management Assistance Group included overseeing MAG's day-to-day financial operations, managing payroll and accounts payable, maintaining consulting files and liasing with clients. In addition to her work, she is a leader in her community.... More about Dorothy Betts
Fatima Bhojani
Fatima Bhojani is the 2018 W.K. Kellogg Fellow in investigative reporting where she works with the Center's environment and labor team. She was previously an intern on the national security team at Reuters. She graduated from the Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism program at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 2015. Her work has appeared in Foreign Affairs and The Washington Post.... More about Fatima Bhojani
Madeline Buiano
Madeline Buiano is the 2018 James R. Soles Fellow, working with the immigration team. She recently graduated from the University of Delaware earning a B.A. in English with a concentration in journalism. Before joining the Center for Public Integrity, Madeline worked as the community engagement editor for the student newspaper, The Review. Her work can also be found in The News Journal and Delaware Today magazine where she worked as an intern. ... More about Madeline Buiano
Rosie Cima
Rosie Cima is the 2018 Knight Data Journalism Fellow. She was previously a staff writer at media startup Priceonomics, and a politics blogger for MapLight, a campaign finance transparency organization. Her writing and graphics can also be found in The Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, Vox, Quartz and The Pudding. She has her M.A. in journalism and her B.S. in symbolic systems, both from Stanford University.... More about Rosie Cima
Susan Ferriss
Susan Ferriss is a prize-winning former foreign correspondent who has been investigating treatment of children by the U.S. justice and immigration system, law enforcement and the school-discipline process. She joined the Center in 2011.... More about Susan Ferriss
Zachary Fryer-Biggs
Zach joined the Center for Public Integrity in 2018 as a national security reporter. Since 2011, Zach has covered national security and intelligence, reporting from the Pentagon and internationally most recently for Newsweek where he wrote for both the publication’s print magazine and website. Before joining Newsweek, he was the Pentagon correspondent for Jane’s covering national security operations and policy with a specialty in cyberwarfare.... More about Zachary Fryer-Biggs
Kristian Hernández
Kristian Hernández is the 2017 American University Fellow working with the Consider the Source state politics team. Before joining the Center, he worked for The Monitor newspaper in McAllen, Texas, where he covered crime and immigration. In 2014, Hernández covered the superior court for Homicide Watch D.C. and politics for Hispanic Link news service. He graduated from the University of Texas at El Paso with a bachelor’s degree in multimedia journalism.... More about Kristian Hernández
Allan Holmes
Allan Holmes heads up business and finance reporting at the Center and is currently working on a project about the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. He previously reported on broadband and internet governance. Before joining the Center in 2013, Holmes worked at Bloomberg News, where he led a team of technology reporters and analysts writing about telecommunications, cybersecurity and privacy policies.... More about Allan Holmes
Jamie Smith Hopkins
Jamie Smith Hopkins is a reporter and deputy editor on the Center for Public Integrity's environment and labor team. Her work includes “America’s Super Polluters” — which revealed that facilities pumping out the largest amounts of toxic air pollution are frequently also the biggest emitters of climate-warming greenhouse gases — and an investigation of government inaction that has allowed a decades-long string of deaths from widely available paint removers to continue unabated.... More about Jamie Smith Hopkins
Maryam Jameel
Maryam Jameel is a reporter on the environment and labor team. She joined the Center for Public Integrity in 2014 as a Kellogg Investigative Reporting Fellow after working with KQED's public affairs program Forum in San Francisco and Al Jazeera's documentary series Fault Lines. She earned her undergraduate degree in journalism, with a concentration in broadcast, from Northwestern University.... More about Maryam Jameel
Sameea Kamal
Sameea Kamal is the digital editor at the Center for Public Integrity. She joined the Center in November 2017. Sameea previously worked on the digital team at the Los Angeles Times. She has previously reported for trade publications and on local government news in Southern California.... More about Sameea Kamal
Rui Kaneya
Rui Kaneya is a reporter on the Center for Public Integrity’s state politics team. Before joining the Center in 2018, he was an investigative reporter for Honolulu Civil Beat, covering criminal justice, immigration and other social justice issues.... More about Rui Kaneya
Sarah Kleiner
Sarah Kleiner joined the Center for Public Integrity’s federal politics team in 2017. During her 13-year journalism career, Kleiner has reported on a range of topics: state politics, city government, education, mental health, criminal justice, real estate and financial services. Her work has won numerous awards — most recently, the 2016 Virginia Press Association Journalistic Integrity and Community Service award for her investigation into the death of a mentally ill jail inmate.... More about Sarah Kleiner
Rachel Leven
Rachel Leven joined the Center for Public Integrity in 2017 to report for its environment and labor team. Before that, she worked for Bloomberg BNA’s environment desk covering issues from pipeline safety to environmental justice. She also previously reported on The Hill newspaper’s Business and Lobbying team, where her work earned a Society for Professional Journalists investigative reporting award.... More about Rachel Leven
Carrie Levine
Carrie Levine joined the Center for Public Integrity in October 2014 as a federal politics reporter investigating the influence of money in politics. For four years before joining the Center, she worked as research director at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, where she managed a five-person staff that exposed the activities of politically active “dark money” nonprofits and uncovered instances of congressional self-dealing.... More about Carrie Levine
Dave Levinthal
Dave Levinthal joined the Center for Public Integrity in 2013 and leads its federal politics reporting team. Under Dave's direction, the Center's political coverage has earned numerous honors, including two 2018 Edward R.... More about Dave Levinthal
Patrick Malone
Patrick Malone joined the Center for Public Integrity in May 2015 to cover national security. He spent 20 years reporting on justice, politics and deep investigations for newspapers in Colorado and New Mexico, most recently at The Santa Fe New Mexican.... More about Patrick Malone
Marcia Maziarz
Marcia joined the Center in May 2016 as Director of Foundations and oversees its foundation portfolio, including prospect research and management, proposal writing, and grant reporting. An editor and writer, she has more than 20 years of development and fundraising experience. She comes to the Center most recently from the District of Columbia Public Library, where she managed all aspects of their federal grants program, including writing and researching proposals, monitoring expe... More about Marcia Maziarz
Jim Morris
Jim Morris is managing editor for environment and workers' rights at the Center for Public Integrity. A journalist since 1978, Morris has won more than 80 awards for his work, including the George Polk award, the Sidney Hillman award, three National Association of Science Writers awards, two Edward R. Murrow awards and five Texas Headliners awards. He directed a global investigation of the asbestos industry that won the John B.... More about Jim Morris
Mark Olalde
Mark Olalde is the 2018 American University Fellow and is working with the state politics team. He spent the past several years as a freelance journalist, most recently reporting on the underfunding of coal mine cleanup across the U.S. on a McGraw Fellowship for Business Journalism.... More about Mark Olalde
Trina Ramsey
Trina Ramsey became the Center's Chief Development Officer in April 2018. Trina joined the team in May 2016 as Director of Annual Giving where she led the Center’s strategy for attracting, retaining and upgrading individual and major donors. She has spent 20 years in nonprofit fundraising and management, including her most recent position as the Director of Major Gifts for Common Cause.... More about Trina Ramsey
Pratheek Rebala
News developer Pratheek Rebala spent three and a half years as an interactive graphics intern in the D.C. bureau of Time magazine while simultaneously completing a degree in international affairs at George Washington University. He was previously lead developer at The GW Hatchet.... More about Pratheek Rebala
Peter Newbatt Smith
Before coming to the Center, Peter Smith was employed as a law clerk at the firm of Gaffney & Schember, P.C., in Washington, D.C. He received his bachelor’s degree in medieval European history from Harvard University and his law degree from American University.... More about Peter Newbatt Smith
R. Jeffrey Smith
Smith worked for 25 years in a series of key reporting and editorial roles at The Washington Post, including national investigative editor, national security correspondent, national investigative correspondent, and a foreign staff bureau chief based in Rome. In 2006, he won the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting, along with two colleagues at the Post, for articles on House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and lobbyist Jack Abramoff.... More about R. Jeffrey Smith
Abeo Venzor
Abeo joined the Center in September 2015 as the Development Database Administrator, and was soon promoted to the position of Senior Manager, Membership/Development Operations.... More about Abeo Venzor
Kytja Weir
Kytja Weir joined the Center for Public Integrity in 2013 and leads its state politics team, which seeks to uncover who is trying to influence state governments around the nation. Stories produced under her direction have won multiple honors including from the National Press Club, Editor & Publisher, the Online News Association, Gerald Loeb Awards, Scripps Howard and the Association of Health Care Journalists.... More about Kytja Weir
Liz Essley Whyte
Liz Essley Whyte is a reporter for the Consider the Source state politics team, where her investigative work has won awards from the National Press Club, Editor & Publisher, the Association of Health Care Journalists, the New York Press Club and local chapters of the Society of Professional Journalists. Before joining the Center in 2014 as an American University fellow, she was the managing editor of a quarterly magazine focused on philanthropy.... More about Liz Essley Whyte
Gordon Witkin
Gordon Witkin joined the Center in September 2008 following a long career at U.S. News & World Report and a shorter stint at Congressional Quarterly. At U.S. News, Witkin served as a regional correspondent in Detroit and as bureau chief in Denver, before coming to Washington in 1987. He covered criminal justice for 11 years, before joining the management ranks as chief of correspondents in 1998.... More about Gordon Witkin
Joe Yerardi
Joe Yerardi is a data reporter at the Center for Public Integrity, focusing primarily on state politics and policy. In this role, he combines traditional reporting techniques with data analysis, visualization and programming to tell investigative stories. This is Joe's second stint at the Center for Public Integrity, having interned on the Center's data team in 2012.... More about Joe Yerardi
Jie Jenny Zou
Jie Jenny Zou has been an investigative reporter with the Center’s award-winning environment and workers' rights team since 2015. Her work includes deep dives on the influence of the fossil-fuel industry, as well as scientific integrity and conflicts of interest. Before joining the Center, she was a data-based reporter in New York investigating prisons and jails as well as judicial misconduct.... More about Jie Jenny Zou
Chris Zubak-Skees
Data editor Chris Zubak-Skees is a computational journalist who works at the intersection of media, technology and design. Projects he contributed to have won Loeb, Goldsmith and Philip Meyer awards, as well as a bronze at Malofiej. A graduate from Rochester Institute of Technology with a journalism and computer science education, he previously served as a reporting fellow at the Sunlight Foundation.... More about Chris Zubak-Skees