Meet the candidates for the IRE Board of Directors

IRE members will be electing six board members at the annual membership meeting, June 13, at the 2009 IRE Conference in Baltimore.


Robert CribbRobert Cribb — I'm an investigative reporter at the Toronto Star, past president of the Canadian Association of Journalists, current president of a national Canadian journalism educational foundation, a lecturer at Toronto's Ryerson University School of Journalism and co-author of "Digging Deeper: A Canadian Reporter's Research Guide" (Oxford University Press).

I wish to be formally referred to as the 'dark horse Canadian hoser candidate.'

I've thrown my hat in the ring for a couple of reasons.

I've been an IRE member for about a decade now and have been a delegate or speaker at several conferences over that time. I underwent my bootcamp in 2000 and have since turned to IRE many times since for tips on computer-assisted reporting projects I've done at the Star or ideas for the CAR classes I've been teaching at Ryerson University for the past eight years.

As a volunteer board member of the Canadian Association of Journalists — IRE's northern cousin — I've helped organize more than a dozen national and regional conferences. I'm currently president of the Canadian Association of Journalists Educational Foundation, a new charitable organization focusing on professional development and public awareness around journalistic issues in Canada.

Over the years I've worked closely with IRE folks like Brant Houston, David Donald and Aron Pilhofer on projects including the Global Investigative Journalism Conference in Toronto a couple of years ago and regional conferences co-hosted by the Canadian Association of Journalists and the IRE in Vancouver and Windsor, Ontario. Those experiences fostered a deep respect for IRE's mission and an interest in playing a greater role it moving it forward.

The IRE's growing foreign membership has been without representation on the board so far. I humbly submit it may be enriching for everyone involved in the organization to have those unique perspectives represented and better reflected within the organization. Projects like the Global Investigative Journalism conferences have, I think, shown the tremendous value of widening the circle and drawing from the wisdom and ideas abroad.

A global perspective offers, I think, the possibility of new exposure to largely unknown faces, compelling story ideas, documents and methods that hold applicability — and inspiration — for everyone doing this work.

An outward-looking focus is an important part of the IRE's current mandate. But bringing journalists into the tent from outside requires an understanding at the board level of the challenges of doing investigative journalism outside the U.S. Those unique challenges, and the methods those journalists have discovered for overcoming them, hold valuable lessons for anyone doing this kind of work.

My own investigations over the past decade include series on serious food safety problems, exploitation of foreign workers, illegal slaughterhouses, fraudulent telemarketing boiler rooms, dangerous doctors, slum landlords, airline safety and government corruption. They've generated more than a dozen national citations and awards as well as a couple of IRE nominations. More importantly, several have triggered meaningful legislative changes.

I owe much of that good fortune to techniques and understanding I've gained through an association with the IRE. If there's anything I do to help out, I'm standing by.

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Leonard Downie, Jr. Leonard Downie Jr. — I'm Leonard Downie Jr., vice president at large and former executive editor of The Washington Post, where I worked as an investigative reporter, foreign correspondent and editor for 44 years. A good number of the 25 Pulitzer Prizes won by our newsroom during my 17 years as executive editor were for investigative journalism.

Beginning in August, I also will be Weil Family Professor of Journalism at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. And I am currently working on a report on the future of American news reporting for the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. I'm the author of five books, including "The New Muckrakers"(about investigative reporters), "The News About the News: American Journalism in Peril" (with Robert G. Kaiser), and a novel, "The Rules of the Game," about an investigative reporter in Washington.

I'm a founder and supporter of IRE, and I'm standing as a candidate for the IRE board because I believe its role in accountability reporting is more important than ever as American journalism is transformed in the Internet age. I would bring to the board deep current knowledge of that transition and the current state of investigative reporting in legacy news media, recent on-line startups and university-sponsored projects. I have decades of news management experience and served on several other boards in the past.

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David Cay JohnstonDavid Cay Johnston — Since age 18 in 1967 my investigations have exposed LAPD abuses, corrupt news organizations, cost a worldwide CEO his job, sent at least eight people to prison, won freedom for an innocent man after I hunted down a killer the police failed to catch, revealed corrupt charities and that Donald Trump had a negative net worth. My work exposing how the super-rich rigged the economy was recognized with an IRE medal for my book “Perfectly Legal” and a Pulitzer for articles in The New York Times.

I retired from daily journalism in 2008, but continue to write books, magazine articles and a column for Tax Notes. I do commentaries for NPR and others. At Syracuse University’s management and law schools I teach the law of the ancient world. I also lecture around the world on journalism and economic issues and appear frequently on national television to explain economic and tax issues in plain English.

Over two decades I am endowing IRE scholarships for young women investigative reporters of modest means. I help IRE raise funds from prospective new donors and several weekends a year volunteer at IRE Watchdog sessions.

As a director of Geva Theatre in Rochester, N.Y., and other nonprofits, and as founding chairman of a small hotel management company run by two of my sons, I have experience in oversight, strategic planning, marketing and financial analysis that will help keep IRE focused and well-run while working to have a board that gives oversight without micromanaging.

As traditional newsrooms wither, the skills, insights and ethical standards that we stand for must endure and be passed on to future generations of diggers. Solid financing, sound management and forward-looking planning are crucial to that cause.

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Lise OlsenLise Olsen — A board member since 2007, I founded IRE's new international task force, worked to develop our first bilingual workshops, helped raise more than $40,000 in contributions and worked hard on conferences in Houston, Miami and El Paso.

I might have done more if Hurricane Ike hadn't hit my house last year — the same weekend the rest of the board was meeting in Columbia.

We're all facing tough times, but that's why IRE is more important than ever. I'd like to continue to serve to help ensure IRE stays strong and able to make sure investigative reporting continues no matter what.

That's why I'm seeking your support for another two years.

As a volunteer for IRE, I've trained journalists in more than a dozen countries. As a CAR guru, investigative reporter for 20 years and former director of IRE's Mexico project, I bring special skills and knowledge to our board.

I'm grateful to still have a job as an investigative reporter at the Houston Chronicle and bosses who believe in IRE. My old paper, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, is gone. The newspaper where I started, The Virginian-Pilot, was put up for sale but got no takers. My friends in TV, too, are fighting to keep investigating with fewer resources. And J-schools and new non-profits are filling up with our IRE buddies nationwide.

One journalism era is ending, but I have hope for a new media world just starting to take shape. This transformational time, however, presents difficult challenges for IRE. So it's important that we all band together — and reach out — to fight for the future of investigative reporting. If re-elected, that's what I plan to do.

Please vote. And if you possibly can, come to the IRE conference in Baltimore to support our future. Hope to see you there.

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Cheryl PhillipsCheryl Phillips — I am asking for your vote to re-elect me to the IRE board. I've served on this board since 2001 and for the last year, I've had the honor of being president of the board.

I want to serve one final term because I believe in these difficult and tumultuous times that the more continuity we have as a board, the better.

I also have a foot in more than one world. I am part of the print world at The Seattle Times. And since I'm in a market where we have recently lost another print publication — The Seattle Post-Intelligencer — I am very aware of the challenges we face. Yet in my current job as data enterprise editor, I am charged with finding the online opportunities to develop enterprise and Watchdog journalism and boost the impact of those stories with interactive tools — from flash graphics to searchable databases. As part of that, I believe that there are plenty of opportunities for investigative journalism in this changing order.

IRE is positioned to help all of our members continue to report and edit smart investigative journalism that will make a difference. We also can reach out to new members and provide them with the training that will help their investigative skills.

I know a lot of you, but for those of you who aren't familiar with me, I have helped IRE raise money for its endowment, plan its conferences, set its budgets and train its members. I know I certainly have IRE to thank for much in my own career. IRE members are the ones who first introduced me to a CAR conference (even sharing hotel rooms with me) and taught me how to conduct tough interviews as well as fight to obtain data and then analyze it. That training has been invaluable in a myriad of stories I've either written or edited.

I have worked as a reporter and editor at several publications, including the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, a small daily in Montana, The Detroit News, USA TODAY and The Seattle Times. In Seattle, I've worked as an investigative reporter, deputy investigations editor and now, as the data enterprise editor. I have twice been part of teams that were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. I also headed a project on airport security that won an SDX award among others.

I couldn't have done that work without the training and skills that IRE has given me.

Today, as the industry transforms, the continued success of IRE is crucial. I am asking for you to re-elect me to one more term so that I can help IRE manage through the tough times journalists are in. I believe IRE can grow even more as a place where members can learn from one another, network and foster what we all believe in: investigative reporting that makes a difference.

Thanks very much for your vote.

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Lea ThompsonLea Thompson — I am running for the Board because I believe we need continuum and good leadership as we move through tough times. Along with the Executive Committee and the Board, I have been helping redesign IRE to meet the needs of present and future members to survive and thrive in this new journalism environment. I quickly discovered when I joined the Board that there is a stiff learning curve. IRE is a million-dollar operation with an endowment of almost $3 million. I know how this organization works, I know the staff. I am up to speed.

My IRE background: For two and a half years, I have been on the IRE Executive Committee, which meets almost once a week. This past year, I was elected Treasurer and served dual roles as watchdog of our operating money and Chairman of the Endowment Committee. I was also on the Awards Committee and gathered some speakers for this Baltimore Conference, including our keynoter. Last year I served as co-chair of the 2008 IRE Conference in Miami. My goal was to raise involvement and services to broadcasters and to those working online. I am pleased to report, we almost doubled the number of broadcasters who took part in panels last year and added a whole new "track" for the Web. I also raised money for IRE, attended every board meeting and did considerable travel at my own expense.

My professional background: I guess you call me a veteran broadcast journalist. I have been an investigative correspondent/reporter, managing editor, blogger and member of IRE for decades — speaking on different topics at almost every IRE conference. I have worked in network, cable, syndication and local television and radio and on the Web. For fifteen years I was a chief correspondent at Dateline NBC and worked for all NBC's partners: MSNBC, CNBC, its Web operations, as well as Discovery, the Learning Channel and more. Before that — for 15 years — I co-headed the investigative unit and anchored at WRC/NBC in Washington, D.C. Teams I headed brought on three acts of Congress, and hundreds of changes by governments, law enforcement, companies, manufacturers and retailers. A few of my stories became books and made-for-TV movies.

Awards: I have won Polks, Peabodys, National Emmys, Murrows, a Loeb, etc. and dozens of civic awards but I treasure my six IRE awards — especially the two medals, including the Tom Renner Award.

Most important: I am a fierce advocate of investigative reporting. I speak and write about it. I believe IRE gives us the skills and encouragement to dig deeper and its training gives the edge to keep our jobs so we can continue to do it.

Thanks for voting for me. I decided to run again because I believe in IRE. It is also my pay back to all those who have come before and are mentors to me. I think I have a lot to give to IRE and now that I have served in so many capacities on the Board, I know where to target my help.

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Alison YoungAlison Young — I'm seeking your support for a second term on the Board of Directors because I want to help IRE remain a strong and essential resource in this critical time for investigative journalism.

For the past year I have served as the board's vice president. I have chaired the Member Services Committee since being elected in 2007. Most of my career has been as a reporter and editor at regional newspapers. I understand the challenges our members face in these organizations. I have been a vocal advocate for keeping our training costs as low as possible and expanding the services we provide to those who can't attend our national conferences.

IRE is a great organization with a committed membership and staff. But we need to do more to adapt as the news industry changes. With the Member Services Committee, I have led initiatives to expand IRE's membership and make it more inclusive (including a proposal that will be voted on in June). With the full board I have led strategic discussions about how IRE can grow membership from new and traditional newsrooms, better market our services and identify new sources of income.

I am a longtime IRE member and I am grateful for the skills this organization has given me. I currently write a weekly watchdog column called Spotlight for the Sunday Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Each week's story is a testament to the resources IRE provides for journalists who need to go deep — and do it fast.

Prior to the column's debut in October 2008, I covered the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. I was a member of Knight Ridder's Washington-based investigative team from 2003 to 2006. Before that I spent 10 years at the Detroit Free Press, where I was a reporter, enterprise editor and the deputy metro editor. I also have reported for The Arizona Republic and the Dallas Times Herald. My reporting honors include two Scripps Howard awards, two Gerald Loeb Awards and two National Headliners.

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