IRE's Directors Back to IRE Staff

Mark Horvit
Executive Director

Mark Horvit became IRE's executive director in January 2008.  A longtime IRE member and native of Texas, Horvit most recently served as projects editor at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. His journalism career includes reporting and editing duties at The News Herald (Panama City, Fla.), Corpus Christi (Texas) Caller-Times, The Houston Post, Columbia (Mo.) Daily Tribune and The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer before joining the Star-Telegram, where he worked both as a reporter and an editor.

Jeremy Milarsky
Database Library Director

Jeremy Milarsky is the Database Library director for IRE and NICAR. Milarsky started working for newspapers shortly after getting his driverÕs license and became involved in Internet journalism before the days of the World Wide Web (at a dial-up, computerized, bulletin-board-system news service). Much of his career was spent at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale, where he worked as a reporter, news researcher and finally as a manager in the newsroom library. Most recently, Milarsky took a short hiatus from journalism to concentrate on Web programming. Working with data to find interesting stories, and discovering new and different ways of telling them, is his passion.

Training Director

David Donald is the training director for Investigative Reporters and Editors and the National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting. In the past four years, he has coordinated and conducted more than 200 investigative and computer-assisted reporting workshops both in the United States and abroad for print, broadcast and online journalists. He has spoken at conferences for editors' journalism organizations, minority journalism organizations and many beat-related organizations. He recently traveled to Great Britain and to South Africa to do training for journalists there. An award-winning reporter, Donald oversaw the CAR and research programs at the Savannah Morning News after stints on the education beat and the projects team. He has taught at the high school and college levels, including five years as an adjunct instructor at Savannah State University. He holds a master's in journalism from Kent State University.

Beth Kopine
Resource Center Director

Beth Kopine is the Eugene S. Pulliam research director for IRE. As such, she coordinates the collection, indexing and archiving of research materials within a center that now includes more than 23,250 investigative stories and 3,000 reporter tipsheets. She also coordinates the processing of the entries in the annual IRE Awards program. She previously served as visual resources curator for the art history and archaeology department at the University of Missouri. She has a master’s degree in library and information science and is active in the local True/False Film Festival.

 

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Staff Biographies Back to IRE Staff

John Green
IRE Membership Coordinator

As Membership Coordinator, John Green administers member services, periodical subscriptions and directs office personnel. He previously served as video producer and office manager for another journalism nonprofit, New Directions for News. Prior to that, Green served as a financial counselor and special projects coordinator for a Mississippi Gulf Coast hospital and ran his own business in mid-Missouri.

Steve Weinberg
Senior Contributing Editor, The IRE Journal

Steve Weinberg, a former executive director of IRE, is a book author, freelance magazine writer, book reviewer and editor. He teaches journalism at the University of Missouri and is the senior contributing editor of The IRE Journal. His books include the well-regarded "Reporter's Handbook: An Investigator's Guide to Documents and Techniques." He is a frequent expert witness for defendant media organizations that have been sued for libel or other alleged news-related transgressions. As a 1997-98 Alicia Patterson Fellow, Weinberg is researching a biography of Ida Tarbell.

David Herzog
Academic Adviser to NICAR

David Herzog is an associate professor at the Missouri School of Journalism, where he teaches CAR. He serves as the academic adviser to NICAR and is managing editor of Uplink, the institute's newsletter. He is also the author of "Mapping the News: Case Studies in GIS and Journalism." He has been an investigative reporter for The Providence Journal in Rhode Island and the computer-assisted reporting editor at The Morning Call in Allentown, Pa.

Jennifer Erickson
Development Officer

Jennifer Erickson, development officer for IRE, coordinates IRE's fundraising efforts, including IRE's $5 million endowment drive, "Breakthroughs." She also assists with program development for IRE's training seminars and conferences. She came to IRE after serving as executive director and doing fundraising for VSA arts of Missouri, a statewide, nonprofit organization . Prior to that, she was an award-winning teacher, working as the arts specialist at Stephens College Children's School, while pursuing a graduate degree in history at the University of Missouri. Erickson is a graduate of Penn State University and has attended and spoken at multiple workshops, seminars and conferences on best practices in fundraising and development.

Stephanie Sinn
Senior conference coordinator

Stephanie Sinn serves as senior conference coordinator for IRE and NICAR. She handles site selection, hotel negotiations and speaker arrangements for national and regional conferences. She also handles on-the-road training logistics, oversees the administration of the Computer-Assisted Reporting Boot Camps and other specialized training seminars and maintains IRE's events calendar. Before joining IRE, Sinn worked for the University of MissouriÕs School of Social Work, planning their special events and managing their office operations. She previously worked for Pearson Government Solutions.