Lisa Renze

Lisa Renze is the Director of the Unified Media Lab at Ball State University and an Indianapolis-based freelance journalist.

Lisa spent the bulk of her career as a journalist at The Indianapolis Star, covering educational legislative issues that impacted the state’s fastest-growing school districts. She also worked at The South Bend Tribune and other newspapers and specialty magazines throughout the Midwest. Her work has taken her on location throughout North America, Europe and Africa, and she’s earned SPJ, APME, AP, and Hoosier State Press awards. Additionally, she received an Indiana Judges Association Merit Citation for Journalism for fair and balanced reporting.

She holds her MFA in Creative Nonfiction Writing from Butler University, and is a proud alumna of Northwest Missouri State University where she studied broadcasting and journalism.

In her spare time, Lisa spends as much time as possible outdoors, and she and her husband Steve Rhodes shamelessly spoil their two adopted rescue dogs.

You can reach Lisa at lrenze@bsu.edu

Heather Good

Heather Good is Co-Anchor of News 10 This Morning and Assignments Manager for WTHI-TV in Terre Haute, Indiana.

Good joined News 10 in October 2017 as a multimedia journalist. Heather was promoted to weekend evening anchor in October 2018 before taking on additional duties as producer and anchor of the hour-long weekend morning newscast in 2019. She was promoted to weekday morning anchor in April 2021. Not long after, she was promoted to Assignments Manager. She currently serves as both on-air talent and manager. You can see her each weekday morning from 5 to 7 o’clock.

Prior to serving the Wabash Valley, Good worked at stations in Evansville, Indiana and Champaign, Illinois.

Heather has been a board member of the Indiana Professional Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists since 2016. She founded the University of Indianapolis Chapter in 2012 and served as President.

She is the proud product of the UIndy TV program. Her interest in news began at Goshen High School where she was a part of the GTV multimedia class.

Heather is happily married to her best friend, Meteorologist Brady Harp. The couple has worked together since 2015. They spend most of their time outside of work with their dog, Apollo, and cat, Hercules. 

Kara Kenney

WRTV Investigates Kara Kenney fights for what's right and holds those in power accountable.

Her investigations into government fraud and waste have resulted in several changes to Indiana state law including more accountability for how schools report bullying incidents, radon testing in schools, as well as a law that requires more transparency in school superintendent contracts.

In 2022, Kara won the Spectrum Award from the Indiana Broadcasters Association for her investigation “Crisis on the Creek,” as well as 1st Place for Investigative Reporting from the Society of Professional Journalists.

In 2018, she was named Indiana’s Best Reporter by the Associated Press.

She was named Journalist of the Year in 2012 by the Indiana Society of Professional Journalists.

Her investigations have earned her 11 Emmys, the Richard Dreihaus Investigative Award from the Better Government Association, an Edward R. Murrow award, and numerous awards from the Associated Press and the Society of Professional Journalists.

Before joining WRTV, Kenney worked as an Investigative Reporter for WBBH-TV in Fort Myers, Florida where she worked on a series called "Tracking Your Tax Dollars". Before that, she worked for WSJV-TV in South Bend, IN and WAOW-TV in Wausau, Wisconsin.

Kenney is a graduate of Indiana University's School of Journalism. She enjoys spending time with her husband and two daughters.

Joseph Pete

Joseph S. Pete covers steel mills, unions, ports, oil refineries, auto plants, start-ups, craft breweries, banks, supermarkets, restaurants, and other beats for The Times of Northwest Indiana, where he works as a Business Reporter. He also writes for The Times Media Co.'s IN Business Magazine, serves a panelist on the That's So Region Podcast, hosts the Daily Business Roundup show on nwi.com's Facebook page and appears frequently on Lakeshore Public Radio.

The Indiana University graduate, who cut his journalistic teeth at the Indiana Daily Student, Arbutus and WIUX in Bloomington, previously worked as a staff writer for the Johnson County Daily Journal. His literary writing and photography have been published in more than 100 literary journals, and he's read his work on the famed iO Theater stage in Chicago. 
 
Pete has won numerous journalism awards, including several Lisagors, from the Chicago Headline Club, the Hoosier State Press Association, the Indiana Society of Professional Journalists, the Inland Press Association, the Associated Press Media Editors and the National Federation of Press Women. He was also honored for the "Best Bacon Poem" at Baconfest Chicago.

Alicia Morgan

Alicia Morgan is a journalist with more than 23 years of experience at daily newspapers. She currently serves as the News/Digital Editor at the Tribune-Star in Terre Haute. She’s responsible for production of a 5-day-a-week newspaper, a staff of reporters, copy editors and page designers. Other responsibilities include generating content for print and online editions, news decision-making and obituary and community news management. She’s responsible for editorial content on tribstar.com and social media accounts for the newspaper and is a member of the Tribune-Star’s Editorial Board.
 
She also is editor of Terre Haute Living magazine, and responsible for everything from planning of content to production of pages, website content and social media accounts.

Chloe Mcgowan

Chloe McGowan is the Arts and Culture Reporter for the Indianapolis Recorder, which is the nation’s fourth oldest Black newspaper.

Originally from Central Ohio, Chloe studied journalism at The Ohio State University, where she was a member of NABJ and worked as a reporter and assistant Arts & Life editor for The Lantern.

She’s worked for City Scene Media Group, covering business, health, arts, and education across Central Ohio. Post-graduation, Chloe moved to Indianapolis to work for the Indianapolis Star as a Pulliam Fellow on the Things to Do beat.

Chloe is passionate about the arts and minority businesses, and strives to provide solutions journalism to communities facing inequities.

Outside of Work, Chloe enjoys thrifting, live theatre, picking up new hobbies, and spoiling her cat.

George Hale

George Hale is the Special Projects reporter at Indiana Public Media, the converged NPR and PBS newsroom on the campus of IU-Bloomington.  

Starting in 2020, George has reported primarily on the federal death penalty for Indiana public radio stations and NPR’s national newscast. He’s the host of “Rush to Kill,” an investigative podcast focusing on a series of executions during former President Donald Trump’s final months in office. His reporting on the federal death penalty has earned numerous awards, including a regional Edward R. Murrow award. 

Before joining Indiana Public Media, George covered criminal justice issues in rural east Texas and hosted KETR public radio’s investigative podcast “Buried.” 

George also spent nearly eight years based in the occupied West Bank reporting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He’s reported from Israel, Egypt and Jordan.

He is a graduate of The George Washington University’s international affairs school, where he concentrated in Middle East security policy. He also holds a graduate certificate in Media Management from The New School in New York City.

Hilary Powell

Hilary Powell is an AP award-winning television correspondent. Though based in D.C., her heart remains connected to the heartland as a native Hoosier. Her work can be seen on The Christian Broadcast Network, CBN News, The Associated Press and Oprah.com. 

On a typical day, Hilary will work on a story from concept to completion as reporter, producer and editor if necessary. Before heading to the nation’s capital, Hilary  served viewers as a morning reporter for North Carolina’s only statewide news network, Spectrum News. Before that she was a reporter for WSBT-TV,  and managing anchor for PBS in Northwest Indiana. Hilary cut her teeth in network television as an intern for The Oprah Winfrey Show and worked her way up to being one of the youngest associate producers of digital content for The Oprah Winfrey Network. Her work has appeared across the country.

Hilary is from Indianapolis and feels blessed to get close to family when she freelances for the AP in Indy during election season. Hilary feels honored that reporting has taken her across the world in search of truth. She traveled to the DMZ between North Korea and South Korea to explore how families were torn apart by the border. She covered the European refugee crisis on the ground in Berlin, Brussels and the Czech Republic as a fellow with the RIAS Berlin Kommission. She's also been a reporting fellow with the German American Fulbright Kommission in Hamburg, Germany. 

Hilary is a double graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, earning her bachelor's in broadcast journalism and her master's in new media. She is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists. When not at work, she has a passion for mentoring young women and volunteering as a court watcher. She’s humbled to tell someone’s story each day. 

Lisa Green

Lisa Green, a journalist with more than 35 years of daily newspaper experience, is Managing Editor at The Journal Gazette in Fort Wayne.

Lisa joined The Journal Gazette in as Business Editor in 2000 and was promoted to Assistant Managing Editor/Local News in 2013 when the business and metro reporting teams were combined into one department under her leadership. She was promoted to Managing Editor in December 2020.

Before joining the JG, Lisa spent 14 years as a reporter, a City Editor and Assistant Business Editor at The Rockford (Illinois) Register Star, which was owned by Gannett, Inc. She spent four months on loan as a reporter in the Money section at USA Today, also owned by Gannett.

Lisa spent more than 25 years as a workshop facilitator and eventually associate director of the Eastern Illinois University/Illinois Press Association’s summer High School Journalism Workshop for students. Lisa received her bachelor’s degree in journalism from Eastern and in 2005 was recognized by the university’s Journalism Alumni Hall of Fame “for supporting and practicing the highest standards of journalism.”

She previously served on the board for the Indiana Associated Press Media Editors and was on the Newsroom Seminar Committee for the Hoosier State Press Association for more than 10 years.

She has held leadership roles at Greater Progressive Baptist Church in Fort Wayne, including with the church’s media-related ministries. For several years, she taught Junior Achievement and been a mentor to youth through Big Brothers and Big Sisters in Rockford and Fort Wayne. In 2021, Lisa was inducted into the Fort Wayne (IN) chapter of The Links, Incorporated, one of the nation’s oldest and largest volunteer service organizations.

Megan Kramer

Megan Kramer works as the Director of Communications and Organizational Development for the Indiana Department of Revenue.

Before that, she spent more than 17 years working in broadcast television. During her time in the business, she has been recognized for her news coverage by the Associated Press, the Radio Television Digital News Association, and the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

Prior to Indianapolis, she worked at newsrooms in Evansville, Indiana, Savannah, Georgia, and Norfolk, Virginia.

She first learned of her love of journalism while studying at Flagler College in St. Augustine, Florida.

Outside of the newsroom she enjoys spending time with her large family, cheering on the Chicago Cubs and Kentucky Wildcats, and losing herself a good book.

MJ Slaby

MJ Slaby is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Indiana, a nonprofit news organization covering education, especially equity and access issues.  

Originally from northern Indiana, she’s worked at newspapers across the state, largely covering education, including the Indianapolis Star, the Lafayette Journal & Courier, and the Bloomington Herald-Times. MJ also spent a summer living her childhood dreams when she covered the Indiana Fever for The Athletic.  

She’s also worked at the Knoxville News-Sentinel in Tennessee where she covered higher education and was part of the team that launched The Incline, a local news website in Pittsburgh, Pa. There, she wrote mostly about the tech scene and self-driving cars. 

MJ is passionate about education journalism, local news, finding new ways to reach readers, and mentoring young journalists. She is a graduate of Indiana University Bloomington and a proud former Indiana Daily Student editor-in-chief. MJ first joined SPJ as a student and has been involved throughout her career including in Tennessee and Pennsylvania.  

Outside of work, she enjoys spending time with friends and family, exploring Indianapolis, and cheering on IU and Notre Dame sports. She and her husband Dustin, a fellow journalist, live in Indianapolis with their pets Jordy the cat, and Maxine the beagle. 

Mykal McEldowney

Mykal McEldowney is a Pulitzer Prize and Emmy award-winning photojournalist at The Indianapolis Star (IndyStar), part of the USA TODAY NETWORK.

Before his move to IndyStar, Mykal was a staff photojournalist at The Greenville News (SC) and served as the president of the South Carolina News Photographers Association and associate chair of the National Press Photographers Association’s Region 6.

He’s a 2007 graduate of Ohio University’s School of Visual Communication and was a member of Class XX at Eddie Adams Barnstorm Workshop.

Mykal’s photo and video work have been awarded by the White House Correspondents' Association Katharine Graham Award for Courage and Accountability, Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting, multiple National Headliner Awards, National Press Photographers Association’s Cliff Edom New America runner-up, Scripps Howard award for international and national investigations, NFL Pro Football Hall of Fame, Indiana SPJ, South Carolina News Photographers Association, South Carolina Press Association, Associated Press Sports Editors, Associated Press Media Editors, Society of Professional Journalists national, the Indiana News Photographers Association, and others.

Philip Todd

Philip A. S. Todd serves as faculty adviser for The Shield, the student news organization at the University of Southern Indiana in Evansville, where he also teaches journalism.

Phil remembers getting the black-ink bug back in the 70s with a couple of failed startup newsletters created old-school, with a typewriter and lots of carbon paper. Stints on high school and university newspapers led to freelancing, then full-time journalism work for over a decade in south-central Kentucky, including newspapers, magazines and radio.

He left the professional newsroom for faculty advising and university teaching positions for three different student publications and seven different schools in central Oklahoma over the next 23 years. Along the way, he earned a PhD in mass communication at the University of Oklahoma, and his dissertation won the 2020 Penn State Davis Media Ethics Award.

He first joined SPJ’s student chapter at Eastern Kentucky University, and remained involved, including some 20 years with the Oklahoma Pro Chapter, where he served until recently as board secretary. He is also a contest judge, and keeps his foot in the trenches writing the occasional music review and serving as an AP election stringer. He remains passionate about storytelling, editing, and media ethics. 

He and his wife, Heather, along with Bonzo the Irish Wolfhound and Luna the black cat, are ecstatic about everything Evansville, and enjoy supporting the UK WIldcats, the USI “Screagles,” Thunderbolts hockey and now the Indiana Fever.

Scott Uecker

Scott has nearly 40 years of experience in the radio and television industries ranging from on-air work in radio news and sports to management positions in broadcast news, programming, engineering, and station operations.  Most recently, he was an instructor of practice at the University of Indianapolis and the general manager for WICR Public Radio.  Upon his retirement in 2023, UIndy recognized Scott’s more than 25 years in non-commercial educational broadcasting by awarding him assistant professor emeritus status.

Before he left commercial broadcasting for academia in 1997, Scott was the director of news, operations, and programming for Network Indiana.  Under his direction, the regional network grew from 35 affiliates in 1990 to more than 100 radio stations in six years.  He launched the Network Indiana Wire Service and created the widely acclaimed Indiana Sports Talk program which has been in syndication for 30 years.

Scott has had a distinguished sports play-by-play career.  He has called more than 30 Indiana high school state championship games on radio and television, many at the network level.  Since 2005, he has been the radio play-by-play voice of Indianapolis Cathedral “Fighting Irish” football, which is currently heard on Fox Sports 1260 AM, iHeart Media’s all-sports station in Indianapolis.

The Indiana Broadcasters Association has recognized his work four times with the prestigious Spectrum Award for Best Large Market Radio Sports Program.  The Broadcast Education Association presented him with a Faculty Award of Excellence for sports radio in 2011.

Scott is a board member and a past president of the Indiana Professional Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.  He also serves as the treasurer for the Indiana Debate Commission and a lay member on the state’s Oversight Committee on Public Records. 

He is a past president of both the Indiana Broadcasters Association and the Indiana Association of School Broadcasters.  He has previously served on the boards of directors of the Radio-Television Digital News Association, the Indiana Associated Press, and the National Association of State Radio Networks News Directors Association.

Scott holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Radio-Television from Butler University and a Master of Science degree in Information and Communication Science from Ball State University.

Tom Davies

Tom Davies is senior Statehouse reporter for State Affairs Indiana. Tom joined State Affairs in 2023 after more than 20 years as a reporter and editor with the Indianapolis bureau of The Associated Press. He graduated from Ball State University and previously had editing and reporting roles at The Times of Northwest Indiana and the Muncie Star Press. 

Tom has been a member of the Indiana Pro chapter’s board since 2001. He’s a past chapter president and has been its contest chairman for more than a decade. Tom also is a past president and former member of the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame’s board of directors.