Florida Center for Investigative Reporting is operated by professional journalists and overseen by a Board of Directors whose backgrounds include journalism, law, government and accounting.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Sharon Rosenhause (Board President), retired managing editor of the Sun-Sentinel, has served on many news organization boards, including the American Society of News Editors, Associated Press Managing Editors and Florida Society of Newspaper Editors and currently the Institute for Justice and Journalism. A visiting professor of ethics and diversity in 2009 at Arizona State University’s Cronkite School, Rosenhause edited the 2011 News21 food safety investigation at ASU and is editing the News21 voting rights project this summer.
Joe Adams (Board Treasurer) is an editorial writer for the Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville and author of The Florida Public Records Handbook.
Jim Baltzelle is the Florida bureau chief and Caribbean sales manager for the Associated Press. He is also president of the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors and a Sulzberger Fellow at the Columbia Journalism School.
Gregg D. Thomas is the managing partner of Thomas & LoCicero. He has defended newspapers and television stations in more than 100 defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, invasion of privacy, and intellectual property matters.
Dr. Stephanie Tripp is a digital media theorist and practitioner who teaches at the University of Tampa. She previously worked as a reporter at The Tampa Tribune and The Ledger in Lakeland.
Mercedes Vigón is the associate director of the International Media Center in Miami. She also worked as a TV news director for Net Financial News, as executive producer and international writer for CBS Telenoticias, and as a journalist with United Press International.
Matt Waite is a former senior news technologist for the St. Petersburg Times and the principal developer of the Pulitzer Prize-winning PolitiFact.
COMMITTEE OF ADVISORS
David Donald is data editor at the Center for Public Integrity in Washington, D.C.
Manny Garcia is executive editor of El Nuevo Herald in Miami.
Josie Goytisolo is vice president for news and public affairs at Holavision TV. She is a four-time Emmy Award winner and a pioneer in the Spanish-language news industry.
Brant Houston is the Knight chair in investigative and enterprise reporting at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and chair of the Investigative News Network.
Patrick Manteiga is editor and publisher of Tampa’s La Gaceta, the nation’s only trilingual newspaper.
Dr. Scott Paine is chair of the University of Tampa’s Department of Communications and a former Tampa City Council member.
Louis M. “Skip” Perez is the retired executive editor of The Ledger in Lakeland and the longest-serving executive editor of a daily newspaper in Florida.
Barbara Petersen is president of the First Amendment Foundation, whose purpose is to protect and advance the public’s constitutional right to open government by providing education and training, legal aid and information services.
Neil Reisner is a journalism professor at Florida International University.
Mayela C. Rosales is the executive vice-president of Azteca America SWFL in Fort Myers, Fla.
Lea Thompson is the former chief correspondent for NBC’s Dateline and a board member of Investigative Reporters and Editors.
John Virtue is an author, journalist and director of the International Media Center in Miami.
