Meet Our Experts
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Roll Call
Senate | House | Politics | Capitol Hill
CQ
Defense and Foreign Policy | Domestic Policy | Economy & Budget | Health | Industry, Regulation & Analysis | Money & Influence
CQ Weekly
David Ellis
Chief Content Officer
@dellisnyc
Ellis has spent more than two decades covering business and politics in both the U.S. and Europe, and is skilled at deploying social media to reach the widest possible audience. He’s an energetic and creative editor who can deliver long-range projects on public policy issues, marshalling the resources of dozens of individuals. Ellis is a former reporter at Time and People magazines and still enjoys reporting on a variety of national subjects. He lived in London for more than a decade, and was editor in chief of Moneywise, the U.K.’s leading personal finance magazine. In that role he served as a regular commentator on political and economic issues for the BBC and international media outlets. Ellis, who is a citizen of both the U.S. and U.K., lives in Washington with his wife and two sons.
Roll Call
Christina Bellantoni
Editor-in-Chief
@cbellantoni
Bellantoni took the position of editor-in-chief in January 2014 and is in charge of all editorial, print and digital platforms. Before returning to the newspaper, Bellantoni worked as political editor at the PBS NewsHour, where she directed coverage of the White House, Congress, political campaigns and the Supreme Court. While managing the political unit and the election-year Corporation for Public Broadcasting grant, Bellantoni also served as an on-air political analyst. Prior to working in television, Bellantoni was associate politics editor for Roll Call from October 2010 until January 2012. She has been writing about politics in Washington since fall 2003. In 2009, Bellantoni joined Talking Points Memo, covering the White House and national politics. She worked from 2003 to 2009 at The Washington Times, covering the White House, the 2008 presidential campaign and Congress, and started there covering Virginia state politics. Bellantoni began her journalism career in 1998, writing about technology and business in California. Bellantoni is a regular guest host for WAMU radio’s Kojo Nnamdi Show in Washington. She appears frequently on television, and was a panelist on HBO’s Real Time With Bill Maher in April 2015. Bellantoni currently serves as vice president of the Washington Press Club Foundation, which aims to advance women and minorities in newsrooms, and plays on the Bad News Babes, the media team in the annual Congressional Women’s Softball Game.
David Hawkings
Senior Editor
@davidhawkings
Hawkings writes the Hawkings Here blog for Roll Call. The aim is to provide penetrating, non-partisan and forward-looking analysis of policies being formed on Capitol Hill — and the people and politics driving the legislative debates. Hawkings is in his 20th year at CQ Roll Call. He spent six years as managing editor of CQ Weekly, a magazine covering federal policies, people and politics. He has also been the senior editor for legislative affairs, economics editor, congressional affairs editor, managing editor for daily news and co-editor of “Politics in America,” the company’s signature reference work on members of Congress. He offers analysis every Monday and Friday on NPR’s Washington affiliate, WAMU, and makes frequent appearances as a guest commentator on Fox News, CNN and MSNBC. Before joining the company in 1995, he was a correspondent in the Washington Bureau of Thomson Newspapers and a reporter, columnist and editor at the San Antonio Light. He’s a native of New York and a graduate of Bucknell University.
Kyle Trygstad
Features Editor
@KyleTrygstad
Trygstad has covered national politics in Washington, D.C., since 2006, joining Roll Call as a staff writer in 2010. Now Features Editor at Roll Call, Trygstad previously covered House and Senate campaigns and served as Associate Politics Editor. He previously worked for The Hotline, The Almanac of American Politics and RealClearPolitics. Born in D.C. and raised in Arlington, Va., Trygstad received a degree in journalism from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, where he served as a state legislative stringer for small papers around the state, covered high school football games on Fridays for a local paper and worked nights as a copy messenger at the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Politics:
Reporting on elections for Senate and House seats, campaigns, fundraising and up-and-coming candidates to watch.
Emily Cahn
Staff Writer
@CahnEmily
Cahn is a politics reporter covering House races for Roll Call. A native of New Jersey, Cahn joined Roll Call in April 2012 as an editorial assistant before being promoted to the politics beat. Cahn began her journalism career at the Washington Post, where she served as an editorial aide on the Post’s copy desk. She has also interned at the Hill newspaper, the Houston Chronicle’s D.C. bureau and CBS News. She is a graduate of the George Washington University, where she served as senior news editor at the GW Hatchet, GW’s student newspaper.
Simone Pathe
Staff Writer
@sfpathe
Senate:
Steven T. Dennis
Senate Editor/White House Correspondent
@StevenTDennis
Dennis has been Roll Call’s White House correspondent since 2011 and writes the POTUS Operandi blog. He also serves as Senate leadership editor and edits the #WGDB blog. Previously, he worked stints as congressional leadership editor, Senate leadership reporter and a House leadership reporter at Roll Call starting in 2007. He first started covering Congress for CQ News as a budget reporter in 2005. Before that, he worked as the state house bureau chief for The Gazette Newspapers in Annapolis, as the Montgomery County government reporter for The Montgomery Gazette, and as a reporter and copy editor at The Herald-Mail in Hagerstown, Md. He first covered Congress while a student at the University of Maryland in 1993 for the College of Journalism’s Capital News Service wire.
Matthew Fleming
Staff Writer
@mflemingsenate
Niels Lesniewski
Staff Writer
@nielslesniewski
Lesniewski has covered the Senate for CQ News and later Roll Call since the end of 2009. He previously covered legal affairs and judiciary issues on both sides of the Capitol. Lesniewski has led CQ Roll Call’s coverage of rules and floor fights, with expertise in leadership fights. He has also covered the White House and its relationship with the Capitol. An expert in Senate procedures, his background is in theater.
House:
David Eldridge
Staff Writer
@DavidEldridge
Eldridge has covered Washington news and politics since 1999, when he joined The Washington Times after managing daily newspapers in Nebraska and Texas. The native Texan and father of three came aboard at Roll Call in 2014 as House editor.
Emma Dumain
Staff Writer
@Emma_Dumain
On the House leadership beat since May 2013, Dumain has covered the government shutdown, the immigration debate, leadership elections and intraparty turmoil on both sides of the aisle. She previously covered the campus beat. Dumain began her political journalism career in Washington on the CQ side of the newsroom, covering the nitty-gritty of the legislative process and following bills as they moved through the congressional pipeline, before moving to Roll Call in 2011. Dumain graduated from Oberlin College in 2008, where she majored in English and was editor-in-chief of the official student newspaper.
Matt Fuller
Staff Writer
@MEPFuller
Fuller has covered House leadership for Roll Call since 2013, where he started his career as an intern in 2009. In between, he worked as a researcher and then a legislative reporter for CQ News, where he covered energy, environment, agriculture, defense and the House and Senate floors. Since rejoining Roll Call he has broken news on stories including the GOP decision to split the farm bill, conservative opposition to U.S. intervention in Syria, Republican leadership strategies and offers to avoid and end a government shutdown and conservative meetings to oust the speaker.
Capitol Hill:
Covering Capitol Hill and the surrounding areas as a community; D.C. news, Capitol Hill police, local events and daily gossip from the halls of Congress.
Jason Dick
Capitol Hill Editor
@jasonjdick
Dick is the Capitol Hill Editor for Roll Call. He has covered the political, leadership, community and policy aspects of Congress and Washington. Before joining Roll Call in 2011, he worked at National Journal as the editor of CongressDaily, and he started his journalism career at GreenWire. An Arizona native, he is also a former AmeriCorps volunteer and high school and college teacher. He lives on Capitol Hill.
Rebecca Gale
Opinion Editor
@beckgale
Rebecca Gale is the opinion editor for Roll Call and author of the Hill Navigator, our workplace advice column. Prior to coming to CQ Roll Call, Rebecca worked as a press secretary and communications director for senators and members of Congress on Capitol Hill. She has also worked on presidential and congressional campaigns, both as spokeswoman and communications director. She graduated with honors from Miami University in Ohio and has a master’s degree in political communication from The Johns Hopkins University. Her short stories have appeared in anthologies published by Boxfire Press, and her debut novel, “Trying,” was published by Boxfire Press in December 2012.
Hannah Hess
Staff Writer
@ha-nah-nah
Hess covers the Capitol campus for Roll Call, reporting on legislative branch agencies, administration of the House and Senate, and Congress’ oversight of the District of Columbia. Her political reporting experience includes two statehouse bureaus and the early stages of the 2012 presidential campaign trail. Prior to joining Roll Call, she covered the Virginia General Assembly, the campaign for the 2012 Iowa caucuses and the Illinois General Assembly. Her work has appeared in the St. Louis Post Dispatch, the Washington Examiner and the Omaha World-Herald. Originally from Illinois, Hess holds two degrees from the University of Illinois — a bachelor’s degree in media studies and a master’s degree in public affairs reporting.
Bridget Bowman
Staff Writer
@bridgetbhc
Bowman joined Roll Call from PBS NewsHour, where she was a broadcast desk assistant on the politics team and participated in the production of the daily program. She graduated with a political science degree from the College of the Holy Cross, where she wrote for the campus newspaper and interned at Meet the Press as part of the Washington Semester Program. Bowman is from Buffalo, N.Y.
Warren Rojas
CQ
Steven Komarow
Vice President and News Director
Komarow, as CQ News Director and Vice President, oversees our premier news and analysis products. A veteran foreign correspondent and newsroom manager, Komarow’s experiences range from chasing former House Speaker Jim Wright down the hallways of Congress to smuggling a rescue dog out of Afghanistan over the Khyber Pass to exploring the “spider hole” where Saddam Hussein was finally caught by U.S. forces. Komarow has a deep attachment to Congress and served as chairman of the Standing Committee of Correspondents in 1992 when he was AP’s chief congressional correspondent. He covered the presidential campaigns in 1988 and 1992 for the AP before joining USA Today in 1993 as a defense correspondent. In the 1990s, he accompanied the first U.S. ground troops into Bosnia, Kosovo, and Haiti. In 2000, Komarow opened USA Today’s bureau in Berlin. From there, he was deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq where he was embedded with the Army during the invasion and went on to cover the first Iraqi elections, the capture and trial of Saddam, and the subsequent insurgency. With USA Today he reported from over 20 countries across Europe, Asia and the Middle East. In 2006, he returned to the AP as Deputy International Editor based in New York, and two years later returned to Washington as Deputy Bureau Chief, helping to manage coverage of the 2008 presidential elections. Two years later, Komarow joined Bloomberg to lead its defense team, and most recently led the wire service’s coverage of the Obama White House, the Justice Department and Homeland Security Department. Komarow is also an adjunct lecturer on political and military journalism for Northwestern University’s Washington, D.C. program, where he has put his battlefield experience to use leading students through hostile environment training. He holds a B.A. in political science from George Washington University.
Money & Influence
Kevin Whitelaw
Editor
Whitelaw supervises CQ News coverage of lobbying, campaign finance and other ways people try to influence Congress, after heading up coverage of appropriations and budget issues for a year and the defense and foreign policy team for four years. Prior to that, Whitelaw spent most of his career at U.S. News and World Report, where he covered national security, intelligence, and foreign policy. He has reported from Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo, Rwanda, Israel and many more. Whitelaw is a graduate of Princeton University.
Areas of Expertise: Defense, national security, foreign policy
Kate Ackley
Lobby & Influence Reporter
Ackley covers lobbying, influence and political money for CQ News. She is an expert on K Street and the relationship between Congress and those seeking to influence it. She previously covered financial services, banking, housing and trade policy for CQ as well as lobbying for Roll Call and Legal Times/Influence. She covered state, local and national politics and government issues during internships with The Wall Street Journal, Reader’s Digest magazine and the Fort Collins Coloradoan. Ackley grew up in Denver and graduated from the University of Colorado.
Areas of Expertise: Lobbying, influence, K Street, campaign finance, Wall Street, financial sector, trade deals, housing
Eliza Newlin Carney
Campaign Finance Reporter
Carney is a senior writer covering lobbying, influence and political money for CQ Roll Call. Carney writes features, investigative stories and news articles for CQ Weekly and CQ News. Carney signed on in 2011 as a Roll Call staff writer. She joined the CQ staff in April 2013. She previously was a contributing editor at National Journal, writing about campaign financing and Washington’s influence industry. She wrote a political money column for NationalJournal.com, and contributed features to National Journal and Government Executive magazines. Before that Carney spent close to 10 years as a National Journal staff correspondent covering Congress, political money and lobbying. She also has taught journalism at George Washington University’s School of Media and Public Affairs.
Areas of Expertise: Campaign finance
Sarah Chacko
White House & Leadership Reporter
Chacko started as a legislative action reporter for CQ News in November 2012. Prior to that, she covered government contract and grant spending for the Federal Times and the Louisiana state legislature for The Advocate in Baton Rouge. She also worked in Texas as an education reporter for the Denton Record-Chronicle and city hall reporter for the Killeen Daily Herald. Chacko is a graduate of Texas Christian University and a graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.
Areas of Expertise: Senate floor procedure
Alan Ota
Economy Reporter
Ota writes on the intersection of politics and economic policy. He covers Congress and business, and focuses on the impact of legislation on corporations, small businesses and workers. He is a Washington native and a former Nieman fellow at Harvard University.
Areas of Expertise: Taxes, budget, business, regulation, commerce, labor
Economy & Budget
Emily Ethridge
Budget Tracker Editor
Ethridge joined CQ in 2008 and has covered the appropriations and budget process as well as health care policy, including the development and implementation of the 2010 health care law. She has covered several debates on fiscal policy, including the “fiscal cliff” fight in 2012 and the administration’s request for emergency funding to respond to a surge of child migrants in 2014. She also is familiar with parliamentary procedure, having covered legislative action on several committees and the Senate and House floors. Prior to joining CQ, she was a reporter focusing on the prescription drug and medical device industries. A native of Charlotte, N.C., Emily has lived in the D.C. area since graduating from Johns Hopkins with a degree in Writing Seminars.
Areas of Expertise: Budget, appropriations, fiscal policy, health care overhaul, Medicare, FDA
Tamar Hallerman
Appropriations Reporter
Hallerman covers the House and Senate Appropriations committees, which set annual funding for most federal agencies. In this position, she’s covered debates over fiscal policy, including the negotiation and rollout of the fiscal 2014 omnibus and the debt ceiling. She’s also written in depth about immigration, homeland security and Ebola funding. Hallerman previously worked as an energy and environmental policy reporter, primarily covering the Department of Energy and EPA.
Areas of Expertise: Annual appropriations for energy and environmental programs, budget, fiscal issues, immigration
Paul Krawzak
Budget Reporter
Krawzak covers the budget for CQ News, where he has worked since 2009. He has broken numerous stories including the CBO’s inability to score the Affordable Care Act; predicted the 2013 budget deal between Paul D. Ryan and Patty Murray; and wrote an exclusive inside look at budget negotiations between the White House and Congress. He previously served as Pentagon correspondent for the San Diego Union-Tribune and covered Congress and Illinois government for the Copley News Service.
Areas of Expertise: Fiscal policy, CBO, OMB, budget
Katy O’Donnell
Tax Reporter
Before covering taxes for CQ Roll Call, O’Donnell reported on corporate crime for a legal news blog and covered the federal budget and appropriations process for National Journal. She has also worked as a reporter at the Concord Monitor and the Baltimore Sun. O’Donnell hails from Baltimore and graduated from Dartmouth.
Defense & Diplomacy
Jennifer Koons
Editor
Koons oversees CQ News defense coverage, including the Pentagon, foreign policy and homeland security. She has a background in U.S. legal affairs, national security and foreign policy issues. In May 2014 she returned from Niger, where, as a recipient of a Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting grant, she investigated the root causes that have allowed Boko Haram and like-minded extremist groups to thrive in the region. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, Foreign Policy, GlobalPost, Salon and Huffington Post. She has taught journalism at Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism in Qatar and at Georgetown University.
Areas of Expertise: The Middle East, Africa
John M. Donnelly
Defense Reporter
Donnelly is a senior reporter who has netted numerous awards for investigative reporting and is a frequent guest on television and radio news programs. He has served on the board of the National Press Club and the Standing Committee of Correspondents in Congress. He has a bachelor’s degree from the College of William and Mary.
Areas of Expertise: budgets, weapons acquisitions, policy
Connor O’Brien
Defense Reporter
O’Brien covers defense and veterans issues for CQ News and is the author of CQ’s morning defense briefing. O’Brien previously reported on defense, veterans and intelligence legislation for CQ’s committee markup and vote coverage. He came to CQ Roll Call in 2011 as a researcher for CQ StateTrack. O’Brien is a native of New Hampshire and a graduate of Saint Anselm College.
Areas of Expertise: Defense policy, budgets, veterans issues, the legislative process
Megan Scully
Defense Reporter
Scully has covered defense and national security for CQ News since October 2012. She writes for CQ Weekly, CQ.com and Roll Call, with a focus on defense policy and budgets. She has over a decade of experience covering defense issues, including six years at National Journal. Scully has tracked everything from modernizing and maintaining the nation’s nuclear arsenal to efforts on Capitol Hill and within the Pentagon to curb sexual assaults within the military’s ranks.
Areas of Expertise: Defense policy, budgets, weapons systems, national security
Rachel Oswald
Foreign Affairs Reporter
Before joining CQ in fall 2014, Oswald worked at National Journal’s Global Security Newswire, where she covered a range of issues related to nuclear weapons, missile defense and deterrence strategy. In 2013, she traveled to Kazakhstan as an International Reporting Project fellow to report on nuclear security issues. Oswald also covered local government for two years at a small newspaper in the metro Atlanta area, where she won several awards for investigative and business reporting. She received her B.A. in Middle Eastern Studies from George Washington University.
Areas of Expertise: U.S. foreign policy, State Department, foreign aid, nuclear weapons
Health
Adriel Bettelheim
Editor
Bettelheim oversees coverage of health policy for CQ News and has held senior editor and reporter positions with the company for more than 12 years. He also has covered business and government for Bloomberg News, PolitiFact and the Denver Post and was part of the PolitiFact team awarded the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting. He is the author of “Aging in America: A to Z” and has appeared as a commentator on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, C-Span, BBC, NPR and local television and radio outlets.
Areas of Expertise: Health policy, entitlement programs (Medicare, Medicaid), congressional affairs, political history
Rebecca Adams
Health Reporter
Adams has covered all of the major legislative health care battles since 1998, including the 2003 Medicare prescription drug bill and the 2010 health care overhaul. She temporarily changed beats to cover the Bush administration’s policies on energy and the environment. She has also served as a general domestic policy regulatory reporter for CQ Weekly magazine for a couple of years. She has freelanced for many publications, including The Washington Post and USA Today. Before coming to Washington in early 1998, Adams wrote for The Arizona Republic, The Chattanooga Times and The Macon Telegraph. She was a stringer for The New York Times in Tennessee. She graduated from Emory University with a B.A. in political science.
Areas of Expertise: Health care law, Medicaid and Medicare, FDA, VA
Melissa Attias
Health Policy Reporter
Attias covers congressional health care policy as a staff writer for CQ News. Before joining the health team, she reported on social policy legislation moving through Congress and followed House and Senate floor action for CQ’s legislative tracking team. She also completed internships at Roll Call and CQ HealthBeat before the two newsrooms merged. A graduate of the George Washington University, Attias earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and mass communication and a minor in political science. She grew up in Greensboro, N.C., and lives on Capitol Hill.
Areas of Expertise: Health care law, repeal and replace efforts, Medicare’s physician payment formula, mental health, tobacco regulation
Georgina Gustin
Health Reporter
Gustin is a reporter who has covered everything from casino heists to computer hacking scandals, but has specialized in farm and food policy since 2008. She brought that expertise to CQ News in 2013, with a focus on the regulatory agencies that oversee the food system, including FDA, USDA and EPA. Earlier in her career, she launched the “food beat” at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, where she covered biotech giant Monsanto Co. and other major agricultural and biotech concerns. Raised in Japan, California and Connecticut, she is a graduate of the University of Colorado and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
Areas of Expertise: Drugs, Medical Devices, FDA, food safety, biotechnology, food regulation, farming, pesticides, drug and medical device regulation
Kerry Young
Health Associate Editor
Young is an associate editor for CQ HealthBeat. She draws on her deep knowledge of Congress and key federal health agencies, as well as the science and practice of medicine. She returned to the health beat in 2014 after covering the federal budget for six years for CQ News. Earlier, she spent nine years at Bloomberg News. Young has a bachelor’s degree in history and English from Tulane University in New Orleans.
Areas of Expertise: FDA, medical research, Medicare, congressional funding for medicine and science, public health
Melanie Zanona
Health Policy Reporter
Zanona covers health care policy and legislation for CQ and HealthBeat. She focuses on women’s reproductive issues, prescription drug abuse, infectious diseases and the implementation of the 2010 health care law. Prior to joining CQ, Zanona was an editorial assistant and daily reporter for financial publication Pensions & Investments. She has also completed a yearlong reporting fellowship with Roll Call and interned for the investigative unit of the Better Government Association.
Zanona, a Chicago native and University of Illinois alumna, stays in touch with her hometown roots by writing a Midwest sports blog with her sister.
Areas of Expertise: Abortion and reproductive issues, prescription drugs, infectious diseases
Industry, Regulations & Analysis
Randy Walerius
Editor
Walerius, who joined CQ in 2013 as an editor for securities regulation, is now editing coverage of legislation and regulation on transportation, agriculture, trade, finance and securities, education and workplace conditions. Before joining CQ, Walerius was a transportation analyst at Bloomberg Government. With more than 30 years of journalism experience, Walerius has reported or edited stories on financial markets, commodities, private investment in public infrastructure, and steel and aluminum companies in the U.S., Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He graduated from the University of Minnesota and lives in Takoma Park, Md.
Areas of expertise: Transportation, financial markets.
George Cahlink
Banking & Housing Reporter
Previously, Cahlink was the editor of CQ’s Budget Tracker, an online publication offering news and analysis of the budget, spending bills and other fiscal issues. He has held several other editing jobs with CQ Roll Call over the past seven years and also has written for CQ Weekly, Roll Call and CQ’s Politics in America. Prior to joining CQ Roll Call, Cahlink spent nearly a decade as a defense reporter, including stints as the congressional bureau chief for Defense Daily and as a staff writer for Government Executive magazine. He has been an embedded military reporter in both Iraq and Afghanistan. His work has won both regional and national journalism awards. Cahlink is a graduate of Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia and currently resides in Bethesda, Md.
Areas of Expertise: Budget and appropriations, Pentagon spending
Ellyn Ferguson
Agriculture & Trade Reporter
Since joining CQ News in 2009, Ferguson has reported on appropriations, agriculture, nutrition and food safety. Prior to joining CQ, Ferguson worked as a Washington-based reporter for Gannett, covering federal issues for member papers beyond the Beltway. Ferguson graduated from the University of Florida in Gainesville with a degree in journalism.
Areas of Expertise: Farm bill, nutrition
Kellie Mejdrich
Transportation & Infrastructure Reporter
Mejdrich joined CQ Roll Call as policy reporter in January 2015. Before that, she covered transportation at the Orange County Register. Mejdrich started her career in public affairs reporting in her home state of Arizona, where she also worked as a journalism fellow at the Arizona State Legislature.
Carolyn Phenicie
Education & Labor Reporter
Phenicie joined CQ News in 2012 and took over the education beat in 2013, covering efforts to expand federal preschool programs, renewal of the Higher Education Act, student loans, education appropriations, Common Core and efforts to rewrite No Child Left Behind. She also covers labor issues, including the National Labor Relations Board. Before coming to CQ she covered over-the-counter drugs and vitamins for trade publication The Tan Sheet. She has an undergraduate degree from American University and a master’s in journalism from Columbia.
Areas of Expertise: Education, labor
Domestic Policy & Legal
Jane Norman
Editor
Norman manages a staff of reporters who write about domestic policy issues, including energy, environment, technology, science and legal affairs. Before that, she was associate editor of CQ HealthBeat, our daily health care publication. Before joining CQ Roll Call in 2009, Norman spent two decades in Washington as a correspondent and columnist for the Des Moines Register. An Illinois native, Norman is a graduate of Drake University in Des Moines, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism.
Areas of Expertise: Energy, environment, technology, legal affairs, health, Iowa politics
Lauren Gardner
Environment & Interior Reporter
Gardner covers energy and environmental policy at CQ, following a two-year stint on CQ’s legislative action team tracking markups and floor votes. Before joining CQ, she covered the IRS for BNA’s Daily Tax Report. Lauren graduated from American University, where she received bachelor’s degrees in French, print journalism and international studies. She was also a 2014 Metcalf Institute fellow for climate change reporting.
Geof Koss
Energy & Science Reporter
Koss has written about energy and environmental policy in Washington, D.C., for more than a decade. He joined Roll Call in 2007 as a reporter for the online policy publication CongressNow. Before that, he spent five years as a reporter and editor for Inside Washington Publishers’ Inside EPA news group, where he wrote about environmental policy at all levels of government. A Maryland native, Koss is a graduate of Villanova University, where he received an undergraduate degree in English, and the University of Colorado Boulder, where he earned a master’s degree in journalism.
Areas of Expertise: Energy and environmental policy and legislation
David Harrison
Immigration Reporter
Harrison covers immigration for CQ. Before joining the company in April 2011, he worked at Stateline and at the Roanoke Times in Virginia, where he contributed to the newspaper’s coverage of the Virginia Tech shootings in 2007. He is a graduate of Carleton College and George Washington University, where he earned a master’s degree in public policy.
Todd Ruger
Legal Reporter
Ruger has a dozen years of experience reporting on legal issues in Washington and in courtrooms. He previously worked at The National Law Journal and Legal Times, where he focused on legal issues from Capitol Hill and the White House. Prior to his move to Washington in 2012, he covered state and federal courts at the Sarasota Herald-Tribune in Florida and the Quad-City Times in Iowa. During his career, he detailed death penalty cases in both print and on television, exposed problems with Florida’s courts during the foreclosure crisis, and tracked the secret (and not-so-secret) lobbying parties surrounding the 2012 political conventions.
Areas of Expertise: Supreme Court
Shawn Zeller
Tech Industry Reporter
Zeller covers technology policy, intelligence and government regulation for CQ. From 2005 to 2015, he was a senior writer for CQ Weekly covering lobbying, regulation and the civil service. In 2008, he helped cover the presidential campaign for Politifact.com, a joint project of CQ and the St. Petersburg Times that was awarded a 2009 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for its campaign coverage.
Zeller came to CQ in June 2005 after two years as a staff correspondent with Government Executive magazine. Prior to that, he was a reporter for National Journal for six years.
A Boston native, Zeller is a 1997 graduate of Harvard University where he earned a degree in American history and literature.
Areas of Expertise: Lobbying, regulation, the civil service
House Action Reports
Chuck Conlon
Editor
Conlon has been editor of House Action Reports since 2011, and from 1995 through 2003 was a legislative analyst for HAR covering transportation, finance, housing and homeland security issues. From 2004 until 2011 he was co-editor of CQ’s Budget Tracker daily newsletter and website covering budget and appropriations action in Congress. Before joining CQ he was an analyst with the Democratic Study Group, a research group for members of Congress, and prior to that worked in the legislative affairs shop of a maritime trades association.
Robert Tomkin
Deputy Editor
Tomkin has covered foreign policy, defense and trade issues for House Action Reports since 1995. He was formerly an analyst with the Democratic Study Group, a research group for members of Congress. He has also worked as a financial journalist in Tokyo for publications including the Nihon Keizai Shimbun and Financial Times and briefly was a Foreign Service Officer for the State Department. He holds degrees from the University of New Hampshire, Oxford University and Harvard University.
Areas of Expertise: Foreign affairs, defense, trade
Dan Peake
Analyst
Peake became a legislative analyst for House Action Reports in 2013, where he covers energy, natural resources, environment, legal, homeland security, science and telecommunications issues. Previously he was the editor of CQ’s BillTrack product that tracks congressional action for all legislation that comes before the House and Senate floors. Peake holds a degree in political science from the University of Maryland.
Karin Fuog
Analyst
Fuog became a legislative analyst for House Action Reports in 2011, where she covers agriculture, transportation, financial services, labor, education, small business and consumer protection. Previously she was a senior policy analyst with Nelnet, a company that deals in the administration and repayment of student loans. She also served at Mystic Seaport in Connecticut as project manager and executive assistant for the vice president of watercraft from 1999 to 2003. Fuog earned a Ph.D. in medieval English literature from the University of Michigan in 1994. She holds a master’s in medieval English literature from the University of Alberta, where she also earned her undergraduate degree in English.
Areas of Expertise: Education, agriculture, consumer affairs
Annie Shuppy
Analyst
Shuppy became a legislative analyst for House Action Reports in 2009, where she currently covers taxes, health care, budget policy, immigration and government oversight. She also previously covered transportation and homeland security issues for HAR. Prior to her promotion as a legislative analyst, she served as an editorial assistant for HAR, and before joining CQ in 2007 she worked at the online desk at PBS NewsHour. Shuppy earned her undergraduate degree in economics and journalism from the University of Iowa.
Areas of Expertise: Taxes, health care, budget
Members
Mike Christensen
Editor
Christensen is editor for CQ’s coverage of members in Congress. Previously he was an editor at CQ Weekly since 1996. Before joining CQ, he was a reporter for the Atlanta Journal and Constitution for 24 years, the last seven in Washington, and he covered the 1984 and 1988 presidential campaigns.
Areas of Expertise: Defense, foreign policy, transportation, energy, environment, politics
Clayton Hanson
Assistant Managing Editor, Data Projects
Hanson is the assistant managing editor for special projects. Before that, he was a legislative information editor for six years. He has been with CQ Roll Call since 2007. An Alaska Native, and native Alaskan, he graduated from the University of Hawaii, Hilo.
Areas of Expertise: Data trends
Jay Hunter
Data Editor
Hunter is responsible for member profiles and custom research. He also handles member biographical, caucus and committee information. His summers are devoted to managing Roll Call’s annual Wealth of Congress project. Hunter joined CQ News in April 2012 as a researcher and fact checker for CQ Weekly and Politics in America. A Pittsburgh native and D.C. resident, he graduated from The Ohio State University.
Areas of Expertise: Characteristics of Congress including members, committees, caucuses and new members; financial information, Roll Call’s Wealth of Congress list
Tom Curry
Staff Writer
Curry wrote The Container transportation policy blog for CQ Roll Call. As a reporter for NBC News.com and its predecessor MSNBC.com, he reported on House and Senate campaigns as well as on an array of policy debates and Supreme Court confirmation battles. As a Freedom Forum Foundation Asian Studies Fellow, he traveled throughout China and the Russian Far East. He is a graduate of Haverford College.
Areas of expertise: Transportation, members of Congress, congressional districts.
State Report
Tony Gnoffo
Editor
Before joining CQ Roll Call in 2015, Gnoffo was an editor for Bloomberg News in Washington, where he helped direct coverage of the SEC and other financial regulators. He was previously Business Editor at The Philadelphia Inquirer, where in a career of more than 20 years he also reported on regulatory and economic issues at the New Jersey statehouse, and technology and telecommunications companies for the business desk. A native of New Jersey, he earned degrees in political science and journalism from Rutgers University.
Areas of Expertise: State and federal regulatory policy
Joanna Anderson
Environment Reporter
Anderson covers environmental issues and policy for CQ State Report. She most recently covered legal affairs, criminal justice, immigration and foreign policy for CQ News.
Anderson joined CQ in 2005 as an assistant editor for its government documents product. She started her career as an intern for several Senate offices, including a leadership office and the Foreign Relations Committee. Anderson also worked as a press intern in a senator’s state office.
Originally from suburban Philadelphia, Anderson is a graduate of George Washington University, where she earned a degree in political science.
Areas of Expertise: State environmental issues and policy
Ed Felker
Energy Reporter
Felker covers states’ energy developments and policy for CQ State Report. He has previously covered energy and environment policy by the EPA, Energy Department and Interior Department and Congress.
Felker joined CQ in February 2015. He previously worked for the energy and environment newswire Energy Guardian and The Washington Times, and covered Congress for the Small Newspaper Group chain of daily newspapers in Illinois and Minnesota. A native of southern Illinois, he has earned degrees at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, and Northwestern University.
Areas of expertise: Oil and gas, hydraulic fracturing, greenhouse gas emissions, electricity, nuclear, renewable energy, biofuels
Randy Leonard
Data Visualization Reporter
Leonard has been covering policy and regulatory issues on and off Capitol Hill since 2001, joining CQ News in 2013. His stories have been published by The New York Times, National Geographic, The Atlantic and The Wall Street Journal’s MarketWatch. He has a degree in geology and a background conducting investigations and data analysis as an environmental consultant.
Areas of Expertise: Data reporting, budget, energy, environment, transportation, infrastructure
Marrissa Evans
Health Policy Reporter
Evans covers state health policy issues and the 2010 health care overhaul for CQ State Report. She has covered congressional hearings and written about issues related to the health care law, including Medicaid, enrollment and the children’s dental benefit.
Evans joined CQ in March 2015. She arrived in D.C. during summer 2013 to work with Kaiser Health News and then went on to Morning Consult to continue covering health care and Congress.
Originally from San Diego, Evans is a graduate of Marquette University, where she earned a degree in journalism.
Areas of Expertise: Affordable Care Act, Medicaid, women’s health issues and benefits under the ACA, dental care benefits under the ACA
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