Trent Seibert
Trent has been a journalist at newspapers across the United States for more than 10 years, uncovering corruption and exposing closed-door operations of state and local governments.

Before moving to Houston, he worked for the Tennessee Center for Policy Research uncovering government waste, fraud and abuse. Previously, Trent was a political reporter for The (Nashville) Tennessean, where he was part of the team that uncovered cronyism and corruption in the Tennessee Highway Patrol. He also reported on ethics in government and the influence of lobbyists on Tennessee’s Capitol Hill. In 2005, Trent was a co-winner of the newsroom’s Jimmy Davy Award, recognizing the newsroom’s “most valuable player." The Nashville Scene named him the city’s “Best Capitol Hill Reporter” that same year.

Trent also worked as an on-air investigative reporter for WKRN-Channel 2 in Nashville, where he broke news about legislators’ conflicts of interest, Tennessee’s new ethics laws and cost overruns by the Tennessee Department of Transportation.

Trent also served a stint as city editor of The Tuscaloosa News in Alabama. There, he supervised the team that uncovered voter fraud in the Black Belt, the poorest counties in the state. In the wake of that investigation, the state attorney general began his own voter fraud probe.

Trent was also an award-winning reporter for The Denver Post in Colorado, where he uncovered widespread problems in the Colorado Lottery. Trent also covered the War on Terror from Afghanistan and Pakistan after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Trent graduated from Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, the state where he launched his journalism career.

Read Trent's Texas Watchdog posts | E-mail Trent

 

Jennifer Peebles
Jennifer, a deputy editor at Texas Watchdog, is the 2009 winner of the John Aubuchon Freedom of Information Award from Capitolbeat and the 2009 winner of the Open Doors Award given by the Fort Worth Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.

She is a member of the SPJ's national committee on digital media. She is a past president of the Middle Tennessee Pro Chapter of SPJ and continues to serve as the chapter's Webmaster.

She is a board member of the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas and a former board member of the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government.

Before joining Texas Watchdog, Jennifer previously served as the government editor of The Tennessean, leading a team that uncovered a rash of sexual harassment in Tennessee state government, prompting state leaders to change the way harassment cases are reported. She also oversaw an investigation into the Tennessee Highway Patrol that unearthed deep-seated cronyism and a scheme in which troopers were promoted after making campaign contributions to connected politicians.

Jennifer is a graduate of Vanderbilt University, majoring in history. She is also a member of SPJ, Investigative Reporters and Editors Inc., the Online News Association and the Media Bloggers Association.

E-mail Jennifer | Twitter: @jpeebles | Facebook | MySpace | Digg | Newsvine | Transparency Matters | Poynter.org | LinkedIn | Publish2 | Texas Watchdog Ning | StumbleUpon Next Newsroom Ning | Wired Journalists' Ning | Personal blog | RJI News Collaboratory Ning

 

Lee Ann O’Neal
Lee Ann previously worked as the First Amendment/government editor at the Asheville (N.C.) Citizen-Times, supervising government and political coverage, and as a reporter at The Tennessean.

At the Citizen-Times, Lee Ann led a team that investigated local and state government. She oversaw a project that discovered more than 300 dead people listed as active voters in the city. This investigation prompted elections officials to remove dozens of dead people from the voter rolls.

Lee Ann's team found the cost for a major bridge project had ballooned to $363.3 million from $87.4 million. They also revealed that the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians was contributing to political campaigns but keeping those donations secret.

Lee Ann received her journalism training at the Freedom Forum Diversity Institute at Vanderbilt University and holds a bachelor's degree in music from Vanderbilt. She grew up in the farming community of Enville, Tenn.

Read Lee Ann's posts | E-mail Lee Ann

 

Steve Miller
Author and investigative reporter Steve Miller has spent a career covering a host of issues -- from crime, courts and local government to breaking national news -- for newspapers and magazines. He began his career as a music and freelance reporter in Florida and moved on from there to Texas where he was an award-winning reporter for the Dallas Morning News. He later joined the Washington Times where he was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for his work on stories about race in America.

Miller’s work has been published by a host of publications including People magazine, U.S. News & World Report, Brandweek and CBS Interactive. He has also been a contributing editor at yourfleshmag.com and its previous print incarnation, Your Flesh, for 15 years.

Miller’s first book, A Slaying in the Suburbs, was published in January 2009 by Penguin's true crime imprint Berkley. His second book, Girl, Wanted: The Hunt for Sarah Pender, will be released by Penguin in 2010.

He also serves as the executive editor of Touch and Go Magazine: The Complete Years, a page-by-page reprint of the seminal Midwest punk rock fanzine, which will be published in 2010 by Bazillion Points.

E-mail Steve