Trent Seibert
Trent has been a journalist at newspapers across the United States for nearly 20 years, uncovering corruption and exposing closed-door operations of state and local governments. He founded Texas Watchdog and has been editor since its launch in August, 2008.

Before moving to Houston, he worked for the Tennessee Center for Policy Research uncovering government waste and fraud. 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 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 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.

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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 was a July 2011 fellow at the Knight Digital Media Center at the University of California-Berkeley. She is the president of the Houston Pro Chapter of SPJ and is a past president of the Middle Tennessee Pro Chapter of SPJ.

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 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, the Radio Television Digital News Association and the Media Bloggers Association.

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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.

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 serves as treasurer for the Texas chapter of the Asian American Journalists Association and is a member of Investigative Reporters and Editors. Lee Ann grew up in the farming community of Enville, Tenn.

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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.

Steve'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.

Steve'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, published by Bazillion Points.

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Mark Lisheron
Mark is an award-winning journalist who previously anchored the Austin American-Statesman's investigative reporting team. He focused on government accountability during two sessions of the state legislature and developed the column "Statesman Watch," through which he advocated on behalf of citizens navigating local departments and agencies.

In addition, Mark specializes in media analysis as senior contributing writer for the American Journalism Review, an affiliation he has had since 1995.

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Mike Cronin
Mike comes from New York, where he was among the reporters who helped launch The Daily – the first national digital newspaper created exclusively for the iPad.

As an award-winning journalist with 14 years experience, Mike has written about lunar mining, grade inflation, cyber warfare, nursing-home neglect, Amish investing and freedom of speech.

Mike has worked at newspapers including The Arizona Republic, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and The Salt Lake Tribune. Mike also freelanced for The Day in New London, Conn., while living in Peru.

He was Bill Moyers’ researcher for the PBS documentary, “Facing the Truth” – the story of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. That piece won a George Foster Peabody Award and an Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Gold Baton.

Mike writes about cyber warfare and cybersecurity for World Politics Review.

Mike holds a master’s degree in international affairs from Columbia and a bachelor’s degree in politics from Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland. He grew up in Norwich, Conn.

Read Mike's posts | E-mail Mike | Twitter: @michaelccronin