From Left: David Donald, David E. Kaplan, Marianne Lavelle, Gordon Witkin WASHINGTON, D.C., September 30, 2008 — The Center for Public Integrity has added two new editors and three new senior journalists to its editorial team, which will expand the Center’s scope of investigative journalism and incorporate more use of multimedia resources. The new hires possess a collective diversity of investigative journalism experience with expertise on national security, environmental, criminal justice, and energy issues.

“The Center is pleased to add these highly talented and seasoned journalists to help produce the Center’s ‘leave no stone unturned’ investigative journalism and complete our staffing requirements,” said Center Executive Director Bill Buzenberg. “Now, more than ever, there is a need for investigative journalism to dig deeper, explore new issues, and incorporate new technologies.”

The Center’s new managing editor, Gordon Witkin, joins the Center after a 26-year career at U.S. News & World Report. Witkin worked in bureaus in Detroit and Denver, and served as the magazine’s criminal justice writer before spending six years as an assistant managing editor. He most recently was the social policy editor at Congressional Quarterly. Witkin oversees and coordinates the Center’s day-to-day editorial activities.

The Center’s new data editor, David Donald, is one of the country’s foremost computer-assisted reporting experts. Donald, who previously served as the training director at Investigative Reporters and Editors and the National Institute for Computer Assisted Reporting, leads the Center’s data operations. Some of the best-known Center projects were derived by data-driven investigations.

Michael Zuckerman, the Center’s new project director for the Land Use Accountability Project, has a 30-year journalism career that spans radio and newspaper reporting on national security and criminal justice issues. As one of the original founders of USA Today, Zuckerman was a rewrite desk chief, projects editor, Washington and foreign editor, and a senior correspondent working on investigative stories. He is a frequent lecturer at the National Defense University and the Defense Intelligence Agency, and serves as an adjunct professor of journalism at the George Washington University.

The Center hired two new staff writers: Marianne Lavelle, previously a senior writer at U.S. News and World Report; and Kristen Lombardi, a staff writer and investigative reporter at The Village Voice, where she did groundbreaking work on the 9/11 toxic aftermath. Lavelle will be focusing on energy, environment, and climate change issues. Before joining U.S. News, she created The National Law Journal’s beat on federal regulation, covering the savings and loan collapse, and spearheading a groundbreaking investigative report on environmental justice, “Unequal Protection,” which won the George Polk Award and Investigative Reporters and Editors Award.

Lombardi’s investigative reporting on public health, criminal justice, and child abuse issues has been recognized by the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, the New England Press Association, and The Livingston Awards, and she was awarded a fellowship from the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma for her coverage of abuse. Lombardi’s investigative reports as a staff writer for The Boston Phoenix were widely credited with helping to expose the clergy sexual-abuse scandal in Boston.

David E. Kaplan, who joined the Center in April, has been named the Center’s overall editorial director. Kaplan also remains director of the Center’s International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).

Please visit the Center’s staff biographies page to view more information about new and current employees. All of the Center’s award-winning investigations, stories, and databases are featured on our website, http://www.publicintegrity.org.