Staff & Board

Al Maloney is an editor living in Appalachia and serving as the Athens County Independent’s Production Manager.

Dani Kington (she/her) studied literature and creative writing at Ohio University, where she wrote a column in The Post, served as fiction editor for the student literary magazine and worked as a communications intern at the Voinovich School.

After graduating, Dani worked in communications at the Foundation for Appalachian Ohio until starting her journalism career as assistant editor of The Athens Messenger. Dani quickly fell in love with community journalism. She is glad to lend her background in nonprofits and community news to build this nonprofit local news source for the community she has come to call home.

Eric Boll (he/him) is a journalist from Mansfield, Ohio, with many familial connections to Southeast Ohio. A third-generation bobcat, he studied News and Information Ohio University’s E.W. Scripps School of Journalism. As an undergrad, Eric worked for MileSplit Ohio as a reporter and editor covering cross country and track and field. Eric returned to Ohio University in 2022 to get his masters in Journalism with a focus on science and environmental communication. Outside of journalism Eric can be found working on stained glass art, cooking or riding his bike.

Eric’s work with the Independent is supported by a grant from the Sugar Bush Foundation.

Jen Bartlett (she/her) graduated from Hocking College in 2010 with a degree in Interactive Multimedia. She went on to be a graphic designer for The Athens Messenger for 11 years designing advertisements, digital web ads, posters and other promotional work for the newspapers and their clients.

Jen helped found the Athens County Independent, officially joining as Creative Director in September 2022.

Keri Johnson is a journalist and poet from Southeast Ohio. Prior to co-founding the Independent, Keri served as an AmeriCorps VISTA at Rural Action and worked as a general assignment reporter for The Logan Daily News. Keri is a first-generation graduate of Ohio University’s E.W. Scripps School of Journalism, grateful to work in Appalachian Ohio and passionate about capturing its stories.

Emily Beveridge (she/her) has lived her entire adult life in Athens, first coming to the city to study painting at Ohio University in 2002. She is committed to public service: She served as an election judge consistently from 2002 to 2020 and as an AmeriCorps VISTA for Federal Valley Resource Center from 2006 to 2008. She also worked with Arts West, a municipal arts center run by the city of Athens, from 2015–2023.

Beveridge holds a BFA and an MFA in painting from Ohio University. She is a visual artist, curator, grant writer, graphic designer, gardener and professional DJ handler. She is currently creating a series of paintings which will focus on themes of the medieval, the apocalypse and women’s rights.

Emily previously served Southeast Ohio Independent News’ Board of Directors and is excited to work as the Athens County Independent’s Development Director.

Tara Gilts grew up in northwest Ohio, and now resides in Athens with her family. She is a graduate of Ohio University (twice) and has worked in the nonprofit sector for her entire career. She enjoys running, biking to Nelsonville, traveling, and taking herself out to dinner.

Davey McNelly is a writer and social worker who lives just outside of Athens. He has two children and often coaches their soccer teams, is lead singer for the local punk band Land Project (which will break up soon), and co-founded an absurdist think tank which met for eight years (and then did break up). He is working on a novel, writes a lot of short fiction, and is someone who you should have an interesting conversation with (because boring conversations bore him). Davey is also interested in disability justice, Jewish support for a free Palestine, and is thinking about growing his summer green bean arch.

Athens resident Rebecca Onion is a writer and editor at Slate.

Thomas S. Hodson is the director emeritus of the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism and WOUB Public Media at Ohio University. He was the first Berman Professor of Communication in the Scripps College of Communication at Ohio University. He was the director of the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism from July 1, 2003 through June 30, 2010.

Hodson has had dual career paths throughout his professional career in law and journalism. He was a trial attorney for over 20 years and was a trial judge in both Municipal Court and Common Pleas Court in Ohio for seven years.

Hodson also served as a Judicial Fellow at the Supreme Court of the United States in the Administrative Office of the Chief Justice. He also has been a visiting judge on assignment by the Supreme Court of Ohio.

Throughout his legal career, Hodson pursued journalistic projects both in print and broadcast.

Hodson also has been active in producing public affairs programming for radio and is the host of WOUB’s weekly public affairs podcast, Spectrum. He is the executive producer of six other podcasts.

He has published and continues to write numerous articles and columns for newspapers, magazines, and trade journals.

He co-authored a book called Journalists’ Handbook to Ohio Courts.

He has written and been talent for numerous public television documentaries and public affairs programs.

Peggy P. Lee is a Senior Staff Attorney with Legal Aid of Southeast and Central Ohio, a law firm which  provides free legal help to people with low incomes and limited savings. We help with issues  related to health benefits, housing, school, employment, utilities, family law problems, consumer  problems, public benefits like SNAP and Medicare, and other noncriminal legal matters.

Mark Turner became an assistant professor in the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism in the fall of 2021 following a stint as a visiting professional. Turner is the former executive news editor at the Akron Beacon Journal in Akron, Ohio, where he worked in a number of editorial positions. Before joining the Pulitzer-awarded Beacon Journal, Turner had been a reporter and editor in his home state of Louisiana. Turner graduated from Louisiana Tech University (Go Dawgs!) with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and received a master’s degree in media management from Kent State University. Turner’s research in pursuit of his Ph.D. has focused on media effects as well as diversity in news media as it relates to evolving journalism education and practice.

Dr. Collins is a multinational and international award-winning professional journalist and media expert with more than 35 years of experience in the media industry. She is also an international and national award-winning professor, scholar, researcher of mixed methodology and creative with 21 years of experience on the university level. 

Collins was selected as one of the nation’s Top 50 Journalism Professors in 2012 by Journalismdegree.org and has received national recognition for her teaching, research, creative endeavors, and service, including the Baskett Mosse National Award for Faculty Development AEJMC 2017. She won second place in “Best in Digital,” AEJMC 2017, for her website of Inclusion, Hearmyvoiceonline.com

In all that she does, she works to bring out the best in people and works to make the world more informed, more educated, kinder, and gentler to one another as a Global family. In proper fashion, she was selected as GAIA International Alliance 2023 Humanity Leader Top Picks. Collins is also a Kopenhaver Fellow.

She earned a B.A. in Speech Communications with a specializing in Communication/Rhetoric, a certificate in Women’s Studies and was a standout student-athlete and inductee in the ACC Legends Hall of Fame representing Women’s Basketball at Wake Forest University. She earned her M.S. in Journalism at E.W. Scripps School of Journalism and PH.D. in Mass Communications and Media Arts and Studies and Women and Gender Studies in the Scripps College of Communications. She specializes in broadcast and digital journalism and media storytelling, leadership development, de-marginalization, full inclusion pedagogical design.

Social impact investor, environmentalist, and award-winning veteran journalist, Eli Flournoy teaches and consults on communications, non-extractive business models, and business ethics for nonprofit and for-profit organizations following a 24-year career at CNN. 

As executive director of Sugarbush Valley Impact Investments, Eli supports social impact companies in the areas of renewable energy, zero waste, local foods, and rural broadband, as well as a 400-acre agricultural and environmental incubator on the farm where he grew up in Athens, Ohio. He is a founding member of the Impact Innovation Group council of advisors and serves on corporate boards for Ohio-based firms, including renewable energy fin-tech company New Resource Solutions, Shagbark Seed & Mill and an innovative shipping container logistics and transportation company called QuickLoadz. Eli’s sustainable economic development consulting includes work as an executive in residence for Ohio University’s Social Enterprise Ecosystem program. Eli also builds journalism business models as senior media industry consultant for Mather Economics in Atlanta.

As a founding director of the Sugar Bush Foundation, Eli facilitates collaboration between Ohio University and local communities through joint design innovation of sustainable environmental and socioeconomic development projects in Appalachian Ohio. Eli also serves on boards for Ohio University’s Department of Management and Social Media Analytics Research Team (SMART) Lab. 

A social justice advocate, Eli serves on the Board of Inspiritus, a relief agency providing refugee, immigration, disaster relief, disability and child and family services in the Southeastern United States. Eli also serves on church council and the COVID Task Force for Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in Atlanta. 

Eli has an MBA from Ohio University and BA in political science from Indiana University. 

Thomas S. Hodson is the director emeritus of the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism and WOUB Public Media at Ohio University. He was the first Berman Professor of Communication in the Scripps College of Communication at Ohio University. He was the director of the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism from July 1, 2003 through June 30, 2010.

Hodson has had dual career paths throughout his professional career in law and journalism. He was a trial attorney for over 20 years and was a trial judge in both Municipal Court and Common Pleas Court in Ohio for seven years.

Hodson also served as a Judicial Fellow at the Supreme Court of the United States in the Administrative Office of the Chief Justice. He also has been a visiting judge on assignment by the Supreme Court of Ohio.

Throughout his legal career, Hodson pursued journalistic projects both in print and broadcast.

Hodson also has been active in producing public affairs programming for radio and is the host of WOUB’s weekly public affairs podcast, Spectrum. He is the executive producer of six other podcasts.

He has published and continues to write numerous articles and columns for newspapers, magazines, and trade journals.

He co-authored a book called Journalists’ Handbook to Ohio Courts.

He has written and been talent for numerous public television documentaries and public affairs programs.

Kaelyn initially moved to Athens for grad school in physics and quickly fell in love with the hills, hollers and history of Appalachia and Athens County. After earning her PhD in early 2023 and having put down roots too deep to want to move away, she took on a remote software engineering and research role in her field of quantum computing. She has believed in the mission of the Athens County Independent since its inception and is so grateful for the opportunity to support its mission and help shape it into a sustainable and integral part of the community. Outside of her work and volunteer obligations she loves to explore the nearby hiking trails, try out and engage in a multitude of DIY projects (from general home repair, all the way to ham radio), and play board games and run tabletop RPG’s with friends.

For more than a decade, Evan Shaw has worked as a documentary filmmaker and cinematographer based in Athens, Ohio. His films have focused on the history, and tremendous resiliency, of the people of southeastern Ohio, as well as other cultural and social topics. A winner of 14 Emmy Awards, he is known for his storytelling with a camera and his love for Appalachian and rural communities. He is a frequent speaker at area schools, where he works to inspire the next generation of southeastern Ohio students to create a better community for all of us.  

In addition to his documentary work, Evan is also a freelance cinematographer for NFL Films; he has been selected to film nine Super Bowls during his 18-year career with the NFL. He also works as a camera operator for many other national television networks and production companies.

A 2007 graduate of Ohio University, he was recognized by the Ohio State Legislature in 2010 and again in 2014 for ‘Exemplary Achievement’ and was inducted into the Meigs High School Distinguished Alumni Hall of Fame in 2010.

He lives in Athens, with his wife Heidi and their son Quay.

Kelee Riesbeck (she/her) has made Athens her home for 29 years. Born in Marietta, Ohio, Kelee is one in an army that serves to foster a thriving and flourishing Southeast Ohio region. She is the current chair of the Athens Municipal Arts Commission, which promotes keeping the arts in Athens visible. She and her husband, Steve, also volunteer to support Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio. Her other volunteer service included six years of mentoring students through the former Women’s Center at Ohio University and in executive committee service with Ohio Valley Summer Theater.

Professionally, Kelee spent 10+ years in strategic communications at various leadership roles within Ohio University’s Advancement Division, including as editor of Ohio Today, OHIO’s alumni magazine, and producer and host of the former award-winning Ohio Today Radio podcast. She currently serves as development director at the non-profit Stuart’s Opera House and Nelsonville Music Festival, as hospitality coordinator for the Athens International Film + Video Festival, and as an adjunct instructor at Ohio University. She is a proud 1991 graduate of OHIO’s E.W. Scripps School of Journalism in the Scripps College of Communication.

A 20-year resident of Athens and a life-long lover of the written word, Megan Russell was originally a grad school transplant who quickly fell head over heels for this one-of-a-kind town/gown, hilly/bricky Appalachian paradise. Nine months out of the year Megan works as adjunct faculty for Ohio University’s English Department and Learning Community program. The rest of the time you can find her in faerie wings slinging henna at local festivals or in a server’s apron to check IDs at Ohio Brew Week.

In between teaching and volunteer work, Megan met her husband, a medically retired combat veteran, and started a family. Together they are raising their son, who is non-speaking autistic, and their daughter to love Southeastern Ohio as much as they do. Issues of accessibility – to information, to services, to education, to civic participation – are deeply important to Megan. In addition to the Indy board, she also serves on the Athens Recreation Advisory Board and as the Philanthropy Chair for the English Graduate Student Organization.

Megan earned her M.A. in English (2008) and an M.Ed. in College Student Personnel (2014), both from Ohio University. She is currently pursuing her PhD in English with a research focus on community engaged curricular experiences for graduate students.

Keely is a strategic communications professional with a background in marketing, media relations and nonprofit fundraising. With experience in health systems, higher education and nonprofit organizations, Keely has spent the past decade at OhioHealth, where she currently leads media relations and PR efforts across Athens and several other small markets in Ohio.

Passionate about media access and media literacy as essential tools for democracy, Keely works to foster strong relationships with local media and promote transparent communication. Her commitment to the community extends beyond her professional work. She has served for many years on the planning committee for Bounty on the Bricks, an annual fundraising event benefiting the Southeast Ohio Food Bank and is a past board member of The Dairy Barn Arts Center. Keely also serves on the board of the Southern Ohio Copperheads baseball team.

An Ohio University graduate, Keely holds a bachelor’s degree in English and a Master of Public Administration.