Staff & Board

Corinne Colbert (she/her) worked for newspapers in Wheeling, WV and Martins Ferry, Marietta and Marysville, Ohio, before leaving journalism to work in nonprofit and freelance communications. She returned to the newsroom in June 2021 as editor of the Athens News but was suddenly fired in February 2022 for warning readers about deceptive advertising in the publication. Her tweets about her firing went viral and inspired a crowdfunding campaign that earned more than $18,000 to launch an independent nonprofit newsroom in Athens County.

A permanent resident of Athens County since 1996, Corinne served on the board of the Athens County Humane Society and led the West Elementary PTO for three years. She lives in Canaan Township with her husband, a graduate of Alexander High School and a U.S. Air Force veteran.

Dani Kington (she/they) 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.

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.

Sam Stecklow (he/him) is a journalist and editor currently based in Orlando, where he is a contributor to the Athens County Independent. He also works as a journalist focusing on police misconduct at the Chicago-based Invisible Institute and a senior editor of the South Side Weekly, also in Chicago. His work has been published in The Intercept, Salt Lake Tribune, Chicago Reader, New York Magazine, and elsewhere. He has won or been a finalist for several local and national journalism awards.

Keri Johnson (they/she) is a journalist and writer from southeast Ohio. She studied news and information at Ohio University’s E.W. Scripps School of Journalism, gaining experience as editor-in-chief of Southeast Ohio magazine and assistant culture editor at The Post.

After graduating in 2020, Keri worked for The Logan Daily News in Hocking County as its general assignment reporter and wrote more than 300 stories in roughly two years. She is grateful to work in the region she has always called home and is passionate about capturing its stories.

Abigael Miles (she/any) is a third-year Ohio University student majoring in media arts production with a minor in sociology. Miles serves as a full-board member on the Ohio University Student Alumni Board and on the organization’s communications committee.

Miles’s visual communications internship for the Athens County Independent is funded by Ohio University. She is passionate about the respectful representation of the people of Appalachia and looks forward to contributing to this representation by working with the Independent.

Clay Cutter is a senior at Ohio University studying Entrepreneurship with a certificate in sales.

Clay is born and raised in Denver, Colorado and found his way out to Athens to play baseball for the bobcats.

After falling in love with Athens, Clay has decided to stay here this summer and intern with The Independent as a media space sales representative.

For as long as Ilya Kogan can remember, they have benefited from community-driven technology and open-source projects that helped them learn and grow as a kid and all through their last 15 years at Ohio University. Spending that time in Athens County, a county that contains both unacceptable levels of poverty and a pervasive current of community initiatives has inspired them to bring their computer science degree and experience to help the community in which they live.

While technology can help, it cannot help on its own. Over the last decade, Ilya has worked with local groups to help workers and tenants organize—bringing that spirit of community that gave its technology away freely to Ilya both today and in their youth to those suffering right next door.

Ilya is happy to take another step by supporting a community-driven news publication through their technical and organizing experience as the Athens Counts Independent strives to give county residents the information they need to help our community grow and thrive.

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.

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.

Aimee Edmondson is a professor at the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism, the graduate director of the school and the acting associate dean of the Scripps College of Communication.

Growing up on a working farm in the impoverished Mississippi Delta, Edmondson has been particularly interested in elevating and amplifying marginalized voices throughout her 30-year career in journalism. She worked as a reporter in Louisiana and for several years at smaller, community newspapers in rural Georgia before joining the then 80-person newsroom of the metro daily newspaper in Memphis, Tennessee. She has covered just about every beat — cops, courts, politics, education, poverty, science and medicine, features, sports and special projects. While in Memphis, she helped launch and run a city-wide high school newspaper geared toward minority teens. This project was designed to encourage those in under-represented groups to pursue a career in journalism and was funded by the Scripps Howard Foundation, the University of Memphis, The Commercial Appeal newspaper and Memphis City Schools.

Edmondson has taught communications law, data journalism and the history of American journalism since she joined Ohio University in 2008. Her research is focused on libel law, critical race theory and free expression arising from the American civil rights movement. Her commentary and research appears in scholarly journals, as well as magazines and on news websites. She holds a B.A. in journalism from Louisiana State University, an M.A. from the University of Memphis and a Ph.D. from the University of Missouri.

She considers herself to be a “pracademic” who works to bridge gaps between the academy and the newsroom. She also volunteers as an instructor at the annual conferences of the Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) and the National Institute of Computer Assisted Reporting (NICAR).

Edmondson is an Appalachian Trail thru hiker (Lois Lane, 1996) and a life-long farmer interested in local food economies and sustainability. When she is not committing journalism or teaching journalism, Edmondson is growing vegetables and hanging out with a herd of goats, two cattle dogs and a flock of chickens in rural Athens County.

Emily Beveridge 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 the Federal Valley Resource Center from 2006 to 2008. Beveridge has worked with Arts West, a municipal arts center run by the city of Athens, since 2008, when she volunteered to create an annual fundraiser, Cat’s Pajamas Clothing Exchange.

Beveridge holds a BFA and an MFA in painting from OU. She has instructed and organized arts education opportunities for youth since 2006, and currently instructs ceramics classes at Arts West, where she also serves as program specialist. 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.

Beveridge is excited to serve on her first board with the Athens County Independent! She is committed to bringing high quality local journalism to the community she loves.

Deanna Schwartz was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio and moved to Southeast Ohio in the early 90s to be immersed in nature and work to improve and protect the natural environment with the Zaleski Civilian Conservation Corps. One hundred thousand tree plantings and hundreds of miles of trail blazing later, Schwartz worked her way to Ohio University and graduated in 2003 with a degree in anthropology and environmental and plant biology. As a junior, Schwartz was hired by the Kennedy Museum of Art and was immersed in the museum world for the next nine years, primarily cataloging and preserving artifacts in the Native American collections at both the Kennedy Museum and Mesa Verde National Park. Her most valued experience as a curatorial assistant was humbly assisting in the process of legally returning sacred objects to southwest Native American tribes at both the Kennedy and Mesa Verde. Schwartz began to transition out of the museum world in 2011 to start a distillery business with her brewing savvy partner, Kelly Sauber. In early 2013, Schwartz and Sauber were made aware that a historically fascinating and cool looking brick building on the corner of West Washington and Shafer Streets on the Athens west side was available. From the walk-through forward, Schwartz has helped build the elements of the space now known as West End Ciderhouse. Since the doors opened to the community in 2014, Schwartz has managed the Ciderhouse with adept and, as a goal, local and fresh ingredient curation alongside a passionate, knowledgeable and skilled staff. Working to develop flavors and the Ciderhouse brand of ciders with Sauber and her older son, Shen Cook is an ongoing passion. She also enjoys hiking with her dog Little Rosie Bean Spottybody and hanging out with her two boys and Sauber in her spare time. She deeply values community health through providing a safe space for all, shopping locally and supporting local arts and environmental endeavors.

Dr. Shane Foster is the owner of Athens Eye Care, an optometry practice in Athens, Ohio, where he and his team of doctors provide comprehensive eye care to residents of Southeastern Ohio and West Virginia. He has a special interest in children’s vision issues and specialty contact lenses. He is passionate about increasing access to eye care for rural Ohioans and educating policymakers and the public about the important connection between vision and learning.

Foster has his roots firmly planted in Southeastern Ohio and is committed to advocating for our region and making it a better place to live and work. He was raised in Athens County and graduated from Alexander High School. He graduated cum laude from Ohio University in 2004 with a B.S. in biological sciences and a B.A. in Spanish. He then received his Doctor of Optometry from The Ohio State University College of Optometry in 2008.

Foster is deeply involved in service to the optometric profession, spending the last nine years on the Ohio Optometric Association Board of Trustees and the last six years on the Ohio Optometric Foundation Board of Directors. He has also been appointed to the American Optometric Association State Government Relations Committee. He is a consultant for companies in the ophthalmic and pharmaceutical industries and brings the newest ophthalmic technologies to our community by performing clinical research in his practice. Locally, Foster has volunteered his time on the Crewson Scholarship Committee and the Board of Directors of OUCU Financial Credit Union. He resides in Athens with his husband (who is also named Shane) and their son Lucas.