Becca Aaronson develops data interactives and reports for The Texas Tribune. After an internship in fall 2010, she was hired by the Tribune to help cover the 82nd legislative session. She previously interned at the Houston Chronicle. Becca is a native of Austin who graduated from Scripps College in Claremont, Calif., with a degree in cultural theory.
Julián Aguilar covered the 81st legislative session for the Rio Grande Guardian. Previously, he reported from the border for the Laredo Morning Times. A native of El Paso, he has a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Texas and a master's degree in journalism from the Frank W. Mayborn Graduate Institute of Journalism at the University of North Texas.
Niran Babalola wrote web applications for the Austin American-Statesman before joining the Tribune. He has also written software at Yahoo and Apple. A native of Sugar Land, he studied computer science at Stanford University.
Natalie Choate Natalie Choate has a long history in Texas politics. Choate started as Legislative Aide for her hometown State Representative and then served as the Government Relations Coordinator for Trinity Industries. After working her second Legislative Session as Legislative Director, she completed Annie's List Campaign School and worked as a Campaign Consultant eventually to be brought on staff as Deputy Campaign Manager. Subsequently, she accepted a position as Fund-Raising Coordinator with a prominent fundraising firm in Houston. In 2010, she served as Precinct Chair Coordinator focusing on grassroots politics. Natalie Choate is a graduate of the University of Texas with degrees in Government, Political Communication and Ethics and Leadership. In 2007, she rode a bicycle from Austin, Texas to Anchorage, Alaska for cancer research. Recently married, she grew up in Rockport, Texas - a sleepy town on the Texas coast.
Bob Daemmrich started covering Texas politics back when Rick Perry was still a Democrat, and remains a vital member of the Capitol press corps 25 years later. Following staff photographer jobs at the Bryan Eagle and Austin American-Statesman, he opened his own studio in 1985. He has since photographed campaigns, elections, inaugurals, legislative sessions and other Texas and national news for a variety of clients, both editorial and commercial. A native of Stoughton, Wis., he graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Justin Dehn is a multimedia producer at the Tribune whose focus is videography and television production. He's been shooting TV news for more than a decade, most recently as a staff photojournalist at Austin's KVUE-TV from 2006 to 2010. At the Tribune, Dehn has been behind the camera for Tribune franchises Stump Interrupted, Face-Off and all the TribLive conversations, as well the stories we've produced each week for our dozen TV partners around the state.
Tanya Erlach spent the past eight years as the senior talent manager at The New Yorker, where she programmed and produced a variety of public events, including the annual New Yorker Festival. Previously, she held editorial positions at Nylon, Interview and Spin. Originally from California, she holds a degree in international business from San Diego State University and a graduate degree in publishing from New York University.
Kate Galbraith reported on clean energy for The New York Times from 2008 to 2009, serving as the lead writer for the Times' Green blog. She began her career at The Economist in 2000 and spent 2005 to 2007 in Austin as the magazine's Southwest correspondent. A Nieman fellow in journalism at Harvard University from 2007 to 2008, she has an undergraduate degree in English from Harvard and a master's degree from the London School of Economics.
Maggie Gilburg worked as a freelance grant writer and fundraising consultant for local nonprofits from 2007 to 2009, helping to raise money for operations, programming and capital projects in the Austin area. Before that, she worked for the Austin Museum of Art in major gifts and membership. Gilburg moved to Austin in 2002, after living in Hong Kong for four years with her family. Previously, she served as assistant to president Arthur R. Taylor at Muhlenberg College, earning the Chairman's Award for Outstanding Service in 1998. Gilburg also held development positions at the Allentown Art Museum and Los Angeles Arts Council. She has a bachelor's degree in English from Carleton College and master's degrees in arts administration and business administration from Southern Methodist University.
Brandi Grissom joined the Tribune after four years at the El Paso Times, where she acted as a one-woman Capitol bureau during the last two legislative sessions. Grissom won the Associated Press Managing Editors First-Place Award in 2007 for using the Freedom of Information Act to report stories on a variety of government programs and entities, and the ACLU of Texas named her legislative reporter of the year in 2007 for her immigration reporting. She previously served as managing editor at The Daily Texan and has worked for the Alliance Times-Herald, the Taylor Daily Press, the New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung and The Associated Press. A native of Alliance, Neb., she has a degree in history from the University of Texas.
Reeve Hamilton has interned at The Nation and The Texas Observer, for which he covered the 2009 legislative session. Most recently, he was a desk assistant at The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. A Houston native, he has a bachelor's degree in English from Vanderbilt University.
Ben Hasson previously worked at RMM Online Advertising and interned at media company Super!Alright! He has also worked as a freelance designer for print and the web, mostly for the Austin independent music and film scene. He grew up in Tucson and graduated from the University of Texas with a bachelor's degree in design.
Jim Henson directs the Texas Politics project and teaches in the Department of Government at The University of Texas, where he also received a doctorate. He helped design public interest multimedia for the Benton Foundation in Washington, D.C., in the late 1990s and has written about politics in general-interest and academic publications. He also serves as associate director of the College of Liberal Arts Instructional Technology Services unit at UT, where he has helped produce several award-winning instructional media projects. In 2008, he and Daron Shaw, a fellow UT government professor, established the first statewide, publicly available internet survey of public opinion in Texas using matched random sampling. He lives in Austin, where he also serves as a member of the City of Austin Ethics Review Commission.
April Hinkle spent more than 20 years at Texas Monthly, stepping down as publisher in May 2010. During her tenure, she positioned the publication as one of the top 10 monthly publications in the country based on total advertising pages and was also instrumental in the launch of texasmonthly.com and its ongoing development. Hinkle, who holds an advertising degree from the University of Texas, served on the national marketing board for the National Retail Federation and was the founding chairwoman of its Retail Advertising and Marketing Association Southwest Advisory Committee. She also served on the Austin Society Board-Philanthropy Chair, Club Corporation of America and is a founding board member of Lake Travis Young Life and past board member of Young Life Austin West. Recently, she received the Media Star Award from the Human Development and Consumer Sciences Department in the College of Technology at the University of Houston. She is married and has four children. As a family, they have been featured in marketing campaigns for Southwest Airlines and Chevrolet.
Barbara Knaggs is the Chief Operating Officer of The Texas Tribune. Before joining the Tribune, she served for three years as the Associate Commissioner for State Initiatives at the Texas Education Agency where she oversaw the implementation of statewide education programs, including early childhood education, dropout prevention and college and career readiness initiatives, adult basic education programs, and programs for limited English proficient students. Before becoming Associate Commissioner, she held a number of positions at the agency, including acting Senior Advisor for the Office of Education Initiatives, Senior Director for Secondary School Initiatives, and Program Manager for the Texas High School Project. A certified teacher, her previous experience includes five years as a high school English and history teacher and two years as a textbook editor at Holt Rinehart and Winston. Before obtaining her teaching certificate, she was an equity trader for PaineWebber. A 1987 graduate of the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in Plan II, Knaggs obtained a secondary teaching certificate from the University of Texas at Austin in 1992 and a Master of Public Affairs from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin in 2003.
Ceryta Lockett manages the daily operations of the Tribune and its staff. She brings years of banking, mortgage banking and managerial experience to the task of overseeing management of the office. A native Texan, she earned a degree in political science from Stephen F. Austin State University.
Higinio Maycotte
Higinio Maycotte led a highly energized group of developers in building the Tribune site from scratch, working closely with the creators of its custom content management system and the design firm that conceived our clean, classic look. His many years as a technology visionary ensured he was up to the task. Born in Mexico and educated at the University of Texas, where he studied electrical, computer, and biomedical engineering, Maycotte has co-founded several cutting-edge companies, including FineTooth (now Mumboe), FlightLock, Universal Computing and RateGenius. He was also a founding partner in the boutique venture capital firm Agile Ventures. His greatest strengths — identifying trends for products and services, setting and executing the architecture and roadmap for their development, defining and maintaining an intellectual property strategy, and representing and positioning the organization in social media — made him an indispensable asset to the Trib's launch team.
Ryan Murphy plays a role in developing the Tribune's collection of data interactives (with a focus on mapping), conducts data analysis and currently maintains and updates the government employee salary database. Ryan graduated in 2010 with a degree in multimedia journalism from the University of Texas at Austin, where he served as the web editor for The Daily Texan.
David Muto writes and copy-edits for the Tribune. While at the University of Texas, where he earned degrees in journalism and Spanish, he headed The Daily Texan's copy editing department for a year. A Richardson native, he has also interned for The Austin Chronicle.
Ben Philpott is a senior reporter for KUT-FM, Austin's National Public Radio affiliate. He has been covering state politics and dozens of other topics for the station since 2002, during which time he has been recognized for outstanding radio journalism by the Radio and Television News Directors Association, Public Radio News Directors Incorporated, the Houston Press Club and the Texas Associated Press Broadcasters. Before moving to Texas, he worked in public radio in Birmingham and Tuscaloosa, Ala., and at several television stations in Alabama and Tennessee. Born in New York City and raised in Chattanooga, Tenn., Philpott graduated from the University of Alabama with a degree in broadcast journalism.
Ross Ramsey is executive editor of The Texas Tribune and continues as editor of Texas Weekly, the premier newsletter on government and politics in the Lone Star State, a role he's had since September 1998. Before joining Texas Weekly, Ramsey was associate deputy comptroller for policy with the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, also working as the agency's director of communications. Prior to that 28-month stint in government, Ramsey spent 17 years in journalism, reporting for the Houston Chronicle from its Austin bureau and for the Dallas Times Herald, first on the business desk in Dallas and later as the paper's Austin bureau chief. Prior to that, as a Dallas-based freelance business writer, he wrote for regional and national magazines and newspapers. Ramsey got his start in journalism in broadcasting, working for almost seven years covering news for radio stations in Denton and Dallas.
Emily Ramshaw investigates state agencies and covers social services for the Tribune. Previously, she spent six years reporting for The Dallas Morning News, first in Dallas, then in Austin. In April 2009 she was named Star Reporter of the Year by the Texas Associated Press Managing Editors and the Headliners Foundation of Texas. Originally from the Washington, D.C. area, she received a bachelor's degree from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.
Jay Root is a native of Liberty. He never knew any reporters growing up, and he has never taken a journalism class in his life. But somehow he got hooked on the news business. It all started when Root walked into the offices of The Daily Texan, his college newspaper, during his last year at the University of Texas in 1987. He couldn't the resist the draw: it was the the biggest collection of misfits ever assembled. After graduating, he took a job at a Houston chemical company and realized it wasn't for him. Soon Root was applying for an unpaid internship at the Houston Post in 1990, and it turned into a full-time job that same year. He has been a reporter ever since. Root has covered natural disasters, live music and Texas politics — not necessarily in that order. He was Austin bureau chief of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram for a dozen years, most of them good. He also covered politics and the Legislature for The Associated Press before joining the staff of the Tribune.
Noah Seger writes web and news applications for the Tribune. In addition to his background in secure software development with the Denim Group he has worked at TexasFile.com making public records from across the state available online. Originally from Corpus Christi, he studied computer science and linguistics at Trinity University in San Antonio.
Daron Shaw is a government professor at the University of Texas. He has polled in mayoral, congressional, gubernatorial, and presidential elections and has written two books and numerous articles on public opinion, voting behavior and political campaigns.
Morgan Smith was an editorial intern and columnist at Slate in Washington, D.C., before moving to Austin to enter law school at the University of Texas in 2008. (She has put her degree on hold to join the Tribune's staff.) A native of San Antonio, she has a bachelor's degree in English from Wellesley College.
Evan Smith is the CEO and editor-in-chief of The Texas Tribune. Previously he spent nearly 18 years at Texas Monthly, stepping down in August 2009 as the magazine's president and editor-in-chief. He previously served as editor for more than eight years — only the third person to hold that title. On his watch, Texas Monthly was nominated for 16 National Magazine Awards, the magazine industry's equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize, and twice was awarded the National Magazine Award for General Excellence. For eight years, Smith hosted a Lone Star Emmy Award-winning weekly interview program, Texas Monthly Talks, that aired on PBS stations statewide. He currently hosts a new show, Overheard with Evan Smith, that airs on PBS stations nationally. A New York native, Smith has a bachelor's degree in public policy from Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y., and a master's degree in journalism from the Medill School at Northwestern University.
Thanh Tan is a multimedia reporter/producer for The Texas Tribune. She previously worked at Idaho Public Television, a PBS station that serves a statewide audience. While there, she was an Emmy award-winning producer/reporter/host for the longest-running legislative public affairs program in the West, Idaho Reports, moderator of The Idaho Debates, and a writer/producer for the flagship series Outdoor Idaho. Prior to joining IdahoPTV, she was a general assignment reporter at the ABC affiliate in Portland, OR and a political reporter for KBCI-TV in Boise, ID. Her work has also appeared on the PBS NewsHour and This American Life. She graduated with honors from the University of Southern California with degrees in International Relations and Broadcast Journalism.
John Thornton
John Thornton (chairman and founder) has been a software and media investor at Austin Ventures (AV) since 1990, and was the managing partner of the firm from 2005 to 2008. AV is the largest non-coastal venture capital firm in the U.S., with $4 billion under management. Prior to joining AV, John was with McKinsey & Co., where he served clients in the U.S. and Europe. He was a co-founder of the Austin Entrepreneur's Foundation; a former trustee of Ballet Austin, where he co-chaired a successful capital campaign; a former trustee of the Austin Museum of Art, where he chaired strategic planning; and a former trustee of Trinity University. John currently serves on the advisory boards of the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas and the New American Foundation. He graduated first in his class from Trinity University, and received an MBA from Stanford.
Jacob Villanueva was most recently the interactive director and media producer for the Austin-based media agency Super!Alright! He has previously served as creative director for Youth InterACTIVE, lead graphic designer and new media specialist for CoComm Creative, and art director for Feedback magazine. He has worked as a freelance designer of print, web, video and interactive work for his personal projects at Digital Purity. He has a bachelor's degree in studio art with an emphasis in digital media from the University of Texas.
Todd Wiseman previously worked at the Austin School of Film and Synthetic Pictures and interned for director Richard Linklater. At the Tribune, Todd has helped develop the Stump Interrupted series, which won a national Edward R. Murrow award in 2010. A Fort Worth native, he graduated from the University of Southern California with a dual degree in film and English.
