JOHN CARDENAS is news director at WBNS-TV in Columbus, OH. Prior to WBNS, John served as news director for CBS affiliate KPHO-TV in Phoenix, AZ. John has held other news management positions in San Diego and Norfolk,Virginia and has produced newscasts in several markets including Baton Rouge, Oklahoma City and Portland, OR. John attended Louisiana State University where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degreee in Broadcast Journalism. John is an active member in the Radio and Television News Directors Association, the National Association of Television Arts & Sciences, and the Society of Professional Journalists. He also serves in a consulting capacity for the non-profit organization Project for Excellence in Journalism.

KENT COLLINS is associate professor and chair of broadcast news at the University of Missouri in Columbia, MO. Kent is also director of the University of Missouri Lifestyle Journalism Awards for newspaper feature writing. He has served as news director of KOMU-TV, the fully commercial NBC affiliate in the three-station Columbia-Jefferson City market. This top-rated news operation is the laboratory for the School of Journalism. Kent is a consultant for television stations, and seminar leader for business clients on their relations with the news media. He conducts staff development and training for television news staffs. He also has served as an expert witness and advisor to attorneys and defendants in civil suits brought against television journalists.

LOIS DYER is futures editor at CBS News where she is in charge of tracking upcoming events and potential news stories for the network's Washington Bureau. During the 2000 presidential campaign, she helped produce coverage of the Democratic convention in Los Angeles and was a producer in the CBS campaign unit in New York City, coordinating the coverage of candidates George W. Bush and Al Gore. Lois began her broadcast news career at WUSA (then WTOP) Channel 9 in Washington, D.C., as a researcher. Later she moved into the newsroom where she researched and produced daily stories and news series, focusing on the District of Columbia government. After 15 years at WUSA, Lois moved to across town to WJLA as a field producer/off-air reporter, and later became managing editor.

BARBARA FOUGHT is associate professor at the Newhouse School at Syracuse University, where she has been on the faculty since 1993. A former investigative news producer, Barbara worked for six years at WDIV-TV, Detroit, where she earned 18 national, state and local awards, including nine Emmys. She has also taught at Eastern Michigan University, worked as a public relations practitioner in North Carolina and reported for a daily newspaper in Michigan. Barbara is the co-author, with Professor Jerry Lanson of Emerson College, of a reporting textbook, News in a New Century. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of the National Freedom of Information Coalition and is a licensed attorney in Michigan. She lives in Jamesville, NY, with her husband, Nelson Price, a retired cable television executive.

BARBARA HAMM is the former assistant news director at WTKR-TV in Norfolk, VA. She was responsible for the day to day operation of a 70 person news staff that produced more than 40 hours of news each week. Barbara came to NewsChannel 3 in 1993 after holding television management positions in Baltimore, MD, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia, PA. She is an active member of the Hampton Roads Black Media Professionals, and the National Association of Black Journalists. She has served as an adjunct journalism professor at Norfolk State University. Barbara is a single parent of 18 year old Tiffany. In her spare time she enjoys reading, spending time with her daughter, and plays a mean game of cards!

TONI MORRISSEY is a general assignment reporter at WISC-TV in Madison, WI. She joined WISC in 1993, where she worked as assignment editor for 5 years then became a general assignment reporter. Toni graduated from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale in 1977 with a BS degree in radio and TV. She has worked as a radio news reporter, news director and talk show host. Her interest in journalism goes back to high school. When her all-girl, Catholic high school's newspaper didn't have a sports page, Morrissey asked, "Why not?" She ended up writing and editing the stories, and writing a column for the newly added section. Toni lives in the Madison area with her husband, Tim Morrissey, morning news anchor at Q-106, and two children.

JIM OGLE is senior vice president for news at WKYT-TV in Lexington, KY. He joined WKYT-TV in February 1994 as VP for news and promoted to senior VP in early 2000. WKYT-TV produces more news than any other Lexington station. It also produces the daily 10pm newscast for FOX 56. Jim is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism. He was executive producer at WLOS-TV in Asheville, NC, news director at KTVN-TV in Reno, NV, news director at WGHP-TV in High Point, NC, and managing editor at WTVJ-TV in Miami, FL. In 1994, WTVJ won the duPont-Columbia, RTNDA, and the Peabody awards for its coverage of Hurricane Andrew that Jim organized and coordinated.

MIKE PLEWS is assistant news director, photography, at WOWT-TV in Omaha, NE. He has been in the television business since 1973. Mike started in a documentary film company in Yankton, SD, and in 1974 went to work as a news photographer for KTIV in Sioux City, IA. In 1978, he jumped to KETV in Omaha as a general assignment news photographer and in 1980 came to WOWT TV. He has been married to Jacquie Plews, a former TV director, for the last 21 years and they have a 15 year old son named Kai. They live on a farm near Missouri Valley, in the beautiful Loess hills of western Iowa.