MNCOGI provides public education on government transparency, government information policy, and related issues.
Board Members
Paul Bosman
Paul Bosman is a Minneapolis-based attorney who frequently represents
clients involved in police accountability issues.
Hal Davis
Hal Davis is the retired team leader for public safety at the St. Paul Pioneer Press. He held a similar position at the Dayton (Ohio) Daily News. Prior to that, he was assistant editor at the National Law Journal, news editor at Bloomberg Business News, a reporter at the New York Post, where he covered state courts for 15 years, and a reporter at United Press International.
Pat Doyle
Pat Doyle reported for the Minneapolis Star Tribune from 1984 to 2014, covering a wide variety of local and state government agencies. He was assigned to the newspaper’s Capitol bureau from 2005 through 2010, covering budgets, casino gambling, pensions, transportation and politics. He has made extensive use of the Minnesota Data Practices Act and the U.S. Freedom of Information Act. He was a winner of the John R. Finnegan Freedom of Information Award for investigating the 2007 collapse of the Interstate 35-W bridge in Minneapolis and of a Minnesota Associated Press Freedom of Information Award for “Inside MnDOT,” a series in 2003 on a state transportation agency that broke contracting laws and manipulated public opinion.
Matt Ehling
Matt Ehling is a writer and television producer, and the executive director of Public Record Media. His broadcast documentaries include “Urban Warrior” and “Intent: Searching for Meaning in the Constitution,” and have been seen on PBS, the Bravo Channel, and at film festivals worldwide. He has been part of several Upper Midwest Regional Emmy Award-winning teams. His written work has appeared in the on-line news magazine Minnpost.com and other outlets.
His organization Public Record Media (PRM) uses government documents to produce public affairs media. PRM is a frequent user of government records laws at the state and federal level, and seeks to encourage government compliance with such laws through administrative actions and litigation when appropriate.
Kevin Featherly
Kevin Feathely is the chair of the Minnesota Coalition on Government Information. He has worked as a journalist for multiple media outlets, including Minnesota Lawyer, and was the publisher and founder of Session/Law.
Don Gemberling
Don Gemberling began working, professionally, with issues of transparency, governmental accountability, the implications of technology on humans, and data privacy in 1973. For over thirty years he was the only staff or managed functions in the state Department of Administration that involved helping government agencies comply with the Data Practices Act and related law and citizens with exercising their rights under those laws. He is currently on the Board of the Minnesota Coalition on Government Information and is the Board’s secretary. He is also MnCOGI’s spokesperson and testifies before the legislature. He graduated from Macalester College and William Mitchell College of Law. He is available to answer questions and enjoys training citizens about how to best use transparency and data privacy laws.
Peter Hendricks
Peter Hendricks is a Saint Paul-based attorney.
Nancy Herther
Nancy Herther worked for over 30 years as a research librarian at the University of Minnesota. She has also worked as a research consultant for major technology companies and continues to advise/consult/write in all areas concerning information access and trends. In recognition of her “outstanding professional accomplishments and dedication,” she was selected in 2020 to receive the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award from Marquis Who’s Who.
Isabella Salomão Nascimento
Isabella Nascimento is an associate at Ballard Spahr LLP in their Media & Entertainment Law group, where her practice is centered on protecting the rights of the press and the public as guaranteed by the First Amendment. She started her career as a Staff Attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota, where she represented clients who had their civil liberties threatened or violated. And her background was in indigent criminal defense, racial justice, and police accountability. She believes that a transparent government is the best means to achieve its accountability and ensure it is working for the benefit of all its constituents. Isabella, the daughter of immigrants and a first generation American, was born and raised in southern Minnesota. Isabella received her bachelors’ from the University of Minnesota and her law degree from the University of Chicago Law School. (She/her)
Mary Pattock
Mary Pattock is a retired communications professional with extensive background in higher education, K-12 education, health care, and government.
Sharon Schmickle
Sharon Schmickle has been a journalist for MinnPost.com since 2007, and before that she reported for the Minneapolis Star Tribune where her beats included the Washington Bureau and covering wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Her awards include Pulitzer Prize finalist for coverage of the U.S. court system, National Press Club’s Washington Correspondent of the Year for coverage of the federal budget as it affected one Minnesota community, Overseas Press Club of America award for coverage of trade friction. She has taught writing and journalism at Macalester College, the University of St. Thomas and the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey Institute. Since 2011, she also has worked as a journalism mentor in Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda and Tanzania. She graduated from the University of Minnesota’s School of Journalism, and she has studied under fellowships including the Templeton-Cambridge fellowship in science and religion at Cambridge University, England.
MaryJo Webster
MaryJo Webster is the data editor for the Star Tribune. She has journalism degrees from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls and the University of Missouri-Columbia.
Chris Weiland
Chris Weiland is an IT professional who is also active with surveillance and privacy policy through Restore the Fourth Minnesota.
Financials
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
Archives
An archive of content from our Blogspot site (2007 – 2013) can be found at blogspot.archive.mncogi.org.