Five Join Legislative Internship Hall of Fame at UIS

The Samuel K. Gove Illinois Legislative Internship Hall of Fame at the University of Illinois Springfield will honor five individuals who have served as legislative interns at the state Capitol. U.S. Congresswoman Cheri Bustos, Scott Kaiser, Mona Martin, Scott Reimers, and David Sykuta will be inducted during a ceremony at the Governor’s Mansion on Thursday, November 21, 2013. Inductees are selected based on their contributions to Illinois and its citizens. The Hall of Fame is also recognition of the important role that public service internships play in developing public sector leadership.

Bustos, originally a journalist, used her pen to help her community. She uncovered numerous stories of corruption and greed in government, winning state and national awards for her work on behalf of the public interest. Twelve years ago, she left journalism to work for one of the nation’s largest non-profit health care systems. In 2007 Bustos was elected to serve on the City Council in East Moline for two terms and made her top priority economic development, which led to her founding the East Moline Downtown Revitalization Committee. In 2012, she was elected to represent Illinois’ 17th Congressional District. Bustos earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Maryland College Park and a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Illinois Springfield. She also attended Illinois College in Jacksonville, where both her parents and son graduated.

Kaiser served as a legislative analyst on the senate republican staff from 1988-1996 working on welfare and healthcare issues and funding for human services agencies. During his eight years on staff, there were four years in the minority and four years in the majority under Senator Pate Philip. From 1997-1999 he served as deputy director of legislative affairs for Governor Jim Edgar, working primarily as the governor’s liaison to the Senate. In 1999, Kaiser and his wife Julie moved to Carbondale where he became assistant to the president of Southern Illinois University. His responsibilities included government affairs, and community and media relations. In July 2004, he was elected assistant secretary of the senate for the remainder of the 93rd General Assembly. He has been re-elected assistant secretary of the senate for the 94th, 95th, 96th, 97th and 98th General Assemblies. Kaiser is active in the American Society of Legislative Clerks and Secretaries (ASLCS), where he is currently serving as national vice president. He received his bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Illinois Springfield.

Martin is an independent, contract lobbyist who owns her own consulting firm in Springfield. Prior to consulting, she worked at the Department of Commerce and Community Affairs/Economic Opportunity for 4 years where she served as the deputy director of policy development, planning, and research and was charged with developing the programmatic structure for the $12 billion Illinois FIRST program. Her career in government began as an intern in 1989 with the house republican staff. She later staffed the House Revenue Committee, and in 1993, became the director of research, in addition to later adding the responsibilities as the director of appropriations.

Reimers currently serves as chief of staff for the house republican leader in the Illinois General Assembly, a position he has held since 2011. He began his career in state government through the Illinois Staff Legislative Internship Program with the house republican staff in 1994 as a substantive and appropriations committee staff member working specifically with the human services and insurance committees and analyzing agency budgets. In 1999, Reimers was promoted to director of research and later deputy chief of staff for public policy prior to being named chief of staff. He also coordinated several political campaigns for house republican seats. In his current role, Reimers manages over 100 employees, including staff members for legislative research, communications, technology, policy, appropriations, legislative assistants, and support staff, and provides policy advisement for the house republican leadership team and caucus on state policies and legislation. He received a bachelor’s degree in political science from Northern Illinois University and a master’s degree in Public Administration from the University of Illinois Springfield.

Sykuta started his career with the Senate Republican staff in 1973, specializing in industrial relations. He was hired as a full-time legislative consultant for the Illinois senate republican staff in July 1974. During his tenure on the Senate staff, he took several leaves of absence to organize and manage political campaigns. In April 1976, Sykuta joined the Illinois Petroleum Council as associate director and in 1986 he was appointed executive director of the Illinois Petroleum Council. In the fall of 1996, he co-founded the Partnership for Environmental Progress, a coalition of more than 80 businesses, labor unions, agricultural groups, trade associations, corporations and scientific groups whose common goals are a cleaner environment, economic growth and sound public policy. He also serves at the pleasure of Illinois’ governor on the Illinois Environmental and Regulatory Review Commission. Sykuta retired from the Illinois Petroleum Council last December and continues to work on special projects for the oil industry as a part time contractor. He received a bachelor’s degree in political science and history from Illinois State University in in 1972. He also attended graduate school in Public Administration at Illinois State and the University of Illinois Springfield.

The Hall of Fame is sponsored by Illinois Issues, the state’s leading public policy magazine, and the University of Illinois Alumni Association. The Hall of Fame is named for the late Samuel Gove, one of the magazine’s founders and a longtime director of the internship program. Established in 1990, the Hall of Fame, including this year’s inductees, now numbers 59 individuals, among them a former governor and several former and current state legislators. The names of the Hall’s members are inscribed on a plaque that hangs on the fourth floor of the Statehouse.

The event on November 21 will begin with a reception at 5:30 p.m. at the Governor’s Mansion at Fourth and Jackson Streets, followed by the induction ceremony at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $65 per person and may be purchased online at http://illinoisissues.uis.edu/. The deadline to register is November 18. Reservations are required. For more information on attending, call 217/206-6084.

Three inducted into the UIS Public Affairs Reporting Hall of Fame

The Bill Miller Public Affairs Reporting Hall of Fame honored three graduates from the University of Illinois Springfield’s Public Affairs Reporting program who have distinguished themselves in the field of journalism. Nina Burleigh, Jim Prather, and Jim Webb were inducted into the Hall of Fame on Monday, January 28, 2013.

The Public Affairs Reporting (PAR) Hall of Fame was named in honor of Bill Miller, an award-winning journalist who served as the program’s director for 19 years. After a semester of classroom study, students work six months in the Capitol covering state government and politics under the supervision of professional journalists. More than 600 students have completed the program since the first class graduated in 1973. Illinois Issues, the state’s leading public affairs magazine, and WUIS-91.9, the capital city’s NPR station, established the bi-annual event in 2006. Both are units of the Center for State Policy and Leadership at UIS.

Nina Burleigh is a journalist and the author of five books. She writes the weekly Bombshell column at the New York Observer. Her last book, The Fatal Gift of Beauty, was a New York Times bestseller. In the last several years, she has covered a wide array of subjects, including American politics, the Arab Spring, Israeli archaeological forgers, Iraq war veterans and drug addiction, Arab feminism, Iraqi immigrants in Nebraska, the NYPD and human trafficking in New York City, Nazi-looted art at the MOMA, a small-town Italian mayor murdered over slow food politics, Arctic travel, Chinese immigrants to Italy, and expat life in Italy. She covered the Clinton White House for Time and wrote human interest stories for People magazine as a staff writer based in New York in the 2000s. She has written for numerous publications including Businessweek, The New Yorker, the New York Times and New York Magazine, is a contributing editor at Elle and has appeared on Good Morning America, Nightline, The Today Show, 48 Hours, MSNBC, CNN and, on NPR and many radio programs.

Born and educated in the Midwest, based in New York, Burleigh has traveled extensively in the Middle East and lived in Italy and France. She lives in New York with her husband and two children. Nina received her bachelor’s degree in English from MacMurray College, a master’s in English from the University of Chicago and her master’s degree in Public Affairs Reporting from UIS (then Sangamon State University) in 1984.

Jim Prather began his career as a government reporter for WICS-TV in Springfield. He later went to work as a government reporter for KARK-TV in Little Rock, Ark., where he covered the Bill Clinton-Frank White gubernatorial campaign and the ensuing Clinton administration. Prather made the transition to management when he became the assignment editor for KTHV-TV in Little Rock. Later, Prather served as news director at KRIS-TV in Corpus Christi, Texas, KTXS-TV in Abilene, Texas, and KSBY-TV in San Luis Obispo, Calif. In 1989, he became assistant news director at WMAR-TV in Baltimore. Two years later he was named news director at WTMJ-TV in Milwaukee.

During his 12-year tenure in Milwaukee, Prather rebuilt the organizational structure and culture in the Today’s TMJ-4 newsroom to provide more viewer-focused newscasts. In August 1995, Prather was named general manager of Today’s TMJ-4. With the help of a resurgent NBC prime time, a strong leadership team and a strategic plan which focused on winning breaking news, weather and investigative reporting, Today’s TMJ-4 became the dominant news leader in the Milwaukee marketplace.

In 1997, Prather was named executive vice president of the Journal Broadcast Group. In December 1998 he became president of the television group. In August 2003, Prather moved to Las Vegas and took on the role of vice president and general manager of KTNV, a station in the Journal Broadcast Group’s largest revenue market. In July 2005, Prather was named executive vice president, Television and Radio Operations, of Journal Broadcast Group. He now oversees radio and television station clusters in Boise and Tucson, and a Journal Broadcast Group duopoly in Palm Springs.

A graduate of Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, Prather holds a bachelor of science degree in radio-television and political science, and a master’s degree in Public Affairs Reporting from the University of Illinois-Springfield.

Jim Webb is the editor for a Chicago Tribune investigative team focused on state and local government. Prior to that, he was the paper’s Illinois political editor from mid-2005 to mid-2010. In addition to supervising daily coverage of Chicago City Hall, Cook County and Illinois state government for five years, Webb oversaw state and local campaign coverage for the paper. During that time, he was the lead editor for the newspaper’s investigations of pay-to-pay politics involving former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, hiring corruption under then-Mayor Richard Daley and influence peddling involving City Hall zoning.

In his current role, Webb works with a team of reporters focused on the relationships between powerful public officials and private interests. The team has produced a series of stories about how Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan has built a political empire while repeatedly taking public actions that benefit private clients of his property tax law firm. Starting before the election of Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the Metro investigations team has examined Emanuel’s creation of a campaign fund juggernaut, outlined the new mayor’s increasing reliance on privatization and exposed his resistance to transparency on everything from speed cameras to school closings.

Prior to joining the Tribune, Webb spent 18 years as a reporter, desk supervisor and news editor for The Associated Press.

After receiving a B.A. in journalism from Bradley University, Webb interned with the AP at the Illinois statehouse as part of the master’s program in Public Affairs Reporting at the University of Illinois-Springfield. Upon graduation in 1987, he parlayed the internship into a series of jobs with the AP in St. Louis, Louisville, Frankfort, Ky., and Philadelphia before moving to the Chicago bureau in 1989.

Patty Culhane, (keynote speaker at the Bill Miller Hall of Fame reception) is a UIS Public Affairs Reporting Program graduate of 1995. She joined Al Jazeera in 2009 and is now the White House correspondent for the network. Before joining, she worked as a correspondent for MSNBC covering the Bush administration, where she traveled both domestically and internationally with President George W. Bush. From 2000 to 2006, she worked at NBC affiliate WAVY-TV in Norfolk, Va. as a military reporter. She has been a journalist for 17 years, working in Iowa, Illinois and Norfolk, Va., where she covered the U.S. military, traveling extensively through the Middle East covering the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Five join Illinois Issues sponsored Legislative Internship Hall of Fame

The Samuel K. Gove Illinois Legislative Internship Hall of Fame will honor five individuals who have served as legislative interns at the state Capitol. David Kennedy, Bruce Kinnett, Michael Maibach, Catherine Shannon and Frank Straus will be inducted during a ceremony at the Executive Mansion on Monday, November 7. Inductees are selected based on their contributions to Illinois and its citizens. The Hall of Fame is also recognition of the important role that public service internships play in developing public sector leadership.

Kennedy, 57, has served as executive director of the American Council of Engineering Companies of Illinois (ACEC-IL) for the past 25 years. He chairs the State House Committee and serves on the Executive Committee of the Transportation for Illinois Coalition that advocates at the state and national levels for more transportation funds. Kennedy is also active in his profession, association management. He has served as president, board member, member and chair of many committees for the Illinois Society of Association Executives. Following his graduation from Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Kennedy was a legislative intern from 1978-79 with the House Democratic staff where he remained until 1986 when he moved to ACEC-IL. Kennedy is a Springfield resident.

Kinnett, 56, is vice-president at Cook-Witter Inc., a Springfield lobbying firm. He joined the organization in 1988 with extensive experience in state and national governmental relations, particularly in the areas of health care, agriculture, conservation, natural resources and environmental concerns. While serving as a legislative intern from 1976-77 with the Senate Republican staff, he coordinated policy research and legislative analysis of many of those same issues. Prior to joining Cook-Witter Inc., Kinnett moved to Washington, D.C., and founded a private corporation to promote the development of aquaculture and then returned to Illinois in 1987 to assist with the family farming operation near Alexander. Kinnett is on the board of directors of two medical missions that provide health care to the needy in the Philippines and Southeast Asia. He is a graduate of Illinois College and resides in Springfield.

Maibach, 60, has been president and CEO of the European-American Business Council since 2003, an entity that has grown from 12 to 75 member companies with offices in Washington, D.C., and Brussels, Belgium. He is a member of the U.S. State Department’s Advisory Council on International Economics and has published more than 70 essays on American history and society, commercial policy and global competitiveness. Prior to his current position, Maibach worked for Intel Corporation, rising to vice president in 1996. He opened the Intel Government Affairs Offices in Washington, Brussels and Beijing, becoming a leading spokesman for America’s ICT industry on trade and technology policy. He also worked for Caterpillar Inc. in various positions then as government affairs manager in Illinois, California and Washington, D.C. Maibach served as a legislative intern with the Senate Republican staff in 1975-76, assigned to then-Minority Leader Bill Harris. He holds a number of degrees from various universities in the subject areas of history, political science and international business. A native of Peoria, he resides in Alexandria, Virginia.

Shannon, 47, is deputy director at the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency and assists in the management of 26 state historic sites and historical preservation programs. The agency has about 180 employees and an annual operating budget of approximately $24 million. From 2007 through April 2011, she served as director of the Illinois Department of Labor, the state agency responsible for the administration and enforcement of more than 20 labor and safety laws with 90 employees and an annual operating budget of $7.5 million. Shannon had worked as the agency’s legislative director since 2004 and as the labor policy adviser to the governor’s office from 2003 to 2004. She also worked previously as legislative director for both the Illinois Federation of Teachers and the Illinois AFL-CIO. Shannon was a legislative intern from 1987-88 and worked on the research/appropriations staff for the House Democrats. She is a graduate of Northern Illinois University and a resident of Springfield.

Straus, 52, is deputy director for Revenue and Public Safety for the House Republican staff and has served in that capacity since 2003. He also serves on the Budgets and Revenue Committee for the National Conference of State Legislators. A graduate of Harvard, Straus began working in state government in 1982 as a Secretary of State Fellow. He then followed that experience into the Legislative Intern program in 1983-84, serving with the House Republican staff. Straus has staffed a wide variety of committees, handling everything from criminal law to financial institutions, serving as a mentor for fellow analysts and providing support for members of the House Republican caucus. He has written a book about Mackinac Island, Mich., and writes a column on the island’s history for that area’s newspaper. Straus is a resident of Springfield.

Illinois Issues, sponsor of the Hall of Fame, is the state’s leading public policy magazine. It is published at the University of Illinois Springfield. The Hall of Fame is named for Samuel Gove, one of the magazine’s founders and a longtime director of the internship program. Gove died January 28, 2011. Besides commemorating Gove’s legacy, this year’s event marks the 50th anniversary of the Illinois Legislative Internship Program’s creation in 1961. Both the magazine and the Illinois Legislative Staff Internship Program are part of UIS’ Center for State Policy and Leadership. Established in 1990, the Hall of Fame, including this year’s inductees, now numbers 54 individuals, among them a former governor and several former and current state legislators. The names of the Hall’s members are inscribed on a plaque that hangs on the fourth floor of the Statehouse.

The event on November 7 will begin with a reception at 5:15 p.m. at the Executive Mansion at Fourth and Jackson Streets, followed by the induction ceremony at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $65 per person. Reservations are required. For more information on attending, call 217-206-6084. Or, to purchase tickets online go to http:///illinoisissues.uis.edu, and look for Gove event registration in the right-hand margin of the Web page.

Illinois Issues and WUIS Public Radio journalists honored with statehouse reporting awards

Illinois Issues and WUIS Public Radio won six national journalism awards in the 2010 statehouse reporting contest sponsored by Capitolbeat, the association of state capitol reporters and editors.

Illinois Issues columnist Charles N. Wheeler III won first place in the Commentary/Column/Analysis category for magazines for his Ends & Means columns. He also won a third place award in the In-Depth category for magazines for his examination of the state’s pension problem that appeared in the February issue. Wheeler is director of the Public Affairs Reporting Program at the University of Illinois Springfield.

Illinois Issues Statehouse Bureau Chief Jamey Dunn won third place in the Online Beat Reporting category for her reports on the Illinois Issues Blog and third place in the Magazine-Single Report category for her article about the state’s backlog of unpaid bills, which appeared in the March issue.

Dana Heupel, executive editor of Illinois Issues, won a second place award in the Commentary/Column/Analysis category for magazines for his Editor’s Note columns.

Amanda Vinicky, statehouse reporter for WUIS and Illinois Public Radio, won third place in the Radio-Beat Reporting category. Illinois Issues and WUIS are both units of the Center for State Policy and Leadership at the University of Illinois Springfield.

The awards were announced November 13 during Capitolbeat’s annual conference in Phoenix.