Board Bios
John Borger
John P. Borger is a partner at the Minneapolis office of Faegre Baker Daniels LLP (http://www.faegrebd.com/1996 ), where he represents leading news organizations and individual journalists. He served as editor-in-chief of the Michigan State University daily student newspaper, graduated from Yale Law School, received the 2002 Peter S. Popovich Freedom of Information Award from the Minnesota Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, and since 1991 has been listed in the First Amendment category of "The Best Lawyers in America." He twice represented the Star Tribune before the United States Supreme Court.
Helen Burke
Helen Burke is the Federal Depository Librarian at Minneapolis Central Library in the Hennepin County Library System. A librarian since 1985 for Minneapolis Public Library, now the Hennepin County Library System, Helen works with documents at the federal, state, and local levels, as well as the Patent & Trademark Depository collection. Helen has served as past chair of MN Library Association’s Government Documents Round Table, and currently serves as Chair of the MNCOGI Board.
Kirsten Clark
Kirsten Clark is the Government Information and Regional Depository Librarian at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities campus. Previous to this position she worked in Federal Depository Libraries in Minnesota, New Mexico, and Colorado helping researchers and the public in using state, federal, and international government publications. She is active in the American Library Association Government Documents Round Table (GODORT), currently serving as chair. In addition, she is the current Intellectual Freedom Chair/Member-at-Large of the Minnesota Library Association.
Hal Davis
Hal Davis is the 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.
Duchesne Paul Drew
Duchesne Drew is the Star Tribune’s Managing Editor for Operations. He’s the newsroom’s liaison to the circulation, production and advertising departments; he oversees the design and copy desks, newsroom technology issues, training and recruitment; and he leads the newsroom’s community outreach efforts. Prior to being named to his current position, Duchesne was the Assistant Managing Editor for Local News, the Assistant Managing Editor for Business, St. Paul bureau editor, an assistant editor on the paper’s metro team and a longtime education reporter. Duchesne is president of the Minnesota chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists and serves on the board of ThreeSixty (www.threesixtyjournalism.org), a local program that exposes teens to careers in journalism.
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.
Gary Hill
Gary Hill is the Director of Communications and Media Relations for Community Action Partnership of Suburban Hennepin. Prior to the current job he worked as the Communications Director for the office of the Majority Leader of the Minnesota Senate. He also has worked for over 32 years as a broadcast journalist at KSTP-TV. During that time he held positions ranging from photographer and field producer to managing editor and director of investigations. His volunteer positions included Chairman of the Ethics Committee for the Society of Professional Journalists, co-Chair of the Minnesota SPJ Chapter’s Freedom of Information Committee and Vice-President of the Minnesota Joint Media Committee. He currently serves as a board member for the Minnesota Coalition on Government Information and is an instructor at the University of Minnesota School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
Art Hughes
Art Hughes is news director for BringMeTheNews.com. He's worked as a journalist in Minnesota since 1997 for a variety of organizations including National Public Radio, Reuters, Marketplace, CBC and BBC. That time also included 11 years at Minnesota Public Radio covering, among other things, education and Minneapolis city issues. Before that he worked in both public and commercial radio in Seattle and the surrounding area. Art is a long-time advocate for First Amendment and open government issues. In addition to his work for the Minnesota Coaltion on Government Information, he serves on the state chapter board for the Society of Professional Journalists.
Jane E. Kirtley
Jane Kirtley is the Silha Professor of Media Ethics and Law at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota, where she directs the Silha Center for the Study of Media Ethics and Law and is an affiliated faculty member at the University of Minnesota Law School. Prof. Kirtley was Executive Director of The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press in Arlington, Virginia from 1985-1999. She is a member of the National FOIA Hall of Fame and recipient of the John Peter Zenger Award from the University of Arizona, and is admitted to the New York, Virginia and District of Columbia bars.
Robbie LaFleur
Robbie LaFleur is the Director of the Minnesota Legislative Reference Library. The Library provides Minnesota legislators and staff with comprehensive and timely information resources, and serves the Legislature and citizens with a deep and expanding collection about the Legislature and legislative issues over time. The Library is committed to ongoing and retrospective digital archiving of legislative and state government reports. Ms. LaFleur has been a part of the team of legislative staff from the House, Senate, and joint legislative agencies, which has coordinated the Minnesota Legislative Web Site since its inception in the early 1990s. She remembers the days when checking language in a bill meant walking to the Capitol to get a print copy, and a fax machine was considered cutting-edge. She frequently speaks to groups about how to research legislative information via the Legislative Web Site. Her undergraduate degree in Scandinavian Studies and graduate degree in Library Science are both from the University of Minnesota. In 2008 she was awarded the Peter S. Popovich Freedom of Information Award by the Minnesota Chapter of Professional Journalists for her long-term promotion of access to state documents and legislative information for the Legislature and citizens. She is a member of the Minnesota Library Association, and member of and past chair of the Legislative Research Librarians Staff Section of the National Conference of State Legislatures.