OUR MISSION
Wyoming People, Places and Policy
WyoFile is an independent, nonprofit news service focused on the people, places and policy of Wyoming. Recognizing the rapid decline in resources among traditional news outlets, WyoFile offers supplemental in-depth coverage of complicated subjects and issues ranging from tax policy to trends in Wyoming culture. Designed as a one-stop venue for Wyoming news, WyoFile produces regular commentary and analysis as well as daily summaries and links to important Wyoming-related stories in the state and national press.
Written and edited by leading Wyoming journalists and educators, WyoFile is a non-partisan public interest site for people who care deeply about the civic and cultural health of our state. The site provides news and information that enables the residents of Wyoming to become informed and engaged contributors to important public issues.
If you are interested in writing for WyoFile, please review our submission guidelines and send your pitch to editor@wyofile.com.
OUR NAME
Our name is a play on words that reflects our journalistic purpose and our love for our uniquely beautiful mountain state.
OUR SPONSORS
WyoFile is supported by grants and donations from the John S. and James Knight Foundation, The George B. Storer Foundation, Christopher Findlater, Marcia Kunstel, Joe Albright, Anne Pendergast and the estate of the late Tom Stroock.
For the Knight Foundation Community Information Challenge grant awarded in 2010, WyoFile was sponsored by the Lander Community Foundation. The Lander foundation encourages, supports and rewards excellence in the performance of non-profits. WyoFile received in 2011 a grant from the Ethics & Excellence in Journalism Foundation.
But we also need your help. If you support our in-depth reporting on Wyoming’s people, places and policy, please donate what you can.
For additional information on our funding, mission and finances, please consult our 2010 IRS form 990 filing, a federal disclosure statement that is required for all tax-exempt nonprofit entities.
OUR BOARD
Anne MacKinnon, Board Chair, is former editor-in-chief of the Casper Star-Tribune, Anne researches and writes about Wyoming water history, but also occasionally teaches and puts on conferences on natural resource policy for the University of Wyoming, where she is an adjunct professor for the School of Environment and Natural Resources. Anne lives in Casper.
RT (Randall) Cox is an attorney and author, WyoFile board member and columnist, bird-watcher, dragonfly collector, hunter and fisherman, non-profit tax fixer, political independent who lives in Gillette, travels in Belize, Bhutan, Sumatra, Tibet, and Dull Center.
Christopher Findlater, WyoFile’s founder is an Internet entrepreneur whose interests include online journalism, progressive politics and energy recycling. Before founding WyoFile in 2008, Findlater was the CEO and co-founder of NetQuote, the country’s leading online insurance marketplace. After selling NetQuote in 2005, Findlater created Cheyenne Exploration and began his efforts in building clean energy technologies in America as a proponent of the green recycling of used motor oil.
Katie Hogarty works as the Program Director at Climb Wyoming, a non-profit dedicated to training and placing low income single mothers into higher paying jobs. Following law school, she worked on health and human service policy issues in Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal’s administration. A longtime rugby player and aficionada, Katie lives in Laramie where she hikes, fishes, rides her bike and is currently trying her hand at roller derby.
Jonathan Weber is editor in chief of the BayCitizen, a new non-profit news organization based in San Francisco that will launch later this spring. Until earlier this year, Jonathan was founder and editor of the Montana-based regional news website NewWest.net. A former Los Angeles Times reporter and editor, Jonathan was the co-founder and editor in chief of The Industry Standard, a weekly business news magazine and online service prominent in the late 1990s during the dot-com boom. He divides his time between San Francisco and Missoula, Mt.
OUR STAFF
Dustin Bleizeffer, editor-in-chief. From 2000 to 2010, Bleizeffer was energy reporter for the Casper Star-Tribune, covering the coal, natural gas and oil industries. He detailed the socio-economic and environmental issues of the coal-bed methane gas boom in the Powder River Basin from the onset of the development in the late 1990s. Bleizeffer’s investigative work includes a 2008 series on the failings of Wyoming’s workers’ compensation program. In 2009 he traveled to Shanxi Province in China to write about international efforts to address climate change and coal mine safety. Bleizeffer is a 1998 journalism graduate from the University of Wyoming. He lives in Casper with his wife and two sons. Contact: dustin@wyofile.com or 307-577-6069.
Guy Padgett, assistant editor. Padgett has long been interested in public life in Wyoming. During his time in Casper, Padgett served on numerous non-profit boards, volunteered as an election judge, and served on the Casper city council, including a term as mayor. He has worked as an Assistant Curator of Education at the Nicolaysen Art Museum in Casper, as well as the Executive Director of the Wyoming Symphony Orchestra. Padgett is a graduate of the University of Wyoming, and completed a Master’s degree in International Studies from the University of Denver in June of 2011. He currently lives in Glendale, CO with his partner and two cats. Contact: guy@wyofile.com
Kelly Statton, Development Director. Most recently, Statton was executive director of the Victor J. Riley Arena and Community Events Center, a $3 million non-profit facility in Cody. Prior to that, she has 15 years of experience in the non-profit sector, including development positions with multiple sections of the United States Tennis Association. As a volunteer, Statton has served on dozens of boards and committees for various non-profit entities. She lives in Cody with her husband and two children. Contact: kelly@wyofile.com
Erik Myers, online content producer. Myers is a recent Colorado State University graduate with a degree in technical journalism, emphasizing in computer-mediated communication. He has worked previously for NPR Music and SPIN Magazine. Contact: erik@wyofile.com
Greg Kearney, editorial cartoonist. Greg Kearney was the editorial cartoonist for the Casper Star-Tribune when that paper was under the ownership of the Howard family. He is noted for a minimalist drawing style that reflects a traditional labor democratic political leanings. His work generally deal with local or Wyoming statewide issues rather than national or international concerns. Born in Farmington, Maine, in 1957, Gregory Kearney attended Oak Grove-Coburn School, Vassalboro, Maine, and Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, where he was the staff cartoonist for the Daily Universe. He was hired in 1980 as the only staff cartoonist for the Casper Star Tribune in Casper, Wyoming. He currently lives in Perth Western Australia.
OUR CONTRIBUTORS
Ben Gose is a Lander journalist who writes frequently for The Chronicle of Philanthropy and The Chronicle of Higher Education, and contributes to programs on Wyoming Public Television. He also coaches the sprinters on the Lander Valley High School track team.
Susan Gray Gose is a freelance writer who lives in Lander with her husband and two children. She has been managing editor of the Lander Journal, a correspondent for People magazine, an assistant editor for The Chronicle of Philanthropy, and a reporter for The News & Observer (N.C.) She also writes fiction.
Laton McCartney was born in Denver, Colorado and grew up on cattle ranches in Colorado and Wyoming. He is the author of the national bestseller, Friends in High Places: The Bechtel Story—The Most Secret Corporation and How It Engineered the World; and Beyond the Great Divide: Robert Stuart and the Discovery of the Oregon Trail. His most recent book, The Teapot Dome Scandal: How Big Oil Bought the Harding White House and Tried to Steal the Country, published by Random House, is currently in development as a four-hour miniseries for AMC. McCartney has appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The Today Show and numerous other television and radio programs. He and his wife Nancy divide their time between Dubois and Manhattan’s Upper West Side.
Kate Missett has lived all over eastern Wyoming. She got her start with journalism at age 3, when her dad let her start his newspaper press. She has ink in her veins, having written for and edited newspapers, regional magazines, and the occasional textbook. A former associate editor of Wyoming Wildlife, she hosted a radio program for Campbell County Public Library for three years, and also presented a Wyoming Writers’ Forum of Wyoming authors. A native of Virginia, currently of Gillette, she has also received some very nice rejection letters from prominent magazines, but gets a letter published in one on rare occasion.
Greg Nickerson is a University of Wyoming-trained historian and writer from Big Horn. He has worked on documentary films in Nicaragua, Yellowstone, and Philadelphia, and held jobs as a museum curator and hunting guide.
Geoffrey O’Gara is one of Wyoming’s most accomplished journalists and writers. Geoff is a Wyoming Public Television producer and host of the influential Capitol Outlook and Wyoming Chronicle programs. He is the author of What You See in Clear Water: Indians, Whites, and a Battle Over Water in the American West (2002) and A Long Road Home, Journeys Through America’s Present in Search of America’s Past (1989) and several other books. An avid cyclist, basketballer and fly fisherman, he lives in Lander.
Emilene Ostlind is a graduate student at the University of Wyoming, finishing her degree in creative nonfiction writing and environment and natural resources. Her thesis project is a book documenting the migration of pronghorn antelope from Grand Teton National Park to their winter range in the Green River Basin. Emilene grew up in Big Horn.
Ruffin Prevost is editor of Yellowstone Gate, an independent community news site covering Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks and their gateway communities. He is the Wyoming correspondent for Reuters international news service, and worked previously as managing editor of WyoFile. He worked from Cody for The Billings Gazette from 2005 to 2010, and his reporting also regularly appeared in the Casper Star-Tribune.
Tom Rea lives in Casper. He worked as an editor and reporter for the Casper Star-Tribune for 11 years, covering education and politics. Since leaving the paper he has written two prize-winning books, Bone Wars: The Excavation and Celebrity of Andrew Carnegie’s Dinosaur and Devil’s Gate: Owning the Land, Owning the Story. Most recently he finished a third book, about a historic ranch near Hole in the Wall for the Wold family of Casper.
Bill Sniffin is a longtime Lander-based Wyoming reporter, columnist, editor, author and publisher. As editor and owner of the Wyoming State Journal Sniffin won numerous state and national honors and was nominated for a Pulitzer prize in 1991 by former US Alan Simpson for a series of articles about the treatment of aging uranium workers. He is the author the books The Best Part of America and High Altitudes, Low Multitudes. Bill lives in Lander with his wife Nancy.
Rone Tempest, A former national and foreign correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, Rone covered wars, natural disasters, politics and culture on six continents. In 2004 he was part of a team of reporters to win the Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the massive wildfires in Southern California. From 2000-2007 he was a lecturer at the Graduate School of Journalism of the University of California, Berkeley. Rone lives in Lander.
Samuel Western of Sheridan is a university lecturer, poet and U.S. regional correspondent for The Economist. Author: Pushed Off the Mountain Sold Down the River: Wyoming’s Search for Its Soul (2003) and A Random Census of Souls (2009)
OUR CONTACTS
Wyofile is non-profit news site based in Casper, with contributors scattered across the Woming. WyoFile editors can be reached at editor@wyofile.com. If you are interested in writing for WyoFile, please review our submission guidelines and send your pitch to editor@wyofile.com.
