Investigate Midwest (previously The Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting) is an independent, nonprofit newsroom. Our mission is to serve the public as a watchdog over influential corporations and institutions through in-depth and data-driven investigative journalism.
Started in 2009 by journalist Mike Sherry, Investigate Midwest provides training and education for students, professional journalists and citizens to better understand agribusiness and its impact locally, regionally and globally. Investigate Midwest uses both traditional and innovative digital tools and techniques to analyze data about agribusiness and distribute the results.
Investigate Midwest has federal 501(c)3 status and thus donations made to Investigate Midwest are tax deductible.
Investigate Midwest pursues collaborations with college journalism programs, nonprofit news organizations, citizens, and media outlets. Investigate Midwest is a member of: the Institute for Nonprofit News, LION Publishers, IRE, Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk, North American Agricultural Journalists and the Society of Professional Journalists.
Investigate Midwest is pleased to be a member of the Trust Project and to support efforts to increase transparency and trust in journalism by displaying specially designed Trust Indicators on our stories.
For more information on the Trust Project, visit TheTrustProject.org.
Investigate Midwest is generously supported by the Reva and David Logan Foundation in Chicago.
Investigate Midwest has also received support from: the Lumpkin Foundation, Solutions Journalism Network, Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting, David and Elizabeth Steinglass and the Gary Marx Journalism Fund. It is further supported by Arnold Ventures in Houston, with past support from the Robert R. McCormick Foundation in Chicago and the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation in Oklahoma City.
Contact us!
Mail: 701 Devonshire Dr., Ste. C-33, Champaign, IL 61820
Email: staff@investigatemidwest.org
Phone: (312) 970-0395
Steal Our Stories
Unless otherwise noted, you are allowed to republish our stories, original photos and graphics for free with these conditions.
Where Our Stories Appear
Our work at Investigate Midwest is often republished, referenced or cited throughout a variety of news outlets and organizations.
Here’s a partial list of publications that have used or cited Investigate Midwest’s content.
Staff
Erin Orr, Executive Director
Erin Orr is Investigate Midwest’s executive director and newsroom managing editor.
She previously was the editor and senior personnel administrator for Lee Enterprises Design Center, managing editor for The Times of Northwest Indiana and The State Journal-Register in Springfield, Illinois, and has held many leadership roles in newsrooms throughout her three-decade career.
Orr has led and edited a number of award-winning news series including an investigation into the decades-long lead contamination in the soil and water of subsidized housing in East Chicago, Indiana, and the causes behind the Hoosier state’s high infant-mortality rates.
She is based in northwest Indiana.
EDITORIAL
Sky Chadde, Assistant Editor/Senior Reporter
Sky Chadde is Investigate Midwest’s assistant editor and a senior reporter. He previously served as the newsroom’s first managing editor. In 2019, he graduated from the Missouri School of Journalism with a master’s degree in investigative reporting. He’s covered Missouri state government for the Columbia Missourian and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Before grad school, he was a reporter in Texas, covering local governments and law enforcement.
Jennifer Bamberg, Investigative Reporter
Jennifer Bamberg covers agribusiness and food systems policy in Illinois for Investigate Midwest.
Bamberg previously worked as a freelance reporter in Chicago, covering labor, housing, police misconduct and public health. She has been published by the Illinois Answers Project, In These Times Magazine, Block Club Chicago and the Chicago Reader.
She holds a master’s in investigative journalism from the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University, and was a former reporting fellow with City Bureau, where she covered urban agriculture. She grew up in the Central Valley of California and worked as an ironworker before becoming a journalist.
Mónica Cordero, Investigative Reporter, Report for America
Mónica Cordero has been published by Univision, Bloomberg Businessweek, La Noticia, Radio Ambulante, NPR, openDemocracy and The New York Times. She is a graduate of the University of Costa Rica and the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York. Her past reporting won the 2020 Ortega y Gasset Journalism Award, the most prestigious journalism prize in the Spanish-speaking world, for best investigative reporting. Cordero focuses her work on agriculture’s effects on the environment. She reports from Iowa and is a corps member of Report for America.
Ben Felder, Investigative Reporter
Ben Felder covers agribusiness and the meat industry in Oklahoma for Investigate Midwest.
Felder previously worked for The Oklahoman as a political enterprise reporter blending narrative storytelling, data analysis and investigative reporting to cover the state’s political leaders, the influences behind them, and their impact on everyday Oklahomans. Originally from Kansas City, Missouri, and a graduate of Trevecca University in Nashville, Felder lives in Oklahoma City with his wife, Lori, and son, Satchel.
John McCracken, Investigative Reporter
John McCracken covers the industrial agriculture meat industry for Investigate Midwest.
He has experience reporting at the intersection of agriculture, environmental pollution and climate change. He is a former Midwest reporting fellow for Grist, a national nonprofit newsroom focused on climate change, environmental justice, and solutions. His past reporting won a 2022 SEAL Environmental Journalism Award and a Wisconsin Newspaper Association investigative reporting award. His work has been published or republished in Detroit Public Television, Michigan Public Radio, Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, Wisconsin State Journal, The Capital Times, MSN, WIRED, Modern Farmer, Fast Company and more. He lives in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
Darrell Hoemann, Photo Editor
Darrell Hoemann of Investigate Midwest, sold his first photo to a newspaper at age 15 and was published in the St. Louis (MO) Globe-Democrat.
A 1974 graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, he began his career as a reporter/photographer in Anderson, South Carolina, eventually working as a photographer in Columbia, S.C., and photographer and chief photographer for the Greenville (SC) News and Piedmont.
He completed his newspaper career with 25 years at the Champaign (IL) News-Gazette, as their first photo editor, retiring in 2013 to pursue a freelance career and work with the center.
Hoemann was a founding member of the Associated Press Photo Managers, serving on the board for several terms. After his retirement, he was designated an emeritus board member, and continues to serve the photojournalism community.
He was also president of the South Carolina Press Photographers Association and is a 38-year member of the National Press Photographers Association.
Significant assignments included a wide variety of spot news, national political conventions and a self-assigned story on the then-new hospice programs.
His current assignments include sports, performing arts and news. Hoemann is the official photographer of the Champaign-Urbana ballet and his automotive coverage includes his membership in the Midwest Automotive Media Association.
Teaching has also been an important part of his career, teaching photography classes at the Greenville County (SC) Museum of Art, Furman University, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and adult classes.
Dave Dickey, Columnist
David Dickey always wanted to be a journalist.
After serving tours in the U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Navy, David enrolled at Rock Valley Junior College in Rockford, Ill. where he was first news editor and then editor in chief of the school newspaper The Valley Forge.
A 1988 graduate of the University of Illinois College of Media, he spent the next 28 years at the University of Illinois NPR member station WILL-AM 580. There, David reported on sports, news, and hosted Saturday programming including Weekend Edition for more than a decade.
During the last 13 years of his career at WILL, he served as the station’s director of agricultural programming.
During his radio career, Dickey won a dozen Associated Press awards for his reporting and he is a recipient of a Peabody for his reporting on dental issues in Illinois.
Dickey was also a member of the National Association of Farm Broadcasting, dedicated to bringing timely news to the agricultural community.
OPERATIONS/MARKETING
Mary Ungs-Sogaard, Donor Relations Manager
Mary Ungs-Sogaard is Investigate Midwest’s donor relations manager. She focuses on supporting the mission of Investigate Midwest through marketing and fundraising. She is the former regional publisher for eight Iowa community newspapers with Woodward Communications, a former president of the Iowa Newspaper Association and a former member of the Iowa Public Information Board. She was a founding board member of IowaWatch, where her title was Business Development Director. Ungs-Sogaard is based in Dyersville, Iowa.
CURRENT FELLOWS AND INTERNS
Gary Marx Journalism Fund Fellows and Interns
Chicago reporter David Jackson established the Gary Marx Journalism Fund to honor a trusted newsroom colleague and to inspire a new generation of investigative reporters. Gary Marx began his career as a war correspondent in Africa, uncovered human rights abuses in Latin America and then returned to Chicago to expose prison murders, local political corruption and sexual violence against public school students. David and Gary collaborated on several important Chicago Tribune projects. Created in 2019, the Fund gives out $50,000-to-$100,000 annually to support paid newsroom internships, IRE/NICAR training and scholarships for Columbia College Chicago journalism students.
