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Staff Experts
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Media Contacts |
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To schedule an interview with one of POGO's staff experts, contact Marthena Cowart, Director of Communications
(202) 347-3958 or (202) 347-1122 or email mcowart@pogo.org |
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Danielle Brian, Executive Director
Danielle Brian has been the Executive Director of the Project On Government Oversight since 1993. She frequently testifies before Congress and appears on or is quoted in major national media such as NBC, CBS and Fox News; the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, and USA Today; and National Public Radio. She has conducted numerous investigations leading to major reforms and cuts in wasteful spending in such areas as oil industry fraud on public lands, drug industry influence on health policy, nuclear security, government secrecy, and defense contractor waste and fraud. Before becoming Executive Director, Ms. Brian worked with POGO from 1986-1990 as a Senior Research Associate and conducted investigations leading to the cancellation of the Army's Sergeant York Division Air Defense Gun, one of the largest weapons cancellations ever. From 1990 to 1993, she worked first as a producer for television documentaries and then as a policy analyst at the Arms Control and Foreign Policy Congressional Caucus. Ms. Brian currently serves on the boards of Taxpayers for Common Sense and HALT: Americans for Legal Reform. Ms. Brian earned her Masters degree in International Relations from the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University in 1990. She received her Bachelors degree in Government from Smith College in 1985. |
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Scott Amey, General Counsel
Mr. Amey joined the POGO staff in 1993 as a Research Associate. Mr. Amey currently directs POGO's Contract Oversight investigations, including reviews of federal spending on goods and services, the responsibility of top federal contractors, and conflicts-of-interest and ethics concerns that have led to questionable contract awards. Mr. Amey has testified before Congress and federal agency panels, submitted public comments on proposed regulations, educated the public by working with the media, and authored reports, alerts, and blogs on contracting issues.
Mr. Amey previously worked at POGO in the mid-1990s, and was one of the organization's most prolific investigators. One of his most notable projects during that time was an investigation into Area 51 that resulted in the Air Force admitting the black facility's existence and submitting to compliance with environmental laws. Mr. Amey also undertook investigations into Boston's Big Dig project and safety concerns at nuclear power plants. Mr. Amey left POGO in 1998 to attend law school, after which he clerked for the Honorable James A. Kenney, III, at the Court of Special Appeals of Maryland from 2001-2003. Mr. Amey received a J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of Baltimore School of Law in 2001, and a B.A. from the University of Pittsburgh in 1993. Mr. Amey is licensed to practice law in Maryland. |
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Beth Daley, Director of Investigations
Beth Daley, Director of Investigations, has worked for public policy organizations in Washington, DC for 15 years. Since joining POGO in 1999, she has helped to lead investigations to reform the federal government's collection of drilling fees which resulted in $70 million being collected more annually, conducted POGO's investigation into protections for homeland and national security whistleblowers, and more. She has testified before Congress, been quoted or appeared in hundreds of news outlets including CNN, NPR, PBS, the Washington Post and the New York Times. Prior to joining the staff in 1999, Ms. Daley worked as a staff member or consultant for numerous nonprofits working to improve public policy. She earned a Bachelors degree in History from Northwestern University in 1989. |
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Marthena S. Cowart, Director of Communications
Marthena Cowart brings 30 years of Washington, DC, experience in federal and public relations for both the governmental and nonprofit sectors.
Most recently, she served as Senior Advisor and Assistant Inspector General for Congressional Affairs for Iraq Reconstruction. She has served as the Director of Communications for the US Consumer Product Safety Commission; as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs; as the Director of Public Liaison for the United States Information Agency; as the Special Assistant to the Administrator of the Veterans Administration (now the US Department of Veterans Affairs); as the Director of Media Logistics for the 1992 Commission on Presidential Debates; and Director of Public Outreach for the Common Good Institute. While at State Department, Ms. Cowart established its successful global satellite network, the American Embassy Television Network (AETN).
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Ingrid Drake, Investigator
Ingrid Drake comes to POGO after working for years as a print and radio journalist. She also has experience working in the nonprofit sector and as a mediator in the court system. Since joining POGO in 2007, Ms. Drake has worked on investigations examining the security of the Department of Energy's (DOE) weapons-grade quantities of plutonium and highly enriched uranium (HEU), which resulted in the report U.S. Nuclear Weapons Complex: Livermore Homes and Plutonium Make Bad Neighbors. Ms. Drake's investigations have also covered large-scale construction projects and health and safety concerns at DOE, as well as oversight issues at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).
Currently, Ms. Drake is investigating the progress of the U.S. in downblending its stock of excess HEU, which poses great security risks and costs to the taxpayer. In addition, she is working on a report that examines the experience of whistleblowers from the Federal Air Marshal Service dealing with the Office of Special Counsel. Ms. Drake also directs POGO's Congressional Oversight Training Series (COTS), which provides hands-on training and nonpartisan networking opportunities to Hill staffers. She earned a B.A. with Honors from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1999. |
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Dr. Ned Feder, Staff Scientist
Before joining POGO in September 2006, Dr. Feder was a scientist at the National Institutes of Health. He came to the NIH in 1967 as the head of the Section on Biophysical Histology, conducting basic research in cell biology. In the mid-1980s he and an NIH colleague, Walter Stewart, began to study professional misconduct among biomedical researchers and found that violations of ethical standards were common. Published reports on their controversial observations drew attention in academia, in the press, and on Capitol Hill, particularly in hearings by a subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. In 1993, senior NIH officials directed Dr. Feder and his colleague to stop their ongoing studies of misconduct in medical research, and they were reassigned to administrative jobs unconnected with the examination of scientific misconduct. Over the years Dr. Feder has published articles in the scientific and lay press on a wide range of topics including histochemistry, cell biology, mycology, scientific misconduct, and conflicts of interest. He received an M.D. degree from Harvard Medical School in 1953 and was a faculty member of the Harvard Biology Department from 1961 to 1967.
While at POGO, Dr. Feder has investigated and written about threats to public health in programs of the Department of Health and Human Services. |
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Michael Smallberg, Investigator and Blog Editor
Michael Smallberg was as an Everett Public Service Intern with POGO in the summer of 2006. He joined the POGO staff full-time that fall. Mr. Smallberg is POGO's Blog Editor and is an Investigator. He is currently examining the government's bailout programs, with a focus on excessive secrecy, a lack of accountability for the firms receiving government assistance, and conflicts of interest among bailout contractors. He also was the major contributor to POGO's February 2009 report that highlighted POGO's top five recommendations for quickly increasing federal revenue and cutting costs. If implemented these recommendations would generate over $100 billion in revenue and savings for the federal government. Mr. Smallberg has worked with the national media including the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall St. Journal and has appeared on CNN. Prior to joining POGO, Mr. Smallberg interned at the National Archives. He earned a B.A. in American History from Brown University in May 2006. |
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Mandy Smithberger, Investigator
Mandy Smithberger joined POGO as a Picker intern in 2006 and became a National Security Investigator in 2008. She has worked on investigations into multiyear procurement of the troubled F-22A Raptor, federal contracting in response to Hurricane Katrina, inherently governmental functions, Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs), and the Department of Interior's Royalty-In-Kind program. She has also written about the federal government's collection of oil and natural gas drilling royalties for the Multinational Monitor, been quoted on National Public Radio, and spoken at an international conference on the subject. Ms. Smithberger received a B.A., magna cum laude, from Smith College in 2008, where she also won the Dawes Prize for the best undergraduate work on political science. |
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Peter Stockton, Senior Investigator
Peter Stockton, Senior Investigator, has thirty years of experience investigating waste and fraud throughout the federal government. From 1999 to 2001, Mr. Stockton served as Special Assistant to Department of Energy Secretary Bill Richardson as his personal troubleshooter on physical and cyber security in the nuclear weapons complex. Prior to that, for twenty-two years, Mr. Stockton was the senior investigator on the House Energy and Power and the House Oversight and Investigations Subcommittees of the Energy and Commerce Committee. During the 1970s, he investigated most of the major defense contractors and oil companies, the diversion of bomb-grade uranium to Israel, and the death of Karen Silkwood. In the 1980's and early 1990's, he investigated the security and effectiveness of the nuclear weapons production program and defense contractor fraud. His other investigations include the construction and operation of the Alaskan Pipeline, bribes made by U.S. corporate executives to foreign officials, and overcharging and Medicare fraud in the pharmaceutical industry. His investigations of mergers and acquisitions lead him to uncover insider trading and stock manipulation. Prior to his work in Congress, Mr. Stockton was a fiscal economist in the Bureau of the Budget in the Executive Office of the President during the Johnson Administration. He earned a Masters Degree in International Economics from Ohio State University. |
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Jake Wiens, Investigator
Jake Wiens, Investigator, joined the Project On Government Oversight staff as a fellow in 2007. As a fellow, he undertook an investigation into a grant program at the Department of Justice (DOJ), exposing conflicts of interest and patronage in the awarding of DOJ’s discretionary grants. His investigation led to the report, Getting Byrned by Justice: Favoritism in the Department of Justice Byrne Discretionary Grant Program. Mr. Wiens also aided in the research and planning of a number of POGO’s investigations, including an evaluation of the Inspector General system.
As an investigator, Mr. Wiens is looking into lobbying activities on behalf of foreign governments and analyzing of the effectiveness of the Department of Housing and Urban Development's foreclosure policies. Mr. Wiens is also engaged in a year-long project in partnership with the Aspen Institute's Rodel Fellowship program to identify good government indicators that transcend all levels of U.S. government.
Prior to joining the staff in 2007, Mr. Wiens interned at the Department of the Interior (DOI), where he helped edit and draft DOI’s FY2005 Performance and Accountability Report. He earned a B.A. from Bluffton University in 2007, where he was the most distinguished scholar in Sociology.
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