ANDY SHAW - EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Andy Shaw is an award-winning Chicago journalist who spent 35 years covering politics, business, education and day-to-day news at the City News Bureau, Chicago Sun-Times, NBC 5 and ABC 7. He retired as ABC 7's political reporter in January, 2009 after covering the Obama inauguration.      More

RITA MCLENNON - DEPUTY DIRECTOR

To help raise the necessary funds and to provide nonprofit administrative expertise to keep the organization running smoothly, Andy recruited Rita, who brings 30 years of nonprofit administrative and development experience to the BGA. Rita most notably she served as Executive Director of the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law for 16 years.

MARK LAMET - DIRECTOR OF INVESTIGATIONS

When Andy hired BGA Director of Investigations Mark LaMet, Shaw reunited with a former colleague. In 1998, they broke the story known as the “Illinois truck drivers licensing scandal” prompting the federal corruption probe dubbed Operation Saferoad. It resulted in more than 80 convictions including former Illinois Governor, George Ryan. LaMet, a veteran investigative producer, has worked at Dateline NBC, ABC7, NBC5 and WGN-TV. He’s a national Edward R. Murrow Award-winner who started 2 investigative units. He taught multimedia journalism at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and also ran the internship program.

PATRICK REHKAMP - CHIEF INVESTIGATOR

Patrick Rehkamp came to the BGA in November 2008, bringing four years of experience in newspaper reporting from five Chicago area papers. He spent more than three years at the Chicago Sun-Times, covering various aspects of government, crime, human interest and sports.

Since taking over the investigative program, Rehkamp has continued to build strong relationships with sources from his newspaper days and BGA media partners. His role as manager of the program includes evaluating whistleblower leads, obtaining evidence using public records laws and surveillance, and facilitating the release of BGA findings. In addition, he supervises the activities of interns and investigative staff, and maintains the BGA computer network, databases, and website.

Patrick is a graduate of Loyola University Chicago.

STEPHANIE CRETS - INVESTIGATIVE ASSISTANT

Stephanie came to the BGA as an intern in July 2009 to help out the investigative team. After dedicating herself to the cause for several months, she was hired on full time as an investigative assistant. Besides investigations, she manages the bettergov.org website and the BGA's Facebook and Twitter accounts. Before coming to the BGA, Stephanie wrote editorials for a non-profit organization called Fabulosity avec Amour and wrote several articles for Chicago-based online magazine theMAGAZINE(ok). Her in-depth investigative profile of Hmong culture was the cover story for the first issue of 'Off Deadline,' the Daily Iowan's magazine. She graduated from the University of Iowa in May 2009 with a B.A. in Journalism and Mass Communication and a minor in Japanese.

BARBARA MACHOLZ - DEPUTY DIRECTOR'S ASSISTANT

Barbara is a 2008 graduate of Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Spanish. Prior to her employment at the BGA, Barbara served as an AmeriCorps*VISTA Volunteer at the New York Legal Assistance Group in New York City.