Disclaimer: All views expressed on this website belong solely to the writer, independent of any outside affiliations.

Editors:

Angie Schmitt:

Angie Schmitt is a graduate student in Urban Studies/Public Policy at Cleveland State University. She formerly worked as a journalist at Suburban News Papers in Columbus and at The Youngstown Vindicator and The Toledo Blade newspapers in Ohio. A native of Columbus and a graduate of Ohio State, she currently lives in the Cleveland area.

Kate Giammarise

Kate is a Pittsburgh-based journalist who covers the steel industry. She spent a number of years working as a newspaper reporter in Chillicothe, Lorain and Toledo, Ohio, earning numerous awards. She is a native of Erie, Pennsylvania and a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh. Read more of her work at kategiammarise.com.

Contributors:

Greg Ruffing

Greg Ruffing is an editorial and fine art photographer in the Midwest/Rust Belt region. His editorial work is represented by Redux Pictures in New York and has appeared in a wide variety of publications including Time, Newsweek, The New York Times Magazine, Mother Jones, Forbes, Rolling Stone, Spin, and others. He is based in Cleveland.

Randy Vines

Amateur photographer Randy Vines is Creative Director and Co-Owner of a St. Louis-themed apparel, merchandise and promotions company, STL-style. He is a community activist, historic preservationist and a new dad (!) based in St. Louis. He is a graduate of Bradley University.

Rob Pitingolo

Rob Pitingolo is a student of economics at John Carroll University and a part-time intern at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. He is the creator of Extraordinary Observations, a blog which focuses on urban issues. He is also a blogger for Newsweek’s Generation O blog, which consolidates the views of the “Obama Generation.”

Sean Posey

Sean Posey is a freelance photographer currently based out of Youngstown, Ohio . His work covers documentary/photojournalism, commercial, and editorial photography. Sean, a graduate of the Academy of Art University in San Francisco with a BFA in photography, has spent the last several years covering homelessness in the San Francisco Bay Area and the struggle of Rust Belt cities in the Midwest. Sean’s work has appeared in: San Francisco Magazine, San Francisco Chronicle, Bonita Daily News, and Theater Bay Area, among others. Sean was also recently invited to attend the prestigious, Missouri Photo Workshop: His work there will be featured in a soon to be released book covering the workshop’s 60th anniversary. Sean is currently working on his Master’s degree and is chronicling the story of Youngstown, Ohio.

David Zaitz

David Zaitz is an LA-based photographer known for his quirky, people/location imagery.  Among his advertising clients are Toyota, Lockheed Martin, Coca-Cola, Callaway Golf, Nestlé, The Home Depot and Bank of America. Between commercial assignments Zaitz can be found on the road shooting personal projects exploring and documenting what he calls “architectural anthropology”.

Nicholas Helmholdt

Nicholas Helmholdt is an urban planner from Grand Rapids, Michigan. Nick was lucky enough to visit the Ruhr region of Germany on a study abroad in 2005 to witness how this area transformed derelict industrial buildings into cultural attractions. This experience motivated him to take a strong interest in redevelopment and re-utilization of vacant property. He runs the Vacant Property :: Urban Opportunities weblog with a special focus on the Detroit area. He graduated from Michigan State with a bachelors degree and completed a Masters of Science program at Cornell in 2009.

Ivy Hughes

Ivy Hughes is Lansing, Mich.- based journalist who writes about business, technology and the revitalization of the uppermost portion of the Rust Belt. She contributes to a variety of publications, including Next American City, Entrepreneur and Success. She just finished a political satire about the Michigan legislatures, which she babysat for several years.

Washington, DC Correspondent:

Alex M. Parker

Despite his current residence just outside the DC beltway, Alex M. Parker is a born-and-bred Midwesterner. A native of Indianapolis, he attended Oberlin College in Ohio and found himself firmly rooted in the Buckeye State for nearly ten years. As a reporter for the Lorain Morning Journal and the Toledo Blade, he covered crime, the courts, business, government and politics. Through four years of daily newspaper coverage, Parker became intimately familiar with the issues facing the Rust Belt — the auto and steel industries, challenges with the Great Lakes, and the housing crisis. He was twice recognized by the Ohio Associated Press, and the Inland Press Association commended a series of articles he co-authored about the development of freight transportation in northwest Ohio.

Parker moved to the east coast to write for Government Executive, an Atlantic Media magazine which covers the federal workforce. Today, he is working as a freelance journalist in the D.C. area.

As a RustWire.com contributor, he focuses on issues in Congress and the federal government which affect the Rust Belt and the Midwest.

Tech Guru:

Tyler Clark

Tyler Clark is a freelance tech consultant, writer and musician based in Youngstown, Ohio. He runs the blog Youngstown Renaissance, which chronicles efforts to revitalize the city of Youngstown. He is also writes a regular web editorial for the Youngstown Vindicator and is a part-time consultant for the Youngstown Business Incubator.

Tech Consultant:

Josh Ferris

Josh Ferris a Public Policy and Management Science student at the Heinz College at Carnegie Mellon University.  His research interests include poverty analysis and the role of organized labor in poverty elimination.  He is also active in activism on LGBT issues, economic justice, and international solidarity.

All contributors generously donate their time to Rust Wire.

To become a contributor email rustbeltnews@gmail.com.