Our Team

Allison Silver, Editor

Allison Silver is a former editor at The New York Times "Week in Review" section. She was the editor of The Los Angeles Times Sunday "Opinion" section from 1991 to 2000. She was Politics Producer for "Charlie Rose."

Laura McGann, Managing Editor

Laura McGann is a former reporter-blogger at Talking Points Memo. She has also worked for the Dow Jones newswire, where her bankruptcy reporting was picked up by The Wall Street Journal and the Associated Press. A story McGann broke about an anti-terrorism data mining program run by the Department of Education and the FBI was inspiration for her dog’s name, FOIA.

Spencer Ackerman, Senior Fellow

Spencer Ackerman is national security correspondent for The Washington Independent. He has reported for Talking Points Memo, The American Prospect and The New Republic.

Arthur Allen, Fellow

Arthur Allen is the science reporter for The Washington Independent. He worked as a foreign correspondent, bureau chief and editor for the Associated Press. He is the author of "Vaccine: the Controversial Story of Medicine’s Greatest Lifesaver." He lives in Washington with his wife and two children.

Matthew Blake, Fellow

Matthew Blake covers the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform for the Washington Independent. He has done investigative reporting on social justice and government accountability issues for The Nation and Chicago Reporter magazines. He is unmistakably from the Midwest.

Matthew DeLong, Fellow

Matthew DeLong is a Scottsdale, Ariz.-based reporter and blogger covering the McCain campaign for The Washington Independent on its staff blog, The Independnet Streak. He has previously reported for the Arizona Daily Sun and KNAU Arizona Public Radio in Flagstaff, as well as Campaigns & Elections (now Politics) magazine in Arlington, Va.

Aziz Huq, Fellow

Aziz Huq covers the law for The Washington Independent. He directs the liberty and national security project at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law. He clerked for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and for Judge Robert D. Sack of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. He is of counsel in several cases concerning detention of citizens and non-citizens without due process and has written numerous amicus briefs on national security issues.

Mary Kane, Fellow

Mary Kane covers middle-class finance for The Washington Independent. She is a business writer whose work has appeared in Salon, The Washington Post, Politico.com, The Newark Star-Ledger and other publications. She covered finance for Newhouse News Service in Washington for 11 years. She lives in Arlington, Va., with her husband and three children.

Mike Lillis, Senior Fellow

Mike Lillis follows Congress for The Washington Independent. Previously, he has covered health care policy with Inside Washington Publishers, and been DC correspondent for Iowa’s Waterloo Courier. He lives in Washington, DC.

Suemedha Sood, Fellow

Seumedha Sood covers the environment for The Washington Independent. Her work has appeared in The Nation, AlterNet, Pop Matters, and Wiretap Magazine. When she’s not reporting for the Independent, she enjoys writing about food, art, music and culture for The Washington Post Express and The Onion A.V. Club.