Board of Directors
President - Ron Miskoff is a graduate of Rutgers College (now Rutgers University) in New Brunswick and received his Masterʼs of Liberal Studies from Rutgers-Newark. While at Rutgers, he was an editor of The Targum and was a member of WRSU radio. He spent many years in the broadcast industry on the air and later as a reporter for The Home News Tribune; after that he worked as a photographer for Greater Media newspapers. He also owned a printing company, a photo studio and a firm that provides layout services for high school and college student newspapers. In the 1980s he published a local newspaper. He has been a part-time lecturer at Rutgers since the 1980s and is now a full-time faculty member. He is also the associate director of the Journalism Resources Institute at Rutgers. He is a former president of the New Jersey chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists and serves on the board of the Garden State Scholastic Press Association.
Corresponding Secretary - Guy T. Baehr spent almost 30 years as a daily newspaper reporter in New Jersey, including 25 years at the Star-Ledger in Newark, where he covered a variety of beats including transportation, development and business. From 2002 to 2007 he served as associate director of the Journalism Resources Institute at Rutgers University and taught investigative reporting in the university's Department of Journalism & Media Studies. He is a graduate of Wesleyan University and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and was a volunteer with the Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic. He is a former president of the New Jersey Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists and also served on the Society's national board. He was a founding member of NJFOG.
Recording Secretary - Lauren Skowronski received her Masters in Social Work degree from Monmouth University, specializing in social policy and international and community development. She has focused her career on democracy building, spending time in Latvia shortly after gaining its independence from the Soviet Union, while working with the Latvian National Human Rights Office and other governmental & non profit agencies. Lauren is a registered lobbyist, advocating for various government reforms at the state and local levels. She sits on the board of directors of the New Jersey Foundation for Open Government and New Jersey Help American Vote Act Coalition. For over three years, Lauren was Executive Director of Common Cause New Jersey. It is her strong belief in the responsibility of every citizen to take action in order to create change that brings her to the Citizens’ Campaign.
Board Member - James A. Castiglione is Associate Professor of Physics in the Department of Chemistry & Physics at Kean University, which is part of the New Jersey State University system. He has a B.S. in Physics from Case Western Reserve University and completed his doctoral thesis in Low Temperature Physics at the Ohio State University. Castiglione first became interested in issues of open government as part of efforts by the Kean Federation of Teachers (KFT), the Union representing faculty and staff, to enforce oversight and accountability of tax-payer dollars spent by the University's administration. Castiglione was elected by his peers as President of the KFT in 2008. He is a past Vice President of People for Open Government, a Hoboken-based civic organization dedicated to campaign finance reform, ethics, OPRA, public access and other open government issues.
Board Member - Elizabeth "Beth" Abruzese Mason was elected president of the New Jersey Foundation for Open Government in October 2004 and served until January 2009. She is serving as the 2nd Ward Councilwoman for the Hoboken Municipal Council. Beth is a founding member of People for Open Government, a Hoboken-based nonpartisan civic organization dedicated to campaign finance reform, ethics, OPRA, public access and other open government issues. Her other civic interests include the Hoboken Historic Museum, the Parent's League, the League of Women Voters-New Jersey, Scenic Hudson, Preservation New Jersey and National Historic Trust. Professionally, she is an organizational strategist with more than 21 years' experience assisting more than 80 businesses, many of them Fortune 500 companies. Ms. Mason focuses on helping organizations deal with the social and political implications of significant change. She has also consulted government and nonprofit groups. She is pursuing a master's degree in urban policy at Milano The New School for Management and Urban Policy. Ms. Mason received her undergraduate degree in mass communications from Virginia Commonwealth University . Her advanced studies also include courses at New York University 's Stern School of Management and Harvard University 's John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Board Member - Deborah Mohammed-Spigner, Ph.D - Common Cause New Jersey
Dr. Spigner has written her dissertation on open government focusing on Connecticut and New Jersey's model of open government laws. She currently serves on the faculties of Rutgers, Newark and Kean University. She is part of the executive committee of the New Jersey Political Science Association that promotes open government and has chaired a panel on New Jersey Open Public Records Act (OPRA) at NJPSA annual seminar at Eagleton, New Brunswick. Dr. Spigner serves on the boards of the Foundation for Open Government (NJ FOG), Metuchen-Edison YMCA and Community Access Unlimited (CAU).
Board Member - Jane Primerano is a freelance writer and photographer with more than 30 years experience in weekly and daily newspapers as well as in public relations and promotions. A veteran of reporting before the original Right to Know law, she has seen the evolution of open meetings and open records legislation. A graduate of Wagner College, she worked as a reporter or editor on The Star-Gazette, Morris County's Daily Record, The Citizen of Morris County, Today in Hunterdon and for Dorf Feature Service. She currently serves on the boards of both NJFOG and the NJPro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists and is a past president of New Jersey Press Women. She is a frequent lecturer for the Garden State Scholastic Press Association and in journalism classes.
Board Member - Heather Taylor is communications director for the Center for Civic Responsibility and represents that organization on the FOG board. Formerly on the staff of Common Cause NJ, she is a registered lobbyist who has coordinated and advocated for adoption of numerous local ordinances to promote fair and open government. As spokesman for Common Cause, Taylor did interviews with numerous news organizations, including WCTC and WHYY (an NPR affiliate), the Philadelphia Inquirer, The Star-Ledger, The Record of Bergen County and various Gannett newspapers in New Jersey. She has also conducted over 50 public speaking engagements. Taylor is a graduate of Rutgers University with a double major in Political Science and Journalism & Mass Media Studies. While studying at Rutgers, she worked for the Citizenship And Service Education (CASE) program as a Service-Learning Advocate, acting as a liaison among students, professors, and Community Partners in the Rutgers New Brunswick community.
Board Member - Joseph V. Tyrrell is the founder of NJFOG and served as its president until October 2004. He has been a working journalist in New Jersey for 30 years, the last 25 at The Star-Ledger where he has held a variety of reportorial positions. Tyrrell has been active in many media and human rights groups, and is a past president of the New Jersey chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. In that capacity, in 1999 he and other SPJ members began reaching out to organizations and individuals with an interest in freedom of information and government transparency. That led to an informal coalition to press for improvements in New Jersey's Open Public Records Act. In 2001, the coalition incorporated as NJFOG. He has a degree in journalism from Temple University, and has done post-graduate work at Rutgers University and L'Universite Francois Rabelais.
Board Member - Lew Wheaton is a veteran journalist with more than 30 years experience with The Associated Press. He is currently an assistant professor at Bergen Community College, where he teaches journalism and advises the student newspaper. As AP bureau chief in charge of New York State, he organized a consortium of more than 30 newspapers and television stations that built the first computer database of campaign contributions in New York. The project led to dozens of stories, including those linking heavy campaign giving to lucrative state contracts and other government favors. Wheaton is a past president of the New York State Society of Newspaper Editors. He has won awards for his coverage from the Overseas Press Club of America and the Associated Press Broadcasters Association. He holds a bachelor's degree from Dartmouth College and a master's from Columbia University.