EXECUTIVE
Jim Waters
President
jwaters@freedomkentucky.com
Jim Waters is president at the Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions. Waters spent more than two decades in newspapers and radio stations as a reporter, editor and anchor.
Since coming to the institute in 2003, Waters’ articles have been published statewide and in national publications, including the Wall Street Journal. He has also appeared on CNN television. Waters’ weekly column, the “Bluegrass Beacon,” appears in newspapers across the commonwealth, including the Paducah Sun, Elizabethtown News-Enterprise, Danville Advocate-Messenger and Corbin Times-Tribune.
DEVELOPMENT
Kelly Smith
Vice President of Strategic Partners
ksmith@freedomkentucky.com
Kelly Smith is a graduate of Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. She has extensive experience working in both the government and private sector. Her experience includes policy, research and fundraising for the Ohio Republican Party, the Congressional office of John Boehner and LexisNexis.
POLICY
Logan Morford
Vice President of Transparency
lmorford@freedomkentucky.com
Logan Morford is a graduate of the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky. As Vice President of Transparency, Morford coordinates projects that promote openness in government and education.
In 2011, Morford authored the report “Rewarding Failure” which analyzes how several school district superintendent evaluations in Kentucky are “rubber-stamped” by providing glowing reviews while neglecting to address the academic performance failures of their districts.
Dick Innes
Education Analyst
70224.434@compuserve.com or
dinnes@freedomkentucky.com
Richard Innes, the education analyst for the Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions, brings a uniquely independent viewpoint to public education research, approaching those studies from a parent-oriented viewpoint. Innes has been investigating Kentucky education since 1994. In 1999, his research highlighted significant problems with exclusion of learning disabled students from the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Cautions about those problems now are found in recent reports from that testing program, while research still continues on ways to correct these issues.
His many reports, papers, blogs and videos about the shortcomings of Kentucky’s school assessment program, known as CATS, played a role in the 2009 legislative decision to discontinue that program. Innes’ most recent full-length reports for the institute include: “How Blacks and Whites Perform in Jefferson County Public Schools” and “Examining Kentucky’s ‘No Child Left Behind’ Tier 5 Schools” and “Digital Learning Now!: Obstacles to Implementation in Kentucky.”
CREATIVE
Nick Oberg
noberg@freedomkentucky.com
Nick Oberg went to elementary school in Louisville, and has been a Lexington resident since 1997. His experiences as a student in both the Jefferson and Fayette County School Systems has led to a dedication to improving education for all Kentuckians. With diverse experience on several award winning films, years of audio and music recording, and his unique perspective on graphic design, Oberg hopes to bring all the tools of “New Media” to restoring our government to one for the people, and by the people.
RESEARCHERS & POLICY SCHOLARS
Caleb Brown
Caleb O. Brown was an award-winning journalist before he joined the Bluegrass Institute in 2005. He was a news anchor at WHAS Radio, a writer/editor at SNITCH NewsWeekly and an occasional reporter for WLKY NewsChannel 32. He hosted the Kentucky News Network public affairs program, Kentucky Focus, for five years. Brown earned three ”best” awards for enterprise and public affairs reporting from the Louisville Society of Professional Journalists.
Brown is currently a researcher at the Bluegrass Institute. He lives and works in Washington, D.C. where he is pursuing a master’s degree in economics at George Mason University. His writing has appeared in The Washington Times and Investor’s Business Daily.
John Garen
University of Kentucky, Ph.D., Gatton Endowed Professor of Economics
