Staff



CIR Staff

See the California Watch staff list.


Robert Rosenthal, Executive Director
An award-winning journalist with nearly 40 years of experience, Rosenthal has worked for some of the most respected newspapers in the country, including the New York Times, Boston Globe, Philadelphia Inquirer and, most recently, the San Francisco Chronicle. As a reporter, his awards include the Overseas Press Club Award for magazine writing, the Sigma Delta Chi Award for distinguished foreign correspondence, and the National Association of Black Journalists Award for Third World Reporting. He was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in international reporting. Rosenthal worked for 22 years at the Inquirer, becoming its executive editor in 1998. He became managing editor of the San Francisco Chronicle in late 2002, and joined the Center for Investigative Reporting as executive director in 2008.
Contact Robert Rosenthal | Full Profile | Reporter's Blog
Christa Scharfenberg, Associate Director
Christa manages the day-to-day operations at the Center for Investigative Reporting, is responsible for budgeting and financial management, and assists with strategic program development and fundraising. She joined CIR in 2003 as communications director and served as acting executive director in 2007 before becoming associate director. She was senior producer of CIR's documentary "Banished" and executive producer of "Hot Politics" and "A Dangerous Business Update."
Contact Christa Scharfenberg | Full Profile | Reporter's Blog
Allegra Bandy, Operations Manager
Allegra works closely with the Executive and Associate directors, to help maintain the smooth operation of the CIR office and its regular functions, as well as provide support for its development and fundraising efforts. Allegra Bandy is a native of San Francisco with an extensive background as an educator as well as a musical performer, recording artist, producer, and director for the past 16 years. For more information go to www.allegrabandy.com.
Contact Allegra Bandy | Full Profile
Carrie Ching, Senior Multimedia Producer
Carrie manages and produces multimedia reports for CIR projects—including California Watch, The Chauncey Bailey Project, The Civil Rights Cold Case Project, and The Price of Sex. Her multimedia reports have been featured by NPR.org, the Los Angeles Times, BBC, The Huffington Post Investigative Fund, Columbia Journalism Review, Link TV, and Public Radio International. She also manages website production—from concept and design to development, content creation and launch—for CIR’s family of websites, and acts as content editor for each of them. Prior to joining CIR she was a magazine editor, newspaper reporter, and video journalist. She produced video reports for Washingtonpost.com and Current TV, and her writing has appeared in FRONTLINE/World, Mother Jones, California magazine, AlterNet.org, and The Honolulu Advertiser. In 2000 she created the Webby award winning online youth magazine, WireTap. She completed a master's degree in journalism from UC Berkeley in 2005.
Contact Carrie Ching | Full Profile | Reporter's Blog
Cherilyn Parsons, Director of Development (Consultant)
Cherilyn oversees CIR’s fundraising and participates in developing CIR’s strategy and programs. She brings more than fifteen years of experience in all aspects of fund development, and has specialized in non-profit journalism and media. She also has led foundation relations at USC and served on USC’s faculty. She has a master’s degree in Professional Writing from USC, is writing a novel, and has traveled extensively.
Full Profile
Kate Jessup, Development Assistant
Kate assists CIR in securing foundation and individual donor support. Her previous development work was at Child Care Law Center in San Francisco. In addition to being a grant writer, Kate is also a food writer and chef. Kate holds a master’s degree from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism where she studied with Michael Pollan. She has cooked in France, New York, and at Berkeley’s own Chez Panisse. For three years, Kate worked as the food editor of Diablo, a lifestyle magazine for the San Francisco East Bay. Her food writing appears in Sunset, Coastal Living, and VIA magazines.
Contact Kate Jessup | Full Profile
Meghann Farnsworth
Meghann manages distribution and online community building for both the Center for Investigative Reporting and California Watch. She works with editors, reporters and multimedia producers to create comprehensive distribution strategies in print, radio, television and online media outlets, as well as blogs, online communities and social media. In addition, she works to develop and maintain media partnerships and collaboration. Previously, she was the associate editor of Forums at PBS' NewsHour where she covered the 2008 presidential election and inauguration, and she created interactive online forums that helped grow and engage the NewsHour's online audience. Most recently, Meghann was the senior digital media manager at Home Front Communications in Washington, D.C., where she worked in digital media management, interactive development and outreach for nonprofit and government clients. She earned her master's degree in journalism from UC Berkeley in 2007.
Full Profile
Janice Sager, Director of Finance and Administration
Janice oversees financial planning, budgeting and financial management of the Center for Investigative Reporting, collaborating on strategic planning and the long term sustainability of CIR. She brings over 20 years of financial and business management experiece, focusing on nonprofit media, journalism and the arts. She has worked at some of the most respected media producers/outlets in the country, including KQED Public Radio, WGBH Public Radio and FRONTLINE. Prior to her career in media, she was a theatre and dance manager in New York City. She has a master's degree in arts administration from Columbia University and a master's degree in sociology from McGill University.
Contact Janice Sager | Full Profile
Mark Schapiro, Senior Correspondent
Schapiro has been an investigative journalist for more than two decades and has built an award-winning track record with a focus on environmental and international affairs. His work has appeared in Harper's, The Nation, Mother Jones, and The Atlantic Monthly. He's also been a correspondent on NOW with Bill Moyers, FRONTLINE/World, and Marketplace. His new book, Exposed, was published by Chelsea Green in September 2007.
Contact Mark Schapiro | Full Profile | Reporter's Blog
G.W. Schulz, Reporter
Schulz joined CIR in 2008 and covers homeland security. Prior to that time, he wrote extensively about politics, municipal corruption, workplace safety, criminal justice and the changing national landscape in news media for the San Francisco Bay Guardian and Urban Tulsa, a weekly newspaper in Oklahoma. He was an early contributor to the Chauncey Bailey Project, which won an IRE Tom Renner Award in 2008. In 2007, he won first place for investigative reporting from the California Newspaper Publishers Association and the Public Service Award from the Society of Professional Journalists, Northern California. Schulz graduated from the William Allen White School of Journalism at the University of Kansas.
Contact G.W. Schulz | Full Profile | Reporter's Blog
Andrew Becker, Reporter
Andrew covers the federal judiciary for CIR and is currently reporting on the immigration court system. His work has appeared in the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, National Public Radio, New York Times, The Nation Web site and Mother Jones. Before joining CIR in 2008, he was a fellow at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, where he reported on human smuggling and corruption along the Southwest border for a joint New York Times and PBS FRONTLINE/World production. Previously he was a reporter for the Contra Costa Times. He has also written and reported for the Dallas Morning News, San Francisco Chronicle, Boston Globe, FRONTLINE, KQED California Report, and Los Angeles magazine. He received a master's degree in journalism from UC Berkeley.
Contact Andrew Becker | Full Profile | Reporter's Blog
Robert O Harrow Jr., CIR Senior Advisor
Robert O'Harrow is a reporter on the financial desk of the Washington Post, where he created a beat covering information technology, marketing and privacy. He worked as lead reporter for "No Place to Hide" under CIR sponsorship. O'Harrow was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for a series of Post articles in 2000 on privacy and technology. Before joining the Post in 1990, he reported for The Record (Bergen County, NJ) and The Times Herald-Record (Orange County, NY).
Full Profile