Beth Bennett
Bennett, who has led the Wisconsin Newspaper Association since 2010, previously served as director of government relations for the Illinois Press Association.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in history from St. Joseph’s College in Indiana and a master’s degree in political studies from the University of Illinois.
Prior to representing the newspaper industry she served as the Legislative Liaison for the Illinois General Assembly Joint Committee on Administrative Rules (JCAR).
Bennett grew up in the newspaper industry; her family owned and operated four newspapers in central Illinois.
Kevin Berrier
Kevin Berrier is an accomplished advertising and marketing innovator with more than two decades of experience helping businesses connect with audiences in powerful ways. As Advertising Director at MDDC Advertising Services, he leads omni-channel campaigns that blend the best of traditional media with cutting-edge digital strategies.
Kevin is also an international keynote speaker and the creator of The AI Games, a hands-on competition that challenges media sales professionals to use artificial intelligence in real-world client scenarios. His practical, energetic teaching style bridges vision with application, showing sales teams how AI can drive efficiency, creativity, and stronger client outcomes. From persona profiling and pre-discovery research to content creation and ethical AI use, Kevin breaks down complex concepts into actionable strategies that deliver measurable results.
Danielle DuClos
As the Cap Times’ investigative reporter, Danielle DuClos holds Wisconsin government and private-sector officials accountable to the public through her reporting on police use-of-force, nursing home care quality, and educator sexual misconduct.
Following her recent reporting on the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction’s handling of educator misconduct investigations, agency leaders vowed to increase access to misconduct data, legislators held multiple hearings, and state auditors started inspecting the agency’s misconduct investigation practices.
An award-winning investigative journalist, DuClos’ work has been recognized by the Wisconsin Newspaper Association, Milwaukee Press Club and the Education Writers Association. Prior to joining the Cap Times, DuClos covered education in Green Bay, state government and courts in Missouri and national politics for ABC News in Washington D.C.
Kate Roberts Edenborg
Kate Roberts Edenborg is a professor and the program director for the professional communication and emerging media degree at University of Wisconsin-Stout. She teaches journalism and media courses and also mentors students. Edenborg pursues grants that allow her pay students to intern for non-profit community news outlets and collaborates with community members. She also was previously the faculty advisor for the campus news source, the Stoutonia.
Before she came to UW-Stout, Edenborg worked as the patient education communication specialist for Gillette Children’s Specialty Healthcare in St. Paul, Minnesota. She also worked as an editor and reporter for a variety of publications, including the two metropolitan newspapers (Minnestota Tribune and St. Paul Pioneer Press) in the Twin Cities. Edenborg was also the assistant news editor for the Wausau (Wis.) Daily Herald.
Her academic research focuses on journalism history with particular emphasis on how people, ideas, and concepts have been represented by images, text, and other symbols in mass media throughout American history. She is also very interested in health communication.
David Eliot
David Eliot is constantly searching for new ways to enhance life in Door County for residents and visitors alike. He founded the Peninsula Pulse newspaper in 1996 and has served as its Publisher ever since. He is the publisher of Door County Living Magazine and co-founder and owner of the Peninsula Pacers, the organizers of the Door County Half Marathon, Door County Beer Festival, Peninsula Centuries, and the Pen Park Trail Fest.
Eliot has served as the Chairman of Destination Door and the Door County Community Foundation, and President of the Door Community Auditorium Board. He currently serves as Baileys Harbor Town Chair, the Vice Chair of the Door County Tourism Zone, is President of the Door County Triathlon Board, and is a member of the Wisconsin Newspaper Association Board of Directors. In December of 2023, along with partners, he opened a coffee shop down the street from his home and office in Baileys Harbor called roost + banter.
Kaity Leikness
Kaity Leikness is the digital editor for the northeast region of Multi Media Channels. She manages the editorial back-end and social media channels for several publications, including the Green Bay Press Times, Peshtigo Times, Vilas County News-Review, and Kewaunee County Star-News. Kaity began her journey with Multi Media Channels through the Pass it Forward Internship Program in Green Bay the summer between her junior and senior year of college.
After graduating from UW-La Crosse in 2023, Kaity joined Multi Media Channels as the editor of the Peshtigo Times before transitioning into her current role in October of 2024.
Kris Leonhardt
Leonhardt began a part-time journalism career in 2001, while working in a family business, and moved to a full-time position in 2006. She now works as senior editor at Multi Media Channels (MMC), owner of more than 30 print publications, including 22 weeklies and 17 digital channels that serve the central, northern, and eastern regions of Wisconsin.
Leonhardt is also a director with the “Pass it Forward” community journalism internship initiative developed through a partnership with the Green Bay Packers Give Back, Nicolet National Bank, UW-Green Bay and St. Norbert College, where she helps guide aspiring young writers and journalists.
Max Lenz
Max is an associate in the Litigation practice at the firm’s Madison office. Max assists clients in all phases of litigation, including appeals. Max has appeared in trial courts at the state and federal levels and has represented clients before the Wisconsin Supreme Court and Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
Max assists clients seeking to acquire utility easements through Eminent Domain. Max represents clients at all stages of the Wisconsin condemnation process—from the county condemnation commission to circuit court to the Wisconsin Court of Appeals and Supreme Court. Max has significant experience with both just compensation and right-to-take actions.
Max is a member of the Litigation team’s Media & First Amendment practice. Max has defended media clients in defamation actions, protected reporters from illegal subpoenas, and fought government attempts to withhold public records. Max has also served as amicus counsel in First Amendment and media law appeals to the Wisconsin Court of Appeals and Wisconsin Supreme Court. Max staffs a media law hotline for journalists, editors, publishers and broadcasters to call with legal questions.
In addition to Eminent Domain and media law work, Max’s practice includes insurance and commercial litigation and solar energy generation development. When not working, Max serves on multiple non-profit boards, including the advisory board for the Daily Cardinal, the University of Wisconsin’s oldest student newspaper. Max enjoys reading, the outdoors, and spending time with his wife and kids and dog, George.
Jessica McBride
Jessica McBride is a member of the senior teaching faculty in the Journalism, Advertising and Media Studies program at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
She is the winner of the UW-Milwaukee Alumni Association teaching excellence award, is the co-founder of the program’s national award-winning student news site Media Milwaukee, and co-founded a student media club devoted to getting more voices in the media. For the past 20 years, she has taught classes including investigative journalism, immersion journalism, news reporting, professional social media, SEO, and opinion writing.
McBride has been an award-winning journalist for 30 years in print, online, and broadcast formats. She was a reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel for a decade and was a reporter and columnist for the Waukesha Freeman newspaper.
Jeff Patterson
Jeff Patterson serves as the President of the Central Division within Adams MultiMedia, leading the division since November 2016. He currently works with Regional Presidents and Publishers from within the AMM Media of Minnesota, AMM Media of Southern Minnesota, AMM Media of Wisconsin, and AMM Media of the Rockies groups. Prior to his current role, Patterson served as a Regional President at AMM Media of Wisconsin beginning in July 2014.
Community and industry volunteerism is an important role, and privilege, Patterson has maintained throughout his career. Patterson currently serves on the board of directors of the Inland Press Association and Wisconsin Newspaper Association. Previously, he served at the committee level within the Minnesota Newspaper Association, President of the Woodbury Chamber of Commerce, President of the Cottage Grove Chamber of Commerce, Board Member of the Woodbury Community Foundation, Board Member of the South East YMCA, and served in roles in the Rotary, Lions and Kiwanis International organizations. His most enjoyable, and probably most-important, volunteer role has been as a youth coach and mentor in his hometown of Hudson, Wisconsin.
Preceding his association with Adams MultiMedia, Patterson served as a Vice President at EPG Media, LLC and GS Media and Events, a national consumer and trade magazine publisher, beginning in December 2011. Prior to that, he was part of a digital start-up, Ink Barrel Video Networks, as an Affiliate Partner Director beginning in April 2010. The bulk of Patterson’s 30-year publishing career was spent as Group Publisher and General Manager of four newspapers within the Rivertown Newspaper Group, part of Forum Communications Company, starting in October 1994. His start in the newspaper industry began as an Advertising Sales Representative at Lillie Suburban Newspapers in 1988. Patterson received a BA in Business and Communications from the University of Wisconsin – River Falls in 1988.
Jim Polzin
Jim has been a sports columnist for the Wisconsin State Journal since 2021 and has worked in the Madison newspaper market for nearly three decades. He covers University of Wisconsin athletics in addition to professional teams in the state and whatever other stories he finds to tell. The Clintonville native is the author of “Badgers by the Numbers,” a book published in 2009 that profiles the best UW football player at each jersey number. Polzin lives in Sun Prairie with his wife, Molle, and their two sons.
Jenna Rae
Jenna Rae is an Emmy-award winning investigative reporter. She is the chief investigative reporter at TMJ4 News in Milwaukee. She’s been in Milwaukee for nearly three years. Prior to working in Milwaukee, Jenna worked in St. Louis, Missouri and Huntsville, Alabama where she covered several investigative stories. She grew up in the northwest suburbs of Chicago.
Jenna has won an Emmy Award and several others, including the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association, for her investigative reporting into the Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee. She also won an Edward R. Murrow Award for coverage of a school shooting in St. Louis. Jenna’s been nominated for other Emmy’s, Wisconsin Broadcast Association Awards and Milwaukee Press Club Awards.
Jenna attended the University of Missouri in Columbia where she graduated with a dual-degree in Political Science and Broadcast Journalism. In her free time, Jenna loves to listen to music, read, go to the lakefront, explore new coffee shops and workout.
Brian Spahn
Brian Spahn is an experienced litigator who focuses on complex commercial litigation, media law, and government/internal investigations. He helps businesses and organizations resolve disputes, often leading investigations that are necessary to gather facts and address issues before efficiently reaching a resolution.
Brian has assisted clients through both complex litigation, internal investigations as well as government enforcement actions. In addition, Brian defends media companies and individual journalists in lawsuits alleging defamation and invasion of privacy. He also advises media clients in pre-publication reviews as well as open meetings and public records issues.
Brian’s work includes successfully defending against a multimillion-dollar trade secret misappropriation case, a breach of contract claim brought against members of a failed investment vehicle, fraudulent transfer claims related to loans allegedly involved in a Ponzi scheme, as well as successfully defending against many defamation claims brought against both state and national media outlets.
Additionally, a significant part of Brian’s practice focuses on government investigations and corporate compliance issues. He routinely advises clients with respect to compliance policies including anti-bribery and corruption policies, supplier codes of conduct, and protocols for addressing and responding to government subpoenas and civil investigative demands.
Brian has been involved in numerous internal investigations working for municipalities, nonprofit organizations and corporate boards of directors and audit committees on issues ranging from employment matters to securities and corporate governance issues.
Before joining the firm in 2011, Brian practiced law for more than three years in Washington, D.C. He is licensed in Wisconsin, Illinois, and Washington, D.C. He also has a significant background working in Wisconsin government and politics. Prior to law school, Brian worked for U.S. Senator Herb Kohl.
Pat Wood
Patrick Wood is the Chief Executive Officer and Publisher of Multi Media Channels LLC, a Wisconsin media company that owns over 50 weekly newspapers and websites in Central and Northern Wisconsin. He also is the Chief Executive Officer of Extraordinary American Products LLC, which owns Nicolet Coffee, and Farm Fresh Xpress, a direct-to-the-doorstep deliverer of organic and natural foods.
Patrick specializes in strategic planning and marketing communications programs. With over 20 years of experience running agency communications programs, Patrick knows how to manage consumer, retail, and business-to-business markets. His account experience prior to founding Wood Marketing and Communications Inc. includes Heinz, Nestle, Stouffers, Revlon, PharMor, and Chevron.
Patrick brings top-level agency and strategic planning expertise to running successful, growing businesses. Patrick worked at Leo Burnett USA in Chicago and several other prominent agencies before joining Ketchum Advertising/USA. As Director of Strategic Planning for Ketchum, he consulted with all Ketchum satellite offices to develop new areas of business and a unified communications program for the agency’s new positioning. As Vice-President and Management Director, he managed the Heinz and PharMor businesses.
Among his accomplishments are the successful introduction of Stouffer’s Double Cheese Pizza, a restage of Heinz 57 Sauce, and the repositioning of Heinz Vinegar.
Patrick graduated from the University of Notre Dame with his MA after earning a BA at Saint Norbert College. His academic record includes election into Who’s Who in American Colleges and Universities and the Phi Delta Epsilon National Honorary Society. Patrick served as an adjunct faculty member of Duquesne University for eight years, teaching marketing communications courses for the Graduate School. He served as Director of the Duquesne Entrepreneurial Marketing Assistance Program advising small and emerging businesses.
Among his other responsibilities, Patrick has served on the Board of Directors of the Pittsburgh Youth Ballet (past president), the Pittsburgh Ad Club (past president), and the Three Rivers Center for Independent Living (TRCIL). He also served on the boards of the Seton Hill College Center for Entrepreneurial Opportunity and Big Brothers & Sisters.