Meet the Staff at East Lansing Info
ELi is a community project that since its inception in 2014 has benefited from the labor of literally hundreds of people in and around East Lansing! Here is a look at the folks who currently work regularly for this public news service.
Beth Peck, Executive Director & Publisher
Beth Peck became ELi’s Executive Director and Publisher in May 2023 following an open search and a unanimous and enthusiastic vote of ELi’s Board of Directors in favor of her appointment. Peck graduated from Michigan State University in 2004 with a degree in journalism and a specialization in public relations. Her career has included work in marketing, fundraising, and nonprofit management. She has been a regional director of development for MSU and, before that, an assistant director of development for Eastern Michigan University’s foundation. More recently, since 2018, she has served as the Executive Director for Project Koru, which provides peer-to-peer support for young adult cancer survivors. Peck is raising three children, all of whom currently attend East Lansing Public Schools, and her family lives in East Lansing’s Brookfield Heritage Neighborhood.
Luke Day, Managing Editor
Before becoming Managing Editor in January 2024, Luke worked for two years as ELi’s City Desk Editor. A native of northern Michigan, he holds an associate of arts degree from Northern Central Michigan College, a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a master’s degree in social work, both from Michigan State University. Having been a beat reporter for The State News, Luke has a strong understanding of local government and town-gown relations. Prior to joining ELi, he also worked for The Graphic/Petoskey News-Review, Great Lakes Echo and The St. Ignace News and he interned with the Michigan Coalition Against Homelessness.
Morgan Lees, Tech Manager
Morgan created our new website (.news), and now manages the ongoing design and maintenance of the ELi website. If everything is going right with the site, they should be invisible, and that’s how they like it. Morgan is a comic creator, science fiction and fantasy writer, and artist – when not wrangling websites – who grew up in and still resides in East Lansing (along with family and cats). In their spare time, Morgan reads, plays computer and roleplaying games, dabbles in photography, karts and races in iRacing, and enjoys getting outdoors.
Lisa Lees, Tech Manager
Since ELi began its nonprofit public service in 2014, Lisa has provided what the editorial team considers lifesaving technical support for ELi’s web hosting and its content management system. Lisa moved to Michigan in 1977 to teach computer science at UM-Flint, and has since lived and worked in Ann Arbor, Lansing and East Lansing. Like most techies, Lisa had many jobs and job titles as computers evolved from room-filling, card-eating monsters to hand-held communicators, including a dozen years doing various things with various computers at MSU. Retired and with nothing but spare time on her hands, Lisa now lives with her two imaginary muses, surrounded by anime, books and comics (many in French or Japanese), board games, Playstation games and a variety of music.
Dustin DuFort Petty, Reporter
Dustin moved to East Lansing in 2003 to study at Michigan State University. He has earned two degrees there, a bachelor’s degree in Agriculture & Natural Resources Communications and a master’s in Higher, Adult, and Lifelong Education. An academic advisor for the Bailey Scholars Program at MSU, he has also co-authored two books, Michigan FFA: A Legacy of Great Lakes Leadership and The New Bullying, the latter being named a National Finalist in the Society of Professional Journalists’ Mark of Excellence competition. He is researching for a new book about the queer post-war history of MSU and the greater Lansing area. He is an avid baker, genealogist, vintage Pyrex collector, and volunteer in his spare time. At ELi, he is reporting on many areas of interest to our readers, including schools, local government, and faith communities.
Federico Martinez, Reporter
Federico Martinez is a native of Adrian, Michigan and reported for The Muskegon Times for more than 20 years. He also wrote for the San Angelo Standard Times in Texas, winning more than a dozen AP Awards for Investigative Reporting.
Mya Gregory, Writer
Mya Gregory joined the ELi reporting team in Spring 2023 and works for us as a general assignment reporter. She is currently a student at Michigan State University double-majoring in intercultural communications and journalism with a focus in sports journalism. With a plan to graduate in 2024, Mya is also minoring in Spanish although she is already fluent in that second language, having been schooled in Spanish immersion programs since early childhood. She tells us, “I am interested in sports journalism, mainly basketball, as I have grown up loving sports my entire life and watching sports constantly with my dad.”
Sarah Spohn, Arts & Cultures Reporter
Sarah is a little bit of a rock ‘n’ roll rebel, almost always at a concert (when there isn’t a pandemic going on). With degrees in Journalism and Professional Communications, at ELi Sarah reports on a variety of arts and cultures topics, from video game tournaments to small business features to poetry slams. She loves to soak up the local scene at boutiques, libraries, diners, and record stores. She still buys CDs and borrows music documentaries from the library. Just don’t call her a hipster. (She says she’s never been that stylish.) The editorial team loves assigning Sarah a story because we know she’s going to make us feel like we are personally talking with the people she has interviewed. And we love that she’s always up for an adventure!
Gary Caldwell, Photojournalist
Gary started working with ELi in 2019 but his love of photography stretches back to when he first started working with cameras in the second grade. In addition to shooting portraits and local scenes for ELi, Gary sometimes attends public meetings to capture for ELi’s reader the feel of the decision-making processes in our City government and public schools. He has also done drone photography for ELi, providing aerial images of development project sites, public parks, and more. More information about his company, Gary Caldwell Productions, can be found here.
Dylan Lees, Photojournalist
Dylan started working with ELi in mid-2021, returning to the field of documentary photography for the first time since he concluded his longtime tenure as the official show photographer for All-of-us Express Children’s Theater in 2014. Although he started his photographic career in the theater, Dylan’s primary calling is landscape photography. He sells his work online through the one-man outfit of Dylan Lees Photography, and when there isn’t a pandemic ongoing he can be found at art festivals throughout lower Michigan. Other interests include attempting to break into the epic fantasy scene as a new author, gaming of all types, racing electric karts, and playing with his cats.
Chris Root, Advisor
An ELi veteran, Chris has reported on Government (and sometimes gardening) for ELi and also sometimes helps edit our Government reporting. In 2021, she was named a member of East Lansing’s Study Committee on an Independent Police Oversight Commission by City Council. By way of background: Chris registered as a lobbyist at the age of 18, when she began working on anti-apartheid and southern Africa issues for a church- and union-sponsored non-profit, the Washington Office on Africa. After moving to East Lansing, Chris provided staff support for the Democratic caucus of the Michigan House of Representatives on a bill to divest state public employee pension funds from companies operating in South Africa. Chris continues her focus on this movement by helping to build the Africa Activist Archive Project. Holding bachelors and masters degrees in Economics from American University, Chris worked at MSU for 15 years helping faculty obtain grants. She now devotes a lot of her time to monitoring policing, economic development, and financial issues in East Lansing, gardening, and spending time with family.