Meet the Staff at East Lansing Info

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 the ELi website and now manages its ongoing design and maintenance. 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, races karts and in iRacing, and enjoys getting outdoors in nature.

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.

Ayah Imran, Reporting Intern

Ayah is a senior at Michigan State University, double-majoring in Journalism and Women and Gender Studies, with a minor in Leadership in Integrated Learning through the Bailey Scholar Program. She loves to travel and has been to six countries, including the UAE and Palestine, where her family is from. In her free time, she loves discovering new music, thrifting, reading non-fiction, trying new recipes, and spending quality time with friends and her cats, Roscoe and Toph.

Nico Bradford, Reporting Intern

Nico is completing their journalism degree at MSU with a concentration in Environmental, Science and Health reporting. They are also double minoring in Environmental and Sustainability Studies and in Environmental Social Sciences. They are passionate about science communications and hope to write stories that engage and empower communities. Prior to their work with ELI, Nico wrote for the Great Lakes Echo. In their free time, they love to forage, play the piano and start too many art projects.

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!

Brian Wells, Photojournalist

A transplant who had no ties to Lansing before 2011, Brian has lived and worked in Lansing and other parts of the state since. With a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Ashland University, he has almost 20 years of experience working in different forms of photography, with 15 of those years being spent working in news. In those 15 years, he’s had photos appear in local and national news outlets, including USA Today, the Associated Press and the New York Times. When not staring through a viewfinder, Brian is usually hanging out with his cat, fixing old cameras or racing cars.

Chris Root, Adviser

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.

Chris Christoff, Adviser

Chris Christoff was a Detroit Free Press reporter for 28 years, 25 as Lansing bureau chief. He was Bloomberg News’ Michigan correspondent for state and local government and also worked at the Flint Journal. He is a graduate of Michigan State University and studied journalism at Wayne State University.