About Us
The Western Iowa Journalism Foundation (WIJF) was established in August 2020 and classified as a 501(c)(3) public charity in February 2021. Our mission is to support community journalism that ensures long-term access to accurate local news and investigative reporting throughout western Iowa. WIJF is governed by a seven-person board of directors.
Our Why
When the Bill of Rights was drafted more than two centuries ago, the founding fathers incorporated their belief that local journalism was a crucial component for a strong democracy. In fact, Thomas Jefferson once said, “Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”
But local newsrooms in western Iowa are facing a crisis. In the last 25 years, the exponential rise of social media and digital marketing has significantly lured away both paid subscribers and print advertising dollars. This monumental decline in revenue has caused many to reduce the number of issues printed each week, cut staff or fold operations altogether.
Newsrooms operating with smaller staffs are no longer able to provide a depth or breadth of coverage – therefore impacting the industry’s ability to continue its “watchdog” status. This means limited opportunity for enterprise or in-depth features on local issues, minimal investigations on accountability of local spending, failure to question board or elected official oversight, and much more.
Community newsrooms provide readers with the information they need to hold local government officials accountable and help provide an informed electorate. Research across the country confirms communities with fewer reporters or no local news source have seen fewer candidates run for local office, less voter turnout and more polarized and partisan voting.
Leadership
President
Kyle Munson
Des Moines, Iowa
Kyle Munson is a lifelong journalist, storyteller, writer, and content creator.
He spent 24 years in daily news with The Des Moines Register, including eight years as the Iowa columnist. Since 2018 he has worked as a senior content strategist and writer for Principal Financial Group.
A fifth-generation Iowan, Kyle was born in Cedar Falls, where he spent all of six months. He was raised in southwest Iowa, where his work in community journalism more or less began with his first articles in the “6th Grade News Flash,” published on a mimeograph in Macedonia.
Kyle is a proud alumnus of Central College in Pella, Iowa, and studied Shakespeare in London. (Kenneth Branagh remains his favorite Hamlet.)
During his Register career, his journalism blended news, personality, investigation, and opinion. He won numerous awards, including Midwest Emmys for documentary video and regular accolades as a top columnist and reporter. He co-produced and hosted public issues forums on topics such as immigration reform and racial justice. He was a founding member of the Des Moines Storytellers Project. He helped launch and produce the “Just Go Bike” podcast. In 2017 he won a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting to travel to China and produce an in-depth series on U.S.-China relations. Earlier in his career he served as an editor on the Register’s first digital news team and spent a decade as Iowa’s chief pop music critic, spending time with the likes of Bono, Paul McCartney, and Slipknot. He launched his first features column in 1995 and another in 2002. He covered many years of the Iowa caucuses, the Iowa State Fair, and the Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa (RAGBRAI).
Kyle lives in central Iowa with his architect wife, Ann Sobiech-Munson, and their undergraduate son, Frankie.
Vice President
Dr. Andrea Breemer Frantz
Storm Lake, Iowa
Dr. Andrea Frantz is a professor of Digital Media at Buena Vista University in Storm Lake, Iowa. She teaches journalism studio courses, including photography and audio production, as well as digital journalism and media law & ethics. Frantz has won numerous awards for her teaching and First Amendment advocacy including the national Louis Ingelhart First Amendment Award from the College Media Association in 2016 and BVU’s most prestigious teaching award, The George Wythe Fellowship, in 2018. She serves as the Executive Director for the National Society for Collegiate Journalists organization and is an advocate for civic engagement.
Secretary
Todd Partridge
Auburn, Iowa
Todd Partridge is a business owner, musical performer, writer and recording engineer, living in a renovated and repurposed school building in Auburn, Iowa.
As a logistics professional, with 30 years of transportation experience, Todd currently serves as CEO, and owner of The MoveIt Companies, 3 independent logistics providers. His skill set includes, Vendor Development, Sales and Marketing, Systems Integration and Development, Insurance and Contracts and Transportation Solutions Analyst.
Todd has served on local boards and councils, including 8 years as a member of the Auburn, IA City Council. He also manages a recording studio, and has served as producer and engineer on many recording projects. Todd has traveled throughout the US and Europe, sharing and collecting stories as a solo performer, and with his band, King Of The Tramps. He has released 5 CD's of original songs.
Todd Graduated from The University of Northern Iowa with degrees in Public Relations, Marketing and Journalism.
Director
Rob Barron
Des Moines, Iowa
Rob has dedicated his life to public engagement, especially to bringing new voices to positions of influence. Rob joined Seed Coalition in March 2021 as Executive Director. Prior to that, he previously worked for Senator Tom Harkin (ret.), NextGen Climate, and Grand View University. He served for eight years on the Des Moines School Board; the first Latino elected to that office. He is a veteran foundation and non-profit board member who currently serves on the boards of the Harwood Institute for Public Innovation, Mid-Iowa Health Foundation, the United Way of Central Iowa, and the Iowa Council of Foundations. He is also the co-founder of the Latino Political Network, a non-partisan organization which serves to educate and empower Latinos to serve at all levels of elected office throughout Iowa.
Treasurer
Richard Gilbert
Iowa/Florida
At the age of 20, Chicago native and Simpson College graduate Richard Gilbert went to work for the Harlan Tribune and News-Advertiser. At 27 he was editor of the Iowa Rural Electric Cooperative News. At the age of 29 he bought the Eagle Grove Eagle and was editor and co-publisher. His writing career took on another form when he served as Iowa Gov. Bob Ray’s press secretary, a position from which he was plucked to join the corporate ranks of The Des Moines Register and Tribune Company; he rose to the rank of president before the company’s sale to Gannett. In 1986 he left Iowa to run public company Park Communications (Park/NASDAQ) as president/CEO in Ithaca, NY, with more than 110 small dailies, weeklies and shoppers plus TV and radio stations across 23 states. He was recruited back to Chicago by the Field Corporation to become CEO/publisher of Pioneer Press and its 55 weeklies. In the last 30 years he has served in more than a dozen corporate directorships including lead independent director for Principal Mutual Funds, advisor to Bulkley Capital investment banker, chairman of Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago, interim CEO to Creative Loafing alternative weeklies (including Chicago Reader and Washington City Paper) and chairman of a Vistage CEO group in Chicago. His biggest hobby is sailing; as an experienced ocean skipper he has crossed the Atlantic in a small boat and served as volunteer sailing coach at the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland. Gilbert and his life partner, Julie Gammack (founder of the Okoboji Writers’ Retreat and Iowa Writers’ Collaborative), live in Des Moines, Okoboji, and Punta Gorda, Florida.
Director
Alma Puga
Denison, Iowa
Alma currently works as the Campus Services Coordinator at Western Iowa Tech Community College. In this role she provides support to students, faculty, and staff offering a range of services from academic advising to financial aid assistance.
Alma’s passion for nonprofit management and community empowerment stems from her personal and professional experiences. She is a first-generation college graduate, a DACA recipient, and a proud Latina. In 2019, Alma co-founded and became the President of the local LULAC council, the nation's oldest and largest Latino civil rights organization. Additionally, she holds a master’s degree in Philanthropy and Nonprofit Development from the University of Northern Iowa.
Director
David Bernstein
Sioux City, Iowa
David is the officer and co-owner of State Steel Supply Company, a group of six steel service centers operating in the Upper Midwest. He is a long-time supporter of the arts and is the founder and co-producer of the “Saturday in the Park” Festival in Souix City – an annual event spanning more than three decades that draws nearly 25,000 music lovers to Grandview Park in Sioux City. David helps with yearly fundraising, artist booking, event production, crowd safety, and risk management. Past Headliners include Santana, Ben Harper, Steve Winwood, Cee Lo Green, The Allman Brothers Band, Counting Crows, Phil Lesh and Friends, BB King, The Neville Bros., Chuck Berry, etc. David has also served as vice president of the Orpheum Theatre Preservation Project.
Executive Director
Becky Vonnahme
Breda, Iowa
After a brief career as a sportswriter, Becky transitioned to work in public relations and eventually rural nonprofit fundraising and management. She specializes in grant writing and has garnered more than $8 million for her rural clients – most hailing from towns with populations of under 10,000. She has a passion for rural development and a deep understanding of rural culture that has resulted in multiple successful capital campaigns, annual appeals, and special event fundraisers. She understands the importance of maintaining small-town newspapers to preserve a community’s identity.
Becky received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Iowa, double majoring in Journalism-Mass Communication and Communication Studies. She was a staff member of the university’s award-winning Daily Iowan newspaper. Sticking to yellow and black school colors, she later earned a master’s degree in Communication from Wichita State University. Her thesis, “Reporting about children’s health in Kansas: A content analysis of children’s health articles in Kansas daily newspapers” was awarded Best Graduate Thesis by the Elliot School of Communication. She was also a “Year 10” graduate of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Public Health Leadership Institute.
Her family’s farm serves as the home office of the Western Iowa Journalism Foundation. Surrounded by cornfields, cattle, pigs and windmills, she and her husband Bill, a third-generation Iowa farmer, are parents to five boys (Tucker, DJ, Hayden, Preston and Camren).