“Meet the Transportation Media” Lunch & Learn Program

On Thursday, June 17, from noon to 1 p.m., the National Press Club’s Communicators Team will host a virtual Lunch and Learn program featuring a panel of reporters who cover transportation and infrastructure issues.

Transportation and infrastructure has gone from a running Capitol Hill punchline to a leading national public policy debate. Beyond the Beltway, transportation impacts everyday people and businesses in myriad ways, making a prime topic for local news coverage. From COVID-19 response to driving children to school, the way we travel and the infrastructure we use to get there matters a great deal.

Our panel of reporters will discuss why transportation news matters to their audiences and the role communicators can play in their coverage. 

Panelists:
• Mike Lindblom, Seattle Times transportation reporter
• Jessica Wehrman, CQ Rollcall transportation & infrastructure reporter
• Eugene Mulero, Transport Topics reporter
• Nick Minock, WJLA Television reporter

The online discussion will be moderated by NPC Member Lloyd Brown, who is the communications and marketing director at the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO).  

Admission is free for all National Press Club members. Non-member guests may attend by making a $15 donation to support the NPC’s Help The Heroes campaign. The program provides freshly made to-go meals to workers at Howard University Hospital, which serves communities of color that are often the most impacted by COVID-19

REGISTER HERE.  Once approved, registrants will receive a unique link to join the online (Zoom) program.

About the Panelists

Mike Lindblom has written 33 years for newspapers in Washington state, and spent most of 2020 investigating how and why premature shear cracks nearly toppled the West Seattle concrete bridge, now closed for two years. Other top stories explore the epidemic of distracted driving, lapses in walk-bike safety, road preservation needs, and the nation’s largest transit expansion. The American Society of Civil Engineers in 2016 honored his coverage of the world-record Highway 99 tunnel bore, and in 2015 he shared the newspaper’s Pulitzer Prize in breaking news, for a survival story at the catastrophic Stillaguamish River mudslide. Mike has a history degree from Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington.

Jessica Wehrman is the transportation and infrastructure reporter for CQ Roll Call. Prior to joining CQ Roll Call, Wehrman served as the Washington correspondent for The Columbus Dispatch. She also was a Washington correspondent for the Dayton Daily News and the Scripps Howard News Service. A graduate of Ohio University, Wehrman also has experience as a communications manager at the American Association of Poison Control Centers in Alexandria, Virginia.

Eugene Mulero is a senior reporter at Transport Topics, focusing on Congress and national policy. He writes the Capitol Agenda column, leads coverage of elections and produces a media panel for Transport Topics Radio. He also has a weekly segment on SiriusXM’s Road Dog Trucking show and has shared his expertise on television, radio and at conferences. Prior to Transport Topics, he was with HuffPost, E&E News, and CQ Roll Call. His newsroom experience also includes stints at The Arizona Republic, New Jersey’s Daily Record and The Hudson Reporter in Hoboken. He earned degrees from Seton Hall University and Columbia University.

Nick Minock is a reporter for 7News On Your Side, the local ABC television station that serves Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. Minock previously worked at the U.S. Department of Transportation. Before working at DOT, Minock was a Political Reporter for several television news stations in Michigan.  He also worked as a News Anchor, General Assignment Reporter, and Assignment Editor at television news stations that serve Minnesota, Wisconsin, and South Carolina. Minock graduated from St. Cloud State University and lives with his wife Kathryn in Washington, D.C.