The UpTake Team

Jason Barnett, Executive Director, Co-Founder

One of the founders of The UpTake, Jason Barnett holds a degree in Fine Arts and was a professional sculptor before he brought his talents as a creative thinker with an interest in news, politics and technology to The UpTake, which he continues to lead. Twitter: @jasonbarnett
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Nick Coleman, Executive Editor

Nick Coleman is an award-winning journalist, veteran Twin Cities newspaper columnist and 2011 Bush Foundation Leadership Fellow with a focus on helping media serve communities that are seldom heard at the table. He has been a member of the Board of Directors of The UpTake and was named Executive Editor in 2012. Twitter: @nickcoleman

Chris Dykstra, a co-founder of The UpTake, also is a founding partner in Warecorp, a web and software services company that balances traditional web and software engagements against its mission of serving as an incubator for socially conscious technology start-ups and activism.

Tom Elko, Interim Board Chair

Tom Elko is the REAMP Media Center Director at Fresh Energy, a media relations agency that helps Upper Midwest nonprofit groups re-frame public discourse on energy in the hope of achieving an 80 percent reduction of global warming pollution. He was co-founder and director of digital media at BringMeTheNews.com, an innovative curated news site, and is a former fellow of the Center for Independent Media and the Knight School of Environmental Journalism’s Great Lakes Journalism Training Institute.

Peter Heege, Business Manager

Peter Heege was Operations Manager for Llewellyn Publications for 16 years, CFO and president of Consortium Book Sales Distribution for 17 years, and  Business Manager for Intermedia Arts for 5 years.

Michael McIntee, Executive Producer, Co-Founder

Michael McIntee is a former network TV news executive with more than 30 years of broadcasting experience. He began his broadcasting career at the University of Minnesota’s student radio station. He is an expert producer, writer, video editor who has a fondness for new technology but denies that he is a geek.

Chuck Olsen is a co-founder of The UpTake, co-founder and CEO of Vid Tiger and the founder of Minnesota Stories, called one of the best video blogs by the New York Times and winner of two Vloggies Awards. He is the producer-director of Blogumentary, a documentary feature film about the rise of political and personal blogs.

Leif Utne, Board Member

Leif Utne is vice president of business development at Warecorp and Drupal Squad, providing mission-driven businesses, nonprofits and public agencies with high-quality, affordable web development and maintenance services. He lives on Bainbridge Island, near Seattle.
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Allison Herrera, originally from San Luis Obispo, Calif.,  studied media and Spanish at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash., where she earned her bachelor s. Since moving to the Twin Cities, she has been a news producer for KFAI Fresh Air Community Radio, communications coordinator for Twin Cities Public Television’s arts series MN Original, and producer for the Association of Minnesota Public and Educational Radios Stations for the series MN90: Minnesota History in 90 Seconds.

Matt Johnson is owner and principal consultant for MRJ Solutions Inc., a Minneapolis-based information technology company that specializes in media capture and management systems. He has degrees in electrical engineering and math and is skilled in video production for the internet, computer network installations, and data warehousing.

Hlee Lee, Researcher/producer

Hlee Lee is a photographer, communications professional and production specialist with a passion for telling community based stories with a global twist. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from the University of St. Thomas and has more than ten years experience working with nonprofits and storytelling.
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Tracey Pollock, a native of River Falls, Wis., studied journalism at UW-River Falls and finished her education at UW-Milwaukee with a focus in sociology. She is interested in covering social justice issues and shedding light on issues in a way that corporate media will not undertake. Pollock lives in Milwaukee, where generations of her family have resided. She enjoys the local music scene, bicycling and camping.

Bill Sorem, Reporter/videographer

Bill Sorem was a longtime advertising agency professional starting with Campbell Mithun and ending with his own agency. After a tour as a sailing fleet manager in the Virgin Islands he turned to database programming as an independent consultant. He has written sailing guides for the British Virgin Islands and Belize, and written for a number of blogs. In 2010 he volunteered as a citizen journalist with The UpTake and has stayed on as a video reporter.

In addition to shooting videos for The UpTake, Jacob Wheeler is a contributing editor at the progressive political magazine In These Times, publishes the Glen Arbor Sun in his native Michigan, and authored “Between Light and Shadow,” a recent book about the Guatemalan adoption industry. Wheeler’s stories have appeared in such magazines as the Utne Reader, Earth Island Journal, Rotarian and Teaching Tolerance magazine, and newspapers including the San Francisco Chronicle and Christian Science Monitor. He speaks fluent Spanish, German and Danish.