AND JASON MAKI CONTINUES ON BOARD OF DIRECTORS
The new year brings new leadership to the Missouri Sunshine Coalition, a statewide nonprofit dedicated to promoting government transparency and education about the Missouri Sunshine Law.
The coalition board voted Dec. 26 to appoint Matthew Barba as the group’s new executive director. Barba replaces Dennis Ellsworth, who retired from the role after five years in the position.
Barba fills a part time role that involves coordination and leadership of the coalition’s initiatives and partnerships with other open government supporters. He will continue in his current position with the Missouri Press Association, where he has worked since 2015 as editor of Missouri Press News and oversees other communications efforts, awards and outreach programs.
Prior to joining MPA, Barba was editor of the Bolivar Herald-Free Press from 2013 to 2015. Earlier he was managing editor of the Mt. Vernon Sentinel in Mt. Vernon, Ill., and a reporter with its sister publication, the Morning Sentinel, in Centralia, Ill. Barba, a native of Wright County, Mo., earned a bachelor’s degree from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale.
Barba pledged to build on the accomplishments of the coalition, which was founded 16 years ago and in 2023 celebrated the 50th anniversary of the landmark Sunshine Law. Recently, the coalition recognized its 18th and 19th winners of the Sunshine Hero award, which is presented to individuals and groups who use the law to promote government transparency.
Barba noted an overlap of interests, from how the press association has embraced support for the Sunshine Law to how private citizens and other groups have seen the value of legal guarantees of access to the meetings, deliberations, votes and records of public governmental bodies.
“Every day, Missouri residents use the Sunshine Law to shine a light on the people’s business, whether it’s at their local City Hall or in the halls of the Capitol in Jefferson City,” Barba said.
“The Missouri Sunshine Coalition will work to make sure all Missourians know the importance of the Sunshine Law in their own lives and provide training opportunities when necessary to public officials or anyone else who sees a need to be educated about this invaluable legislation.”
The Sunshine Coalition board of directors is led by president Echo Menges, editor of The Edina Sentinel and the NEMOnews Media Group in northeast Missouri. Other officers include vice president Kia Breaux, regional director for The Associated Press, Kansas City; secretary Jason Maki, citizen-advocate, Parkville; and treasurer Roger Seay, news director for KFVS-TV, Cape Girardeau.
Other directors include: Amos Bridges, executive editor, Springfield News-Leader; Kathy Kiely, Lee Hills Professor of Free Press Studies, Missouri School of Journalism, Columbia; Tom Sullivan, Sullivan Advertising, St. Louis; Jason Hancock, editor-in-chief, Missouri Independent, Jefferson City; and Dan Curry, of the law firm Brown, Curry & Duggan, LLC, Kansas City.
The directors thanked Ellsworth for his years of dedicated service to the coalition.
For more information about the Missouri Sunshine Coalition, contact Barba at matthewmbarba@gmail.com or by phone at 573-808-7290.
