Wendy Norris began her award-winning investigative journalism career blogging under the nom de plume "em dash" at Daily Kos and Unbossed.com.

She has since reported on the sex, politics and religion beat for RH Reality Check, Ms. Magazine, Religion Dispatches, The Colorado Independent and the Rocky Mountain Chronicle. In 2009, Wendy launched Western Citizen.com, an online magazine that covers watchdog and cultural news in the Rocky Mountain West.

Among the first progressive political bloggers to make a successful career transition to journalism, Wendy has been the recipient of two Knight Digital Media Center fellowships at the USC-Annenberg School for Communications and the UC-Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and an H.F. Guggenheim Fellowship at CUNY-John Jay College's Center for Media, Crime and Justice.

She will attend Stanford University as a 2010-11 Knight Journalism Fellow to develop Web and mobile civic engagement applications through persuasive technologies.

Follow her on Twitter @wendynorris and @westerncitizen.

Check out our panel website at Midterm Watchdog.com.

Carla Axtman is a veteran investigative blogger in Oregon. She has reported extensively on Oregon politics, campaigns and policy since 2004. Carla's beat has included researching and investigating candidates and public policy in the state.

In 2007-08, Carla worked as Netroots Outreach for the successful Jeff Merkley for U.S. Senate primary campaign. She then went on to become an editor at Blue Oregon where her 2009 work on Oregon land use policy is credited with helping to save a pristine area of the state known as the Metolius River Basin.

Carla is also Online Community Builder for Compassion & Choices (compassionandchoices.org), a national nonprofit that advocates for improving care and expanding choice at the end of life. Carla specializes in social media, blogging and building an online community of supporters.

Follow her on Twitter @carlaaxt
Follow Compassion & Choices @compandchoices

Robin Marty is a freelance writer and editor who focuses on women's rights, reproductive rights and politics. She spent the previous three years working with a national progressive online news network and currently consults for a reproductive health organization. You can see her work at Care2.com, RH RealityCheck.com and Alternet.

Erin Neff is a former veteran journalist (Las Vegas Review-Journal, Las Vegas Sun, The Desert Sun (CA), The Reporter (PA)) who launched ProgressNow Nevada (PNN) in 2009. PNN is a multi-issue online advocacy organization that is part of the national ProgressNow network. PNN also operates a media accountability website http://www.lvjournalreview.com and does hard-hitting rapid-response to right-wing messaging. PNN's video of "Chicken Sue" helped take the GOP Senate candidate's bartering issue national and cost her the primary victor. PNN also has a website focused on GOP nominee Sharron Angle. http://www.thewrongangle.com
As a journalist Neff won First Place in the 2007 Best in the West contest for special-topic column and First Place Column Writing from the Nevada Press Association. Her coverage included both the GOP and Dem National Conventions in 2004 and 2008; the Nevada Legislature (2001-2003 sessions) and the Nevada Caucuses in 2008.
Neff has also made numerous appearances on local and national television and radio programs and is a former host of a public affairs program on Nevada Public Radio.
She has a bachelor's degree in broadcast journalism and history from Syracuse University and is a native of Bethlehem, PA.

Tracy Viselli is a blogger, advocate, and the Community Manager for ACTion Alexandria, an online civic engagement project and Knight Foundation Community Information Challenge winner.

Known in blogging circles as "Myrna the Minx" for her Nevada-based blog, Reno and Its Discontents, Viselli has explored the possibilities for online advocacy and civic engagement though her blog and projects like TwitterVoteReport, TweetProgress,and the #p2 hashtag. As a blogger, she was the first person to get the Nevada State Democratic Party on the record regarding the eventually canceled Fox-sponsored Democratic presidential primary debate in March, 2007.

Viselli regularly provides social media consulting and training and frequently speaks about social media as an effective tool for community building, engagement, and advocacy and has been quoted in several national publications including; CNN.com, The Hill, National Journal, techPresident, PBS Media Shift, and the London Times.

Viselli is the co-founder of Nevada Interactive Media and writes about politics and feminism at her own blog and Care2.com. You can always find her on Twitter where she spends far too much time @MyrnaTheMinx