Mark Katches, 46, is deputy managing editor at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel overseeing projects, investigations and newsroom planning. He joined the Journal Sentinel in November 2006 and helped build a nine-person watchdog team.

He edited and managed the investigative project that won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting. That same year, the Journal Sentinel was named “Innovator of the Year” by the Associated Press Managing Editors for its watchdog work. In Milwaukee, he also has edited stories that have won the John B. Oakes award for environmental reporting, the Sigma Delta Chi award, and top honors from the Society of Business Editors and Writers.

Katches previously worked at the Orange County Register, where he twice directed projects that were Pulitzer finalists, including one in public service. In 2001, he was part of a reporting team that won the Gerald Loeb, Sigma Delta Chi and IRE awards for detailing rising profits from the human tissue trade.

Katches served on the board of Investigative Reporters and Editors from 2004 to 2008. He continues to oversee IRE’s mentorship program - which has doubled in size under his direction. He taught journalism as an adjunct professor at the University of Southern California from 2003 through 2006.

In July 2008, he co-wrote a children’s book “Little Mahal and The Big Search for a Real Mom.” The book was adapted from a three-part narrative feature he edited about a baby orangutan at the Milwaukee County Zoo. Katches lives in Fox Point, Wisconsin with his wife Jennifer and son Luke.