Editorial page editor Colleen McCain Nelson

Colleen McCain Nelson is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and a former political reporter who has chronicled three presidential campaigns. She joined The Kansas City Star in December 2016 after working as a White House correspondent for The Wall Street Journal and as an editorial writer and columnist for The Dallas Morning News.

In 2016, she criss-crossed the country with Hillary Clinton and also spent time on the campaign trail with Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. As a White House reporter for The Wall Street Journal, she wrote about the policies, politics and personalities in President Barack Obama’s administration, traveling the world with the president and vice president. Before joining The Wall Street Journal, Nelson worked at The Dallas Morning News as a political reporter and later as an editorial writer and a columnist.

In 2010, Nelson and two of her colleagues were awarded the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing, recognition for a series of editorials that condemned the economic and social disparity separating Dallas’ thriving northern half and struggling southern half.

Nelson also wrote about local and state politics as a reporter at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in Texas and at the Wichita Eagle. Nelson, a loyal Jayhawk, was raised in Salina, Kan.

Community engagement editor Derek Donovan

When Derek Donovan started at The Kansas City Star in 1995, he worked the overnight shift coordinating the electronic archiving of the paper’s content. With the technology of the time, this was a painstakingly manual process, requiring a staff of as many as six people staring down a strict deadline of 6 a.m., seven days a week.

In 1998, Donovan was appointed to oversee the newsroom’s research operations. That included looking up background material for reporters and editors, both in databases such as LexisNexis and with The Star’s massive collection of millions of newspaper clippings and paper photos, organized by name and subject.

In 2004, he was named readers’ representative, later to be called public editor. Sometimes known as an ombudsman, the job’s purpose was to give voice to readers’ concerns about accuracy and fairness in news coverage. As the dialogue between journalists and their audience has evolved online, the role expanded to include oversight of The Star’s primary social media accounts.

In 2001, Donovan published the book, “Lest the Ages Forget: Kansas City’s Liberty Memorial.” He enjoys outdoor activities such as boating, though he doesn’t get his kayak out as often as he should. He also has a music studio in his home in Weatherby Lake.

Opinion writer Dave Helling

Dave Helling has spent nearly 40 years covering politics in the Midwest and the Kansas City region. After reporting stints in Nebraska and Wichita in the late 1970s, Helling opened a Washington bureau for Kansas television stations in 1981. His first assignment: Cover Ronald Reagan’s first inauguration.

Helling returned to his hometown, Kansas City, in 1984. He covered politics for WDAF-TV, then anchored the news for WDAF and KCTV. He left television in 2005, coming to The Kansas City Star to help establish the newspaper’s video presence on the internet, as well as write stories and columns for the printed paper.

He’s a familiar face — and voice — on television and radio stations in the area, as well as on national cable news outlets such as Fox News and MSNBC. He appears regularly on “Kansas City Week in Review” on KCPT in Kansas City.

In 2016, Helling was named best Missouri columnist by the Missouri Press Association.

He lives in Lenexa with his wife, Teri. There are two Helling children — Jaclyn and Rachel — and a son-in-law, Kyle.

Opinion writer Melinda Henneberger

Melinda Henneberger is joining The Kansas City Star editorial board after working at some of the nation’s top news organizations. Most recently, she worked as a columnist for USA Today and served as a visiting fellow at the Catholic University of America’s Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies.

Previously, Henneberger was a reporter and editor for publications including Bloomberg Politics, The Dallas Morning News, The Washington Post and The New York Times, where she spent 10 years as a Washington correspondent and Rome bureau chief.

Her work has also appeared in the New York Times Magazine, GQ, Readers Digest, Slate, Time, Newsweek, Commonweal, the National Catholic Reporter, Politico Magazine and the Washington Monthly.

An Illinois native and graduate of the University of Notre Dame, Henneberger earned a graduate degree in European Studies from the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium, and she has also been a fellow at Harvard University’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy.

Opinion writer Toriano Porter

@TorianoPorter, tporter@kcstar.com

Toriano Porter is an opinion writer and editorial board member at The Kansas City Star. He is a former breaking news reporter with a penchant for watchdog reporting.

Porter started his journalism career at the North County Journal in suburban St. Louis and has worked at The Independence Examiner and The Lee’s Summit Journal. Along the way, he’s won statewide and regional awards for his reporting.

He’s also the author of “The Pride of Park Avenue” and “James Cool.”