Show-Me Institute’s June 2018 Newsletter

Before joining the Show-Me Institute, Susan Pendergrass was Vice President of Research and Evaluation for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, where she oversaw data collection and analysis and carried out a rigorous research program. Susan earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business, with a concentration in Finance, at the University of Colorado in 1983. She earned her Masters in Business Administration at George Washington University, with a concentration in Finance (1992) and a doctorate in public policy from George Mason University, with a concentration in social policy (2002). Susan began researching charter schools with her dissertation on the competitive effects of Massachusetts charter schools. Since then, she has conducted numerous studies on the fiscal impact of school choice legislation. Susan has also taught quantitative methods courses at the Paul H. Nitze School for Advanced International Studies, at Johns Hopkins University, and at the School of Public Policy at George Mason University. Prior to coming to the National Alliance, Susan was a senior policy advisor at the U.S. Department of Education during the Bush administration and a senior research scientist at the National Center for Education Statistics during the Obama administration.

Graham Renz is a policy analyst at the Show-Me Institute. In 2012 he earned his BS from Rockhurst University in Kansas City, Missouri, and then spent two years as a project analyst in the Jackson County Executives Office. He earned his MA from the University of MissouriSt. Louis in 2016, and is pursuing a PhD. His interests are in transportation, economic development, and municipal policy.

Emily Stahly is an analyst at the Show-Me Institute. Originally from central Kansas, she earned her B.A. in politics from Hillsdale College in Michigan. Emily is researching poverty and welfare policy with the Show-Me Institute.

Before joining the Show-Me Institute, Brenda Talent served as counsel to the Saint Louis law firm Bryan Cave. She has argued cases before the Missouri Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court of Missouri, and has litigated cases in the Missouri Administrative Hearing Commission, the U.S. Tax Court, and the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. As part of her tax practice, Talent defended clients against the Internal Revenue Service and the Missouri Department of Revenue. She first joined Bryan Cave in 1985, where she developed specialties in tax litigation and Missouri state tax law, becoming a partner in 1992. Talent won the David J. Dixon Appellate Advocacy Award from the Missouri Bar Foundation, and advocated taxpayer issues before the Missouri General Assembly. Talent served as a captain in the United States Army Judge Advocate General Corps from January 1982 until October 1985. For much of that time, she was a commissioner on the Army Court of Military Review, the highest appellate court in the Army. Also during that period, she attended Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., graduating with an LL.M. in tax law in 1985. She graduated from the University of Florida, which she attended on an ROTC scholarship, and the University of Chicago Law School. Talent has lived in Missouri for almost 30 years. She and her husband, Jim Talent, a former U.S. senator and congressman, live in Chesterfield and are the parents of three children.

Patrick Tuohey is a senior fellow at the Show-Me Institute and co-founder and policy director of the Better Cities Project. Both organizations aim to deliver the best in public policy research from around the country to local leaders, communities and voters. He works to foster understanding of the consequences — often unintended — of policies regarding economic development, taxation, education, policing, and transportation. In 2021, Patrick served as a fellow of the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas. He is currently a visiting fellow at the Yorktown Foundation for Public Policy in Virginia and also a regular opinion columnist for The Kansas City Star. Previously, Patrick served as the director of municipal policy at the Show-Me Institute. Patrick’s essays have been published widely in print and online including in newspapers around the country, The Hill, and Reason Magazine. His essays on economic development, education, and policing have been published in the three most recent editions of the Greater Kansas City Urban League’s “State of Black Kansas City.” Patrick’s work on the intersection of those topics spurred parents and activists to oppose economic development incentive projects where they are not needed and was a contributing factor in the KCPT documentary, “Our Divided City” about crime, urban blight, and public policy in Kansas City. Patrick received a bachelor’s degree from Boston College in 1993.