Goers moves up ladder at CQ/Roll Call

Written by Sarah Rogers
CAS Intern

Stacey (Skotzko) Goers has made her mark on Washington, D.C. quickly moving up the ladder at Congressional Quarterly Roll Call Group as a data journalist since graduating from Miami in 2008.

thoroughly enjoyed combining her two passions of writing and learning about the world around her. “Stacey was somebody that embraced the double major,” said Richard Campbell, chair of the Department of Media, Journalism & Film. “She was the kind of student that welcomed that challenge and knew it would add value to her degree.”

As a former editor-in-chief of The Miami Student, she had a hefty responsibility to uphold the publication’s reputation while developing her writing, editing and leadership skills in the process. “The Miami Student is always as good as its editor,” Campbell said. “When Stacey was editor, it was in very good shape.”

Her first professional role was working as a RedEye reporting intern at Tribune Company in 2007. This position gave her an on-the-job sneak peek into the journalism industry. Right out of college, she became an assistant documents editor at the Congressional Quarterly, which is a part of CQ Roll Call, which produces various publications. She gathered amendment taxes and congressional reports, as well as contributing to the company’s HotDocs product.

After nearly two years, she became a legislative researcher for CQ Roll Call Group for a little bit over a year. In this position, she was in charge of monitoring House and Senate floor action. She also wrote for CQ Weekly’s Vantage Point section for Congress.org, about pending legislation and various profiles of Congress members. Goers then began freelancing for WhatTheyThink.com in January of 2011.

On top of that, she moved up to become senior researcher of member information and research, also at CQ Roll Call. In this role, she developed profiles of Congress members, congressional districts and congressional candidates for both CQ and Roll Call. On a day-to-day basis, she collaborated with writers and editors for the biodata collection for the biennial CQ Weekly Guide to the New Congress, as well as managed contact information of committee staff members.

She stopped freelancing for WhatTheyThink.com in April of 2013 and became an assistant editor of member information and research for CQ Roll Call in June of 2013. This position entailed managing biographical information of Congress members, congressional districts and congressional committees for CQ’s online database, extensively interviewing Congress members and writing feature stories for Roll Call.

Within these positions, in which Goers profiled Congress members, she would interview them about how their path to Congress, what their career direction was, what motivated them to join the government and more. “It was wonderful to learn interview skills to be able to fine-tune those,” she said. “I was sitting down and talking to people for 40 minutes or more and really getting to know them. I could then share that information out.”

From January of 2014 to April of 2015, Goers worked as a data integrity editor for CQ Roll Call. This was a research position, in which she went through a makeshift “bootcamp” as to how Congress works. This involved figuring out who to contact and exploring the process of how a bill goes through the legislative process. She was able to watch everything that happened in Congress and, consequently, report it out to the newsroom.

In April of 2015, Goers became a data products manager, also at CQ Roll Call. Although she has just begun this position, she said she has really enjoyed it so far. She is responsible for overseeing a handful of legislative tracking products and their editors in the newsroom. These products range from all data regarding bills to all data about members of Congress's staffs and offices. “It is a great place,” she said. “I help current employees with their duties but also am charged to innovate, both in workflow and technical aspects.”

Throughout her many years at CQ Roll Call, Goers said she has been consistently energized by everything she has learned. She has mainly worked on the end of the newsroom that deals with all of the databases maintained by the company. She describes CQ as a very data-heavy company. “Learning coding and how everything fits together has opened me up into a whole new world of journalism,” she said.

The new forms of communication available to reporters have also intrigued her. “Tools that reporters write with have completely changed,” she said. “Reporters can even type up stories on their phones and an editor can automatically pick it up. My job involves helping reporters to do this better.”

Goers is loving her new position at CQ, as well as working as a free-lance writer on the side for PorchDrinking.com. The site is a beer and brewery blog and she writes about “all things beer,” frequently profiling different brewers. She has no plans to leave CQ Roll Call anytime soon. “I’m loving what I’m doing now,” she said. “I’m in a really good place with wonderful, really smart people.”

She lives in the city with her husband, Don and the two dote on their dog Scout.

Goers had a very positive academic experience at Miami and attributes many of her fond memories to various staff members. She feels that the entire journalism and German departments were critical to her success. She enjoyed her German major because she liked having an integrated course load sprinkled with cultural exposure outside of her major.

Richard Campbell was her most memorable professor. He taught her Journalism 101 class, which was the first class he taught at Miami and one of the first classes she took freshman year. That class changed her life and made her solidified her passion for journalism. “Her perseverance and willingness to jump into things as a freshman and dedicate herself to making The Miami Student better really differentiated her from other students,” Campbell said. “I think anybody that does that kind of work is just a different kind of person.”

Goers was one of Campbell’s first students when he came to Miami and one of his best students. “I’ve had thousands of students over the years, yet she’s memorable to me,” he said. “She was symbolic of what we thought our best journalism students were capable of.”

Goers said she hopes Miami students will take advantage of the opportunities presented to them and keep an open mind when searching for the right career path. “Seize an opportunity when it comes,” she said. “If something meaningful comes across your plate, take it and run.” She encourages students to follow their interests, but make sure to keep their eyes open for new areas of interest that they may not have expected before.

“I encourage folks to not limit themselves in terms of what careers they’re seeking,” she said. “Nobody should force blinders upon themselves; it’s important to explore everything that’s out there.”