Jeff Testerman, born March 9, 1949, graduated from Rockledge High School, earned a bachelor's degree in American Studies at Eckerd College in 1971 and studied at the Institute of Liberal Arts at Emory University. After stints as a construction worker, savings and loan officer and freelance photographer, he joined the St. Petersburg Times as a reporter in 1980. The newspaper has nominated him for the Pulitzer Prize five times for investigative reporting, including stories about illegal patient brokering, the indictment of four people in a city of Tampa housing scandal and the trail of fraud by swindler Matthew B. Cox. He is an authority on Florida's public records and specializes in investigations involving property transactions, nonprofit finances and government corruption.

Phone: (813) 226-3422

E-mail: testerman@sptimes.com