Administration

Jonathan Blanton

First Assistant Attorney General

Jonathan Blanton is the senior appointed officer to Attorney General Dave Yost and is responsible for overseeing the legal and investigatory work of the office.

Blanton began his career in rural southern Ohio where, after a brief stint in private practice, he spent more than 10 years as the elected prosecuting attorney for Jackson County. In that role, he represented the state of Ohio in cases ranging from speeding violations to aggravated murder and child sex offenses, sometimes within the span of a single day.

In 2011, Blanton joined the Attorney General’s Office as director of the office’s then-new Economic Crimes Unit, a group dedicated to assisting local law enforcement with tracking down and prosecuting scammers, bad contractors and criminal telemarketers. He went on to serve as chief of the office’s Consumer Protection Section from 2014 through 2018 and, from 2019 through July 2022, as deputy attorney general for major litigation.

In the deputy attorney general role, Blanton directed and led some of the office’s highest-profile civil matters, including litigation against a number of opioid manufacturers and pharmaceutical distributors. In 2021, he was recognized by the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) for his role in securing settlements that will require four companies to pay a combined $26 billion toward the nation’s fight against the opioid epidemic.

Since joining the Attorney General’s Office, Blanton has served as a subject-matter expert and trainer for NAAG on a variety of topics, including tactics for maximizing the effectiveness of prescription drug monitoring programs, regulating medical professionals, and developing and litigating claims against pharmaceutical supply-chain participants. He has also served as a faculty member for a number of litigation-focused trainings within the Attorney General’s Office and has presented at multiple law enforcement and legal training events on the state and national levels.

Blanton, a graduate of Ohio University and the University of Kentucky College of Law, is admitted to practice in Ohio’s state courts and before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, and federal Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Mike Rodgers

Chief of Staff

Mike Rodgers is responsible for all non-legal matters of the Attorney General’s Office, including information technology, human resources, facilities, finance, and policy and legislation. 

Rodgers brings more than 20 years of diverse government experience to this role. Before joining the Attorney General’s Office, he was the associate vice president of state relations at The Ohio State University. From 2019 to 2022, he led the state and federal lobbying efforts as the director of policy and legislation for Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost.

As an attorney, Rodgers served as the chief legal counsel at Opportunities for Ohioans with Disabilities, a deputy legal counsel for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, and the chief legal counsel at the Ohio Department of Agriculture. Previously, he spent multiple years working for various members of the Ohio House of Representatives and was a policy analyst and liaison for the Ohio Judicial Conference. 

Rodgers received his bachelor’s degree from The Ohio State University and his law degree from Capital University Law School.

Shawn Busken

Deputy First Assistant Attorney General and Director of Outside Counsel

Shawn Busken assists the first assistant attorney general with all legal and investigatory work of the Attorney General’s Office, monitors the execution of office decisions and oversees special projects assigned by Attorney General Yost. He also serves simultaneously as director of outside counsel.

From January 2019 through July 2022, Busken served solely as director of outside counsel, managing the engagement, retention and oversight of private-sector attorneys appointed to represent state entities (agencies, colleges, universities, retirement systems, boards and commissions) and to work on securities cases and all other contingency cases. The role involves overseeing approximately 900 matters with 150 firms for more than 60 state clients.

Prior to joining the Attorney General’s Office, Busken worked as policy director for Yost at the Auditor of State’s Office, helping to lead legislative initiatives to require fiscal training for local fiscal officers; reform the charter school process; and prohibit monopolies from being written into the Ohio Constitution.

Before his work in the Auditor’s Office, he spent five years in private practice at Blaugrund, Kessler, Myers & Postalakis, where he practiced labor and employment law. He also served with the Columbus City Prosecutor’s Office.

Busken earned his bachelor’s degree from Brigham Young University and his law degree from The Ohio State University.

Carol O’Brien

Deputy Attorney General for Law Enforcement

Carol O’Brien oversees seven “sections” focused on law enforcement/criminal justice: the Bureau of Criminal Investigation, the Ohio Peace Officer Training Academy, Special Prosecutions, the Ohio Organized Crime Investigations Commission, Health Care Fraud, Crime Victims and Criminal Justice.

Before joining the Attorney General’s Office, O’Brien spent 12 years in the Delaware County Prosecutor’s Office, the last eight as the prosecutor and the previous four as assistant prosecutor. During that time, she also served as a special prosecutor in numerous criminal cases in counties throughout the state.

Earlier in her career, O’Brien served as an assistant attorney general in the Attorney General’s Office and as an assistant prosecutor in the Franklin County Prosecutor’s Office. Prior to those roles, she worked as a staff attorney for the clinical programs within the Ohio State University College of Law, for the Neighborhood Legal Assistance Program and for Advocates for Basic Legal Equality.

In 2016, O’Brien was recognized as Ohio’s Outstanding Prosecuting Attorney for her dedication to justice. She has been an active member of the Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association for nearly a decade, serving as president in 2019, and has given presentations on a wide range of prosecutorial matters and other legal topics.

O’Brien has a bachelor’s degree in political science from Northwestern University and a law degree from the University of Toledo. She is licensed to practice in Ohio, South Carolina, the Northern and Southern District Courts of Ohio, the District Court of South Carolina, and the 4th and 6th circuits of the U.S. Court of Appeals.

O’Brien and her husband, Bill, live in Delaware County.

Jonathan Fulkerson

Deputy Attorney General

Jonathan Fulkerson has worked in the Attorney General’s Office for 20 years. In his current role as Deputy Attorney General, he supervises the work of the office’s Health and Human Services, Education, Court of Claims, Public Utilities, Environmental, and Employment sections.

Previously, Fulkerson served in criminal and civil sections within the Attorney General’s Office. He has argued cases in administrative hearings, trial courts and appellate courts. He has argued cases in state and federal courts. He has also spent time in private practice, representing and counseling corporate clients.

Fulkerson is a graduate of American University and Capital Law School. He is a member of the Delaware County Law Library Board and volunteers as a scout leader. He is a counselor for the Law Merit Badge.

Cynthia C. Dungey

Deputy Attorney General

Formerly a prosecutor in the Health Care Fraud Unit of the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, Cynthia Dungey has rejoined the office as the deputy attorney general responsible for managing the Civil Rights, Labor, PUCO, Taxation, Transportation and Workers’ Compensation sections.

Dungey came to the Attorney General’s Office in 2019 from the Ohio Department of Youth Services, where, as deputy director of Community Engagement and Reentry, she planned for the successful return of youths to their homes and communities.

Prior to that, she served as director of the Ohio Department of Job & Family Services for five years and as the federal designee responsible for supervising the state’s public assistance, workforce development, unemployment insurance, child and adult protective services, adoption, child care, and child support programs.

She previously worked for ODJFS as the chief of staff of Medicaid, managing daily operations and, with a workforce of 500-plus, maintaining 70,000 active providers and issuing multimillion-dollar payments weekly as reimbursement for services to 1.5 million people.

Dungey began her first stint with the Attorney General’s Office in 1996 in the Crime Victims Section, then worked for five years in the Health Care Fraud Section.

In all, Dungey has more than 20 years of experience in administering federally regulated programs, developing and implementing state laws and administrative rules; working with government officials, health care providers and stakeholders to improve delivery systems; and identifying millions in inefficiencies, fraud, waste and abuse in health care, public assistance and other government programs.

Dungey has a bachelor’s degree in political science and sociology from DePauw University, a law degree from the Ohio Northern University College of Law, and an honorary doctorate of community leadership from Franklin University.

Erik Clark

Deputy Attorney General for Major Litigation

Erik Clark oversees major litigation for the state of Ohio as well as the Antitrust, Charitable Law, Consumer Protection and Constitutional Offices sections of the Ohio Attorney General’s Office. As part of his role, he personally appears in court on behalf of the state in select cases.

Previously, Clark was a partner for 10+ years at Organ Law LLP, a Columbus litigation boutique. There, he frequently acted as special counsel to the Attorney General’s Office, representing state entities in high-profile matters, including multiple disputes over Ohio’s school-funding system, a First Amendment challenge to Ohio’s statue prohibiting unfair labor practices, a constitutional challenge to Ohio’s financial-institutions tax, and litigation involving Statehouse and congressional redistricting. He has argued multiple appeals in the Ohio Supreme Court, federal circuit courts and state intermediate appellate courts, and has assumed lead representation in bench and jury trials.

Clark graduated summa cum laude in 2004 from Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law, where he was editor-in-chief of the Ohio State Law Journal. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Wittenberg University and a master’s degree in journalism from Ohio State.

After law school, Clark clerked for Chief Judge Jeffrey S. Sutton on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. He then spent a year at the Attorney General’s Office as the Simon Karas Fellow, assisting with high-profile appeals before the U.S. Supreme Court, Ohio Supreme Court and Sixth Circuit. Before joining Organ Law, Clark was a litigation associate at Jones Day in Columbus.

Bridget C. Coontz

Chief Counsel and Ethics Officer

Bridget Coontz advises the Attorney General’s Office on legal matters and litigates cases on its behalf. She also advises AGO staff regarding their ethical obligations under Ohio law, the Rules of Professional Conduct, and office policies and procedures. In addition, she supervises the AGO’s Records Management Section, Litigation Support Unit and Law Library.

Before moving into her current role in 2022, Coontz worked in the AGO’s Constitutional Offices Section for nine years, first as assistant chief and then chief. She oversaw and supervised the representation of all public offices established by the Ohio Constitution, including, among others, the Governor’s, Secretary of State’s and Auditor of State’s offices.

Coontz served as lead counsel in state and federal court trials before the Ohio Supreme Court, and in hearings in which she sought and defended against requests for emergency injunctive relief. She has written and orally argued appellate briefs in the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals and the Tenth District Court of Appeals of Ohio. She supervised the AGO’s Public Records Unit, which publishes an annual Sunshine Law Manual, provides public-records training throughout the state, responds to public-records requests and litigates public-records cases.

Coontz also previously worked in the AGO’s Special Prosecutions Section and Environmental Enforcement Section, and as counsel for the Ohio State Highway Patrol, representing personnel in federal court and successfully defending against 42 U.S.C. § 1983 claims based on allegations of unlawful arrest and excessive force. She advised and trained troopers on matters regarding civil liability for law enforcement, with a focus on the laws of arrest, search and seizure.

Prior to joining the Attorney General’s Office in 2006, Coontz served from 1999 to 2006 as a Columbus assistant city attorney, representing the city in both criminal and civil matters. As the city’s environmental prosecutor, she helped write the Columbus Nuisance Abatement Code and filed and litigated nuisance actions against problematic properties and their owners.

Coontz earned her bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Bowling Green State University and her law degree from the Rutgers School of Law.

Bethany McCorkle

Communications Director

In her role as communications director, Bethany McCorkle manages the day-to-day media interactions for the Attorney General’s Office.

Prior to joining the office, McCorkle was a deputy director at the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, where she oversaw multiple areas, including communications, general services, human resources, information technology law enforcement, and the fiscal and legal offices.

Previously for ODNR, she served as chief of communications, implementing strategic communications and marketing initiatives for one of Ohio’s largest state agencies.

McCorkle also has served as a communications and a marketing officer for the Ohio Department of Development, where she worked with national and local media to highlight department efforts and initiatives. Before that, she spent a number of years in the private sector, most recently as a director at Worldwide Express.

McCorkle has a bachelor’s degree from Bowling Green State University. She currently heads the Public Outreach Committee for the Worthington School PTA.

Carrie Bartunek

External Affairs Director

Carrie Bartunek, director of external affairs and senior policy adviser for Attorney General Dave Yost, manages the office’s external relations and outreach efforts, overseeing its regional liaisons across the state.

Bartunek previously worked for eight years for then-State Auditor Yost, first as communications director and then as senior policy adviser for external affairs. In those roles, she handled media relations and both internal and external communications.

Her experience in communications, media relations, publications and event coordination spans more than 30 years, primarily covering city and state government, law enforcement and K-12 education.

Bartunek holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from The Ohio State University.

Corey Jordan

Director of Policy and Legislation

Corey Jordan is responsible for all office-related legislative matters at both the state and federal levels. He and his team in the Policy and Legislation Section serve as a conduit between the Attorney General’s Office and the Ohio General Assembly on legislative and constituent issues.
 
During his time with the AGO, Jordan has secured additional resources for BCI through the state biennial budget process and ushered legislation through the General Assembly to crack down on illegal robocalls. He also assisted with the recent legalization and implementation of Ohio’s electronic bingo program, a form of charitable gaming.
 
Prior to joining the AGO, Jordan worked on then-State Auditor Yost’s legislative team, advocating for legislation designed to foster good government and aimed at preventing fraud, waste and abuse. Previously, he served as a Legislative Service Commission fellow for the Ohio Senate Majority Caucus in multiple Senate offices, providing the foundation for his legislative career.
 
Jordan is an instructor for the John Glenn College of Public Affairs, assisting with courses on leadership. He earned bachelor’s degrees in political science and public affairs and a master’s degree in public administration and leadership from The Ohio State University.