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Communications Committee Roster

SPJ’s Comunications Committee specializes in the marketing and promotion of the Society's work and the vital role of preserving a free, responsible press in the United States. This committee works largely in an advisory role and is tasked with aiding the development of communications for some of the Society's most significant projects.

Communications Committee chair

Lauren Bartlett
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Bio (click to expand) Lauren Bartlett chairs the national Communications Committee and is a member of the national Ethics Committee.

Lauren was a Director at Large on the SPJ national Board of Directors from 2010-2012 and served on the Finance Committee in 2011-2012.
Lauren was a three-time president of SPJ’s Greater Los Angeles chapter. Lauren works in media relations at Southern California Edison and previously worked in media relations at UCLA, her alma mater.

Before joining UCLA in 2000, Lauren was a reporter in Los Angeles for 12 years, the last 10 of which were at the Los Angeles Daily Journal, the country’s largest daily legal affairs newspaper.

Lauren’s professional career began when she was a junior in high school and wrote a weekly column for the Contra Costa Sun. In her senior year of high school she reported for the Contra Costa Times. While attending UCLA she interned at the Los Angeles Times, the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner and Copley News Service.

Upon graduation Lauren worked at the Los Angeles bureau of The Associated Press and City News Service, a regional wire service, before joining the Daily Journal.

Lauren was honored in 2011 with a President’s Award for distinguished service to the Society. In 2001, she was honored with the Howard S. Dubin Outstanding Pro Member Award for her contributions to the SPJ Greater Los Angeles chapter and Region 11. She has been a member of the SPJ/LA Board of Directors since 1996.

Mark Scarp, vice chair
Adjunct professor, Arizona State University
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Bio (click to expand) Mark Scarp has been a journalist for nearly 25 years, writing and editing for several newspapers in the Phoenix area before starting work at what became the East Valley Tribune, based in Mesa, a city of 450,000 just southeast of Phoenix. For 9 1/2 years he was a member of the newspaper's editorial board, writing many of the newspaper's editorials as well as his own column before being laid off in January along with half the Tribune's newsroom. Since January 2008 has been adjunct professor of journalism at Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Telecommunication, teaching mass communications law, journalism ethics and diversity, and news writing and reporting. In October 2009 Mark was hired as membership coordinator for the Society of American Business Editors and Writers, which that summer had moved its national headquarters to Arizona State University's journalism school. He works to build membership, raise funds and organize workshops and conferences.

Mark served six years on SPJ's national board of directors, two years on its Executive Committee and one year on its Finance Committee. After his board service, he served three years as chair of the national Membership Committee. He is also active in SPJ's Phoenix chapter, having served six terms as chapter president. He is currently programs chair. As the chapter is a member of the First Amendment Coalition of Arizona, Mark was the coalition's president from 2001-2005 and currently serves as its treasurer.

Communications Committee Members

Brian Eckert
University of Richmond
Director of Media and Public Relations
28 Westhampton Way
Richmond, VA 23173
(804) 287-6659
E-mail

Ginny Frizzi
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Bio (click to expand) Ginny Frizzi has been a member of SPJ since she was an undergraduate at Point Park College (now University) in Pittsburgh. She was a charter member of the Point Park chapter.

Frizzi holds a B.A. and M.A. in journalism from Point Park. She also did graduate work in non-fiction writing and public and international affairs at the University of Pittsburgh.

She is treasurer of the Pittsburgh Professional Chapter of SPJ and served as finance chair for the 2008 Region 4 conference hosted by the chapter in March. She was SPJ’s Region 4 Director from 1994-2000 and twice received the Regional Director of the Year Award.

Frizzi was a founder of the Press Club of Western Pennsylvania and currently serves as a board member. She is a member of the Club’s journalism scholarship committee and has chaired the club’s annual Golden Quill Awards competition for more years than she can remember.

She is a board member of the Women’s Press Club of Pittsburgh and a former president of the club and the Pittsburgh chapter of Women In Communications, Inc., (WICI), now American Women in Communications.

Frizzi is also a freelance writer.

Bill McCloskey
At-Large Director, National Board
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Bio (click to expand) Bill McCloskey, currently at large director of the Society of Professional Journalists is also a member of the Executive Committee, Bylaws Committee and the Finance Committee. He is the retired Washington, D.C.-based Director of Media Relations for AT&T, formerly BellSouth Corp.

In 2008 he was awarded the Wells Key, SPJ's highest honor for a volunteer.

Before joining BellSouth in 1987, Bill worked for 11 years with The Associated Press in Washington.

Bill's professional career started in 1961, when, as a high school junior, he took a summer newsroom job at Metromedia's WIP Radio in Philadelphia. He remained with Metromedia in Philadelphia until he was drafted into the Army upon graduation from Villanova University in 1966.

Ironically, the Army assigned him to the information office of the 1st Signal Brigade in Vietnam where he wrote press releases about the Army's telephone system.

Following his tour of duty, he was assigned by Metromedia to set up a news department for WASH FM in Washington. From 1968 until 1975, he worked as news director, network correspondent and TV news producer and writer for Metromedia in Washington.

He is past president of the D.C. Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists and was the Society’s Region 2 director. He has been recognized three times with SPJ’s “President’s Award” for distinguished service to the Society.

Warren Robak
Deputy Director, External Communications, RAND Corporation
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Bio (click to expand) Warren Robak is deputy director of media relations for the nonprofit RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, California. Prior to joining RAND in 2002, he was assistant director of media relations at the University of California, Los Angeles. He worked in daily journalism for 17 years.

Mary Fallon

Michael Stone

Lynn Walsh
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Bio (click to expand) Lynn Walsh is an Investigative Producer for WPTV in West Palm Beach, Florida. Previously she worked as an Investigative Journalist for Texas Watchdog, a non-profit online journalism organization in Houston, Texas. She is a graduate of Ohio University’s E.W. Scripps School of Journalism. Lynn began her career as a reporter for The Government Channel in Athens, Ohio were she covered city and county issues for the citizens and students living in Athens County. Lynn also served www.thepalestra.net as a general assignment reporter focusing on anything from sporting events to the 2008 general election.

Lynn has appeared on Fox News Channel’s “Fox and Friends,” and has had her work published in a variety of print publications. Ms. Walsh has also put time in at several other media organizations including WSYX/WTTE in Columbus, OH, WRGT/WKEF in Dayton, Ohio, WMAR in Baltimore, and “The Today Show” in New York City.

Lynn has been recognized for her work as a journalist by receiving many awards including the Richard O. Linke Award and the Ohio Broadcasters Foundation Award and being selected as a Knight Digital Media Center Fellow. Lynn is very active in the Ohio University community, working closely with the Ohio University Alumni Association. Lynn also is a member of Radio Television Digital News Association, SPJ and IRE. She is obsessed with news, social media and pop culture and loves spending time with family and friends.