|
|
|
The work of SPJ is largely done at the national committee level. No matter what your passion — freedom of information, legal defense, diversity, ethics, freelance, international journalism, First Amendment rights, journalism education — SPJ has an outlet for your talents, passion and energy. Click on the committee name to learn more about its work or to contact the chair to find out how you get can get involved.
Awards & Honors
This committee oversees most of the Society's awards, which are dedicated to recognizing outstanding achievement in journalism. Any changes in guidelines, judging criteria, categories or eligibility are reviewed by this committee.
Related content | Awards Committee Roster
Awards & Honors Committee Chair
Ginny Frizzi
E-mail
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.
In real life she is Director of Media Relations and Communications at Point Park University. Frizzi is also a freelance writer.
Bruce Cadwallader, vice chair
The Columbus Dispatch
34 S. Third St.
Columbus, OH 43215
614-461-5151
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)
Bruce Cadwallader is a courts reporter for The Columbus Dispatch, where he has worked for 24 years. Previously, he served as the Society's National Secretary-Treasurer, Region 4 Director and as a member of SPJ's national board, as well as the president of SPJ's Central Ohio Pro chapter.
[Top]
Bylaws
This committee strives to ensure the Society conducts its business and operations according to the Society's bylaws. SPJ's bylaws aim to unite members and promote good fellowship among them.
SPJ Bylaws | Bylaws Committee Roster
Bylaws Committee Chair
Robert Becker
Bio (click to expand)
Robert Becker has served on the Bylaws Committee since 2001 and has been the D.C.Pro Chapter's FOI chair since about 1992. Additionally, Becker serves as the D.C. Sunshine Chair, and the Mid-Atlantic Region member of the National FOI Committee. In this position, he provides advice and information on access to journalists and others in the D.C. metropolitan area. Most recently, Becker has been working with the Maryland, Delaware and D.C. Press Association to draft a new open meetings law for D.C. He’s worked with National (SPJ) to oppose a bill that would have exempted Virginia legislative committees from the state open meetings law, and he worked with the D.C. City Council Judiciary Committee on amendments to the D.C. open records law and the D.C. open meetings law. Becker has assisted students at a Montgomery County high school who, as part of their course work, aired controversial programs on the school board's cable channel. Recently, he actively opposed proposed restrictions on public access to federal court case files over the Internet. Working with the National FOI Chairman, Becker developed a program to train journalists, news managers and media outlet owners on the importance of defending public access to government information. He regularly addresses groups of foreign journalists and government officials visiting the United States on access to government information and has done training projects in Ethiopia, Morrocco, Argentina and Urugua on issues related to press freedom.
[Top]
Chapter Doctor
The chapter doctor is a front-line caretaker who helps new and struggling pro chapters. Let us be a resource to resolve outstanding chapter issues and serve as a liaison to national headquarters.
Start a Chapter | Local Connection
Chapter Doctor Commitee Chairs
Bill McCloskey
4709 Overbrook Road
Bethesda, MD 20816
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)
Bill McCloskey is the retired Washington, D.C.-based Director of Media Relations for AT&T, formerly BellSouth Corp.
Before joining AT&T 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.
Bill chairs the Radio and Television News Director’s Association Foundation’s annual fund-raising dinner. 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.
Michael Koretzky
Florida Atlantic University
1110 Buttonwood Lane
Hollywood, FL 33019
(954) 923-9553
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)
Michael Koretzky was expelled from Boca Raton Academy in 1981, suspended from the University of Florida journalism school in 1989, fired from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel in 1997, and brought up on charges of "malfeasance" and "misfeasance" at Florida Atlantic University in 2005.
He currently advises the FAU student newspaper and freelances, including a weekly copyediting gig for the supermarket tabloids Globe and Examiner.
His career highlights include an appearance on VH1 after Marilyn Manson threatened to kill him (for being the first to report his real name) and creating and selling two alternative magazines, one to the Sun-Sentinel and the other to the one-armed heir of the Listerine fortune. His volunteer highlights include hosting southfloridamediajobs.com and copyediting for South Florida's Homeless Voice, the nation's second-largest homeless newspaper — which he did, ironically, from home.
[Top]
Digital Media
SPJ's Digital Media Committee aims to help news professionals wanting to learn more — in a hurry — about technology. The committee monitors the continued electronic evolution of the journalism industry and advises the organization on the latest trends so it can prepare journalists for the latest changes.
Technolo-j Blog | Digital Media Committee Roster
Digital Media Committee Chair
Ray Marcano
Dayton Daily News
45 S. Ludlow St.
Dayton, OH 45402
(937) 225-2323
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)
Ray Marcano is Internet General Manager for Cox Ohio Publishing. He began his career at Westchester Rockland Newspapers in White Plains, N.Y. and also worked at a small weekly in his hometown of New York City. He worked at two newspapers in Oklahoma, including the Tulsa World, before coming to Dayton. He has held a number of reporting and management jobs in his 23-years at the Dayton Daily News, including sports editor, metro editor, regional editor and Deputy Managing Editor. He is the former national president of the Society of Professional Journalists, has served as a Pulitzer Prize juror, a board member of the Associated Press society of Ohio, and has been accepted into the Fulbright Senior Specialist program. In addition to chairing SPJÕs Digital Technology Committee, he also chairs the new technology committee for the Ohio Newspaper Association.
Ron Sylvester, vice chair
Staff Writer
The Wichita Eagle
825 E. Douglas
P.O. Box 820
Wichita, KS 67201
Work: (316) 268-6514
Fax: (316) 368-6627
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)
Ron Sylvester serves as SPJ’s Region seven director, overseeing chapters in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska. He is the second generation from his family to belong to SPJ. His father a broadcast pioneer from Missouri, joined SPJ when it was still the Sigma Delta Chi fraternity in 1950. After visiting his father on the job and hearing the clacking of teletype machines, Sylvester ended up working for his hometown newspaper, the Springfield News-Leader, for 24 years. His first assignment was "women's athletics," which he was the first reporter at the paper to cover the beat.
After being asked to leave college because he devoted more time to the paper than to classes, Sylvester continued in the industry, covering every beat in the newsroom, including arts and entertainment to public health, medicine, science and technology. He even found time to write a book on the development of Branson as an entertainment tourist destination. Today, Sylvester covers legal affairs for at the Wichita Eagle and works as a stringer for Court TV. He resides with his wife and five children. At age 47, Sylvester says he still can't think of any better way to make a living.
[Top]
Diversity
On both chapter and national levels, SPJ provides an open forum for the discussion of diversity issues in journalism. This committee's purpose is to promote a broader voice in newsrooms across the country and expand the depth and quality of news reports through better sourcing. Its ongoing project is the compilation of experts — primarily women, gays and lesbians, people of color and people with disabilities — through the Society's Diversity Source Book. The Society's relevance to its member is based on inclusiveness.
Diversity Home Page | Diversity Committee Roster
Diversity Committee Chair
Pueng Vongs
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)
Pueng Vongs has more than 14 years experience as a journalist. She began her early career in financial journalism working for Money magazine and CBS.Marketwatch.com. She also reported from her native Thailand working for Bangkok-based Manager magazine and contributed articles to the Asian Wall Street Journal. Today she is an associate editor at Pacific News Service/New America Media in San Francisco, which produces original, youth and ethnic media content covering the nation’s growing ethnic communities. Her writing has appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, Audubon magazine, Chicago Sun Times, Oakland Tribune, California magazine among others. She also works as an associate producer for the UpFront on KALW 91.7 FM in San Francisco. She has contributed radio pieces to KQEDâs Pacific Time and NPRâs the Travis Smiley Show. Among her SPJ posts Vongs serves as vice president for the Nor Cal board in 2006, was a member of the planning committee for the chapter’s multi-cultural writers conference, and was a national diversity leader fellow in 2005.
Linda Jue, vice chair
New Voices in Independent Journalism
San Francisco, Calif.
Bio (click to expand)
Linda Jue was president of SPJ-NorCal for two and a half years and vice president for three. She is director of New Voices in Independent Journalism, a national initiative dedicated to building a diverse pool of independent investigative journalists and public intellectuals who can bring the emerging perspectives of the country's changing demographics, as well as the next generation of youth, to public interest reporting. She is the former associate director and founding staff member of the Independent Press Association, where she directed several cutting-edge national journalism programs.
Before going to the IPA, she directed San Francisco State University's Community Press Consortium, the first professional training program20in the country for journalists working in the community and ethnic press. She was a member of the founding collaborative of New California Media, now called New America Media, and directed the judging for the first two years of the New California Media Awards.
Linda is a former associate of the Center for Investigative Reporting and a former editor at San Francisco Focus magazine. She also worked as the Northern California correspondent for C-SPAN. Her work has appeared in San Francisco Focus, Los Angeles Times Syndicate, Toronto Globe and Mail, GEO, MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour, PBS Frontline and other outlets. She was a longstanding member, board director and president of Media Alliance during its years as a professional journalism and media watchdog organization. Linda is well-known in national media reform and media diversity circles. She is also a contributing member of a Bay Area travel writing group that has published three collections of travel essays through Traveler’s Tales.
Linda has won two Thomas Moore Storke International Journalism Awards and a Maggie Certificate of Excellence for Feature Writing.
[Top]
Ethics
This committee's purpose is to encourage the use of the Society's Code of Ethics, which promotes the highest professional standards for journalists of all disciplines. Public concerns are often answered by this committee. It also acts as a spotter for reporting trends in the nation, accumulating case studies of jobs well done under trying circumstances.
Ethics Home Page | Ethics Committee Roster
Ethics Committee
Andy Schotz, chair
Hagerstown, Md.
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)
Andy Schotz is a reporter for The Herald-Mail, a daily newspaper in Hagerstown, Md. He has covered a variety of beats, including city hall and police and courts. He has sometimes filled in as city editor. He covered the Maryland statehouse during the 2007 and 2008 sessions. When he joined the paper in 2000, he was the one person in the one-person Berkeley County, W.Va., bureau.
Schotz is president of SPJ’s Washington, D.C., Pro chapter and has helped the Maryland-Delaware-D.C. Press Association with some projects. A Long Island native, he has a bachelor’s degree from the University at Albany in upstate New York. He previously worked for eight years at The Altamont Enterprise, a weekly paper outside Albany, as a reporter and, for part of that time, an editor.
Please contact Andy only at his home e-mail address, which is where he responds to SPJ inquiries.
Fred Brown, vice chair
2862 S. Oakland Ct.
Aurora, Colo., 80014
303/829-4647
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)
Fred Brown is a former national president of SPJ (1997-98) and is very active on its ethics committee. He writes a column on ethics for Quill magazine and served on the committee that wrote the Society’s 1996 code of ethics.
Brown officially retired from The Denver Post in early 2002, but continues to write a Sunday editorial page column for the newspaper. He also does analysis for Denver’s NBC television station, teaches communication ethics at the University of Denver, and is a principal in Hartman & Brown, LLP, a media training and consulting firm. He has won several awards for writing and community service, including a Sigma Delta Chi Award for editorial writing in 1988. He is an Honor Alumnus of Colorado State University, a member of the Denver Press Club Hall of Fame, and serves on the boards of directors of Colorado Public Radio, the Colorado Freedom of Information Council and the Sigma Delta Chi Foundation.
[Top]
Finance, Tax and Budget
The finance committee is chaired by the Society's secretary-treasurer. By authority of that position, the committee reviews the annual budget and sets financial goals. Its recommendations on the budget are forwarded to the SPJ board at its spring meeting.
Hagit Limor
Investigative Reporter
WCPO-TV
1720 Gilbert Avenue
Cincinnati, OH 45202
513/852-4012
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)
Hagit Limor’s other experience with SPJ includes stints as Greater Cincinnati Pro Chapter President and membership chairman; National Membership Committee; National Finance Committee Chair; and board member of the Sigma Delta Chi Foundation.
Outside of SPJ, she serves as WCPO-TV's Emmy and national award-winning investigative reporter, but her journey began half a world away. She was born in Israel and moved to the United States when she was eight years old. At WCPO, Hagit is regarded as a "do-it-all" journalist. She's served as an anchor, general assignment reporter, and now helms the award-winning I-Team. Her abilities as a writer and reporter have garnered Hagit dozens of national, state and local awards.
She and videographer Anthony Mirones won First Place in the 2008 National Headliner Awards for "Resurrection", a four-year investigation into pollution from the local international airport. Hagit and Anthony also won a 2008 Emmy Award for "Solid Gold Weddings", a consumer investigation into a wedding video company that brides across the nation claimed did not deliver the videos it promised. Hagit and producer/videographer Phil Drechsler won second place in the 2008 National Association of Health Care Journalists competition, for "Care-less Denials", about lack of access to mental health care by a national insurance company.
Hagit has previously won three separate national Sigma Delta Chi Awards from SPJ, was a national finalist with the Investigative Reporters and Editors Association, and has won other national awards from the Association of Health Care Journalists, the Society of Environmental Journalists and the National Headliner Awards.
She also has won nine Emmy Awards while at WCPO, more than a dozen state Associated Press and SPJ awards, and local SPJ awards.
Hagit received bachelor's and master's degrees in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University.
At home, she shares life with her husband Jeff, her son Jake, two dogs and two cats.
[Top]
Freedom of Information Committee
This committee is the watchdog of press freedoms across the nation. It relies upon a network of volunteers in each state organized under Project Sunshine. These SPJ members are on the front lines for assaults to the First Amendment and when lawmakers attempt to restrict the public's access to documents and the government's business. The committee often is called upon to intervene in instances where the media is restricted.
FOI Home Page | FOI Committee Roster
Freedom of Information Committee Chair
David Cuillier
Assistant Professor
Department of Journalism
University of Arizona
Marshall Building, Room 323
Tucson, AZ 85721-0158
Work: 520/626-9694
Fax: 520/621-7557
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)
David Cuillier, a former newspaper reporter and editor, is an assistant professor in the Department of Journalism at the University of Arizona. He researches public attitudes toward freedom of information and is one of the SPJ newsroom trainers for acquiring government documents.
Joe Adams, vice chair
Editorial writer
The Florida Times-Union
One Riverside Avenue
Jacksonville, FL 32202
Work: 904-359-4534
Fax: 904-359-4390
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)
Joe Adams is an editorial writer at The Florida Times-Union and author of The Florida Public Records Handbook published by the First Amendment Foundation in Tallahassee.
Eight universities in Florida have used the book as a textbook, the only one of its kind in the nation, and more than 1,000 journalists have attended his workshops on how to use public records for success. He is the recipient of the national 2007 Eugene S. Pulliam First Amendment Award sponsored by the Sigma Delta Chi Foundation and has earned two national Sunshine Awards from the Society of Professional Journalists. In December 2000, Presstime magazine profiled him as one of the top 20 under 40 newspaper industry professionals to watch in the future.
As an editorial writer, Adams has received awards from the Florida Press Club, Florida Society of Newspaper Editors and the Society of Professional Journalists. His year of public records research of the Jacksonville City Council uncovered widespread open meetings abuses. The resulting work by Adams and the newsroom inspired a grand jury probe and prompted the council in 2007 to create the state's first known local ordinance to ensure better compliance with Florida's Sunshine Law. He is originator of the www.iDigAnswers.com Web site about Florida FOI news and public records use.
Adams is founder and past coordinator of Times-Union University, the Jacksonville newspaper's newsroom training program, and is also former director of the National Newspaper Diversity Job Bank on the Internet. He also taught information gathering for two years as an adjunct professor at the University of North Florida.
[Top]
Generation J
Generation J focuses on helping early-stage pros sharpen their skills and bone up on the importance of journalism advocacy.
Generation J Committee Roster
Generation J Committee
Rebecca Neal, chair
Federal Times
Washington, D.C.
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)
Rebecca Neal, 25, is the Congressional reporter for the Federal Times in Washington, D.C. She previously spent three years at The Indianapolis Star, where she covered Hurricane Katrina from New Orleans and southern Louisiana. She graduated from the University of Kentucky in May 2005 with degrees in journalism and political science and a minor in history. She has been a member of SPJ since 2002 and traveled to Taiwan as part of an SPJ delegation in 2008.
Aiesha D. Little, vice chair
Associate Editor
Cincinnati Magazine
513/562-2772
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)
Aiesha D. Little is the associate editor for Cincinnati Magazine, a glossy city/regional publication covering Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. Chief among her duties are writing features and departments, assigning and editing the calendar section, and managing the magazine's editorial internship program.
Little started her journalism career in newspapers before switching to magazines while pursuing a master's degree at Xavier University. Her daily news work has appeared in The Saginaw (MI) News, The Detroit News, and The Poughkeepsie (NY) Journal. After interning with both the special sections and editorial departments of Cincinnati Magazine, she headed to Chicago to work as the associate editor for EdTech Magazine, an education technology quarterly. She returned to Cincinnati Magazine as the associate editor in 2004.
Little's involvement in the Society of Professional Journalists goes back to her undergraduate years at Central Michigan University, where she served as the chair of her chapter's diversity committee. She is also a member of the National Association of Black Journalists and professional advisor to the University of Cincinnati Association of Black Journalists.
[Top]
Government Relations
SPJ's Government Relations Committee will assist the organization with tracking and supporting legislation that will broaden First Amendment and open government efforts that benefit journalists and the public.
Government Relations Committee Roster
Government Relations Committee chair
Clint Brewer
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)
Clint Brewer is an award winning investigative journalist and an accomplished media executive.
He works as the Director for Government Accountability for the non-profit Tennessee Center for Policy Research, a think tank focused on free markets and combating waste and corruption in government.
Brewer previously worked as executive editor of The City Paper in Nashville and the online Nashville Post website, managing a staff of approximately 30 staffers and freelancers to put out highly influential and well-read urban news products.
During his tenure at the newspaper, Brewer oversaw a total overhaul of the newspaper’s website as well as the development of a larger network of blog sites and other Internet products. The result was exponential growth in the online readership of the company’s news sites.
Brewer also ushered in a 53 percent increase in the readership of The City Paper during his first year of managing the daily newspaper.
Prior to his tenure with The City Paper, Brewer worked as a managing editor for Sandusky Newspaper’s hub of properties in Nashville’s suburbs. Brewer oversaw the editorial operations of the daily Lebanon Democrat newspaper as well as three weekly newspapers.
Before running news operations for Sandusky in Middle Tennessee, Brewer was owner and operator of the weekly Mt. Juliet News.
Brewer has won numerous investigative reporting awards at the state and national level during his career, and is regarded as one of Tennessee’s most authoritative and respected political reporters.
In addition, Brewer has served as national president of the Society of Professional Journalists, the largest association of media professionals in the country. He has also served as a member of the Tennessee Press Association board of directors.
Steve Taylor, vice chair
Adjunct Professor
George Mason University
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)
Steve Taylor, adjunct professor of communication at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., is a freelance writer, video producer and media relations consultant based in Arlington, Va. He writes regularly for Staffing Management magazine and Web site. He is a contributing writer to the book Latinos And The Nation’s Future, edited by former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry G. Cisneros, to be published in January 2009.
Taylor is a former correspondent for ABC News and has freelanced for CNN, CBS Radio, Mutual/NBC Radio and PBS. He covered the White House as a correspondent for ABC, Unistar Radio Network and Satellite News Channel and as a freelancer for National Journal’s CongressDaily and the PBS NewsHour. Taylor also has covered Congress, the Supreme Court, federal agencies and the last nine presidential campaigns.
For five years he was host of Technogenesis, a ComCast television program about innovations in science and engineering. He was the first broadcast reporter to win the Merriman Smith Award for Presidential News Coverage from the White House Correspondents Association. For his reporting from New York on 9/11, he shared ABC’s Peabody and DuPont-Columbia Awards.
Taylor has a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Virginia.
[Top]
Freelance
The Freelance Committee's purpose is to promote, assist, and build a communication network for freelance reporters, writers, editors, copy editors, photographers, designers and all additional contract journalists. This committee?s goal is to bring heightened awareness to freelance journalism. It acts a bridge to connect freelance journalists with editors. This committee is an advocate for freelance journalism. It also provides a professional and social outlet for freelance journalists. This committee encourages reasonable work-pay ratios, respect, and education for the growing number of freelance journalists.
Freelance Home Page | Freelance Committee Roster
Freelance Committee Chair
Amy Green
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)
Amy Green is a freelance journalist for People, Newsweek, The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor and many others. She specializes in faith, ethics and social issues, and her work also has appeared in Christianity Today, Charisma and with Religion News Service. She is a former Associated Press reporter in Nashville, Tenn., and in 2006 she worked for a month in Boston as an editor on the national desk of the Monitor. She is an active member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors and the Society of Professional Journalists. This spring she traveled to Taiwan with an SPJ delegation of working journalists to help foster a professional exchange with journalists in that country. She is a journalism graduate from the University of Florida and is an occasional speaker on the business of freelancing. She works and lives in Orlando, Fla.
Stephenie Overman, vice chair
Freelance writer
3659 Vacation Lane
Arlington, VA 22207
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)
Stephenie Overman is a Washington, D.C.-area freelance writer who specializes in workplace and health care issues. She is past president of the Washington pro chapter (1995-1996) and the New Jersey chapter (2002-2004); she was secretary of the Los Angeles chapter (1997-1998). She was COO of the 2004 national SPJ convention in New York and co-chair of the 1996 Washington convention. She received a Howard S. Dubin Outstanding Pro Chapter Member Award for 2002-2003.
[Top]
International Journalism Committee
The International Journalism Committee works to improve and protect international journalism and encourage the free practice of journalism in all countries.
International Journalism Home Page | IJC Roster
International Journalism Committee Chair
June Nicholson, chair
Associate Professor
School of Mass Communications
Virginia Commonwealth University
901 W. Main Street
Richmond, VA 23284-2034
804/827-0251
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)
June O. Nicholson is associate director and an associate professor in the School of Mass Communications at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Va. She chaired national SPJ’s Journalism Education Committee from 2000-2007 and has been a member of several other national SPJ committees over the past two decades. She is co-developer of the SPJ newsroom training module on covering diverse communities. Nicholson is a former president of the Virginia professional chapter of SPJ and a current board member.
At VCU, Nicholson teaches government, enterprise and project reporting and coverage of specialized beats such as science, health, education, urban affairs and the environment. She also teaches a course on International Media Coverage: The Middle East. She has been a lead faculty member in developing opportunities in the VCU chool of Mass Communications for expanding international initiatives. Before joining the VCU faculty, she was a reporter and editor for some 14 years in North Carolina and Virginia. Nicholson holds a master’s degree in public affairs journalism from The American University in Washington, D.C., and a B.A. degree in journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
“I am a member of SPJ because I believe the organization plays a vital role in protecting the First Amendment, free speech and freedom of information in this country.”
Ricardo Sandoval, vice chair
Assistant City Editor
Sacramento Bee
Bio (click to expand)
Ricardo Sandoval is Assistant City Editor at the Sacramento Bee newspaper. He supervises the paper’s environment, science and regional development teams of reporters. Before joining The Bee, Sandoval was a foreign correspondent, based in Mexico City, for the Dallas Morning News and Knight Ridder Newspapers. Sandoval was born in Mexico and raised in San Diego, California. He graduated with a journalism degree from Humboldt State University in Northern California. His career has spanned three decades and has included award-winning coverage of California agriculture, immigration, the savings and loan scandal and the deregulation of public utility companies. His list of awards includes the Overseas Press Club, the InterAmerican Press Club, the Gerald Loeb prize for business journalism and two honors from the Northern California chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. Sandoval co-authored — with his wife, journalist Susan Ferriss — the biography “The Fight in the Fields: Cesar Chavez and the Farmworkers Movement” published in 1997 by Harcourt.
[Top]
Journalism Education
This committee's purpose is to promote excellence in education programs and practical research. It acts as a clearinghouse for the Society's academic members and students. It also works with annual convention planners on mentor programs both at the college and high school level.
Tools for Students | Tools for Educators | J-Ed Committee Roster
Journalism Education Committee Chair
George Daniels
Assistant Professor
University of Alabama
Box 870172
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487
(205) 348-8618
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)
George L. Daniels is an assistant professor of journalism at the University of Alabama’s College of Communication and Information Sciences. He joined the UA faculty in 2003 after completing graduate studies at The University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. As a graduate student, Daniels participated in the University of Georgia’s SPJ Campus Chapter. But, his first experience with SPJ came when he received a scholarship from the Washington DC Chapter of what was then Sigma Delta Chi (SDX) in the early 1990s. In 2006, Daniels was selected as an SPJ Diversity Leadership Fellow.
At the University of Alabama, Daniels conducts research on media convergence and diversity in the media workplace. He teaches classes in scholastic journalism, media management and cross-media reporting and writing. Before moving into the academic arena, Daniels worked as a television news producer the Richmond, Va., Cincinnati, Ohio and Atlanta television markets. He is a cum laude graduate of Howard University.
“I am a member of SPJ because of its role as an umbrella organization concerned for all journalists and its emphasis on recognizing and encouraging young journalists and their continuing education.”
Mead Loop, vice chair
Associate Professor/
Chair, Journalism Dept
Ithaca College
Park Hall, Rm. 258A
Ithaca, NY 14850
Work: 607-274-3047
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)
Mead Loop is chairman and an associate professor of journalism at Ithaca (N.Y.) College. He has been a SPJ board member since 2002 and is co-chairman of the Sigma Delta Chi Foundation Grants Committee.
Loop’s scholarship has been published in Mass Communication & Society; Newspaper Research Journal; Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly; and Journalism and Mass Communication Educator.
Previously, he was an editor at the Nashville Banner, Lancaster Intelligencer Journal, and Kansas City Times and Star.
Loop has a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri at Columbia and a bachelor’s degree in television-radio from Ithaca College.
"My first contact with journalism issues on a national scale was with SPJ, and the more I become immersed with the Society, the more I learn about journalism today."
[Top]
Legal Defense Fund
This committee oversees the Society's Legal Defense Fund, a unique account that can be tapped for providing journalists with legal or direct financial assistance. Application to the fund is approved by either a small committee or the national board, depending on the level of assistance sought. The committee works throughout the year raising funds for LDF.
LDF Home Page | LDF Committee Roster
Legal Defense Fund Committee Chair
Julie Kay
(954) 303-3384
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)
Julie Kay is an award-winning South Florida journalist who covers the southeast United States for the National Law Journal. She previously worked for the Daily Business Review for seven years, where she authored a weekly column entitled “Justice Watch.” Kay is also the Florida consultant for C-SPAN and freelances for People Magazine and Closer Magazine.
Previously, Kay worked as a staff writer for the Miami Herald for five years, covering city and county government in Broward County, as well as for the Palm Beach Post. In the late 1980s, she worked for a business publication in New York in the late 1980s, covering the international airline industry.
Kay has won numerous awards for her reporting, including the Green Eyeshades, the Florida Press Club, the Florida Bar Media Awards and SPJ’s Sunshine State Awards.
Active in the South Florida chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists since 2000, Kay served as chapter president from 2002 to 2004. She currently serves on the Legal Defense Fund committee and the FOI committee of the national SPJ.
Holly Fisher, vice chair
Freelance Writer/Editor
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)
Holly Fisher is a freelance writer and editor in the Charleston, S.C., area. She most recently was the research editor for SC Biz News LLC, publisher of the Charleston Regional Business Journal, Columbia Regional Business Report, GSA Business, SCBIZ magazine and other business news publications. She also served as special projects editor and electronic media editor for the company. Fisher is a former regional director and board member for SPJ and a former board member of the SDX Foundation. Fisher also has served as an adjunct professor at the College of Charleston. Previously, she worked in the newspaper business in Indiana, Texas and South Carolina. She has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Ohio University and a master’s of mass communication from the University of South Carolina. She lives in Mount Pleasant, S.C., with her husband, Clint; daughter, Katherine; and two Labrador retrievers.
[Top]
Membership
This committee follows membership trends in the Society and recommends membership recruitment drives to the national board and executive director. It is called upon to review chapter requirements, dues, organizational structure and other quality-of-life issues affecting the membership.
Why Join? | Member Resources
Membership Committee
John Huotari, chair
City Hall Reporter
The Oak Ridger
785 Oak Ridge Turnpike
Oak Ridge, TN 37830
(865) 220-5533
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)
John Huotari is secretary and immediate past president of the East Tennessee Society of Professional Journalists.
Huotari is also the city hall reporter at The Oak Ridger, a newspaper in Oak Ridge in East Tennessee.
Before he started at The Oak Ridger, Huotari completed two internships at the Knoxville (Tenn.) News Sentinel. He also worked for one year at The (University of Tennessee) Daily Beacon.
Huotari attended the University of Tennessee from 2002 to 2005 and studied music and journalism.
Besides East Tennessee, he has lived in Denver, Seattle and Minneapolis.
Huotari is a graduate of the 2007 Ted Scripps Leadership Institute in Indianapolis, Ind., and the 2007 Reporters Institute at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla.
Ellen M. Mrja, vice chair
SPJ campus adviser
Senior faculty, Department of Mass Communication
Minnesota State University
Nelson Hall 126
Mankato, MN 56001
507/389-1814
E-mail
[Top]
Nominations
The nominations committee has a single goal: to recruit the best and brightest of SPJ members to run for national offices. The immediate past president of the Society automatically serves in this role.
Nominations Committee Chair
Clint Brewer
Executive Editor
The City Paper
624 Grassmere Park
Ste. 28
Nashville, Tenn. 37211
615/301-9229
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)
Clint Brewer is a native of Knoxville and a lifelong Tennessee resident. He began his journalism career in his hometown and began work professionally for The Knoxville Journal as a music critic.
In the mid 1990s, Brewer served as a staff reporter for the 9,500 circulation daily The Lebanon Democrat, covering state and local politics as well as business and economic development.
As a reporter for the Democrat, Brewer was a four time winner of the state’s most prestigious reporting award, the Malcolm Law Memorial Award for Investigative Reporting from the Tennessee Associated Press Managing Editor’s conference. One winning series of stories included an investigation that resulted in the first criminal prosecution based on Tennessee’s solid waste disposal laws in state history.
Brewer left the Democrat in 2000 to work as an editor for the Gannett Corp.’s Middle Tennessee newspaper group.
Brewer formed his own company in 2000, purchasing the weekly Mt. Juliet News and running that newspaper until September 2002 when he sold it to Sandusky Newspapers and went to work at the Democrat as that newspaper’s Managing Editor. Under his leadership, the newspaper won numerous investigative awards in Tennessee, including the 2004 and 2005 Malcolm Law Awards and the 2004 and 2005 Public Service Awards from the Tennessee Press Association. Also under Brewer’s guidance, the Democrat won its first national journalism award in its 118 year history, the American Planning Association’s 2005 Journalism Competition.
Brewer left the Democrat in 2006 and is now the executive editor of The City Paper in Nashville.
Brewer’s work covering politics and economic development have also appeared in The Tennessean, The Nashville Scene, The Memphis Flyer and Tennessee Politics.com. Investigative reporting by Brewer on campaign finance issues in the state has resulted in presidential and congressional campaign committees returning contributions made by felons.
Brewer is president of the Society of Professional Journalists. He has also served on the board of the Tennessee Press Association.
He lives in the Gladeville community with his wife Amy and their three children, Emma Grace, Davis Clinton and Lawson James.
[Top]
Professional Development
The Professional Development Committee ensures a broad range of professional development programs offered by the Society.
Training Home Page | Committee Roster
Professional Development Committee Chair
Deb Halpern Wenger
Associate Professor
VCU School of Mass Communications
Bio (click to expand)
Deb Halpern Wenger, a 17-year broadcast news veteran, is associate professor for media convergence and new media at Virginia Commonwealth University. Prior to her academic appointment, Deb served as assistant news director at WFLA-TV in Tampa, Fla. She started her career as a reporter/anchor at KXJB in Fargo, N.D., moved on to producing at WBBH in Ft. Myers, Fla. and WMUR in Manchester, N.H. then became executive producer at WSOC in Charlotte, N.C. Wenger conducts multimedia training in newsrooms around the country and is coauthor of the broadcast and online journalism curricula for the Society of Professional Journalists’ Newsroom Training Program. She has been invited to work as visiting faculty for The Poynter Institute’s “Producing Producers” seminar and has been a part of the Committee of Concerned Journalists Traveling Curriculum through the Project for Excellence in Journalism. Wenger is co-author of a journalism textbook, “Advancing the Story: Broadcast Journalism in a Multimedia World.”
Kara Matuszewski, vice chair
WLBZ
Bangor, Maine
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)
Kara Matuszewski is the vice chair of the Professional Development committee.
Kara is a New England native who currently anchors the 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. news with WLBZ in Bangor, Maine. She also works with WCSH in Portland, Maine.
Kara began her career with NEWS CENTER in 2001 as a general assignment reporter at WLBZ. In May 2004, she was promoted to anchor of the statewide weekend morning and noon newscasts. Her most recent assignment started in October 2007.
Kara grew up in Manchester, New Hampshire and graduated with a bachelors of science in broadcast journalism from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communication at Syracuse University. She also completed the newspaper curriculum and minored in economics and psychology.
Her professional experience includes a stint reporting at WAGM in Presque Isle, as well as internships at WWNY in Watertown, New York and WMUR in Manchester, New Hampshire.
Kara has been a member of Society of Professional Journalists since 2006. As president, she helped resurrect the Maine Pro chapter and bring it into 4-star standing. She currently serves as vice president.
Kara lives in the Bangor area with her husband and their black lab.<
[Top]
Public Outreach
SPJ's Public Outreach Committee specializes in the marketing and promotion of the Society's work. This committee works largely in an advisory role and is tasked with aiding the development of communications for some of the Society's largest, and also fledgling, projects.
Committee Roster
Public Outreach Committee
Brian Bellmont, chair
President
Bellmont Partners Public Relations
14334 Enclave Court NW
Prior Lake, MN 55372
(952) 233-0428
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)
Former reporter Brian Bellmont is a public relations consultant and writer at Bellmont Partners Public Relations in Prior Lake, Minn. For the past 15 years, he has developed successful local and national public relations campaigns, produced award-winning videos, and written everything from news releases and brochures to restaurant reviews and magazine articles. He’s a frequent contributor to MSNBC.com, and his work has appeared in publications across the country. His background includes stints as a television reporter in Wisconsin and as a national news producer, where he helped coordinate coverage for programs such as the “MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour,” “Inside Edition,” “American Journal” and The Weather Channel.
Lauren Bartlett, vice chair
Sr Project Manager Media Relations
Southern California Edison
2244 Walnut Grove Ave
Rosemead CA 91770
(626) 302-7907
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)
Lauren Bartlett, vice chair of the SPJ Public Outreach Committee, 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 2001 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.
[Top]
Resolutions
The Resolutions Committee meets annually at the Society's National Convention. The group is charged with presenting timely issues for debate before the Society's voting delegates. Its members serve to keep order at business meetings of the Society and to facilitate thoughtful debate. Drafts of resolutions can be submitted by any member of the Society either prior to, or during, convention.
Resolutions Committee
Gordon "Mac" McKerral
Western Kentucky University
140 Bright St. Apt. C
Bowling Green, KY 42104
Work: (270) 745-5882
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)
Gordon “Mac” McKerral is an associate professor and the news-editorial sequence coordinator in the School of Journalism & Broadcasting at Western Kentucky University.
He served as national president of the Society of Professional Journalists September 2003 to September 2004. In October 2005, he received the SPJ’s highest award, The Wells Key, for longtime contributions to journalism and SPJ’s mission. He received a national First Amendment Award from SPJ for his work with the Campus Courts Task Force, which focused on gaining public access to campus crime records and campus judiciary records related to hearings on crimes.
McKerral has spent more than 25 years as a journalist and journalism educator. He has been a reporter and editor at newspapers in Illinois, Indiana, Florida and New York and Indiana.
[Top]
|
|
Committees
Complete List
Awards & Honors
Bylaws
Chapter Doctor
Chapter Innovation League
Digital Media
Diversity
Ethics
Finance, Tax and Budget
Freedom of Information
Freelance
Generation J
Government Relations
International Journalism
Journalism Education
Legal Defense Fund
Membership
Nominations
Professional Development
Public Outreach
Resolutions
About SPJ
Mission
Membership
General Info
Headquarters Staff
Board of Directors
Committees
Strategic Plan
Bylaws |
PDF version
Documentation
History |
Past Presidents
Message Board
Our Mission
The Society of Professional Journalists is dedicated to the perpetuation of
a free press as the cornerstone of our nation and our liberty.
To ensure that the concept of self-government outlined by the U.S. Constitution
remains a reality into future centuries, the American people must be well informed
in order to make decisions regarding their lives, and their local and national
communities.
It is the role of journalists to provide this information in an accurate, comprehensive,
timely and understandable manner.
It is the mission of the Society of Professional Journalists:
— To promote this flow of information.
— To maintain constant vigilance in protection of the First Amendment guarantees
of freedom of speech and of the press.
— To stimulate high standards and ethical behavior in the practice of journalism.
— To foster excellence among journalists.
— To inspire successive generations of talented individuals to become dedicated
journalists.
— To encourage diversity in journalism.
— To be the pre-eminent, broad-based membership organization for journalists.
— To encourage a climate in which journalism can be practiced freely.
|
— ADVERTISEMENT —
|
