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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.
Frizzi is also a freelance writer.
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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.
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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.
Net Worked Blog | Digital Media Committee Roster
Digital Media Committee Chair
Hilary Fosdal
Interactive Content Manager
Barrington Broadcast Group
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)
Hilary Fosdal is Barrington Broadcasting Group's interactive content manager. She manages the day-to-day online news operations of the company's 21 television stations that are based in 15 markets throughout the nation, from Columbia, South Carolina to the far reaches of Marquette, MI.
Prior to joining Barrington Broadcasting she worked for Quincy Newspapers Inc., as an assignment editor at WKOW in Madison, Wisconsin and at WXOW in La Crosse, Wisconsin as an internet director and assignment editor. Beijing, China was called home for several years while she consulted for the People's Daily & Market Daily newspapers.
She graduated from the University of Wisconsin Madison with a master's degree in Journalism and Mass Communications. She also currently serves as the Society of Professional Journalists’ Chicago Headline Club secretary and webmaster.
Daniel Axelrod, vice chair
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)
Daniel Axelrod has loved writing since age 3 when he sat on the plush green carpet of his mother’s office overlooking the Long Island Sound, dictated poetry and insisted she not change a word.
A native of Rocky Point, N.Y., Daniel went on to become a published poet and editor of his high school and college papers. He is a graduate of SUNY Cortland, and he holds a journalism master’s degree from Syracuse University.
Daniel won eight journalism awards during his five years as a full-time newspaper reporter, which included time in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. He has worked as a public relations consultant and freelance writer in Northeast Pennsylvania since his last newspaper, the Scranton Times-Tribune, laid him off in April 2009. He also serves as president of the Society of Professional Journalists’ Keystone Pro Chapter.
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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)
Ms. Pueng Vongs has two decades of experience in journalism. She is a online producer/editor for Bay Area News Group (MercuryNews.com, InsideBayArea/OaklandTribune.com and ContraCostaTimes.com), where she edits content for the web and leverages social media, multimedia, mapping and mobile tools. She has also worked in financial news at CBS.Marketwatch.com and Money magazine. Vongs’ stories have run in the Chicago Sun-Times, San Francisco Chronicle and NPR among other outlets.
She serves as the diversity chair for SPJ and has spent more than a decade reporting on minority communities, mainly at Pacific News Service/New America Media, the largest association of U.S. ethnic media.
Maria O. Alvarez, vice chair
Freelance journalist
San Francisco, Calif.
Bio (click to expand)
Maria Alvarez has over 15 years of professional experience in broadcast journalism working in different countries and the US. Since 2007, Maria has been working with media non-profits and helping them to understand and reach effectively the Hispanic community in the US. She enjoys being in touch with the community and is very passionate about issues affecting the Latino community.
Her academic degrees include a B.A. in Journalism from the Central University in Venezuela, and a M.A. in Communications from the Catholic University in Santiago, Chile. Once she moved to the US, Maria has continued her professional development. In 2008, she received a Certificate in Non-Profit Management at Cal State University in Oakland, CA. Maria loves traveling with her three year old son, especially to Latin America Countries. Her favorite and most frequent destination is Venezuela, her birthplace and where the majority of her family currently lives.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
Aiesha D. Little, 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.
Brittany Davenport, vice chair
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)
Brittany Davenport is a 2009 graduate of Eastern Kentucky University, where she majored in journalism and minored in computer electronic publishing. A native of Richmond, Ky., Brittany is a reporter at the Mt. Sterling Advocate. At EKU, she was a staff writer for the school newspaper, The Eastern Progress, and served as copy editor of the school yearbook, The Milestone. She received first and second place, respectively, in the news and feature layout/design categories of the Kentucky Intercollegiate Press Association awards in 2007. She enjoys reading, photography, and helping out with the youth group at her church.
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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
Steve Taylor
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. For twelve years Taylor was a correspondent for ABC News. He covered the White House as a correspondent for Unistar Radio Network and Satellite News Channel and also did White House reporting for National Journal’s CongressDaily and the PBS NewsHour. Taylor also has reported for CNN, CBS Radio and Mutual/NBC Radio. He has covered Congress, the Supreme Court, federal agencies and the last nine presidential campaigns. 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 was a contributing writer to two books published in 2009: Latinos And The Nation’s Future, edited by former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry G. Cisneros, and Weathering Storms: Human Resources In Difficult Times, published by the Society for Human Resource Management. For five years he was host of Technogenesis, a Comcast television program about innovations in science and engineering. Taylor has a degree in economics from the University of Virginia.
Julie Kay, vice chair
(954) 303-3384
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)
Julie Kay is a freelance writer who writes for the Miami Herald, the New York Post, the Daily Business Review, the South Florida Business Journal, ABA dsJournal and others. She also serves as the Florida consultant for C-SPAN. Former Florida bureau chief for the National Law Journal and staff writer at the Miami Herald, Kay has won more than 30 local, regional and national journalism awards. She has been president of the South Florida chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists since 2006 and was 2009 chair of the national group's Legal Defense Fund.
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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.
Michael Fitzgerald, vice chair
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)
Michael Fitzgerald, vice chairman. Michael writes on business, technology and culture for publications such as the Boston Globe, The Economist, Fast Company and The New York Times. HeÕs freelanced for more than seven years and published hundreds of articles on a variety of topics.
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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
Ronnie Lovler
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)
Ronnie Lovler is associate director of the Center for Integration and Improvement of Journalism at San Francisco State University. She is also senior writer for the nonprofit Newsdesk.org, and its public-interest news service, “News You Might Have Missed”. In addition to serving as international committee chair, Ronnie is a member of the executive board of the northern California chapter of SPJ. Ronnie taught journalism at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville, Florida before moving to San Francisco.
Ronnie’s journalism career spans several decades. She served as bureau chief and correspondent for CNN in Latin America for almost 10 years. During her time at CNN, she reported from every country in Latin America. She also worked for CBS News, The Weather Channel and The Associated Press, as well as The San Juan Star in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She was part of a team of observers headed by President Jimmy Carter monitoring electoral processes in Nicaragua (2001) and Venezuela (2004). During the 2005 U.S. hurricane season, Ms. Lovler worked with the American Red Cross as a volunteer crisis communicator and public information officer. She received her undergraduate degree from Ohio State University and her graduate degree in communications at the University of Florida.
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.
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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
Jeff South
Associate Professor
VCU School of Mass Communications
Bio (click to expand)
Jeff South was state editor and database editor at the Austin American-Statesman before heading to academia in 1997 under the mistaken impression he’d have summers off. He is an associate professor in the School of Mass Communications at Virginia Commonwealth University, where he teaches news writing, legislative reporting, communications technology and media ethics. South has served as a trainer for SPJ, IRE, AP and other organizations. He frequently conducts workshops on, and writes about, computer-assisted reporting, online journalism and media convergence. In 2003, South was awarded a fellowship from the American Society of Newspaper Editors to work at The Charlotte Observer. In 2007, he will serve a six-month Knight International Press Fellowship in Ukraine. For more than 20 years, he was a reporter and editor in Texas, Arizona and Virginia for newspapers such as the Dallas Times Herald, the Phoenix Gazette and The Virginian-Pilot. He also served two years with the U.S. Peace Corps in Morocco.
Lee Anne Peck, vice chair
Assistant Professor
School of Communication
Journalism and Mass Communications
University of Northern Colorado
Bio (click to expand)
Lee Anne Peck has taught English, journalism, and communications courses since 1988. Most recently she was an assistant professor of international communications at Franklin College Switzerland, Lugano. Over the years, she has advised three student newspapers.
Peck's professional experience began in 1976 as a correspondent for the Moline Daily Dispatch. After graduating with her bachelor's degree, she edited and then managed the regional Choice Magazine of the Front Range. In the mid-1980s, she edited and wrote for publications in Indiana and Delaware; she has worked for the Fort Collins Coloradoan as an editor, a columnist and writing coach and for the Rocky Mountain News as a copy editor. Peck has also worked at the Tampa Tribune's online product, Tampa Bay Online, and for Microsoft's online publication, Denver Sidewalk. Peck began free-lance work in the late 1970s and continues to do free-lance editing, writing, and public relations work.
Her research focuses on all aspects of media ethics. She received a Fulbright to teach journalism at the University of Dubrovnik in Croatia fduring spring semester 2007.
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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
Clint Brewer
615/668-4535
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.
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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 Chair
Holly Fisher
Emerald Editorial
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 the Society of Professional Journalists and a former board member of the Sigma Delta Chi Foundation. Fisher also has served as an adjunct professor at the College of Charleston. Her work has been published in newspapers in Ohio, West Virginia, 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.
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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
Dave Aeikens
Reporter
Times Media
Box 768
3000 7th St. N.
St. Cloud, MN 56303
Work: (320) 255-8744
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)
Dave Aeikens served as SPJ's president from September 2008 to August 2009. He served as president-elect in 2007-2008, winning a President’s Award in 2008. He was national secretary-treasurer in 2006-2007. He was SPJ’s Legal Defense Fund Chairman from 2005 to 2007. He served as Region 6 director for six years and Minnesota Pro Chapter president and secretary. He has been a reporter and editor at the St. Cloud Times for 15 years. He has covered schools, state government and served as the paper's night city editor for four years. He has worked 17 years in daily journalism in Minnesota. He and a colleague wrote articles that showed some government agencies in Minnesota were charging more than state law allowed for paper copies of government data. They won numerous awards for the stories and the Legislature changed state law to limit what governments can charge to 25 cents a page. He is an aficionado of Minnesota open records laws and has one numerous Freedom of Information awards. He is a member of the Minnesota Joint Media committee and was honored in 2000 and 2006 with the President’s Award, which the Minnesota Pro Chapter gives for meritorious service. He was one of the founding organizers of the Midwest Journalism Conference, which jointly is the SPJ Region 6 conference combined with five other media organizations. With more than 300 attendees, it is one of the most successful regional conferences in the country.
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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 assistant professor of journalism at the University of Mississippi. Prior to her academic appointments, Deb was assistant news director at WFLA-TV in Tampa, Fla. Wenger conducts multimedia training in newsrooms around the country and is coauthor of the broadcast, online and multimedia journalism curricula for the Society of Professional Journalists’ Newsroom Training Program. She is also chair of SPJ’s Professional Development Committee and has been a visiting faculty member for The Poynter Institute and has been 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” and produces a multimedia blog: advancingthestory.wordpress.com.
Kara Matuszewski, vice chair
WLBZ
Bangor, Maine
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)
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.
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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 chair
Lauren Bartlett
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 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.
Mark Scarp, vice chair
Adjunct professor, Arizona State University
E-mail
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.
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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.
Committee Roster
Resolutions Committee Chair
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.
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The Society of Professional Journalists is dedicated to the perpetuation of
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To ensure that the concept of self-government outlined by the U.S. Constitution
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It is the role of journalists to provide this information in an accurate, comprehensive,
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