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About the Society
Board of Directors
For descriptions of SPJ Board positions, please consult SPJ's
bylaws.
President
John Ensslin
Reporter
The Bergen Record
973-513-5632
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)
John Ensslin is a reporter at The Record in northern New Jersey, where he covers Bergen County government.
Born in Jersey City, N.J, he started in daily journalism at his hometown paper, The Hudson Dispatch. He went on to work for The Times Herald-Record in Middletown, N.Y., The Rocky Mountain News in Denver, Co. and The Gazette in Colorado Springs, Co.
He is a graduate of Columbia University.
He is a past president of The Denver Press Club and a member of its Hall of Fame. He helped start the club's annual Damon Runyon Award.Before becoming SPJ president in September 2011, he served as president of the Colorado Pro SPJ chapter, national membership committee chair, Region 9 director and secretary-treasurer. He also served as co-chair of the SPJ national convention and was named regional director of the year in 2010. He is a past winner of the William Burleigh/Scripps Foundation Community Service award.
He and his wife Denise live in West Milford, N.J.
President's Blog
President-Elect
Sonny Albarado
Projects Editor
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
121 E. Capitol Ave.
Little Rock, AR 72201
501/244-4321
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)
Sonny Albarado is projects editor at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, a statewide, family-owned daily newspaper based in Little Rock. As projects editor, he supervises a staff of two reporters and assists other editors and reporters in long-term investigative and explanatory journalism.
Albarado has worked as a journalist since 1970, when he became editor of his college newspaper. His first professional newspaper job began in December 1972 in Houma, La. Except for an 18-month period when he helped a couple of friends start a monthly trade magazine in New Orleans, he has worked in newspapers all of his professional life.
He doesn’t count the year he was a part-time disc jockey as work.
He has been an SPJ member since March 1979, joining in hopes of starting a chapter in the rural area he covered for the daily paper in Baton Rouge, La. Baton Rouge had an active press club but no SPJ chapter. He was president of the press club in 1988-89 and received the local PRSA chapter’s “Communicator of the Year” award in 1988.
After moving to Memphis in 1989, he joined the Mid-South Pro SPJ Chapter. He became chapter president in 1992 and remained president throughout most of the 1990s. He also served as secretary-treasurer and chairman of the chapter’s contest committee in the late ’90s and early 2000s.
Albarado became SPJ Region 12 director at the 2006 convention. As regional director, he also became co-director with Region 3’s director of the annual Green Eyeshade Awards program, which recognizes excellence among journalists in 11 southeastern states.
Secretary-Treasurer
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.
Immediate Past President
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 National President; National President-Elect; National Secretary-Treasurer; National Membership Committee; National Finance Committee Chair; current National Nominations Committee chair; National Chair of Executive Director Search Committee; Board Member of the Sigma Delta Chi Foundation; and Greater Cincinnati Pro Chapter President, membership chairman and current board chair.
Outside of SPJ, she serves as WCPO-TV's Emmy and national award-winning investigative reporter. 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 more than 100 national, state and local awards, including ten Emmy awards, a National Headliner Award, three national Sigma Delta Chi Awards and as a national finalist with the Investigative Reporters and Editors Association.
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, a dog and two cats.
Vice President, Campus Chapter Affairs
Neil Alan Ralston
Western Kentucky University
1906 College Heights Blvd #11070
Bowling Green, KY 42101-1070
(270) 745-5841
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)
Neil Ralston serves as vice president for campus chapter affairs, a position he was elected to in 2007 and re-elected to in 2009 and 2011. He began serving on the SPJ Board of Directors in 2003 when he was elected as a campus adviser at-large. Ralston is an assistant professor of journalism at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, Ky. Before joining the faculty at WKU in 2006, he was an associate professor of journalism at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches (NAK-uh-tish), La., where he advised the student SPJ chapter. He also has taught at Truman State University in Kirksville, Mo. Ralston began a career in journalism in 1978 and has worked as an editor, reporter and photographer at weekly and daily newspapers in Missouri, Illinois, Louisiana and Texas. His most recent full-time reporting job was in 1985-89 when he worked for the San Antonio (Texas) Light where he covered city hall, the police, federal law enforcement agencies and the federal courthouse.
Ralston has bachelor's degrees in communication and industrial technology from Northeast Missouri State University and a master's degree in journalism from The Ohio State University where he was a fellow in the Kiplinger Program of Public Affairs Reporting. He earned a doctorate from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 2002. Additionally, Ralston was named SPJ's campus chapter adviser of the year for the 1998-99 school year.
Directors At-Large
Bill McCloskey
4709 Overbrook Road
Bethesda, MD 20816
E-mail
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.
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 is currently a Director at Large for the Society of Professional Journalists, chairs the national Communications Committee and is a member of the Ethics Committee and the Finance Committee.
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.
Taylor Mirfendereski
Ohio University
614-975-6260
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)
Taylor Mirfendereski is a multimedia journalist from Columbus, OH with a passion for storytelling, technology, and diversity.
She joined SPJ in 2008 during her first year at Ohio University’s E.W. Scripps School of Journalism. She has served on the OU SPJ executive board for the past three years and currently serves as the vice president of the chapter.
Taylor sees life in the context of a story and finds herself viewing the world through the lens of a camera. As one of a select group of campus correspondents for CNN during the 2008-2009 school year, she produced a series of news packages to air on CNN.com. Through this experience, she gained knowledge and expertise in pitching focused story ideas, writing conversational scripts, capturing visually appealing b-roll, and editing packages with continuity.
In addition to her work with CNN, Taylor has held several local and national internships. In 2008, she was a communication's intern for Ohio Governor Ted Strickland. During the summer of 2009, Taylor interned with Central Ohio's NBC affiliate WCMH-TV. Most recently, in the Fall of 2009, she held internships with NBC's TODAY Show and NBC Weekend Nightly News with Lester Holt.
While Taylor's internships have offered her hands-on opportunities, some of her most valuable experience has stemmed from her independent reporting. She has produced several stories on Iran, including an article about the treatment of Iranian homosexuals and transsexuals, and several Q&A stories about Iran's 2009 presidential election fallout. She also produced a story about the homeless in Columbus, OH, in which she sought out five homeless individuals and profiled their living conditions.
Beyond her passion for storytelling and reporting, Taylor is intrigued by technology. She's been producing and editing video for eight years and is proficient in both linear and nonlinear editing systems, including Final Cut Pro, Avid, and Grass Valley
Aurora Edit. In 2008, she began work as a video editor for Best Light Video in Columbus, OH. She produced 30-second commercials for businesses in the area. Her editing on a project for the North Market in Columbus, OH helped to win the company an Ohio Interactive Award.
Taylor also has experience with video camera operation, still photography, computer assisted reporting, and web design (using XHTML and CSS).
Taylor is now a junior attending Ohio University's E.W. Scripps School of Journalism in the Honors Tutorial College. In addition to her involvement with SPJ, she serves as the president of the Radio-Television Digital News Association campus chapter. She is also an active member of Students for Global Media and Diversity and the Asian American Journalist's Association. Taylor is the co-coordinator of a new AAJA student broadcast organization called the Asian American Student Broadcast Journalists.
Taylor also volunteers at the Athens County Dog Shelter in Chauncey, OH. She is presently designing a multimedia website for the shelter to maximize pet adoption, educate potential adopters, and recruit volunteers.
When not in school, volunteering or reporting in the field, Taylor enjoys traveling, writing, and spending time with family, friends, and pets. She travels annually to Iran and has visited several other locations in the Middle East and Europe.
Gideon Grudo
Florida Atlantic University
E-mail
Campus Advisers At-Large
George Daniels
The University of Alabama
Associate Professor
P.O. Box 870172
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487
(205) 348-8618
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)
Now in his second term as a campus adviser at-large on the SPJ National Board, George L. Daniels is a former chair of the SPJ Journalism Education Committee. 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. Daniels was a 2006 SPJ Diversity Leadership Fellow and 2007 Scripps Institute Fellow.
Daniels is an associate professor of journalism at the University of Alabama’s College of Communication and Information Sciences. He joined the UA faculty in 2003 after completing his master's and Ph.D. degrees at The University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication.
Before moving into the academic arena, Daniels worked as a news producer at WTVR-TV in Richmond, Va., WLWT-TV in Cincinnati, Ohio and WXIA-TV in Atlanta. He is a cum laude graduate of Howard University in Washington, DC.
Kym Fox
Texas State University
601 University Dr.
San Marcos, TX 78666
(512) 245-3484
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)
Kym Fox joined SPJ while an undergrad at Arizona State University in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism. She has been president of the San Antonio Pro Chapter and is currently the co-adviser to the Texas State University student chapter. Fox spent the first 20 something years of her career as a reporter and editor, first at the Mesa Tribune, a 40,000 daily in a suburb of Phoenix, and then 18 years at the San Antonio Express-News. She was the deputy metro editor when she left the Express-News to take to the classroom at Texas State. Most of her career, she spent covering courts and legal affairs, thus her affinity for Freedom of Information projects. Over the years she has covered everything from high school sports to George H.W Bush signing NAFTA. She has interviewed the Queen of England and Michael Jackson, though not at the same time. Along with her B.S. in journalism, she earned an M.A. in communications from the University of the Incarnate Word while an editor at the Express-News. At Texas State she is a senior lecturer and coordinator of the journalism sequence. She teaches a variety of writing classes as well as multimedia journalism. Her take on the future of journalism: “Newspapers are NOT dying. They are evolving.” Find her on Twitter @kymfox.
Region 1 Director
Luther Turmelle
Bureau Chief
New Haven Register
40 Sargent Drive
New Haven, CT 06511
203/789-5706
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)
Luther Turmelle has been with the New Haven Register since 1997 and is currently the paper's North Bureau Chief, directing coverage of several suburban towns. During his time at the newspaper, he has also served as a business reporter, business section editor and chief of the publication's Milford bureau.
A 1982 graduate of Boston's University's School of Public Communication, Turmelle has worked in both radio and print journalism.
He is a past president of SPJ's Connecticut Pro Chapter and has served on the organization's board of directors for nearly a decade.
Region 2 Director
Brian Eckert
University of Richmond
Director of Media and Public Relations
28 Westhampton Way
Richmond, VA 23173
(804) 287-6659
E-mail
Region 3 Director
Michael Koretzky
954-292-7515
E-mail
Region 4 Director
James Pilcher
513-378-3203
E-mail
Region 5 Director
Liz Hansen
Eastern Kentucky University
521 Lancaster Ave.
Richmond, Ky. 40475
859/622-1488
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)
Liz Hansen, director for Region 5 (Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky), has been a professor at Eastern Kentucky University since 1987 where she teaches community journalism, media ethics, media law, reporting and magazine freelancing. She is a former adviser of The Eastern Progress.
An SPJ member since 1976, Hansen served five terms as president of the Bluegrass chapter, is a long-time member of the Bluegrass chapter board, and co-advises the Eastern Kentucky University chapter. She is a member of the national Ethics and Journalism Education committees. She was a founding member of the South Mississippi chapter in the mid-1980s, advised the University of Southern Mississippi chapter, and has been a delegate to numerous national conventions.
Hansen worked as a reporter for the Arkansas Democrat (summers 1970-71), The Springdale (Ark.) News (1972-74) and the State-Times in Baton Rouge (1979-1982). She was a faculty intern for the Grant County (Ky.) News during the summer of 2007. Her freelance work has been published in newspapers and magazines in Mississippi, Kentucky and elsewhere. She has also taught at Iowa State University, the University of Southern Mississippi and the University of Kentucky.
Hansen chairs the Steering Committee of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues. She is also active in the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication and is vice head of its Community Journalism Interest Group. Her research interests include media ethics, media law and community journalism.
In addition to winning dozens of awards for writing, editing and photography over the years, Hansen received the 2004 Russ Metz Most Valuable Member Award from the Kentucky Press Association for her work on a statewide public records audit. In 2008, she was named Foundation Professor, Eastern Kentucky University’s highest honor for teaching excellence.
Hansen earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville in 1972, her master’s degree in journalism and mass communication from Iowa State University in 1976 and her Ph.D. in communication from the University of Kentucky in 2000.
Region 6 Director
Amanda Theisen
KSTP-TV
News Producer
3415 University Ave.
St. Paul, MN 55114
(651) 642-4532
E-mail
Region 7 Director
Kelsey Volkmann
Web Editor, St. Louis Business Journal
314-440-2332
E-mail
Region 8 Director
Scott Cooper
E-mail
Region 9 Director
Donald Meyers
Salt Lake Tribune
90 S 400 W # 700
Salt Lake City, UT 84101
(801) 448-6106
E-mail
Region 10 Director
Dana Neuts
Freelance Journalist
P.O. Box 6231
Kent, WA 98064
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)
After a career in financial services, Dana (Blozis) Neuts began freelancing in 2003. Based in Kent, Washington, Dana is a freelance writer and editor as well as the owner and publisher of iLoveKent.net and iLoveCovington.com, hyperlocal blogs. Her work has appeared in many Seattle-area publications as well as national publications including GSN: Government Security News, HS Today and American Profile. She is past-president of the award-winning Western Washington Pro Chapter of SPJ, serves as the Region 10 Director of SPJ, is a member of the membership committee, and chairman of the freelance committee. She previously served on the SDX foundation board and has been a facilitator for Scripps. For more information, please visit VirtuallyYourz.com. Specialties: Business Writing and Editing, Features, Humor, Small Business, Nonprofits, Finance, Insurance, Travel, and Marketing Consulting and Implementation including Social Media.
Region 11 Director
Teri Carnicelli
Editor
North Central News
602-277-2742
E-mail
Region 12 Director
Kelly Kissel
News Editor
The Associated Press
10810 Executive Center Dr.
Suite 308
Little Rock, AR 72211
501-225-3668
E-mail
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