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— Celebrating Diversity at the 2006 SPJ Convention
— 2006 SPJ Leader Breakfast

Diversity
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SPJ's Diversity Committee Blog
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— Trayvon Martin Shooting Death: Evaluating and Improving Crime Reporting
— News Coverage of Native Americans: It’s all about context
— CNN’s Latest Race Study Prompts Timely Discussion

Diversity Committee
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 Committee Chair

Bonnie Davis
Associate Professor Journalism
Virginia Commonwealth University
E-mail
Bio (click to expand) Bonnie Newman Davis is the Greensboro News & Record - Janice Bryant Howroyd Endowed Professor in the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication at North Carolina A&T State University where she teaches, conducts research and performs multiple learning and service activities. A graduate of North Carolina A&T and the University of Michigan, Davis has nearly 30 years experience in print and online journalism as a reporter, copy editor and editor.

Before joining N.C. A&T, Davis was an associate professor in the School of Mass Communications at Virginia Commonwealth University and served as academic director for VCU’s Urban Journalism Workshop for high school students.

In addition to her professional journalism background, Davis served as director of university communications at Virginia Union University. At VUU, she was chief spokesperson for the university, directed all media relations, and produced and coordinated the university’s major publications and marketing materials. Other higher education experiences include serving for several years as an adjunct professor in VCU’s School of Mass Communications, and being named the 2003 Visiting Professional in the Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Mass Communications at Hampton University.

Prior to academia, Davis spent nearly 20 years career with The Richmond-Times Dispatch (Va.) and Richmond News Leader (Va.). She also worked for newspapers in Kentucky, North Carolina and Michigan, and for online news media based in New York and Dallas.

Davis has coordinated, presented and participated in numerous news media panels and conferences in various parts of the United States. She also serves as a media consultant for various educational institutions and nonprofit organizations. In addition, she is the biographer for Dominion’s “Strong Men, Strong Women,” Excellence in Leadership educational series. (Dominion is one of the nation’s largest producers and transporters of energy)

In 1995, Davis co-founded the Richmond Association of Black Journalists, an affiliate chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists. She served on NABJ’s national board from 1999-2003, and also on the board of the Virginia Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. Other memberships include Leadership Metro Richmond and the Richmond Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.

In 2007, Davis received NABJ’s Ethel Payne Fellowship to travel to Accra, Ghana in West Africa to report on various topics. Other education and training experiences include the Poynter Institute for Media Studies in St. Petersburg, Fla., the Multicultural Management Program at the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism, and the 2002 Minority Writers Seminar at Vanderbilt University.

In April 2011, Davis was named NABJ’s Journalism Educator of the Year. Her work also has been recognized by the Virginia Press Association, Richmond Association of Black Journalists, National Association of Black Journalists and Commonwealth Council of Girl Scouts.

Davis, who continues to write articles for various news and industry publications, enjoys reading, traveling, walking and spending time with family and friends. She has a daughter, Erin Danielle Stanley, a 2010 graduate of Spelman College in Atlanta. Erin, a Teach for America corps member, teaches fifth-grade students in Atlanta.

Diversity Committee Members

Rebecca Aguilar
E-mail

Lucy Bejan

Justin Chenette
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)

Justin Chenette is the Assistant Morning Producer and Weekend Web Producer at WPFO-Fox 23 in Portland, Maine. He is also a columnist with the Portland Daily Sun and the Journal Tribune.

His education is ongoing as he earned his associates degree in television news from Lyndon State College in 2011 and is poised to graduate with a bachelor's degree in 2012. On campus, he is the chapter president of SPJ and works as a reporter/anchor at the Emmy-award winning LSC-TV News 7.

Back home in Maine, he hosts a weekly public affairs show called Youth in Politics on WPXT-12/WPME-17 airing across 400,000 homes across Southern Maine and New Hampshire.

George Daniels
Assistant Professor
University of Alabama
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.

Stephen Franklin

Sandy Frost
Online Investigative Journalist
Newsvine.com
Tacoma, WA
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)

Sandy Frost, Online Investigative Journalist, Newsvine.com, a subsidiary of MSNBC. Twenty years experience includes daily news, daily copy editing, radio news, technical writing and magazine writing. Served on SPJ Western Washington Pro Chapter Board of Directors. Helped chapter win SPJ Circle of Excellence Award for Diversity (2008) as well as Best Pro Chapter (2007, 2008, 2009). Four SPJ awards. 2011 SPJ Diversity Leadership Fellow. Author, "Shriners' Shame.” Member, Investigative Reporters and Editors. Publisher/Owner, NewsHooks 2 NewsBooks. U.S. Navy vet. Original shareholder, Ahtna Inc., an Alaska Native Corporation.

Leo Laurence
Editor, San Diego News Service
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)

Leo E. Laurence, J.D., is editor of San Diego News Service (leopowerhee@msn.com). He completed a four-year, post-doctoral study of appellate law at the California Court of Appeal in San Diego. He served two terms on the SPJ board in San Diego and attended national conventions in New York and Chicago. He also served five years as a "bombero" (Mexican firefighter) in Tijuana, unprecedented for an Anglo. He's particularly proud of his three-year quest to discourage working reporters from using the phrase "illegal immigrant" or the more offensive term "illegal alien." He believes diversity makes both news staffs and news coverage stronger.

Sally Lehrman
Santa Clara University
Montara, Calif.
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)

Sally Lehrman holds Santa Clara University’s Knight Ridder — San Jose Mercury News Endowed Chair in Journalism and the Public Interest. Also an independent journalist, Lehrman specializes in covering identity, race relations and gender within the context of medicine and science. Her byline credits include Scientific American, Health, Salon.com, The New York Times, Nature, The Boston Globe and The DNA Files, the Peabody Award-winning documentary series distributed by National Public Radio. Lehrman is author of News in a New America, a fresh take on diversity in coverage and staffing, and served for a decade as national diversity chair for the Society of Professional Journalists. She was a 1995-96 John S. Knight Fellow at Stanford University and is an Institute for Justice and Journalism Senior Fellow on race.

Gene Murray
Professor of Mass Communications
Grambling State University, Louisiana
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)

Dr. Gene Murray is a professor of mass communication at Grambling State University. His education includes a bachelor’s degree from Murray State University, a master’s in journalism from Ohio University and a Ph.D. from Texas A&M.

He joined the mass communication faculty at Grambling State University in 1992. He has worked for daily, weekly, and military newspapers as a reporter and copy editor. A former military public affairs officer, he was a Summer Faculty Researcher nine summers at the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute. His book, Covering Sex, Race and Gender in the American Military Services, was published in December 2003.

A founder and co-adviser of the Lincoln Collegiate Chapter of SPJ, Murray received the Society’s 2006 “Distinguished Teaching in Journalism” award, and he also was selected as a Diversity Leadership Fellow.

Amity Paye

Reginald W. Ragland, CJE
Scholastic Media Advocate
D.C. Journalism Education Assn.
Washington, D.C. 20013
E-mail

Amber Stearns
E-mail

Jeremy Steele
Director of Media Relations
The John Truscott Group
124 W. Allegan St., Ste. 802
Lansing, MI 48933
517-485-8404
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)

Jeremy Steele is director of media relations at The John Truscott Group, a public relations, public affairs, government affairs and business development firm with offices in Lansing and Grand Rapids, Mich. He’s also an adjunct faculty member at Michigan State University’s School of Journalism.

Previously, Steele was a reporter at the Lansing State Journal, where he covered the economy, development and technology in Michigan’s capital city. Steele also has worked for the Michigan Business Review, Port Huron Times Herald, Flint Journal, Jackson Citizen Patriot and Cincinnati Enquirer. His work has been honored by the Michigan Associated Press Editorial Association, Michigan Press Association and the Associated Collegiate Press.

Steele has a bachelor's in journalism from Michigan State University, where he was editor of The State News, one of the largest student-run daily newspapers in the country. He serves as president of the State News Alumni Association.

He is a board member of SPJ's Mid-Michigan Pro Chapter and a 2006 graduate of the Ted Scripps Leadership Institute.

Rebecca Tallent
University of Idaho
Moscow, Idaho
E-mail

Georgiana Vines
Retired Associate Editor
Knoxville News Sentinel
E-mail

Home > SPJ Convention > 2006 Convention Recap > Celebrating Diversity at the 2006 SPJ Convention

SPJ in Pictures
Celebrating Diversity at the 2006 SPJ Convention

"News in a New America" debuted at the Celebration of Diversity Reception, industry leaders shared their wisdom, and the Diversity Leadership Fellows kicked off a second year.

At the Celebration of Diversity Reception, Diversity Chair Sally Lehrman spoke about her new book, News in a New America, funded by the John F. and James L. Knight Foundation. Copies are available free by writing publications@knightfdn.org:

"As you know, demographic change is sweeping the country. Not just on the coasts, but in mid-America too. In a few decades, we will be a so-called "majority-ethnic minority" country. At the same time, lesbian, gay and bisexual people and those with disabilities are becoming more visible and active in civil society. Yet, even after several decades of effort, the news media have not kept up, either in staffing or in content. My editor, Eric Newton, asked me to find out why. He asked, how can we rethink this problem?

I consulted with more than 150 people and resources inside newsrooms and out, learning from those who study media and social science. Here's what I found: First, there are historical structures in society that favor some groups and have the effect of limiting the voices in democratic debate. Two, at a very deep level, we unconsciously favor people like ourselves. We turn to them for news leads and as sources. So, unless we take conscious steps to counteract unconscious bias and structural bias, the news media will continue to replicate unequal access and unequal representation in our society.

What can we do? We can question some of what we consider our tried and true journalistic practices. For instance, what is newsworthy? Who is "prominent"? To whom? Who is an "expert"? Only someone with a big title, lots of power?

We can learn from the ethnic media: We can build trust. We can take time. We can include history and context in our stories. We can pay attention to the point of view that frames a story. Is it white? Is it female? Is it middle class?

I'm proud that just this weekend, SPJ once again took steps toward conscious inclusiveness with a board vote to codify the diversity mission in a clearly stated, open, inclusive hiring process for headquarters. I thank you all for your commitment to diversity."

Tenor Rodell Rosel and pianist Celeste Rue closed the reception with a captivating performance.

Six talented journalists received SPJ national leadership training at the 2006 Convention as part of the Diversity Leadership Outreach Program. For the coming year, the fellows will pair with six top "guides" already serving on the board or leading committees.

Fellows visited the Chicago Reporter to learn how to investigate race- and poverty-based inequities by using public documents. Instructors from the Applied Research Center invited the fellows to rethink what "diversity" means and learn about institutional inequality in order to generate long-term, positive change within an organization. Bryan Monroe, editor of Jet and Ebony, dropped by to give an encouraging talk on how to work from the inside out to prepare the news media for America's changing demographics. Cristina Azocar, director of the San Francisco State University Center for the Integration and Improvement of Journalism, geared up the teams for a productive cross-mentoring year. A highlight was the reunion dinner at the Negro League Cafe planned by outgoing fellow Curtis Lawrence of Columbia College, who also developed a panel on black-owned media.

Trailblazers
Elvia Aguilar, Corpus Christi Caller-Times
George Daniels, University of Alabama
Debra Krol, Fort McDowell Yavapai News
Andrea Lewis, KPFA-FM
Gene Murray, Grambling State University
Samaruddin Stewart, AOL-News and Sports

Guides
Clint Brewer, Nashville City Paper
Robert Leger, Arizona Republic
Sally Lehrman, Independent Science and Medical Writer
Mead Loop, Ithaca College
Paul McAfee, Press-Enterprise.com
Deb Wenger, Virginia Commonwealth University