Executive Director
Caroline Hendrie
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Caroline is a national journalism organization leader and longtime working professional journalist with expertise in the U.S. news industry.

Prior to SPJ, Caroline was a longtime leader in the national education journalism sector, having served 12 years as executive director of the Education Writers Association and 14 years as managing editor and national reporter at the nonprofit news organization Education Week. Read More

As executive director of the nonprofit EWA, she led strategy, programming, and fundraising in support of EWA's mission to strengthen the community of education writers and improve the quality of education coverage to better inform the public.

In her 25-year career as an award-winning reporter and editor, Caroline covered education from early learning through postsecondary schooling at the local, state, and national levels — winning multiple state and national awards for education writing.

Associate Executive Director
Jennifer Royer
(317) 721-9033
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Jennifer became interim executive director in September 2022. She joined SPJ HQ in August 2014 as the Society’s first communications strategist, developing and implementing overall strategy for SPJ’s communication and marketing efforts, proactively promoting journalism advocacy and SPJ’s role in the profession and democracy. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Indiana State University. After working as a newspaper reporter and editor for several years, she made the transition to public relations, working for ISU and later, the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Her career has taken her from being up close and personal with a caged lion, to becoming airsick in a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, to meeting a U.S. President, to working several NCAA Men’s and Women’s Final Four tournaments.

Membership Strategist
Chrystal O'Keefe
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Chrystal originally started SPJ in 2015 to assist with membership part-time. By 2018, when she parted ways with the organization, she was the Manager of Membership and Chapters. Now back with SPJ, Chrystal is here to improve the experience for members and focus on the soul of SPJ, the vast number of chapters across the country. Read More

Outside of SPJ, Chrystal is a managing editor and beat writer for South Side Sox, through SB Nation, and Willets Pen. She also is a weekly columnist for Pitcher List and co-hosts two baseball podcasts that are all women-led. She has previously had articles in Sports Illustrated, Overtime Heroics and The Say It Again Network.

With her institutional knowledge of SPJ, Chrystal is ready to provide a friendly face and excellent communication once again with everyone and keep SPJ great.

Quill Editor / Manager of Publications and Awards
Lou Harry
(317) 643-4895
Email
@LouHarry

Lou Harry’s journalism career includes editing stints at Philadelphia magazine, Indianapolis Monthly and the Indianapolis Business Journal along with freelance work for more than 50 publications and websites. Read More The winner of multiple SPJ awards, Harry has taught writing classes at Temple University, the University of Indianapolis and the Midwest Writers Workshop. He has served as emcee for many fundraisers, has organized conferences and once took a pie in the face from Soupy Sales. During downtime, he enjoys writing plays and trying new board games with friends, family and strangers.

Director of Ethics and Diversity
Rod Hicks
(317) 300-4711
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Rod has experience at numerous news organizations across the country. Most recently, he served as an editor for The Associated Press at its Philadelphia-based East Regional Desk. In this role, he worked on several major national stories including the Sandy Hook school shooting in Connecticut, the Boston Marathon bombing and the sexual assault trials of Bill Cosby. Read More Hicks previously held editing positions at newspapers in New Jersey, Alabama, Michigan and Missouri. He managed the St. Louis Post-Dispatch news operation at night. He was working the night a gunman entered a suburban city council meeting and killed the mayor, two council members, a police officer and two other people. The coverage was a finalist for the 2009 Pulitzer Prize in Breaking News. Before that he was a suburban editor for The Detroit News.

Communications Specialist
Kimberly Tsuyuki
(626) 552-8088
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Kimberly joined SPJ in January 2023. She graduated in May 2022 from Whittier College with a degree in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing and a Film Studies minor. During her time in college, she worked for the school newspaper as Arts & Entertainment Editor, where she combined her passion for journalism and entertainment. She enjoys picking the green sour skittles out of the bag and watching movies in her spare time.

Communications Coordinator
Nadia Gordon
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Nadia joined SPJ HQ in February 2024. She graduated from Florida Atlantic University with a Multimedia Journalism degree and a Communication Studies minor. While in college she worked as Director of Broadcast for the school's student-run newspaper and reported/produced for the South Florida Journal podcast. She also interned at WLRN, South Florida’s NPR member station where she covered the Champlain Towers South building collapse in Surfside, Florida. After graduating she worked for the ReNews Project, focusing on the revival of student news publications at historically Black colleges and universities.

Administrative Assistant
Dawn Bussell
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Dawn joined SPJ in March 2024 as a part-time administrative assistant. Prior to this role, she dedicated 12 years to the U.S. Air Force, serving as a public health technician and program manager. Her military career took her around the world, including bases in Afghanistan, South Korea, and Italy. Transitioning from military service in 2017, Dawn became a full-time student at Indiana University, earning a bachelor's degree in public health with a focus on community health, complemented by a minor in digital and professional writing. Currently, she is working towards a master's degree in English and creative writing, specializing in non-fiction writing. Motivated by a passion for advocacy, Dawn aims to leverage her skills and experiences to amplify the voices of underserved and marginalized communities.

Fundraising and Development
Lucas Metropulos
Metropulos Group
Website
LinkedIn

Experienced fundraising professional working with nonprofit organizations and political campaigns to maximize their potential. I have consulted with over 150 organizations raising more than $150 million for a variety of efforts located in the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, South America and other areas around the world. My work has led me to advise on fundraising and marketing projects ranging from environmental justice, the arts, cultural enrichment, education, social services, disaster relief, medical, athletics, mental health, religious, political, and many other cause areas.

Interim Web Administrator
Billy O’Keefe
Website
LinkedIn

From the separate days he learned to (a) write, (b) draw and (c) compile code in BASIC on an Apple IIc, it has been Billy’s mission to create things that make people happy in exchange for being allowed to make a living doing things he enjoys. To that end, he’s honed a strange multi-pack of careers in which he builds and manages lovely websites and database-driven projects for some, writes lovely words for others, draws lovely illustrations for others, and, when he’s truly lucky, combines all these disciplines and more into projects that delight people on multiple levels.