Friends:

Here are the candidates for the 2023 board:

PRESIDENT (1-year term, 2023)

Julie Patel Liss

Julie Patel Liss is a professor and investigative reporter. As head of Cal State LA’s journalism program, she works with her students on projects similar to those she worked on as an investigative reporter at the Center for Public Integrity and D.C.’s NPR affiliate. Julie also worked at the South Florida Sun Sentinel and the San Jose Mercury News and has earned over 15 journalism awards and honors, including a 2008 national Emmy Award.“I cherish my AAJA friends and community and have been proud to serve as a board member for the San Francisco chapter, South Florida chapter and most recently, as president of your Los Angeles chapter. Thanks to you and our board, we accomplished a lot this year, including co-hosting the national convention, bringing so many members, community partners and other chapters together for Trivia Bowl, and holding those in power accountable when it comes to press freedom. I’d love to see the momentum going next year with innovative programs aimed at serving a range of members, including students and mid-career journalists.”

SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT OF PROGRAMMING (1-year term, 2023)

Teresa Watanabe

Teresa Watanabe covers higher education for the L.A. Times and also has written about K-12 education, immigration, ethnic communities, religion, Japan/Korea and Pacific Rim business and economics. She previously reported on Asia, national affairs and state government for the San Jose Mercury News and wrote editorials for the L.A. Herald Examiner.

“For as long as I’ve been in the news business, AAJA has been an absolutely essential source of friends, mentors and incredible opportunities. I’ve been privileged to serve as your vice president of special projects this year as we hosted a phenomenal national convention in Los Angeles and launched two new grant programs for a summer high school journalism institute and health justice journalism initiative. If elected as your senior VP of programming, with particular responsibility to coordinate our signature Trivia Bowl, I hope to help bring it back bigger and better than ever — ideally in person, to reconnect and celebrate our community ties. I would love to hear from you about how best to serve your interests and needs. Thank you for supporting AAJA-LA!”

TREASURER (2-year term, 2023-2025)

Debbie Truong

Debbie Truong is a higher education reporter for the Los Angeles Times. Before that, she covered PK-12 schools for WAMU, the NPR affiliate in Washington, D.C. and the Washington Post. Earlier in her career, she reported for the Richmond Times-Dispatch and PennLive/Patriot-News.

“Five years ago, after a particularly demoralizing stretch working at a regional
newspaper, I was in search of career guidance from more seasoned reporters. I
turned to AAJA’s mentor program, which matched me with Lori Aratani, a veteran reporter at the Washington Post. Lori’s mentorship was invaluable. Her encouraging words and advice helped me navigate existential questions I had about our industry and I was so grateful for her counsel during the two years I spent as a fellow at the Post. The support from Lori and AAJA has been one of the most formative experiences in my career. Now I feel I’m in a position to help out. I’m running for treasurer for AAJA-LA because I want to be a part of an institution that helps shape so many careers, and provides a community for AAPIs in an industry that can feel so insular.”

VICE PRESIDENT OF COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT (1-year term, 2023)

Ada Tseng

Ada Tseng is an assistant editor on the Utility Journalism team at the Los Angeles Times. The team publishes stories and information that help people solve problems, answer questions and make big decisions about life in and around Los Angeles. She previously led coverage of Orange County as TimesOC’s entertainment editor, and she co-hosts the Asian American pop culture history podcast “Saturday School.”

“I’ve learned a lot in my first year as AAJA-LA’s VP of community engagement and would love to work with the board members for another year to expand on that knowledge. I’m passionate about building community, and my job at the L.A. Times Utility Journalism Team also involves interacting with our readers and understanding how we can be useful to people in Southern California.”

VICE PRESIDENT OF CAREER DEVELOPMENT (1-year term, 2023)

Maneeza Iqbal

Maneeza Iqbal is an audience engagement editor at the L.A. Times. She is from the Midwest and moved to Sacramento 11 years ago, falling in love with California and everything it has to offer. In Sacramento, she worked for two TV stations and was part of the AAJA chapter there as the programming director.

“I’m running for VP of career development because having a good foundation at the start of your career sets you up for success. I worked with college students during journalism boot camps at Sacramento State, where I taught them about social media strategies and how to move forward in their careers. I work with interns at The Times, showing them ways to grow professionally while also setting healthy boundaries between work and life. In this position, I would create monthly seminars for AAJA interns where they can learn from each other and guest speakers. Part of that will be making sure they know how to not burn out and know their rights as employees. My philosophy would be ‘what did I wish someone told me before I got into the workplace’ and pass that knowledge down.”

NATIONAL ADVISORY BOARD REPRESENTATIVE (1-year term, 2023)

Anh Do

Anh Do is a Metro reporter covering Asian American issues and general assignments. A second-generation journalist, she has worked at the Dallas Morning News, the Seattle Times, the Orange County Register and Nguoi Viet Daily News, the largest Vietnamese-language newspaper in the U.S. Born in Saigon, Do is a graduate of USC with degrees in journalism and English and she has reported from Cuba, India, Mexico, Peru and Vietnam. Her writing on race, culture and trauma has won awards from Columbia University and the Asian American Journalists Assn. and she is a recipient of Yale’s Poynter Fellowship in Journalism. Apart from words, she’s passionate about all things canine, spending 26 years in dog rescue around the globe.

“As we build for the future, I think of 2022 and how we returned to our roots, joining forces with members locally and nationally to host the first in-person convention in the pandemic. It produced blessed moments with phenomenal participation, along with offering multimedia training, synergy and energy. We plan on taking this momentum into 2023 as our leaders continue to bring you fresh ideas, career strategy and contacts. I’m running for national board representative, a position I’ve held before, to keep to the vigorous pace AAJA-LA sets when it comes to connecting, funding, innovating, mentoring and programming – all in service of our chapter and our supporters. I hope we find ways big and small to unite to boost access, hiring and skills for our membership across different levels of experience. I also hope to work with you to help elevate coverage of emerging communities and issues. I’m thankful for your thoughtful consideration.”

NATIONAL ADVISORY BOARD REPRESENTATIVE (1-year term, 2023)

Jireh Deng

Jireh Deng is a freelance multimedia journalist who’s had bylines in The Guardian, The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times. They previously interned at The Los Angeles Times and NPR’s Diverse Sources Desk. Most recently they were a video fellow with AAJA’s 2022 Voices program and an associate producer with CapRadio’s podcast in development MidPacific on Asian American identity. They served as the AAJA-LA student representative in 2021 and 2022 and they’re passionate about local news and covering race, gender and equity as it relates to culture and economics.

“AAJA provided me the support system I needed as a young journalist of color who was struggling to find belonging in this industry. In running to be the national advisory board representative, I hope to strengthen those connections and collaborations between the local chapters and the national organization. I think that there’s still so much more we can do to support young journalists and independent journalists who might not have the same institutional support from newsrooms. As I’m wrapping up my final semester at CSU Long Beach, I’m always thinking about how to promote more student and post-graduate opportunities for folks in AAJA who need support – whether that’s through internships or mentorship opportunities.”