2024 Board Candidates

Friends:

Here are the candidates for the 2024 board:

Julie Patel Liss, President

STATEMENT

AAJA gave me opportunities throughout my career to learn, do meaningful work, make friends and build community with colleagues. The Los Angeles chapter continues to do that for me, and I’m proud to see it do that for our members. I hope to continue supporting that and helping however I can. Thanks to you and our board, we won chapter of the year two times in the past three years for the breadth and depth of our programming. Let’s work together to keep up the great work.

BIO

Julie Patel Liss is a professor and investigative journalist. 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.

Teresa Watanabe – Sr. Vice President, Programming

STATEMENT

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 Senior Vice President of Programming this year, co-chairing our phenomenally successful 25th anniversary Trivia Bowl fundraiser, our panel on coverage of mass shootings after Monterey Park/Half Moon Bay and our summer high school journalism institute. If reelected, I hope to continue this work with programming that excites and inspires you. I would love to hear from you about how best to serve your interests and needs. Thank you for supporting AAJA-LA!

BIO

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.

Carren Jao – Secretary

STATEMENT

AAJA has been an indispensable part of my journalism life. It has helped me grow in my career and has been the ground where I have connected with others who are facing the same challenges I have. It has been a privilege to serve as part of the board for the past two years, helping ensure that we provide fellow journalists with the programming and tools they need to thrive in an ever-changing industry. I would love to continue that work with a great cohort of accomplished members!

BIO

Carren Jao is a digital storyteller with more than a decade of experience working on engaging content that lives on multiple platforms. She is the Senior Editor for Culture at Stacker Media,  which produces national and local stories that contextualize today’s biggest news and bring the world’s most compelling data sets to life. She was formerly the section editor for KCET, a public television station and online destination in Southern California, where she led editorial strategy and content development for arts, culture, food, travel and history content and worked with collaborators across 11 Southern California counties. Her work has been honored by the Academy of Television Arts & Science, the Los Angeles Press Club, the Asian American Journalists Association, and more.

Maneeza Iqbal, VP, Career Development

STATEMENT

I’m Maneeza Iqbal, and I’m running for VP of Career Development. My first year in the role I learned a lot and continued AAJA-LA’s dedication to bringing young journalists to L.A. newsrooms. I’m running again because I want to grow our internship newsrooms, create programs for young and early career journalists. It’s a tough job market, and I want to make sure journalists have the tools to find the right newsroom for them.

BIO

Maneeza Iqbal is the senior analyst of digital content at ABC7 in Los Angeles. She is dedicated to seeing more journalists of color in newsrooms across the greater L.A. region. As VP of career development, finding opportunities for young journalists to grow and discover new skills is an honor. Working with internships is key to bringing new and diverse voices into newsrooms.

Jireh Deng, VP, Community Engagement

STATEMENT

I’ve been a committed part of AAJA-LA since my time in college when I was a student board representative from 2021 to 2022. I’ve been honored to serve this past year in my capacity as a national board representative for our chapter and also co-founding the AAJA LGBTQ affinity group. I’m currently at the LA Times as a video fellow and I look forward to being an active participant in AAPI representation in local media. In this upcoming year, I hope to be elected as I aim to continue expanding opportunities for early career journalists (like myself) as well as students. I can’t wait to serve another year as part of this amazing team!

BIO

Jireh Deng is a queer Asian American poet, filmmaker and multimedia journalist born and raised in the San Gabriel Valley of Los Angeles. They are currently a video fellow at the Los Angeles Times and a photo mentor with Las Fotos Project. Previously they freelanced for various publications including The Los Angeles Times, The Academy of Motion Pictures’ A.frame. and The Guardian US. They serve as the national board representative for the Asian American Journalists Association, L.A. chapter and currently co-direct AAJA national’s LGBTQIA+ affinity group.

Hillary Ma, General Board Member

STATEMENT

As journalists of color in a predominately white space, finding community and support while connecting with our unique identities is something I always strive for in my work. I desire to continue cultivating a space for young AAPI journalists and advocate for their success by giving back to a community that has built the person I am today.

BIO

Hillary Ma is an assistant reporter for Southern California News Group with bylines in The Long Beach Press-Telegram and The Daily Texan. She served as the previous president of AAJA University of Texas student chapter and was a member of the AAJA Texas chapter. She is passionate about covering race and politics in Asian American and Pacific Islander communities and seeks to diversify media coverage through the lens of empathy, equity and love.

Sona Patel – General Board Member

STATEMENT

I am running for a seat on the Los Angeles Chapter board because I’m ready to give back to the industry and help mentor and guide the next generation of AAPI journalists in our community. AAJA played an outsized role in my career growth and development, and my goal as a chapter board member would be to strengthen the ways in which we can help journalists succeed. 

BIO

Sona Patel is the Program and Editorial Director for the Local Investigations Fellowship at The New York Times, where she oversees recruiting and newsroom partnerships for the program. She is also an editor for local investigations. She started her career as a beat reporter for The (San Luis Obispo) Tribune where she covered one of the largest municipal bankruptcies in state history. From there she pivoted to audience and was the first Social Media Editor for The Seattle Times. There she was part of the team that won the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting in 2010. She joined the Audience team at The New York Times in 2012 and now oversees a fellowship that aims to develop the next generation of investigative reporters across the country. She teaches part-time at Cal State Long Beach and graduated from UC Irvine (Go Beach! Go Anteaters!)

Sandhya Kambhampati, General board member

STATEMENT

I’m running for the board because I want to help the next generation of journalists understand data journalism. I also care deeply about diversifying journalism and thinking about ways we can do better journalism. 

BIO

Sandhya Kambhampati is a data and graphics reporter on the Los Angeles Times Data Desk, where she covers the demographics and diversity of California and the nation. She previously worked at the Chronicle of Higher Education, Correctiv and ProPublica Illinois. Her co-reported work on the widespread inaccuracies in Cook County’s property tax assessment system was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for local reporting in 2018. She trains journalists regularly in understanding the Census, statistics, freedom of information laws and data analysis. She is a 2008 AAJA J-Camp Alum. 

Anh Do, National Advisory Board Representative

STATEMENT

I eagerly jumped into AAJA-LA activism as a college student and now continue as a professional. I relish it all – the outreach, the fellowship, launching programs, serving members, networking, mentoring and being mentored, creating policy, recruiting, innovating. Building a journalism community takes energy, efficiency and enthusiasm. Please allow me to keep representing you nationally and locally, boosted by decades of experience with the chapter along with AAJA’s mission. Together, we’ll work to share our ideas and skills to grow in our chosen craft.

BIO

Anh Do is the community engagement editor at the Los Angeles Times, working to spotlight our journalists and journalism, helping the newsroom to better connect with readers and deepen our relationship with audiences. She also serves on the recruiting staff. Earlier, she spent 11 years in Metro covering Asian American issues and general assignments. A second-generation journalist, she has worked at the Seattle Times, the Orange County Register and Nguoi Viet Daily News. Born in Saigon, Do is a graduate of USC with degrees in journalism and English. Her writing on culture and trauma has won awards from Columbia University and the Asian American Journalists Assn. She received Yale’s Poynter Fellowship in Journalism, and in 2016, was part of The Times team that won a Pulitzer Prize for breaking news coverage of the San Bernardino terrorist attacks. 

Pam Chen, National Advisory Board Representative

STATEMENT

As one of the few Asian American news directors in the country, I want to make sure I am doing all I can to help support the mission of AAJA and the increase of representation and diversity in local media. With more than two decades in the industry and the responsibility of leading one of the largest local broadcast newsrooms, I want to leverage my experience to support current members, future generations of journalists and give voice to more AAPI communities. I would be honored to serve as the next National Advisory Board Representative.

BIO

Pam Chen is vice president/news director of ABC7/KABC-TV Los Angeles and is responsible for directing the Eyewitness News team for ABC7, Southern California’s news leader. Pam is the first Asian American to lead a news department at a network-owned local station in LA. She began her career at KABC as a morning producer. She has also been executive producer and assistant news director. Since joining KABC, her leadership and direction helped lead the newsroom to multiple regional Edward R. Murrow, Emmy and Golden Mike awards covering some of the biggest news events affecting Southern California. She oversaw the launch and development of a community journalist program at KABC, creating innovative storytelling techniques with a hyperlocal focus on underserved communities. She was instrumental in the launch and syndication of KABC’s first weekly entertainment show, “On the Red Carpet.” Under her leadership, KABC launched a 24/7 streaming channel in 2022, logging its highest streaming day ever with 5 million minutes watched during Tropical Storm Hilary coverage in 2023. She holds a master’s degree from USC’s Marshall Business School and a bachelor’s degree from UC San Diego. She serves on the Advisory Board of the Women in Leadership Executive Program at UC Riverside. Pam is also a member of the Asian American Journalists Association. She resides in Sierra Madre with her husband, son and two Shiba Inus.