Julie Patel Liss, President (1-year term, 2024)

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 (1-year term, 2024)

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 (2-year term, 2022-2024)

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.

Debbie Truong –Treasurer (2-year term, 2023-2025)

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.

Maneeza Iqbal, VP, Career Development (1-year term, 2024)

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 (1-year term, 2024)

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

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

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

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 (1-year term, 2024)

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 (1-year term, 2024)

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

Samantha Masunaga covers aerospace for the Los Angeles Times. Since joining The Times in 2014, she has covered local and national breaking news, the craft beer industry and Southern California’s Japanese American community. Masunaga has previously worked for the Oregonian, the Orange County Register and the Rafu Shimpo, among other publications. A Southern California native, she is an alumna of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and UCLA.

Gita Amar is a senior vice president of media at GCI Health offering strategic counsel on media relations for science and technology clients. She also serves as a commentator to various BBC shows on breaking news and pop culture. Gita has been a producer for Fox News Channel, NPR and KTTV’s Good Day LA. Gita has appeared a speaker at Wharton School of Business, Columbia University and Cal State LA. Gita holds a master’s degree from the S.I. Newhouse School of Communications, a law degree from Syracuse University College of Law and a bachelor’s degree from UCLA.

Shawn Nicole Wong is driven by storytelling and the desire to produce content that champions the individuality of diverse, underrepresented voices, specifically API voices. She is based in Los Angeles and currently works in development for an animation studio. Since 2010, she has served on the board for the Los Angeles Chapter as well as an executive office for the National board. She has also served as the Director of Finance/Sponsorships for V3 Digital Media Conference (V3con) and is currently spearheading a new Film Series Screening program for the Los Angeles Chapter.

Jennifer Leung has worked in Corporate Finance & Accounting for the past 25 years. She holds an MBA from USC and is a registered CPA. Her most recent work experience is VP of Finance at IDW Publishing, a comics and graphic novel publisher. Their published books supportive of DEI includes “They Called Us Enemy” written by George Takai and “March” written by the late congressman John Lewis. In addition to IDW, I have also worked at other big corporations such as Disney, Universal and Herbalife. Outside of work, I have supported various non-profit organizations including holding board positions at various schools and devoting volunteer hours to sustainability organizations and family shelters.

PRESIDENT (1-year term, 2023)

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.

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

TREASURER (2-year term, 2023-2025)

SECRETARY (2-year term, 2022-2024)

Carren Jao is the arts & culture editor and a digital producer for L.A. PBS station KCET and PBS SoCal. She oversees editorial strategy and content development for its Arts & Culture, Food, History and Outdoor sections. Previously, Carren has worked as a full-time freelance journalist. Her work has been published around the world, including the Los Angeles Times, Wired UK, Surface, Dwell and many others. She has also been nominated for best online journalist for her work covering the issues and communities of the Los Angeles River for KCET’s Confluence.

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

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.”

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

President (1-year term, 2022)

Julie Patel Liss is a professor, freelance investigative reporter and head of Cal State LA’s journalism program. She worked as an investigative reporter at nonprofit news outlets such as 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 14 journalism awards and honors, including a 2008 national Emmy Award. Twitter: @julievpatel

Secretary (2-year term, 2022-2024)

Vice President of Special Projects (2022):

[APPOINTED] Student Advisory Board Representative (1-year term, 2022)

Jireh Deng is a writer born and raised in the San Gabriel Valley of Southern California. She is a third-year studying applied math, economics, and international studies at California State University, Long Beach. Her words appear on the podcast VS, Level Ground’s film and poetry collaboration Blooming in the Whirlwind, and YouthSpeaks’s anthology Between my Body and the Air. Summer of 2021 she will be an editorial pages intern at the LA Times. You can connect with her on Instagram and Twitter (@jireh_deng).

National Advisory Board Representative (1-year term, 2022)

Megan Tan serves as senior producer of “WILD,” a podcast she co-created that was named “Best Podcast of 2021” by Spotify and The Atlantic. Megan incorporated her audible-visual hosting style when producing and managing Radiotopia’s “Millennial,” which made The Atlantic’s “50 Best Podcast” list for three consecutive years. She has also produced shows and episodes for Gimlet Media’s “The Habitat,” Pineapple Street Media, TED, WNYC’s “Radiolab,” NPR’s “Planet Money,” NPR’s “All Things Considered,” and KALW’s “The Stoop.” For her fifth career, Megan will most likely be a park ranger and a ceramicist.

President (1-year term, 2021)

Teresa Watanabe is a Los Angeles Times staff writer covering higher education. Since joining The Times in 1989, she has covered K-12 education, immigration & ethnic communities, religion, Japan/Korea and Pac Rim business. She previously was a reporter for the San Jose Mercury News and editorial writer for the L.A. Herald Examiner. A Seattle native, she graduated from the University of Southern California in journalism and East Asian Languages and Culture. Follow her on Twitter @teresawatanabe

Secretary (2-year term, 2020-2021)

Agnes Constante is a freelance journalist and social media coordinator. Her stories regularly appear in NBC Asian America about a number of issues, including the impact of immigration policies on the Southeast Asian community. She previously worked for Asian Journal and has also written for Inquirer.net. Agnes is currently a California Center for Health Journalism fellow and is exploring the impact of the lack of healthcare access among Southeast Asian American refugees in Orange County.

Vice President of Community Engagement (1-year term, 2021)

Vice President of Career Development (1-year term, 2021)

[APPOINTED] Student Advisory Board Representative (1-year term, 2021)

National Advisory Board Representative (1-year term, 2021)

2021 Advisory Board

President (1-year term, 2020)

Secretary (2-year term, 2020)

Vice President of Community Engagement (1-year term, 2020)

Vice President of Career Development (1-year term, 2020)

2020 Advisory Board

Anh Do covers multicultural communities at the Los Angeles Times. A second-generation journalist, she served as vice president of Nguoi Viet Daily News, the largest Vietnamese-language publication in the US, founded by her late father. She has worked at the Dallas Morning News, Seattle Times and the Orange County Register.

Shawn Wong is driven by storytelling and the desire to produce content that champions the individuality of diverse, underrepresented voices, specifically the AAPI voice. She is based in Los Angeles and currently works at Paramount Pictures. From 2010-2015, she served as the Treasurer of the Los Angeles Chapter and will complete her second term as Treasurer of AAJA-National in December. She has also served as the Director of Finance/Sponsorships for the Los Angeles Chapter’s V3 Digital Media Conference (V3con) and is currently spearheading a new Film Series Screening program for the Los Angeles Chapter, which will continue in 2019.

Board Member (2-year term, 2018-2019)

Andy Truc Nguyen covers public safety in Burbank and Glendale for Times Community News. He previously wrote for the Thousand Oaks Acorn and freelanced with the Orange County Register.

[APPOINTED] Student Representative (1-year term, 2019)

Cat Wang (UCLA) is a sophomore pursuing a double major in English and Political Science. She is Mongolian-Chinese, born in the United States and raised in Hong Kong. She has worked at the South China Morning Post and CNN in Hong Kong.

[APPOINTED] Student Advisory Board Representative (1-year term, 2019)

Omar Rashad is a freshman attending El Camino College in Torrance. He has covered everything from government and education to niche ice cream shops and rising DJs. Omar wishes to one day become a community voice exploring the relations between identity, race and religion.

National Advisory Board Representative (1-year term, 2019)

Hibah Samad is an anchor, writer and producer for Torrance CitiCABLE. A graduate of USC’s Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism, she then joined KTLA’s news desk and also segment-produced their new weekend morning show. Hibah also worked as a reporter for KVRR-FOX News in Fargo, North Dakota.

2019 Advisory Board

David Ono anchors ABC7 twice a day. As part of the “Eyewitness News” team, he has won eight Emmy awards and 19 nominations. Prior career stops include Sacramento/KOVR-TV, El Paso/KDBC-TV and Dallas/KXAS-TV. David grew up in Texas and graduated from the University of North Texas.

Ashley Dunn is page one editor for the Los Angeles Times. In nearly three decades at the Times, his positions have included metro editor, deputy national editor and science editor.

2018 Senior Vice President of Programming (1-year term)

Gene Kang is an Emmy award-winning TV reporter at NBC4 Los Angeles. He worked for CBS San Diego and was an anchor/reporter in Texas, Indiana and Kentucky. His journalism career began in Chicago as an assignment editor/field producer. He served as AAJA-San Diego’s marketing director and AAJA-Chicago’s VP of Broadcast.

2018 Treasurer (1-year term)

2018-2019 Secretary (2-year term)

Teresa Watanabe is a Los Angeles Times staff writer covering higher education. She has covered K-12 education, immigration & ethnic communities, religion, Japan/Korea and Pac Rim business. She previously was a reporter for the San Jose Mercury News and wrote editorials for the L.A. Herald Examiner.

2018 Vice President of Community Engagement (1-year term)

Mariko Lochridge is a multimedia journalist based between Los Angeles, California and Tokyo, Japan covering general news and tech. Tweets about Star Trek and boxing.

2018 Vice President of Career Development (1-year term)

Cindy Chang covers the LAPD for the Los Angeles Times. She started her career at the Pasadena Star-News, then moved to the Times-Picayune in New Orleans, where her beats included city government, schools and special projects. She was the lead writer for a series on the Louisiana prison system.

2018-2019 Board Member (2-year term)

Christopher Yee is an editor at the Pasadena Star-News. He is a Monterey Park native.

2018 Board Member (1-year term, succeeding Annie Yu)

Thomas Suh Lauder is a Senior Data Journalist at the Los Angeles Times, working with data, words, maps and code for both online and print.

2018 Board Member (1-year term. Moved to Wash., D.C. to join Politico!)

Annie Yu is an engagement editor at the Los Angeles Times. She’s a California native who did stints in Washington, D.C., Phoenix and NYC before happily returning to Los Angeles. She’s a fan of coffee, travel and good oatmeal stouts. Reach her on Twitter @anniezyu .

2018 National Advisory Board Representative (1-year term)

[APPOINTED] Student Representative (1-year term)

Aditi Mayer is a photographer, writer and student at UC Irvine studying Literary Journalism and International Studies. She is passionate about exploring the intersections between activism, identity, and media.

Advisory Board

Henry Fuhrmann is a former assistant managing editor for the Los Angeles Times. He was previously the co-president of AAJA-LA.

2017 Vice President of Programming: Thomas Lauder
Thomas Suh Lauder is a Senior Data Journalist at the Los Angeles Times, working with data, words, maps and code f

2016-2017 Board Member: Gita Amar – Gita Amar has been a producer for Fox News Channel, a producer for NPR’s Tavis Smiley Show and a producer at KTTV’s Good Day LA. Gita runs her own media consulting firm working with Fortune 500 Clients on various public relations campaigns. She was named AAJA Board Member of the Year in 2005-2006. Gita holds a master’s degree from the S.I. Newhouse School of Communications, a law degree from Syracuse University College of Law and a bachelor’s degree from UCLA.

[Appointed] Student Representative

Cody Gion is the Opinion Editor for The Daily Titan. Cody enjoys making the world a better place by continually making a positive impact on others in life. He also loves dogs and sushi. @GionCody for Twitter and Instagram.

2017 President: Ashley Dunn
Ashley Dunn is page one editor for the Los Angeles Times. In nearly three decades at the Times, his positions have included metro editor, deputy national editor and science editor.

2017 Vice President of Programming: Thomas Lauder
Thomas Suh Lauder is a Senior Data Journalist at the Los Angeles Times, working with data, words, maps and code for both online and print.

2017 Vice President of Community Engagement: Annie Yu
Annie is an engagement editor at the Los Angeles Times. She’s a California native who did stints in Washington, D.C., Phoenix and NYC before happily returning to Los Angeles. She’s a fan of coffee, travel and good oatmeal stouts. Reach her on Twitter @anniezyu .

2017 Vice President of Career Development: Cindy Chang
Cindy Chang covers the LAPD for the Los Angeles Times. She started her career at the Pasadena Star-News, then moved to the Times-Picayune in New Orleans, where her beats included city government, schools and special projects. She was the lead writer for a series on the Louisiana prison system.

2016-2017 Secretary: Elizabeth Chou
Elizabeth Chou reports on Los Angeles city government for the Los Angeles Daily News, and before that, City News Service. She also covered several East Los Angeles and San Gabriel Valley area cities for Eastern Group Publications.

2017-2018 Treasurer: Melissa Leu
Melissa Leu is a digital editor at the Los Angeles Times. She used to work on the digital team at ABC7 and as a reporter at the Arizona Republic.

2016-2017 National Advisory Board Representative: Frank Shyong
Frank Shyong is a reporter at the LA Times and a graduate of UCLA and an alumnus of the Voices convention news project.

2016-2017 National Advisory Board Representative: Matt Stevens
Staff writer, Los Angeles Times
Former AAJA-LA Board member, 2012 – 2014

2017-2018 Board Member: Mariko Lochridge
Multimedia journalist based between Los Angeles, California and Tokyo, Japan covering general news and tech. Tweets about Star Trek and boxing.

2017 Board Member: Sophie Bao Tran
Reporter at Little Saigon TV.

[APPOINTED] Student Representative: Nuran Alteir
Nuran Alteir is a full-time student pursuing a higher degree in the sciences. She is also a freelance journalist for KPCC: Southern California Public Radio and Los Angeles Times Community News.

Advisory Board

Henry Fuhrmann is a former assistant managing editor for the Los Angeles Times. He was previously the co-president of AAJA-LA.

Susan Hirasuna is an award winning broadcast journalist and former AAJA-LA board member. At KTTV FOX 11, she heads the weekend version of Studio 11 LA. Last year, she traveled to Japan as a fellow with Foreign Press Center to the 2011 earthquake and tsunami area. Susan has also carved out a reputation as the resident foodie.

David Ono anchors ABC7 twice a day. As part of the “Eyewitness News” team, he has won eight Emmy awards and 19 nominations. Prior career stops include Sacramento/KOVR-TV, El Paso/KDBC-TV and Dallas/KXAS-TV. David grew up in Texas and graduated from the University of North Texas.

Anh Do covers multicultural communities at the Los Angeles Times. A second-generation journalist, she served as vice president of Nguoi Viet Daily News, the largest Vietnamese-language publication in the US, founded by her late father. She has worked at the Dallas Morning News, Seattle Times and the Orange County Register.

2016 BOARD OFFICERS AND MEMBERS

2016 President: Naomi Hayase
Naomi Hayase is a Japanese-language newspaper editorial researcher. She is going into her 10th year at the Nikkei newspaper’s L.A. bureau, covering local and international news.

2016 Vice President of Broadcast: David Ono
David Ono anchors ABC7 twice a day. As part of the “Eyewitness News” team, he has won eight Emmy awards and 19 nominations. Prior career stops include Sacramento/KOVR-TV, El Paso/KDBC-TV and Dallas/KXAS-TV. David grew up in Texas and graduated from the University of North Texas.

2016 Vice President of Print: Cindy Chang
Cindy Chang covers the LAPD for the Los Angeles Times. She started her career at the Pasadena Star-News, then moved to the Times-Picayune in New Orleans, where her beats included city government, schools and special projects. She was the lead writer for a series on the Louisiana prison system.

2016-2017 Secretary: Elizabeth Chou

Elizabeth Chou reports on Los Angeles city government for the Los Angeles Daily News, and before that, City News Service. She also covered several East Los Angeles and San Gabriel Valley area cities for Eastern Group Publications.

2015-2016 Treasurers: Melissah Yang

Melissah Yang is an Associate News Editor at Bustle. She was previously with the Los Angeles Business Journal, CNN Entertainment, and the Las Vegas Review-Journal. She was an AAJA-LA scholarship recipient and a 2014 Voices participant. Melissah is a music festival traveler, bleeds Dodger blue, and hopes to one day be Carole Radziwill living in Heather Dubrow’s house.

2016-2017 National Advisory Board Representative; National Governing Board Member (Large Chapter): Matt Stevens
Staff writer, Los Angeles Times. Former AAJA-LA Board member, 2012 – 2014

2016-2017 Advisory Board Representative; National Governing Board Member (At Large): Frank Shyong
Frank Shyong is a reporter at the LA Times and a graduate of UCLA and an alumnus of the Voices convention news project.

Directors

2016 Board Member: Susan Hirasuna

2016 Board Member: Sophie Tran
Sophie Bao Tran is a community leader based in Orange County. Recently she was recognized in OC Weekly’s People of 2015 Issue as the “Queen of Little Saigon” for her work with the media, businesses, organizations and charity groups. Currently Ms. Tran works at Little Saigon Television Network as a producer, TV show host and public relations executive. She serves as a Parks, Recreations, and Art Programs commissioner for the City of Garden Grove and hosts various community events.

2016-2017 Board Member: Gita Amar
Gita Amar has been a producer for Fox News Channel, a producer for NPR’s Tavis Smiley Show and a producer at KTTV’s Good Day LA. Gita runs her own media consulting firm working with Fortune 500 Clients on various public relations campaigns. She was a AAJA Board Member in 2005-2006. Gita holds a master’s degree from the S.I. Newhouse School of Communications, a law degree from Syracuse University College of Law and a bachelor’s degree from UCLA.

2016 Board Member: Shawn Nicole Wong

Shawn Nicole Wong is an urban consultant who specializes in media and economic development. Beginning in 2015, she will serve as the AAJA National Treasurer and will continue to serve the Los Angeles Chapter as the Director of Finance/Sponsorships for the V3 Digital Media Conference. From 2010-2014, Shawn served as the Treasurer of the L.A. Chapter.

2016-2017 Board Member: Melissa Leu
Melissa Leu is a digital editor at the Los Angeles Times. She used to work on the digital team at ABC7 and as a reporter at the Arizona Republic.

[APPOINTED] 2016 Student Representative: Heidi Carreon

Heidi Carreon is studying print & digital journalism & political science at the University of Southern California. She is a digital reporter for the USC Annenberg Media Center & is the Student Engagement Director for the Student Voice Project. Heidi was a two-time finalist in the 57th SoCal Journalism Awards.

[APPOINTED] 2016 Student Representative: Timmy Truong

Timmy Truong is the former managing editor of the University Times, Cal State L.A.’s student paper, an award-winning student photographer, and a VOICES alumnus.

2015-2016 Board Member: Anh Do
Anh Do covers multicultural communities at the Los Angeles Times. A second-generation journalist, she served as vice president of Nguoi Viet Daily News, the largest Vietnamese-language publication in the US, founded by her late father. She has worked at the Dallas Morning News, Seattle Times and the Orange County Register.

2015-2016 Board Member: Suzanne Joe Kai
Suzanne Joe Kai is an award-winning journalist and filmmaker. At age 22, Kai began her career as an on-camera staff broadcast journalist in San Francisco (KRON-TV NBC). She earned an MA in Communication (Documentary/Film/TV) at Stanford. She’s directing a documentary “LIKE A ROLLING STONE: The Life & Times of Ben Fong-Torres.”

2015-2016 Board Member: Hassan Shah

Hassan Shah is a recent graduate in Multimedia Journalism from Metro State University of Denver where he was the Advisory Board Representative of AAJA-Denver. Soon after graduating, Shah moved to Los Angeles where he got involved with V3Con and volunteered for AAJA’s Trivia Bowl. He now resides in Los Angeles.

2015 President: Naomi Hayase
Naomi Hayase is a Japanese-language newspaper editorial researcher. She is going into her tenth year at the Nikkei newspaper’s L.A. bureau, covering local and international news.

2015 Vice President of Broadcast: David Ono

2015 Vice President of Print: Mariecar Mendoza

Mariecar Mendoza is a features digital editor for the Los Angeles News Group. Before moving to Los Angeles in the summer of 2012, she worked as a multimedia reporter for The Desert Sun in Palm Springs for nearly 6 years. She was a Chips Quinn Scholar in 2007, and has been involved with AAJA since 2006 when she was a student for the annual convention project, Voices. She continues to give back to Voices as a professional mentor. Mariecar currently serves as an elected board member for AAJA-LA.

2015 Secretary: Connie K Ho

Connie K. Ho is a writer, web producer and social media manager whose work has appeared in media outlets such as KCET, The Orange County Register, the Pacific Citizen, AOL Patch.com, among others. She graduated from the University of California, Irvine with a double major in English and International Studies as well as a minor in Spanish. You can find her on Twitter: @conniekho

2015-2016 Co-Treasurers: Henry Fuhrmann and Melissah Yang

Henry Fuhrmann is an assistant managing editor for the Los Angeles Times and head of the newsroom’s standards and practices committee. He was previously the co-president of AAJA-LA. Melissah Yang reports on technology and startups for the Los Angeles Business Journal. A 2014 Voices participant, she was previously on AAJA-LA’s board as a student representative.

2014-2015 National Advisory Board Representative; National Governing Board Member (Large Chapter): Jocelyn “Joz” Wang

Aside from serving as AAJA-LA’s 2012 President and being recognized as Chapter President of the Year, Joz has served on the AAJA National Advisory Board and National Governing Board for the 2012-2013 term. Joz is also the Founder and Executive Director of the V3 Digital Media Conference, and was the recipient of the first “V3 Voice Award.” Joz is known online– and offline– for her personal blog jozjozjoz.com. She is the Editor-in-chief/CEO of the popular Asian American blog 8Asians.com. She is also a long-time contributor to blogging.la, flagship site of the Metroblogging network, for which she is now Publisher and CEO of. She was recently part of the Creative Team at Walt Disney Parks & Resorts Online. You can find her on Twitter: @jozjozjoz

2014-2015 Advisory Board Representative; National Governing Board Member (At Large):
Denise L. Poon

V3 Digital Media Conference - Opening Awards Reception

Denise L. Poon is a former AAJA-LA chapter president, 2001 chapter president of the year and currently serves on the Board. Her contributions and service include mentoring new journalists, leadership of the V3con Digital Media conference and what she is probably best known for, Trivia Bowl, the chapter’s signature event. She is a Broadcast Producer, Multimedia Consultant and Principal of Creative Streamline, a Media Communication company. Her career spans more than 15 years of broad-based communication for broadcast networks ABC, CBS, CNN, FOX, NBC, PBS and private clients. She produces pieces in various formats- breaking news, feature and magazine, including content for CBS This Morning, DATELINE NBC and America’s Most Wanted. @cr8tivestream

Directors

2014-2015 Board Member: Susan Hirasuna

2014-2015 Board Member: Jennifer Quong

Jennifer Quong is an AAJA member since 1986 and served on the AAJA-LA Board as Secretary and 1993 Convention Chair. She is a producer for Talk Story Media, which created “The Manzanar Fishing Club.” Jennifer also is Honda’s Assistant Manager of Communications. She was a broadcaster for KJZZ, Taiwan’s ICRT and KNX.

2015 Board Member: Kyle Kim

Kyle Kim works for the Los Angeles Times data and graphics department. He previously was a news and social media deputy editor for the Boston-based GlobalPost.

2015 Board Member: Shawn Nicole Wong

2015-2016 Board Member: Anh Do

2015-2016 Board Member: Suzanne Joe Kai

Suzanne Joe Kai is an award-winning journalist and filmmaker. At age 22, Kai began her career as an on-camera staff broadcast journalist in San Francisco (KRON-TV NBC). She earned an MA in Communication (Documentary/Film/TV) at Stanford. She’s directing a documentary “LIKE A ROLLING STONE: The Life & Times of Ben Fong-Torres.”

2015-2016 Board Member: Hassan Shah

Hassan Shah is a recent graduate in Multimedia Journalism from Metro State University of Denver where he was the Advisory Board Representative of AAJA-Denver. He experienced his first Spring board meeting in Washington D.C. and fell in love with the community and AAJA’s mission. Soon after graduating, Shah moved to Los Angeles where he got involved with V3Con and volunteered for AAJA’s Trivia Bowl. He now resides in Los Angeles. While he continues to look for great media opportunities, he currently works for E! News as a Production Assistant.

[APPOINTED] Student Representative: Kristen Taketa

Kristen Taketa is the managing editor for the Daily Bruin, UCLA’s student newspaper. She has interned in business reporting at the Orange County Register and feature writing at the Santa Monica Daily Press. In the past she has also worked as an assistant news editor for the Daily Bruin, specializing in coverage of the University of California system and higher education.

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2014 BOARD OFFICERS AND MEMBERS

2014 Co-Presidents:
Henry Fuhrmann and Naomi HayaseHenry Fuhrmann is an assistant managing editor at the Los Angeles Times, overseeing the copy desks and standards. He previously served The Times as an editor on the metro, foreign, features, business and web desks. Henry is a current co-president and a past AAJA chapter president of the year.Naomi Hayase is a Japanese-language newspaper editorial researcher. She is going into her ninth year at the Nikkei newspaper’s L.A. bureau. Having served her first term on the AAJA-LA board as secretary in 2013, she hopes to continue to learn and contribute to the organization.

2014 Vice President of Broadcast: David Ono

David Ono anchors ABC7 twice a day. As part of the “Eyewitness News” team, he has has won eight Emmy awards and 19 nominations. Prior career stops include Sacramento/KOVR-TV, El Paso/KDBC-TV, and Dallas/KXAS-TV. David grew up in Texas and graduated from University of North Texas

2014 Vice President of Print: Mariecar Mendoza

Mariecar Mendoza is a Features Digital Editor for the Los Angeles News Group. Before moving to Los Angeles in the summer of 2012, she worked as a multimedia reporter for The Desert Sun in Palm Springs for nearly 6 years. She was a Chips Quinn Scholar in 2007, and has been involved with AAJA since 2006 when she was a student for the annual convention project, Voices. She continues to give back to Voices as a professional mentor. Mariecar currently serves as an elected board member for AAJA-LA.

2014-2015 Secretary: Connie K Ho

2013-2014 Treasurer: Shawn Wong

Shawn Nicole Wong is an independent film producer based in Los Angeles. She is a graduate of the College of Environmental Design at UC Berkeley. She has previously written for Venice Magazine and POP! Montreal Music Festival and has interned for ABC News 20/20 and Primetime.

2014-2015 National Advisory Board Representative; National Governing Board Member (Large Chapter):
Jocelyn “Joz” Wang

2014-2015 Advisory Board Representative; National Governing Board Member (At Large):
Denise L. Poon

Directors

2013-2014 Board Member: Frank Buckley

Frank Buckley is co-anchor of the KTLA Morning News. He currently serves on the board of AAJA-LA and is co-chair of the scholarship committee.

2013-2014 Board Member: Denise Dador

Denise Dador is the Eyewitness News Health specialist. Her Healthy Living segment is seen every day on ABC7 Eyewitness News at 4pm and 5pm. She provides additional stories about health issues for other Eyewitness News broadcasts as well as anchoring ABC7 Health specials.

2013-2014 Board Member: Anh Do

Anh Do covers multicultural communities & issues at the Los Angeles Times. A second-generation journalist, she served as vice president of Nguoi Viet Daily News, the largest Vietnamese-language publication in the US, founded by her late father. She has worked at the Dallas Morning News, the Seattle Times and the Orange County Register. You can find her on Twitter at @newsterrier.

2013-2014 Board Member: Suzanne Joe KaiSuzanne Joe Kai is directing and producing a feature documentary LIKE A ROLLING STONE: The Life & Times of Ben Fong-Torres. www.LikeARollingStoneMovie.com Suzanne was among the first Asian American female news broadcasters in San Francisco as reporter, documentary producer, and public affairs program host for KRON TV (NBC). Suzanne also worked at KCBS News (CBS), KTVU TV (COX), KGUN TV (ABC), and launched StudioLA.TV, which produces news/entertainment programming for wireless, online, and television. She is the publisher/co-founder of entertainment and lifestyle online portal, AsianConnections.com.

2014-2015 Board Member: Susan Hirasuna

2014-2015 Board Member: Jennifer Quong

Jennifer Quong is an AAJA member since 1986 and served on the AAJA-LA Board as Secretary and 1993 Convention Chair. She is a producer for Talk Story Media, which created “The Manzanar Fishing Club.” Jennifer also is Toyota’s Communications Strategist. She was a broadcaster for KJZZ , Taiwan’s ICRT and KNX.

2014 Board Member: Matt Stevens

Matt Stevens is a Metro reporter at the Los Angeles Times, covering the Westside and breaking news. Matt was previously a part of the newspaper’s Metpro program and also interned at the Times and the Orange County Register in Sports. As a student at UCLA, he published more than 200 stories for the Daily Bruin including a series reported from abroad on the development of basketball in Africa.

[Appointed] 2014 Student Representative: Jennifer Crane

Ever since I was young I knew I wanted to become a journalist. I grew up in a small town where olives are part of a regular diet. Today, I am an editor and radio host for UCLA’s Daily Bruin. I am passionate about journalism and still enjoy eating olives.

[Appointed] 2014 Student Representative: Melissah Yang

Melissah Yang is the Senior News Editor for Neon Tommy and a graduate journalism student at USC Annenberg. She has interned with CNN Entertainment and the Las Vegas Review-Journal. She received a B.A. in English from UCLA in 2011 and will graduate with a M.A. in Journalism in May 2014.

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2013 BOARD OFFICERS AND MEMBERS

2013 Co-President, 2013-2014 Board Member: Anh Do

2013 Co-President, 2013 Vice President of Print: Henry Fuhrmann

Henry is an assistant managing editor at the Los Angeles Times, where he oversees the copy desks and leads the editorial standards and practices committee. Since 1990 he has served all over the newsroom, working as an editor on the Metro, Foreign, Calendar, Business and Web desks. He is a numbers nerd as well as a word nerd, having studied engineering at Caltech and UCLA before entering the news business. Henry holds two degrees in journalism: a B.A. from Cal State Los Angeles and an M.S. from Columbia University. He is a former AAJA-LA president and longtime chapter officer. In addition to his service to AAJA, Henry is active in the American Copy Editors Society.

2013 Vice President of Broadcast: David Ono

2013 Vice President of Online Media: Jennifer de la Fuente

Jenn de la Fuente runs her own web design and development company, Rosebud Designs, specializing in WordPress builds. She also serves as the Managing Director of the V3 Digital Media Conference. Previously, she was a sports copy editor and a web producer at the Sacramento Bee, and also trained and supervised high school interns in the sports department there. She also spent close to 10 years in sports journalism as a reporter, copy editor and page designer, with stints at The Orange County Register, The News Journal (Wilmington, Del.) and The Arizona Daily Star (Tucson, Ariz.). Jenn is a native of Guam and a graduate of the University of Southern California.

2013 Secretary: Naomi Hayase

Naomi Hayase has been an editorial researcher for Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei newspaper) in their Los Angeles Bureau since 2006. Having grown up in Tokyo, she enjoys being able to report on US matters to a Japanese audience.

2013-2014 Treasurer: Shawn Wong
Shawn Nicole Wong is an independent film and media producer based in Los Angeles. She is a graduate of the College of Environmental Design at UC Berkeley. She has previously written for Venice Magazine and POP! Montreal Music Festival and has interned for ABC News 20/20 and Primetime.

2012-2013 National Advisory Board Representative; National Governing Board Member (Medium Chapter):
Jocelyn “Joz” Wang

Aside from serving as AAJA-LA’s 2012 President, Joz also serves on the AAJA National Advisory Board and National Governing Board for the 2012-2013 term. Joz is also the Founder and Executive Director of the V3 Digital Media Conference, and was the recipient of the first “V3 Voice Award.”Joz is known online– and offline– for her personal blog jozjozjoz.com. She is the Editor-in-chief and CEO of the popular Asian American blog 8Asians.com. She is also a long-time contributor to blogging.la, flagship site of the Metroblogging network, for which she is now Publisher and CEO of. She was recently part of the Creative Team at Walt Disney Parks & Resorts Online. You can find her on Twitter: @jozjozjoz

Directors

2013 Board Member: Kim Bui

P. Kim Bui is the associate editor for social media and outreach for Southern California Public Radio. She manages KPCC’s social media and engagement on and off the Web. She also develops outreach efforts for KPCC’s content and technology partners. She’s worked at major newspapers and news start-ups. Co-founder of #wjchat, a weekly Twitter chat for web journalists, Bui was named one of Poynter’s 35 influential people in social media in 2010.

2013 Board Member: Richard Chang

Richard Chang is an arts and entertainment writer for the Orange County Register, where he has worked since February 2000. He specializes in visual art and museums, but has also written about television, movies, music, film festivals, the performing arts and Southern California media. He also does art reviews for the national magazine ARTnews. Richard has worked at a few different newspapers, including The Santa Fe New Mexican, The Bakersfield Californian and The Albuquerque Journal. He teaches an arts and entertainment journalism and writing workshop at UCLA. The course is designed for students who wish to write for the A&E section of The Daily Bruin. He has also taught feature writing at California State University, Fullerton. His experience in radio includes stints at KQED in San Francisco, KALX in Berkeley, KUCI in Irvine and radioinvasion.com. Richard graduated from Brown University with honors in English and American Literature and received a master’s degree in journalism from UC Berkeley. Richard is former Vice President of Print for AAJA-LA, and also a former national advisory board representative. He hopes to expand AAJA-LA’s reach to journalism professionals and students in Orange County and the Inland Empire.

2013 Board Member: Susan Hirasuna

Susan Hirasuna is an award winning broadcast journalist and former AAJA-LA board member. At KTTV FOX 11, she heads the weekend version of Studio 11 LA. This year, she traveled to Japan as a fellow with Foreign Press Center to the 2011 earthquake and tsunami area. Susan has also carved out a reputation as the resident foodie.

2013 Board Member: Mariecar Mendoza

Mariecar Mendoza is a general assignment multimedia reporter at the Los Angeles Daily News. Before that, she worked for nearly 6 years at The Desert Sun in Palm Springs. She was a Chips Quinn Scholar in 2007, and has been involved with AAJA since 2001.

2013 Board Member: Denise L. Poon

Denise L. Poon is a Broadcast Producer, Multimedia Consultant and Principal of Creative Streamline, (@Cr8tiveStream), a Media Communication company. Her career spans more than 15 years of broad-based communication for broadcast networks ABC, CBS, CNN, FOX, NBC, PBS and private clients. She produces pieces in various formats- breaking news, feature and magazine, including content for CBS This Morning, DATELINE NBC and America’s Most Wanted. With AAJA, she is best known for many years of event leadership, sponsorship and fundraising development for Trivia Bowl, the Chapter’s signature “fun-raising” event and the innovative, V3 Digital Media Conference.

2013 Board Member: Matt Stevens

Matt Stevens is a staff writer at the Los Angeles Times, currently covering the Westside. Matt is a graduate of The Times METPRO training program, during which he covered education, breaking news and business. He came to the Times as an intern in Sports, and also interned in Sports at the Orange County Register. He spent eight years in scholastic journalism including four years at UCLA’s Daily Bruin. With the aid of the Bridget O’Brien Scholarship, he and a partner reported on the exploitive machinery behind international basketball recruiting during a 31-day trip to Yaoundé, Cameroon. The team’s work won several awards, and Matt was later named 2011 Reporter of the Year by the Associated Collegiate Press. Email story ideas to Matt at matt.stevens@latimes.com. (@MattStevensLAT)

2013-2014 Board Member: Frank Buckley

Frank Buckley is co-anchor of the KTLA Morning News. He currently serves on the board of AAJA-LA and is co-chair of the scholarship committee.

2013-2014 Board Member: Denise Dador

2013-2014 Board Member: Suzanne Joe Kai

Suzanne Joe Kai was among the first Asian American female news broadcasters in San Francisco as reporter, documentary producer, and public affairs show host for KRON-TV. Suzanne started StudioLA.TV, which produces news/entertainment programming for wireless, online, television and Publisher/Co-founder of AsianConnections. com. She’s currently producing two documentaries.

2013 Student Representative: Sonali Kohli

Sonali is a fourth-year English student at UCLA and a senior staff reporter on the Daily Bruin. She’s been an AAJA member since 2010, has received an AAJA-LA scholarship and has served as AAJA-LA Student Representative since August 2012.

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2012 BOARD OFFICERS AND MEMBERS

JOCELYN “JOZ” WANG, President and National Advisory Board Representative; National Governing Board Member (Medium Chapter)
Joz is an avid writer who embraced blogging at its onset. Known online– and offline– for her personal blog jozjozjoz.com, she is a Co-Editor of the popular Asian American collaborative blog 8Asians.com. She is also a long-time contributor blogging.la, flagship site of the Metblogs network, a massive local journalism and media project that began in 2003. In late 2011, she acquired the entire Metroblogging.com network from its founders and now runs the entire international network—consisting of over 50 sites worldwide— as its Publisher and CEO. Professionally, she is currently part of the Creative Team at Walt Disney Parks & Resorts Online, working to deliver a world-class online experience to Disney Guests. Prior to this, she was a Senior Strategy Consultant at speakTECH (now Perficient), an interactive design and technology firm, designing business solutions for clients such as Disney/ABC Television Networks, NBC-Universal, DTS Digital Entertainment, PepsiCo, The Estée Lauder Companies, City of Hope, and the Municipality of Anchorage. She contributes her web expertise in Information Architecture, User Experience (UX), and Social Media to UsabilityCounts.com. A Southern California native, Joz’s prior professional experience includes Marketing Project Manager at The Nielsen Company, Marketing Manager at Nelson Davis Television Productions (KTLA-TV), and Manager of National Accounts at CBS/Westwood One Radio Networks. Joz received her MBA from Pepperdine University and her BA from UCLA. Aside from serving as AAJA-LA’s 2012 President, Joz also serves on the AAJA National Advisory Board and National Governing Board for the 2012-2013 term. (@jozjozjoz)

DAVID ONO, Vice President – Broadcast
David Ono mans the anchor desk twice a day on ABC7.Ono first joined the “Eyewitness News” team in 1996. Through the years, you’ve also seen David host the popular magazine show “Eye on LA.” He also co-anchored “Eyewitness News This Morning.”Ono has won eight Emmy awards and 19 nominations. His career has included stops in Sacramento at KOVR-TV, El Paso at KDBC-TV, Midland/Odessa at KOSA-TV and Dallas at KXAS-TV. Ono grew up in Texas and is a graduate of the University of North Texas.He has served the Los Angeles chapter as a longtime Vice President and board member, and as the Emcee of the annual “Trivia Bowl.”

RICHARD CHANG, Vice President – Print
Richard Chang is an arts and entertainment writer for The Orange County Register, where he has worked since February 2000. He specializes in visual art and museums, but has also written about television, movies, film festivals, the performing arts and Southern California media. He also does art news and reviews for the national magazine ARTnews.Richard has worked at a few different newspapers, including The Santa Fe New Mexican, The Bakersfield Californian and The Albuquerque Journal. He has freelanced for a number of other publications, including the San Francisco Bay Guardian, A. Magazine, Tribal College Journal and Asian Week.Richard teaches an arts and entertainment journalism and writing workshop at UCLA. The course is designed for students who wish to write about A&E for The Daily Bruin. He has taught courses in journalism and writing at California State University, Fullerton and Los Angeles Valley College.His experience in radio includes stints at KQED in San Francisco, KALX in Berkeley, KUCI in Irvine and radioinvasion.com. Richard graduated from Brown University with honors in English and American Literature and received a master’s degree in journalism from UC Berkeley.Richard hopes to expand AAJA-LA’s reach to journalism professionals and students in Orange County.

SHRADDHA SWAROOP, Vice President – Online Media
Shraddha Swaroop is an award-winning freelance graphic designer in print design, illustration and web design projects.Her online expertise includes information architecture, user experience and social media. Along with web and mobile design, her projects have included social media coaching for individual local clients and managing a Twitter and Facebook profiles for an international client with an worldwide audience.Being in the print news industry for more than 12 years, she has worked for Variety, the Los Angeles Times, the San Jose Mercury News and The Virginian-Pilot among others. She is currently working to create a print newspaper for an online-only news gathering organization called The Gateway Reporter.She is on the boards of two journalism organizations, works as an art director mentoring broadcast, print and multimedia journalism students in the AAJA Voices program and has lectured extensively on design, collaboration and editing throughout the nation. For more on her experience, projects and awards see web.mac.com/shraddhaswaroop/portfolio/home.html

SUZANNE JOE KAI, Secretary
Suzanne Joe Kai was among the first Asian American female news broadcasters to “break the glass ceiling” in San Francisco. She was a TV news reporter, documentary producer, and public affairs show host for KRON-TV (when it was NBC-SF), and also worked as a journalist on-camera for KTVU-TV Oakland, and KGO-TV (ABC-SF). She is currently producing two documentaries. Suzanne is the founder of StudioLA.TV, a production company which produces news & entertainment programming for wireless, online and television outlets. Suzanne is a member & 2007- 2010 judge with the Emmys Interactive Peer Group in Hollywood. She is the publisher and co-founder of AsianConnections. com.Suzanne earned a Masters degree in Communication from Stanford University.

SHAWN WONG, Treasurer
Shawn Nicole Wong is an independent film producer based in Los Angeles. She is a graduate of the College of Environmental Design at UC Berkeley. She has previously written for Venice Magazine and POP! Montreal Music Festival and has interned for ABC News 20/20 and Primetime.

Directors

FRANK BUCKLEY
Frank Buckley is co-anchor of the KTLA Morning Show.Previously, he was a National Correspondent with CNN based in Los Angeles. He has also worked as a reporter at KCAL-TV, KESQ-TV in Palm Springs and as a weekend anchor at WXII-TV in Winston-Salem, NC. Buckley is the recipient of numerous awards including the Emmy and the Golden Mike.Buckley is a graduate of USC. His internships while at USC included CBS Network News, news writing at KNX and reporting for the Detroit News and the Los Angeles Times.Buckley, whose mother is Japanese, was a recipient of an AAJA scholarship.

KIM BUI
Kim Bui is the social media and community editor for Southern California Public Radio (89.3 KPCC).She has worked for online and traditional news operations as an editor, reporter and web producer including The Loop 21, San Luis Obispo Tribune and the Kansas City Star.She is also a co-creator of the weekly Twitter web journalism chat, #wjchat.

ANH DO
Anh Do covers multicultural communities & issues at the Los Angeles Times. A second-generation journalist, she served as vice president of Nguoi Viet Daily News, the largest Vietnamese-language publication in the US, founded by he late father. Do attended USC majoring in journalism and English literature. After graduation, she worked at the Dallas Morning News and the Seattle Times before writing for the Orange County Register, including a column on Asian affairs. Her reporting has taken her to England, Guatemala, Peru, Vietnam, India, Cuba and Mexico. Her work has been honored by Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, the Asian American Journalists Association, the DART award for excellence in reporting on victims of violence and Freedom Newspapers’ Sweepstakes Award. At USC, she has taught news writing and news reporting, with a stint as managing editor of Spot.Us, an online community-powered reporting project funded by the Knight Foundation in partnership with the School of Journalism.

HENRY FUHRMANN
Henry Fuhrmann is assistant managing editor for the copy desks, the library and standards at the Los Angeles Times. Since joining the Times in 1990, Henry has served as an editor in the metro, foreign, features and business departments. He was the first chief of the morning copy desk, which he helped establish in 2007 to serve latimes.com. He started his current assignment in March 2009. Henry previously worked at Newsday, where he was a member of the first class of copy editors in Times Mirror’s Minority Editorial Training Program.Before entering the news business, he studied engineering at Caltech and UCLA and worked at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Henry holds two degrees in journalism: a bachelor’s from Cal State L.A. and a master’s from Columbia. He was born in Japan and grew up in Ventura County, about an hour’s drive up the coast from Los Angeles.He is a longtime leader of AAJA-LA, having served as chapter president, treasurer, secretary, board member and advisor. (@hfurhmann)

KY TRANG HO
Trang Ho covers exchange traded and mutual funds for Investor’s Business Daily, where she’s worked since 2005. Before the newspaper, she worked at a public radio station in Southern California as a reporter and producer. She has also worked as a newscast producer in Palm Springs.She has a BA in Sociology from UC Berkeley and an MA in Communications and Journalism from The Ohio State University, where she was a fellow in the Kiplinger Public Affairs Journalism Program.

GRACE LIM
Grace Lim is an Associate Producer at CBS2/KCAL9 News. She got her start as an apprentice at CBS2/KCAL9 where she trained in Producing, News Writing, Promo Producing, Web Producing, Editing, and on the Assignment Desk. From there, she worked her way up in the duopoly, working as a News Writer and Satellite Coordinator. She has served the AAJA-Los Angeles chapter as Co-President, Secretary and Board Member. Grace graduated with a double major in English and Communications from the University of California, Davis. Her internships while at UC Davis included KCRA and KOVR. (@gracelimnews)

DENISE L. POON
Denise L. Poon is a Broadcast Producer, Multimedia Consultant and Principal of Creative Streamline, a CUCP-certified DBE/MBE/WBE and SLB for the City of Los Angeles.Her career spans more than 15 years of broad-based communication with content creation for broadcast networks ABC, CBS, CNN, FOX, NBC, PBS and private clients in various formats- breaking news, feature and long format, including DATELINE NBC, and America’s Most Wanted. With AAJA, she is best known for many years of leadership for Trivia Bowl, the Chapter’s signature “fun-raising” event.

MATT STEVENS
Matt Stevens is a staff writer at the Los Angeles Times, currently covering the Westside. Matt is a graduate of The Times METPRO training program, during which he covered education, breaking news and business. He came to the Times as an intern in Sports, and also interned in Sports at the Orange County Register. He spent eight years in scholastic journalism including four years at UCLA’s Daily Bruin. With the aid of the Bridget O’Brien Scholarship, he and a partner reported on the exploitive machinery behind international basketball recruiting during a 31-day trip to Yaoundé, Cameroon. The team’s work won several awards, and Matt was later named 2011 Reporter of the Year by the Associated Collegiate Press. Email story ideas to Matt at matt.stevens@latimes.com. (@MattStevensLAT)

LIBERTY ZABALA
Liberty Zabala is an anchor and multimedia journalist at Valley View News, which broadcasts on Ch. 36 LA Sundays at 3:30pm. She worked as a general assignment reporter at Channel 3 News, a cable access station in Garden Grove, CA. She is a senior at California State University, Northridge majoring in journalism with a collateral in political science. Born and raised in Eagle Rock, CA to LA Herald Examiner reporter Laurencio V. Zabala Jr., she grew up hanging out with her dad in the newsroom. In high school, she began writing for her campus paper quickly becoming managing editor. She has held several broadcast internships including Fox News Channel, Fox Sports Net, KABC and NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams. She has written for multiple publications including the L.A. Youth, Saturday Night Magazine and University Link Magazine. She has conducted high profile interviews from actress Alexa Vega to world champion boxer Manny Pacquiao to 2012 presidential candidate Newt Gingrich. She serves as the president of the CSUN chapter of Radio Television Digital News Association. She also serves as a board director of the LA Chapter of Asian American Journalists Association. She covered the 2011 AAJA Detroit National Convention as a Voices reporter/anchor. Liberty was recently selected as a Meredith Cronkite fellow at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism reporting for KPHO (CBS 5) in Phoenix, Arizona. Her goal is to become an international correspondent. (@LibertyZabala)

SONALI KOHLI, Student Representative
Sonali Kohli is a fourth-year English student at UCLA and a senior staff reporter on the Daily Bruin. She’s been an AAJA member since 2010, has received an AAJA-LA scholarship and has served as AAJA-LA Student Representative since August 2012.

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2024 BOARD OFFICERS AND MEMBERS

Julie Patel Liss, President (1-year term, 2024)

Teresa Watanabe – Sr. Vice President, Programming (1-year term, 2024)

Carren Jao – Secretary (2-year term, 2022-2024)

Debbie Truong –Treasurer (2-year term, 2023-2025)

Maneeza Iqbal, VP, Career Development (1-year term, 2024)

Jireh Deng, VP, Community Engagement (1-year term, 2024)

Hillary Ma, General Board Member

Sona Patel – General Board Member

Sandhya Kambhampati, General board member

Anh Do, National Advisory Board Representative (1-year term, 2024)

Pam Chen, National Advisory Board Representative (1-year term, 2024)

CHAPTER INTERNS 2024 (APPOINTED)

2023 Advisory Board

2023 BOARD OFFICERS AND MEMBERS

2023 Advisory Board

2022 BOARD OFFICERS AND MEMBERS

2021 & 2022 Advisory Board

2021 BOARD OFFICERS AND MEMBERS

2021 Advisory Board

2020 BOARD OFFICERS AND MEMBERS

2020 Advisory Board

2019 BOARD OFFICERS AND MEMBERS

2019 Advisory Board

2018 BOARD OFFICERS AND MEMBERS

Advisory Board

2017 BOARD OFFICERS AND MEMBERS

Advisory Board

2016 BOARD OFFICERS AND MEMBERS

Directors

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2015 BOARD OFFICERS AND MEMBERS

Directors

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2014 BOARD OFFICERS AND MEMBERS

Directors

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2013 BOARD OFFICERS AND MEMBERS

Directors

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2012 BOARD OFFICERS AND MEMBERS

Directors