2011 Editors
Just as newsrooms across the country are adjusting to operate with smaller staffing and new technology, the Asian American Journalists Association has redesigned its convention project to simulate the convergence newsroom of today. This program will provide mobile journalism and other news training opportunities to college students and professionals at the 2011 AAJA National Convention.
(Twitter handles in parentheses)
Director
Marian Liu (@marianliu) has worked with VOICES for the past 8 years, directing the program for the last three – creating the groundbreaking multi-platform version of VOICES, merging print with audio and video. She also headed up the Unity convention newspaper in three languages. She is a part of Knight-Mozilla’s new journalism technology partnership, where web developers and designers around the world are collaborating to invent the future of news. She just graduated with her Executive MBA, with an emphasis on marketing and branding, at the University of Washington. She has written for The Seattle Times, The Source, the San Jose Mercury News, the Los Angeles Times, Oakland Tribune and Detroit Free Press. Most of all, Liu is passionate about communicating the needs of the communities she represents: “young, Chinese, Asian, and female.”
Editor-in-Chief
Edward de la Fuente (@ed_delafuente) is Homepage Editor for sacbee.com, the website of the Sacramento Bee, overseeing production and maintenance of site’s main page and subsections. He previously was the Philadelphia Phillies beat reporter for the Wilmington (Del.) News Journal and the University of Arizona football beat reporter for the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson, and has covered such events as the Major League Baseball and NFL playoffs, the MLB and NBA All-Star Games, the Rose and Fiesta Bowls and the NCAA basketball Final Four. He graduated from the University of Southern California with a degree in print journalism. He hopes to become more well-versed in new tools and techniques for journalists and to help others learn to use them as well.
Managing Editor
Ruth Liao (@ruthlessliao) is a markets reporter for ICIS, a trade publication covering the petrochemical industry, and based in Houston. She has covered social services and night cops for the Statesman Journal newspaper in Salem, Ore. She is past Portland AAJA chapter president and a 2005 alum of Voices project. Liao is inspired by the leaders within AAJA and is committed to improving the quality of journalism and professional diversity by encouraging students to pursue their passion and thrive.
Web Editor
Robert Boos (@earthtobobby) is an associate editor at Minnesota Public Radio. He taught online journalism at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. Boos also was an editor at azcentral.com/The Arizona Republic. He is a Cronkite school alumnus and holds a master’s degree in geographic information systems from the ASU School of Geographical Science and Urban Planning. Boos got his start as a print journalist at the Chandler Arizonan Tribune and gravitated to the Web in the early days of the “dot-com boom.”
Art Director
Shraddha Swaroop (@shraddha714) is owner of Swaroop Designs and a designer at the Los Angeles Times. Before her time in Los Angeles, Shraddha worked at The Virginian-Pilot as a designer for the news, features, sports and business departments. Before that she did a little bit of everything at the San Jose Mercury News. Her work has been recognized by the Society for News Design, Virginia Press Association, Society of American Travel Writers, Los Angeles Press Club, Society of Professional Journalists, Bay Area Journalism Awards and the March of Dimes.
Photo Director
Rashaun Rucker is the assistant director photo and video at the Detroit Free Press. A graduate of North Carolina Central University, his work has been honored by the National Press Photographers Association, Society of Professional Journalists, Michigan Press Photographers Association, Black College Communications Association and the Associated Press. In 2008, Rashaun became the first African American to be named Michigan Press Photographer of the Year. The same year, he won a regional and national Emmy as a photojournalist for his work in a documentary on the pit bull culture in Michigan. He also was a Maynard fellow at Harvard University in 2009. Reach him at rrucker@freepress.com.
Broadcast Lead
Brian Choo is a Cal State Northridge graduate, class of ‘94. He has been a TV News Photographer/Editor for 17 years. Brian has worked for KTAN, Korean Language Station, KGUN in Tucson, AZ, KVVU in Las Vegas, NV, KSWB in San Diego, Ca, and KTLA in Los Angeles, Ca. He has been a member of AAJA since 2000 and is an Emmy Award winner in 2007 and 2010.
Production
Jenn de la Fuente (@dabblingdesign) runs her own design business, Rosebud Designs, where she specializes in WordPress development and website design. Previously, she spent 10 years in journalism as a sports reporter, copy editor, page designer, web producer, occasional web developer and unofficial geek-to-English newsroom translator. She has worked at The Orange County Register, Arizona Daily Star, The News Journal (Wilmington, Del.) and The Sacramento Bee. She is a University of Southern California graduate and a 2001 Chips Quinn Scholar. Jenn has worked in both print and web mediums as a journalist and has motion graphics, video, audio and photography experience from various personal and professional projects. She’s thrilled to be involved with Voices for the first time. Education and mentoring has always been a big passion of hers, dating back from her days as a high school intern supervisor in Sacramento.
Editors
Adam Kealoha Causey (@akcausey) is a newly hired watchdog reporter for The Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville. He returns as as Voices staffer following stints in Boston in 2009 and Los Angeles in 2010. He started his convention news project work in 2005 in Minneapolis as a Louisiana State University mass communication senior. Prior to moving to Florida, Causey wrote articles, blogged and shot video and photos as a crime and government reporter for The Times in Shreveport, La. He is a member of the Texas AAJA chapter but plans to join the Florida group soon.
Carolyn Chin is a news and features designer at The Detroit News. She earned her bachelors degree in print and broadcast journalism at Wayne State University. She’s also a graduate of the university’s Journalism Institute for Media Diversity and a 2009 Chips Quinn Scholar. She’s an active member of AAJA and the Society for News Design. She’s interested in all aspects of visual story-telling. Giving back to the programs and organizations, such as AAJA, that have helped her is an important part of both her life and career.
Shawn Chitnis (@shawnchitnis) is a reporter for KREM-TV (CBS) in Spokane, WA. Before joining the KREM 2 News Team in May 2011, he spent more than two years reporting for KNDO-TV (NBC) in Yakima, WA. He has experience working in newsrooms across the country, as a desk assistant for ABC News in New York and Los Angeles as well as an intern for “Good Morning America” in their west coast bureau. Shawn has also interned for KOMO-TV and KIRO-TV in Seattle. He graduated from the University of Southern California with a degree in Broadcast Journalism and a minor in Business Administration. He is originally from Lynnwood, WA. You can “Like” him on Facebook: www.facebook.com/shawnmchitnis.
Raymund Flandez (@raymundf23) is a multimedia staff writer for The Chronicle of Philanthropy, covering nonprofit fundraising and technology. Previously, he covered small business and entrepreneurship for the Wall Street Journal. He has written for Barron’s, Worth magazine, The Washington Post, The Tennessean and the New Jersey Law Journal. He graduated from the University of Maryland and studied in Seville, Spain. He has been involved as a professional mentor and editor with the student projects since Unity 2008 in Chicago. His first start in journalism was at the AAJA San Francisco 2001 convention online student project called AAJALink. He lives in Washington, D.C.
Maria Hechanova is an anchor/reporter with KYMA-TV News 11, the NBC affiliate in Yuma, AZ. She’s also the Asian American Small Market Broadcast Journalists (AASMBJ) co-chair. Maria returns to the Voices staff for her second year and was a student in the program back in 2009. She credits the AAJA for helping her land her first job and with two years of professional experience under her belt, she hopes to give back by motivating students and letting them know they can do make it in the business too! Maria also applied for the program to learn more about online story format since her station is making the push to transfer broadcast scripts into web copy.
Benita Mehta is a copy editor at The Detroit News. She has a journalism degree from Michigan State University. She has worked at The Port Huron Times Herald, the Observer and Eccentric Newspapers in Birmingham, Mich., The Buffalo News, and the Lansing State Journal.
Mariecar Mendoza is the Palm Springs and Indian Wells reporter at The Desert Sun in Palm Springs, Calif., where she has covered news of the Coachella Valley for nearly five years. Hailing from the Bay Area, Mariecar began writing for community newspapers in high school. Her passion for journalism continued to grow in college as she worked mainly in print for both magazines and newspapers while also dabbling in radio and television. Those early experiences with multimedia have proved beneficial as she now shoots video for The Desert Sun’s website, mydesert.com, to supplement many of her print stories. Mariecar’s first involvement with AAJA was in 2006 when she participated as a student for Voices – the Hawaii edition. She has since been an active AAJA member, hoping to inspire young journalists the same way her AAJA mentors had during her first convention. She is also a Chips Quinn alum.
Katie Nelson (@katienelson36) is a staff writer for the New York Daily News. She covers local, national and international news from the field and the rewrite desk. Her reporting and editing have also gone out via The Associated Press, The Arizona Republic, The Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, The Cambodia Daily, The Boston Globe, the Lawrence (Kan.) Journal-World, and the St. Cloud (Minn.) Times. Nelson is a Chips Quinn Scholars alum, and is originally from St. Paul, Minn. Learn more at katienelson.net.
Erin Hill Perry (@iEditNRed) is the high school journalism program coordinator and a copy editor at the Detroit Free Press. She earned a bachelors degree in print journalism at Hampton University in Virginia and will complete a masters in teaching at the University of Michigan-Dearborn in December. A member of the National Association of Black Journalists and Dow Jones News Fund alum, Erin has worked on several student projects for national journalism conventions as a student and mentor. Before being hired at the Free Press, the Detroit native worked at the Akron Beacon Journal and interned at the Scripps Howard Foundation Wire, The Daily Press, The Virginian-Pilot and of course, the Free Press. Reach her at ELHILL@freepress.com.
Brandon Sugiyama is a freelance motion graphic designer (www.invibe.com). Based in San Francisco for the past 14 years, he’s in the process of switching Tupac for Biggie and relocating to New York. In a previous life, he worked for the AAJA National office as ELP coordinator and student programs coordinator. It was through working with the talented and passionate students of AAJA’s J Camp and convention projects that inspired him to go back to school to pursue his own passion: a career in design. While in school, he found and fell in love with something that he’d never heard of before: motion graphics. When he’s not busy designing motion graphics for the likes of Sony, Apple, EA, Microsoft and Sprint, he can be found DJing in dark places, flyfishing for trout, practicing early morning taiji or swinging bladed weapons in wushu class.
Conner Jay is staff photojournalist for The Salinas Californian. His passion for visual narratives has led him to explore stories with Humboldt squid, HIV/AIDS in northern Thailand, amateur cage fighters and the victims of gang violence. Whether it’s through text, photography or video, he believes the principles of storytelling remain the same. His work has appeared in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and The Star-Ledger, while being recognized by the California Newspaper Publishers Association, National Press Photographer’s Association and San Francisco Bay Area Press Photographer’s Association.
Yvonne Leow (@YvonneReports) is the west regional video producer for The Associated Press. She helps cover news, sports and entertainment across 13 states. She has worked for several news organizations, such as ABC, NBC, Shanghai Daily, and The Seattle Times. Her interest in video journalism started at UCLA and it was reinforced by many hours in the Daily Bruin’s online video department. Today, she is fascinated by the intersection of digital media and storytelling, and has never been more excited to be a visual journalist. Contact her at yleow@ap.org.
