Directors
Co-Director Clea Benson is a senior writer at CQ Weekly, Congressional Quarterly’s magazine in Washington, D.C. Before that, she was a state political reporter at The Sacramento Bee. She previously covered city politics, crime, poverty, social services and police administration for the Philadelphia Inquirer. In 2000, Clea was part of an Inquirer team whose series on the Philadelphia Police Department’s sex-crimes unit was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for public service. Clea is a native of Los Angeles and holds a master’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley, Graduate School of Journalism.
Co-Director Angie Lau is an anchor for Bloomberg, based out of Bloomberg’s Chicago Bureau. She was previously the investigative consumer reporter for WEWS in Cleveland. Angie is an award-winning journalist whose passion for investigative reporting has earned her countless awards. In 2005, the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists awarded her for Best Government Coverage. Her investigative reports on expired foods sold in area stores earned her the Ohio SPJ 2006 award for Best Consumer Reporting. Angie has a degree from the School of Journalism at Ryerson University
Faculty
Mark Angeles is the Union County bureau chief for the Star-Ledger in Newark, N.J. Previously, he worked as a reporter at the Philadelphia Daily News. Before that, he worked as a reporter and editor at The Associated Press in New York City, The Philadelphia Daily News, The Detroit News, The Courier-Post in Cherry Hill, N.J., The Observer-Dispatch in Utica, N.Y. and the Prince William Journal in Woodbridge, Va. He earned a master’s degree in journalism from American University and a bachelor’s degree in journalism from George Washington University. He is a former member of the AAJA board.
Athima Chansanchai is the president of Tima Media, a communications firm that she founded in 2009. Previously,Athima was a reporter with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and a freelance columnist for MSNBC.com writing about consumer electronics as “DigiGirl.” Before moving to Seattle in 2005, she was a reporter for the Baltimore Sun for five years covering courts, police and municipal government. She began her 13-year journalism career at the Village Voice in New York after receiving a Master’s degree from Stanford’s journalism prAmerican Journalists Association’s national board of directors.
J Camp Assistant Director Caridad Hernandez is an executive producer with CNN. She produces CNN with Heidi Collins in the mornings from 9 – 11 am. Previously, she was executive producer at NBC6, Miami-Ft. Lauderdale. She started her career while attending the University of Miami. She worked part-time as a news writer at the Miami Fox station while earning her bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism. After graduation, Cary was hired as a producer for the local CBS station where she started on the morning news and worked her way up to producing the 6 p.m newscast. Cary, then went on to Philadelphia where she worked as a producer at the local NBC station.
Eustacio Humphrey is photo liaison for ZUMA Press, Inc. and Photo Editor at MSN.com, based in Seattle, WA. Previously, he was Photo Editor for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. He holds a B.A. in Journalism from Northeastern University, M.A. in Visual Communication from Ohio University. His began his career at The Palm Beach Post and later moved to the The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer. Eustacio’s work includes in-depth social reportage in the United States and abroad. He has earned recognition from institutions such as the Pulitzer Prize, World Press Photo, Pictures of the Year International, and the National Press Photographers Association.
Richard Lui is an Atlanta-based news anchor with CNN Headline News. Previously, he anchored Pipeline, CNN.com’s live news service and “Now in the News,” CNN’s hourly Web- and wireless-exclusive news update. Since joining CNN, he has anchored live coverage of major breaking stories including the Virginia Tech shooting, the Hezbollah-Israeli conflict, the Mumbai train terrorist bombings and the Enron guilty verdicts. Before that, he worked as an anchor at Channel NewsAsia, an English-only news network based in Asia. Prior to his journalism career, he spent 15 years in business.
Chris Macias is the food and wine writer for The Sacramento Bee. Previously, he was the paper’s pop music critic. He briefly pursued a career in public policy before joining the staff of Capitol Alert, a Webzine covering California politics. He later worked as an online developer for The Sacramento Bee’s Web site and ran a spin-off site dedicated to local music. A native of Sacramento, Chris graduated from the University of California, Davis, with a sociology degree and a record collection that barely fit in his dorm room. He has written about hip-hop and deejay culture for a variety of publications, including Soma and Heckler.
J camp alumni assistants
Jacklyn Ho is a rising sophomore at San Francisco State University, with a Television-Radio major and a Journalism minor. She attended J Camp in 2008, won AAJA’s CNN Broadcasting Scholarship in 2009, and is producing J Camp’s mini documentary this year. Her work experience includes interning for CNBC Business News and the California Music Channel, as well writing for CollegeCandy.com and Mochi Magazine. From attending a press conference with musical artist T-Pain to interviewinews broadcaster.
Timmy Hyunh taught himself photography on a Canon DSLR during high school. He attended J Camp in the summer of 2005. Timmy applied for the Eddie Adams Workshop, one of the premier workshops for emerging photojournalists, and was accepted straight out of high school, one of the youngest applicants ever. While working on his biology degree at
Taylor University, Timmy worked his way from a staff photographer, to photo editor, to senior editor. The summer before his senior year, he made a career-path change from medicine to photojournalism. He was offered a full scholarship to the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism. He will be working in Austin for a year before attending Mizzou.
AAJA Staff
Kathy Chow, executive director of AAJA, has over ten years experience in program development and nonprofit management with various non-profit agencies. Prior to coming to AAJA, Kathy was the Director for Hands On Sacramento, a volunteer action center that provided volunteer opportunities in three counties. Kathy also worked for six years as a public affairs representative for The Sacramento Bee Kathy is certified by the Newspaper Association of America as a Diversity Facilitator, and has served on the advisory council for the National Corporate Volunteer Council and the National Hands On Schools Council for Hands On Network & Points of Light Institute.
Nao Vang is the student programs coordinator for the Asian American Journalists Association, where he manages all scholarships, internships and training programs for high school, undergraduate and graduate students pursuing journalism. Born in Thailand and raised in Portland, Ore. and Fresno, Calif., he earned his bachelor’s degree in cultural anthropology at California State University Fresno. Nao is a jazz guitar player and amateur musicologist.