asian american journalists association 30th anniversary

AAJAAsian American Journalists Association

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C h a m p i o n i n g D i v e r s i t y S i n c e 1 9 8 1

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Thirty, the number we old-timers used to type at the bottom of our articles to tell our editors the story was over, is for the Asian American Journalists Asso-ciation a halfway point, a rest note between the first and second verses of our song.

As much as we’ll celebrate all the glorious mo-ments and memories that brought us here, we’re also painfully aware of how much still remains to be done.

When a handful of daring visionaries created AAJA three decades ago, they envisioned it as a way to combat the isolation, discrimination and racism they experienced as pioneer minority journalists. They wanted it to be able to collectively advocate for changes they couldn’t promote as individual journal-ists, and to amplify their voices beyond what they could say on their own.

They wanted to inspire students to become journalists, for their immigrant parents to see it as a desirable and honorable profession, and for those already working as journalists to sharpen their skills and aspire to the executive suite.

For Frank Kwan, then a TV producer for KNBC, AAJA was the one place he could share stories and support with colleagues who had gone through simi-lar experiences in an industry where Asian Ameri-cans were a distinct minority.

“It was so valuable to know that we were not alone, and could help each other, particularly those relatively new to the business,” said Kwan, one of the Original Six journalists who founded AAJA in Los Angeles in 1981.

At the time, “stereotypes were still rampant – Asian males all knew Kung Fu or were nerds, females were femmes fatales or subservient,” he said. Despite being born in Los Angeles and having graduated from the University of Southern California, he still met people who marveled at how well he spoke English.

David Kishiyama, another AAJA founder and a copy editor on the national and metro desks of the Los Angeles Times, said he realized that cultivating more Asian American editors and newsroom manag-ers was the only way to increase and improve cover-age of Asian communities and issues.

“I spent my early years keeping a low profile, thinking always that I had to work harder and longer to prove that a journalist was a journalist and race was not an issue,” he said.

Although he had high hopes for the organization in 1981, he said: “I feel that AAJA has not achieved the stat-ure of a true national journalists organization by being a major factor in news coverage and the placement of top

AA editors and managers. My wish for AAJA would be to continue to work, but harder on becoming an advo-cate for greater coverage of AA issues and the develop-ment of top editors and managers,” he said.

Bill Sing, an AAJA founder from the business pages of the Los Angeles Times, told former AAJA National Vice President for Print Stanford Chen in “Counting on Each Other: A History of the Asian American Journalists Association from 1981 to 1996,” that he always envisioned the national conventions becoming more like political conventions.

“Instead of going to a convention to be enter-tained or to meet old friends, people will go there like delegates and know that they will have to participate, their ideas will be encouraged and an outcome will be expected, either in developing a new policy on something or coming up with a new program,” Sing said. “We’re asking people to bring their ideas and participate and develop these things.”

Kwan said that younger journalists who’ve never known a world without AAJA should not take the organization or its support network for granted.

“Be prepared, political and passionate. Know everything about your job, and keep your skills sharp. Know the politics; it’ll help keep your job and get ahead. Be passionate – it will keep you motivated through all the hard times.

“Finally, give back – it feels good.”

AAJA: On Turning 30Media Diversity: Then vs. NowThen: In 1980, there were 3.7 million Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States. We were 1.5 percent of the population. Now: The 2010 Census found that nearly 15.3 million people are Asian or part-Asian, or 5.0 percent of the U.S. population.

Then: Although minorities were 17 percent of the population, 61 percent of U.S. newspapers didn’t employ a single person of color.Now: Minorities are now 36 percent of the U.S. population. While 441 newspapers reported no minority staffers, no one knows the true percentage because only half of the nation’s 1,389 daily newspapers returned their surveys.

Then: In 1981, minorities comprised 5.27 percent of newsroom jobs, or about 2,400 people. That was 100 more than the previous year.Now: In 2010, minorities make up 12.79 percent of newsroom staff. The number of minority journalists dropped from 5,500 to 5,300 compared with the previous year.

Then: Fewer than 3 percent of senior editors and news executives were people of color.Now: Eleven percent of supervisors are minorities, a percentage that has not budged in four years.

Then: In 1984, there were an estimated 421 Asian American print journalists, or 0.78 percent of newspaper jobs.Now: The number of Asian Americans working at print or online newspapers is 1,288, about 3.1 percent of jobs.

SoURCES: “CoUNTINg oN EACH oTHER,” U.S. CENSUS, AMERICAN SoCIETY oF NEWS EdIToRS

Even though AAJA is a few years younger than I am, I have effectively grown up never knowing a world with-out this organization -- and I wouldn't want to imagine a world without it. I still remember coming to my first con-vention in 1996. It was a life-changer.

When I went to college, I encoun-tered greater diversity than in my hometown, but I still didn't see a lot of Asian Americans in my journalism classes.

Then, I found AAJA. I knew I was home. Not only was I surrounded by people who shared my passion

for the craft of journalism, but I was with people who looked like me and had similar cultural values.

After personally gaining so much from AAJA over the years – training, mentors, lifelong friends –I'm excited to give back by helping to shape AAJA for the generations of Asian American journalists who will come after me. This is our shared legacy for the future.

Happy 30th anniversary to AAJA!

Doris Truong, AAJA President 2011-12Multiplatform Editor, The Washington Post

AAJA 30TH ANNIVERSARY 3

From the AAJA President

Our MissonAAJA’S MISSIoN IS To PRoVIdE A MEANS oF ASSoCIATIoN ANd SUPPoRT AMoNg ASIAN AMERICAN ANd PACIFIC ISLANdER (AAPI) JoURNALISTS; PRoVIdE ENCoURAgEMENT, INFoRMATIoN, AdVICE ANd SCHoLARSHIP ASSISTANCE To AAPI STUdENTS WHo ASPIRE To PRoFESSIoNAL JoURNALISM CAREERS; PRoVIdE To THE AAPI CoMMUNITY AN AWARENESS oF NEWS MEdIA ANd AN UNdERSTANdINg oF HoW To gAIN FAIR ACCESS; ANd, RESEARCH ANd PoINT oUT WHEN NEWS MEdIA oRgANIZATIoNS STRAY FRoM ACCURACY ANd FAIRNESS IN THE CoVERAgE oF AAPIS.

PHoTo bY HYUNgWoN KANg


“Lloyd LaCuesta, AAJA National President from 1987 – 1990, now South bay bureau Chief for Cox Media group in oakland, Calif.

AAJA, for me, has always been about people and rela-tionships. At the first national convention in Los Angeles, a broadcaster from San Diego told

me about the moment she walked into the opening plenary session and looked around. She told me that she immediately ran back to her hotel room, called her husband and said, ‘Honey, there's so many of them, and they all look like me!’ For so many of us who started our careers in the ‘60s and ‘70s there was no one who looked like us in our newsrooms.

Now we celebrate 30 years of AAJA and the chang-es and achievements we have collectively and individu-ally made to our journalism profession. As someone who played a role in developing and sustaining the AAJA mission, I look back with pride at the family we are and look ahead at the successes yet to come. Let us always remember, we do not walk life's path alone and we have a responsibility to reach back and help those who will follow our footsteps.

David Louie, AAJA National President from 1990 – 1992, now business Editor &Technology Reporter at Kgo-TV in San Francisco

We didn't know it at the time, but there would be dramat-ic changes ahead for the media industry by the time AAJA en-tered the 1990's and I was elect-

ed AAJA National President. The World Wide Web was in its infancy, and it would lead to a sea change in how information would reach consumers, initially through slow and unwieldy desktop computers and later to laptops and smart phones. AAJA was focused on making sure that news organizations ("content providers" in today's terminology) would reflect the rapidly expanding diversity of the country.

It was a message not warmly embraced by some high-level managers, but persistence and consis-tency in AAJA's message broke down resistance and opened the door to Asian American journalists, not only in major media markets, but also in the impor-

tant smaller markets where the opportunities exist for entry level jobs. Among the biggest challenges at the time were making sure qualified journalists had the opportunity to move into supervisory and top management positions — and breaking the stereo-type that Asian American males were not suitable to become anchors. AAJA can take pride in addressing those issues and succeeding in enhancing the leader-ship and quality of American journalism.

Dinah Eng, AAJA National President from 1994 – 1996, now Columnist for Scripps Howard News Service and Freelance Writer in Los Angeles

Every organization – and human being – must change in order to grow. It’s been a joy watching AAJA expand as a vital network and support group for

its members over the years. During my term as AAJA president, I had the honor of serving simultaneously as UNITY president for a year. I worked to strengthen ties between the four minority associations, and to broker partnerships with the industry’s power play-ers in the Newspaper Association of America, Radio Television Digital News Association and American Society of News Editors. What came back to me was the blessing of lifelong friendships.

Through my work in establishing AAJA’s Execu-tive Leadership Program, I tried to teach that leader-ship lies not in a title, but in the ability to forge rela-tionships of the heart. Networking is not about who you know -- it’s about who knows you, and whether they believe enough in you to help when it mat-ters. So whatever form journalism takes in the years ahead, let your light shine, and as long as the spirit of AAJA lives, you will never be alone.

Benjamin Seto, AAJA National President from 1996 to 1998, now Copywriter, brand Creative, Kaiser Permanente in San Francisco

If you’re like me, birthdays are a time of reflec-tion — looking back at a year of successes and set-backs while looking forward toward a year of oppor-tunities and surprises.

Thirty years of reflection sounds like a lot, but I’m sure you’ll all agree that there’s a lot to be proud of. I look fondly at the few years that I dedicated to

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From former AAJA National Presidents

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the Asian American Journalists Association, and like many of you I probably got more out of the experi-ence than I gave in return. Still, the organization is what it is today because of the many who dedicated time in their career paths to help build a cause and learn a little about themselves along the way. It’s an organization that recognizes the individual voice while working as a whole to improve journalism for all. I like to think it’s also an organization that knows how to adapt and change—because that is its future. A lot has changed in the industry, and many, such as myself, find ourselves on different paths. Despite the fact that I’m no longer actively working in the media business, I can see from the outside how vital AAJA’s role is today and tomorrow. No matter the medium, there will always be a need for quality content. There will always be the desire to uncover the truth and to shine light on inequalities. And there will always be a need to demonstrate that the diversity in this country is how we are all the same.

Catalina Camia, AAJA National President from 1999 – 2000, now on Politics blogger for USA Today

AAJA's lasting legacy in the fight for newsroom diversity lives on in the thousands of journalists it has developed through scholar-ships and training, from student to professional. While I have

faded from active participation in the organization, I will always consider AAJA my second family and am grateful to it for nurturing me while at USC, in my early years as a reporter, in the middle of my career as an editor and now as I seek to recharge and learn new skills as a blogger. The friendships I've made through service in AAJA's leadership and from attending con-ventions are a highlight for me. My two years as na-tional president were more than a decade ago, but our challenges as an organization and as an industry are very much the same. The only way we as journalists who happen to be Asian American get our stories told and our voices heard is if we help each other, and draw on the strength of our vast human resources within our own membership and from our allies inside and outside of a newsroom.

Esther Wu, AAJA National President from 2005-2006, now a Freelance Writer in dallas, Texas

My most memorable moment as AAJA National

President was when the pub-lisher of the Los Angeles Times handed me a check for $10,000 for the student newspaper proj-ects after everyone had warned me not to expect anything. Or maybe it was when a colleague fainted during the Gala Scholar-ship Banquet and when I asked if there was a doctor in the house,

CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta came running over. Or maybe it was singing karaoke with Ron Brown on a dare. There are many moments I will treasure always.

But more importantly, just as AAJA changed journalism, this organization changed my life. I re-member a time before AAJA, when Asian reporters were a rare commodity and Asian editors were non-existent; a time when stories about Asian Americans were insensitive and often biased. Things are differ-ent now – and we can credit AAJA for much of it.

So, happy 30th anniversary, AAJA! Let’s make sure this organization is around for many more years to come.

Sharon Chan, AAJA National Presi-dent from 2009 – 2010, now a Technology Reporter for The Seattle Times

In 2009, AAJA faced the worst financial downturn in its history. Scores of Asian Ameri-can journalists lost their jobs in journalism. Three Asian Ameri-can journalists were imprisoned

abroad for reporting the news – Roxana Saberi in Iran and Laura Ling and Euna Lee in North Korea. It was a dark time, but it's always darkest before the dawn.

At our national convention in Boston, we reached out and leaned in. And we rebuilt AAJA for the future. We hired excellent new leadership in executive director Kathy Chow. We embraced digital journalism, combining diversity with innovation and launching the Executive Leadership Program Media Demonstration Projects in New York, Detroit and Chicago. We engineered a financial turnaround for AAJA with a tough-minded focus on our mission and built a new foundation for AAJA to grow and serve the next generation of Asian American journalists. All three journalists were freed and returned home and joined us at our convention. AAJA returned home too. We came together in our birthplace Los Angeles for our 2010 convention. It was the dawn of a new era for all of us.

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Connie ChungTelevision Journalist

The semester before I gradu-ated from college in 1969, with resume in hand...I beat a path to the four local television stations in my hometown, Washington, D.C. I cheerfully said: “I don’t have any experience in news, but I learn quickly and will work hard. Just let me come in two nights a week and I will do anything!”

Bingo! I got a job as a “copy person” at the local Metromedia (now Fox) station, WTTG-TV Channel 5. At that time, the Asso-ciated Press, United Press Inter-national and Reuters provided news organizations with the latest news via large, black, clunky wire machines that typed stories 24/7 on long rolls of cheap paper. As a “copy person,” I was assigned to rip the wire copy off the machines and hang them on hooks marked “National News,” “Local News,” “Sports,” “Business” and “Weather.”

I also was a “go-fer.” I’d ‘go for’ coffee, play courier, pick up and drop off news film, run errands...anything anybody asked me to do.

When June rolled around, the only job open to me was “news-room secretary.” Since I was a ‘girl,’ that’s what they offered me. I took it. After a few months, a news writer job opened up. I quickly ap-plied but was told I had to find my replacement. I zipped across the street to the bank (where I always cashed my check) and went to my favorite teller, Toni Taylor.

It was the late 1960s – the 1964 Civil Rights Act had passed – and the women’s and minority movements were strong forces. All companies were under scrutiny to hire women and minorities.

Toni Taylor was a fabulous, smart African-American. “Toni,”

I said, “Would you like to be a big star at the TV station across the street?” “Yeah,” she chirped with-out blinking. She got the job, and I became a writer.

In less than a year I pushed

my way on the air, becoming re-porter at that same station. I can still hear the clatter of the manual typewriters we used to write our stories... and the rat-a-tat of the electric typewriters we used to type teleprompter copy.

Covering local news in Washington, D.C., meant covering national news, too. I began rubbing elbows with network news report-ers... the Big Guys. They noticed my dogged pursuit of stories, un-daunted that I was just a local kid. When CBS News felt the pressure to hire women and minorities, Bob Schieffer (still at CBS News today) served up my name to the Wash-ington Bureau chief for CBS News, Bill Small. I auditioned. Although Bill Small burst into laughter at my audition, he liked my spirit and drive.

Wow, I was hired as a national news reporter for the big network. It was 1971, I was only 25... and I was reporting for the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite, my hero – the anchorman my family gathered to watch every night!

Twenty-two years later, I was named to fill half of Uncle Walter’s chair. It was my dream job – realized. Co-anchoring the CBS Evening News. It’s been a long 35- to 40-year run. I’m so grateful to all the mentors along the way...especially my parents and hus-band. Sure, there was rough haz-ing from veterans in the business who didn’t want to give an upstart the time of day. Despite the sear-ing sexual and racial comments throughout the years, I tried to deflect it all with humor or quick one-liners I shot right back.

Now, I am keeping an evil eye on our teenage son and enjoying life with my husband and family. All I wanted to do was have a good job and do it well.

AAJA Broadcast Pioneers

Top, Connie Chung at her first job as a copy person and, above, interviewing Tip o’Neill during the Watergate investigation. (Photos courtesy Connie Chung)


AAJA’s 30 Years ofChampioning Media Diversity

1981: A handful of Los Angeles area jour-nalists, later called the Original Six, meet in LA’s Little Tokyo Service Center to create what will become the Asian American Journalists Association, with 23-year-old Bill Sing of the Los Angeles Times as its first president.

•NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw headlines AAJA’s first scholarship banquet, which draws 350 supporters and raises $18,000 for scholarships.

1983: Gannett Foundation gives AAJA a $25,000 grant to hire its first executive director, Karen Seriguchi, to run AAJA’s first national office.

1985: AAJA has about 100 dues-paying members nationwide.

•The Northern California chapter, which stretches from San Francisco to the Or-egon border, becomes AAJA’s first chapter outside of LA.

1986: AAJA’s first five chapters (LA, San Francisco, Seattle, Sacramento and Wash-ington, D.C.) convene the first national board meeting in San Francisco to decide board structure, AAJA chapter autonomy and membership categories.

1987: AAJA membership balloons to 350, and its first national convention in Los An-geles, themed “Making a Difference,” draws 575 journalists, students and industry representatives.

•Lloyd LaCuesta is elected AAJA’s first elected national president in December.

•AAJA’s second executive director, Diane Yen-Mei Wong, agrees to take the job only if the national office moves to San Fran-cisco. The LA leadership readily agrees.

1989: AAJA’s Los Angeles Chapter publishes a primer called “Asian Pacific Americans: A Handbook on How to Cover and Portray Our Nation’s Fastest Growing Minority Group.”

1990: The New York Convention, AAJA’s first national convention outside Cali-fornia, draws a record 750 people and features AAJA’s first contested elec-tion for national president and its first student convention newspaper, “The Daily AAJenda.” James Hattori is elected AAJA’s first National Vice President for Broadcast.

1991: Inspired by Jon Funabiki’s “Project Zinger” examining mainstream media cov-erage of Asian Americans, AAJA forms its own media watch committee to respond to unfair, inaccurate or stereotypical cover-age of Asians.

Ken KashiwaharaRetired Network News Correspondent

In April, 1975, the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong had launched their final attack on Saigon. We Americans were being evacuated. As our U.S. Embassy bus made its way to the helicopter pickup point, Saigon was collaps-ing under the sheer onslaught of fear and panicked desperation that had dissolved into anarchy. A South Vietnamese man ran along-side our bus filled with journal-ists, held up his baby, and shouted through the open door: “My baby, my baby! Take my baby!” He thought as the country disinte-grated, he could at least save his baby. He tripped. The baby fell under the bus and was run over. I witnessed that tragedy and it became symptomatic of a country in full disintegration. It was his-tory and it was happening in front of our eyes.

As a sign of the times and technology, I couldn’t report that story for days. We had no satel-

lites, no cell phones, no computers. We had abandoned our offices. There was no way to communicate with anyone. We were evacuated to a U.S. aircraft carrier and stuck there for two days incommuni-cado.

During the Vietnam War, our news cycle ended at 6 p.m. every day, when the last plane of the day departed Saigon for Bangkok or Hong Kong. There, our film was processed, edited and satellite-ed to New York for the evening ABC News broadcast. It was a time of portable typewriters and carbon paper. We had no way to screen the film footage ahead of time. It was a time of CP16 sound and Filmo silent film cameras used by cam-era and audio men (There were no women at the time.)

In hindsight, the lack of a 24-hour news cycle actually had some benefits. There was more time to reflect before writing, to think before broadcasting, to check before reporting. Not al-ways, but often.

When I started anchoring in

Ken Kashiwahara with Thai troops in 1976. (Photo courtesy Ken Kashiwahara)

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1969, I never thought of myself as a pioneer. Of course, I knew I was the only Asian American on TV in Hawai’i at the time, but I never thought of it that way. Stories were what counted. Who could break the biggest story, who could do the best reporting job. It was that way my entire career. Only after I retired did journalists come up to me and say I was their role model. I had no idea at the time. There was no support system.

Only after AAJA was formed did we realize how many Asian Americans were in the business. A handful of us met in a San Fran-cisco living room and decided to organize the San Francisco AAJA chapter. I convinced Peter Jen-nings to be our first guest speaker. From there the organization went national and became the premier Asian American journalist sup-port institution it is today. When I retired in 1998, I decided to start a scholarship for minority broad-cast journalism students and have since awarded nearly a dozen.

Generally, ABC News recog-nized Asian American and Asian stories that should have been cov-ered. There were, however, a few times I had to lobby to get a story on the air, particularly during the Congressional debate over repara-tions for Japanese Americans who were imprisoned during World War II.

I had a good run with few regrets, if any. I’m amazed at the advances in broadcast technology, the ability to go ‘live’ at any time, the digital format. I remember satellite-ing from Bangkok when I was based in Asia and one of my jobs was to hold the film on the audio head of the projector so New York could hear the sound. Yes, it was low-tech primitive, but it worked. We have come a long way in many respects but I wouldn’t have missed the primitive days for the world.

Toan Lam Founder and Multimedia Journalist,goInspirego.com

In 1979 my family and I immi-grated from Saigon, Vietnam, on a voyage for a better life. My parents left a bustling cast iron nail busi-ness with only $4 in their pockets when we arrived in the U.S. – a life filled with opportunity and hope. All 10 of us crammed into one ‘cozy’ trailer in the ghetto of South Sacramento. Gangs and hookers were my everyday reality. Instead of choosing violence, I voraciously clung to books, which became my passport out of the ghetto.

I knew then that I wanted to use my voice to make a differ-ence, but I didn’t know how. I met my first professional mentor, Matt Dunn, former co-president of the San Francisco AAJA chapter, at a college career fair. He inspired me to pursue broadcasting, something I secretly thought I was never smart or savvy enough to do. I only saw a few people who looked like me on the traditional tube – Ken Kashiwahara and Lonnie Wong of KTXL Fox 40, who spoke to my first grade class about being a TV reporter (he’s gonna kill me for

saying that).If books were my passport out

of the ghetto, then AAJA became the plane ticket that helped me fly and soar to endless possibilities. I was awarded several local and national AAJA scholarships. The money, support and love were like water, soil and sunlight to a fledg-ling plant.

One of the defining mo-ments in my life was when AAJA awarded me the Ken Kashiwahara Scholarship for Asian American male broadcasters. Wow. What an honor to be validated by the first Asian American male net-work newsman. I aimed high and achieved my goals of reporting in a big market, PBS and teaching journalism. I’ve also been able to repay mentors like Dunn (now at KRON) and Robert Handa (KTVU) by teaching the next generation – multimedia journalists at two local universities while mentoring young journalists.

It is now 2011. After being in the TV news industry for about a decade, I chose a new path as a global multimedia journalist. My new gig: Chief Inspirator of Go Inspire Go, a video based website

From immigrant to entrepreneur, Toan Lam says AAJA was his ticket to travel the world. (Photo courtesy Vasna Wilson)


• AAJA’s Hawai’i Chapter releases a report on covering the 50th anniversary of Pearl Harbor.

1992: AAJA’s Issues Committee, headed by Vice President for Broadcast James Hattori, sends a open letter to the national media saying they “have been quick to pander to the sensational” in covering the urban riots that followed the Rodney King verdict, stereotypically portrayingKorean Americans as “gun-toting vigilantes or avaricious intruders in the African Ameri-can community” and exacerbating racial tensions throughout the country.

1993: AAJA’s Detroit Chapter writes “Middle Eastern Handbook: A Guide to Covering Middle Eastern Americans.”

1994: AAJA and sister minority journalism groups the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), the National Asso-ciation of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) and the Native American Journalists Association (NAJA) co-host UNITY, the nation’s first media conference devoted to promoting diversity and the need to hire and promote journalists of color. More than 6,000 journalists (including 692 from AAJA) attend the largest-ever gathering of journalists.

1995: AAJA receives a Medal for Distin-guished Service to Journalism from the University of Missouri for its contributions to the media industry. William Woo also received a medal.

•AAJA’s membership grows from 1,500 to 1,900.

•AAJA National President Dinah Eng launches the Executive Leadership Program with a $65,000 grant from The Freedom Forum to create a pipeline for newsroom managers and executives and to examine the “glass ceiling” and Asian American values in the workplace.

1996: AAJA marks its 15th anniversary with a book, “Counting on Each Other: A History of the Asian American Journalists Association from 1981 to 1996,” a six-month labor of love written by National Vice President for Print Stanford Chen.

•To underscore the lack of Asian American men in television and radio, AAJA creates a Men of AAJA broadcast calendar featuring 12 of its biggest current and rising stars.

1997: AAJA’s Boston Convention, “The Road to Revolution,” is the first to draw more than 1,000 attendees.

that inspires viewers to discover and use their power to help others. I research, produce, shoot, edit and report stories of everyday people who do small acts of kindness that ripple out to meaningful changes in worldwide communities. I carry an HD camera, Flip Mino, shoot pictures and video from my mobile, play Final Cut Pro like a piano and step in front of the camera to report stories that spark civic engagement.

I use social media to inspire so-cial change and then use social net-working to spread the good word. My audience is immediate and global, with viewers from Africa, Asia and South America comment-ing on the stories. I’ve used social networking to crowdshare talents and skills of strangers. The reach is endless. So are the possibilities.

I urge my colleagues and mentees and future multimedia journalists to follow their passion. Think outside the box. Take risks. After all, we are the generation that will redefine multimedia, information-sharing and harness-ing social media to inspire social good. So reach for the stars and make your own constellations.

Suzanne PhanTV News Reporter/Multimedia Journalist, News 10-KXTV (Sacramento, Calif.)

In my 16 years as a television news reporter, I always teamed up with a photographer, but in the past year and half, I’ve been ‘doing it all’ – reporting, shooting, editing, delivering the story on-camera, and posting stories to the web.

It’s been part of my ‘reinven-tion’ and evolution from a tra-ditional TV news reporter into a multimedia journalist. Fortunate-ly, with the help of fellowships and training programs, that transition has been possible.

In 2009, after nine years of re-porting for a station in Sacramen-to, I found myself unemployed. As I searched for work, I found myself

in the middle of a changing media landscape. Most television news directors wanted to know if I was willing to shoot and edit, if I was willing to become a ‘V-J’ (video journalist), a ‘D-C’ (digital corre-spondent) or ‘M-M-J’ (multimedia journalist). Thankfully, an AAJA Poynter fellowship enabled me to say ‘yes.’ I was ready to become both reporter and photographer; I was ready to pick up a camera and tripod; I was ready for a major career transition.

Some media folks might consider it a step backwards. Oth-ers will tell you it’s the wave of the future. And others will simply say newsroom downsizing, the bottom line and budget cuts dictate that reporters do more with less, and that they do it more creatively and efficiently.

For many of us, our expected reporting duties now also include using Twitter, Facebook, Skype, Foursquare, blogging or vlogging. Instead of hesitating to try a new tool, I’m adding it to my toolbox – which now includes a video cam-era, tripod, smartphone, laptop,

Suzanne Phan keeping her eye on the news. (Photo courtesy Suzanne Phan)


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GPS, and Flip camera. For some, leaving the busi-

ness is a tough choice. Staying in the business is also a choice. I choose to stay, take the challenge, acquire the new skills, and adapt to my environment so I can keep telling stories that matter.

Wendy TokudaCbS5 Special Assignment Reporter (San Francisco, CA)

I got my first job in televi-sion as a secretary at KING TV in 1974, then worked my way into the newsroom. I was the first Asian American on the air at KING, and only the second in Seattle.

All the stations had one Afri-can American reporter back then and perhaps two women. Many cameramen resisted working with female reporters. You had to be very cagey to develop working relation-ships with them. I remember going up in a cloud seeding airplane for one story as the cameraman sitting across from me kept shooting my breasts, laughing the whole time.

The cameramen shot on film and you would write your story as the film developed; then the cameraman would edit the story wearing white gloves, so as not to damage the film. The newsroom secretary took phone messages on little pink squares of paper. I remember how the Chief Camera-man initially resisted working with videotape.

In San Francisco where I spent most of my career, I remem-ber the first live shots when it took a team of people and what seemed like miles of cord. There were tech-nical transitions every five years or so, from 3/4” tape to 1/2 inch, from there to DVC PRO, and finally to a digital format.

Just as significant as the technical revolution was the social one. When I started anchoring the 6 and 11 o’clock news at CBS5 in 1979, I happened to answer the phone when a male viewer called after a newscast. “That girl can’t be Larry Moore!!!” he proclaimed angrily, not realizing it was me answering the phone. Well, he

was right – I could never be Larry Moore, but I could be myself. In those days, that was a first.

Jan YanehiroFounding director, School of MultiMedia Communications, Academy of Art University

Bungee jumping. Sky diving. Interviewing Robin Williams, Bob Hope and Tina Turner. And hold-ing a toddler with AIDS, back then a usually fatal disease.

“Evening Magazine,” was a television “experiment” that de-buted in August of 1976 on KPIX TV, a CBS affiliate in San Fran-cisco. I co-hosted it until it ended in December of 1990. According to Variety, it was the first nightly magazine show given eight weeks to survive. We were the first show in the country (I later learned) to use ¾ inch videotape outside of the studio. The Ikegami video cameras were so experimental that we ordered repair parts from Japan. The steel-sided cameras weighed 25 pounds without the batteries. The camera was at-tached to a deck that ran the tape cassette. The deck was attached to an audio deck for sound.

One of my favorite pictures in the early days of our show was in 1977. Co-host Steve Fox and I are sitting in a roller coaster practic-ing our lines. The camera was supposed to shoot us delivering our lines as we were riding through the loops and turns. Note how we secured the camera with gaffer tape and bungee cords.

The idea to use video for this show was so one could review tape in the field because tape was cheaper than film. The technology was so new, many times the shot tape was blank, out-of-focus or had no color. Once we ran a story as a retro piece, since the tape could only be saved as black-and-white video. We took ourselves and our

Wendy Tokuda broke many barriers in her career. (Photo courtesy Wendy Tokuda)


cameras skydiving out of airplanes, climbing up a frozen waterfall in Colorado and bungee jumping off a bridge when it was illegal. Back then, we rather prided ourselves on being the rebels at the station, but all those shoots seem so tame by today’s standards.

I was born in 1948 and grew up in Hawai’i. I am Sansei, third generation Japanese American. My father never graduated from high school, my mother worked in a bakery. No one said “Find a job in television!” “Be a teacher or a nurse” is what my father said, but I had other dreams. Interview-ing celebrities and leaders who are humbling for me to this day: Sammy Davis Jr., Jaclyn Smith, Dianne Feinstein, Larry Hagman, Jerry Rice, Jessica McClintock, Jackie Speier, Debbi Fields, Con-nie Chung and Giorgio Armani are among my favorites.

One of the best stories I was able to tell was that of two former nuns who became foster parents to babies with AIDS. Back in the early ‘80s there was fear, suspicion

and many fatalities. The child I held had been kept in a crib in a hospital for two years. Her birth mother had died of AIDS, and she was not expected to live. My favorite shot is of the toddler run-ning on grass in the sunlight and jumping in my arms. Viewers sent letters telling me I had jeopardized my health and that of my family by holding this child.

When Wendy Tokuda came to KPIX back in the early ‘80s, we were often mistaken for one another. We had a mutual pact that we would always respond for each other.

AAJA became important so we could show the world that we Asians have many talents and in fact, do not all look alike. However, to this day, I send emails to Wendy addressed “Dear Twin.”

We didn’t know we were pioneers. We were working our hearts out to do the best job we knew how. And for me, that meant mentoring young Asian journal-ists and making sure the door was wider for them to enter. And the work continues.

1999: AAJA President Catalina Camia also presides over the third UNITY Convention in Seattle.

2000: AAJA creates the Dith Pran Photography and Multimedia Shoot Out Award, named for New York Times photojournalist who risked his life to tell the story of the Cambodian holocaust, for the best photography taken during the national convention. The winner’s name is engraved on a perpetual trophy.

2001: Mark Angeles, Josh Freedom DuLac and Neal Justin launch J Camp, a free multicultural training camp to encourage promising high school students to pursue careers in journalism.

2002: Asian American community advo-cate Dr. Suzanne Ahn donates $100,000 – the largest-ever individual gift to AAJA – at the 15th annual national convention in Dallas.

•AAJA releases “The Men of AAJA: A DVD Showcase,” which featured 60 Asian American male broadcasters, after a study by the Annenberg School for Communica-tions at the University of Southern Cali-fornia finds only 20 Asian American men on the air in the country’s top 25 markets (compared to 85 Asian American women).

2003: AAJA’s San Diego Convention draws a record 1,241 attendees.

2004: AAJA membership peaks at 2,320 for the third UNITY Convention in Wash-ington, D.C., which draws appearances by both President George W. Bush and U.S. Sen. John Kerry.

•AAJA launches a $2 million endowment campaign to provide an ongoing source of revenue for programs, scholarships, internships and to sustain the organization in lean times.

2005:Michigan Chapter hosts “Remem-bering Vincent Chin: A conversation about Civil Rights and Journalism,” a fundraiser to benefit the endowment campaign.

2006: AAJA marks its 25th anniversary with celebratory fundraising galas in New York, Dallas and Los Angeles.

2008: AAJA receives the Media Cham-pion Award from the Asian Community Mental Health Services for “challenging misinformation and stereotypes in media coverage around the Virginia Tech tragedy and helping to present mental distress as a human and commonplace experience.”

CoNTINUEd oN PAgE 13


Jan Yanehiro’s assignments had their ups and downs. (Photo courtesy Ann Fox)


AAJA by the numbers

25%of members work at newspapers or magazines (389 people)

1559Total membership (2010)

25%of members who work in television or radio stations (386 people)

133members who work in new media (9 percent)

430members who are students or are affiliated with schools or universities (28 percent)

66%of members are female (1,023)

316

chapters with 100 or more members: New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco Bay Area (187), Seattle (102), and Washington, D.C. (100)

members in AAJA’s largest chapter (New York)

214members in AAJA’s oldest chapter (Los Angeles)

11members in AAJA’s smallest and newest chapter (Denver)

5

35%of AAJA members who self-identify as Chinese (547 members)

200members who self-identify as Korean (13 percent)

188number of members who self-identify as Filipino (12 percent)

186number of members who self-identify as Japanese (12 percent

108number of members who self-identify as Southeast Asian (7 percent)

89number of members who self-identify as South Asian (6 percent)

42number of multiracial members

33number of Caucasian members 22number of Middle

Eastern members

14number of African American members9number

of Pacific Islander members

4 number of Hispanic/Latino members

(SoURCE: ANToNIo SALAS, AAJA NATIoNAL oFFICE)

$1.25 millionamount of money AAJA has awarded in scholarships


188

186

108

•Presidential candidate Barack Obama stops by the UNITY Convention in Chicago on his return from the Middle East.

2009: AAJA returns to Boston for its 20th national convention, with programming that emphasizes the need for multiplat-form journalism.

2010: At the opening reception of the Los Angeles Convention, AAJA honors its founders and more than 100 pioneer Asian American journalists, many of whom were the first Asian American journalists at their newspapers or in their markets. Several honorees were remembered in photographs carried by their proud sons and daughters.

•Laura Ling and Euna Lee attend the schol-arship gala to thank AAJA for keeping their names in the news and promoting aware-ness of their capture and imprisonment in North Korea. Roxana Saberi, released from an Iranian prison after being convicted of spying for the U.S., also attends.

2011: Online voting to determine which AAJA members will appear in the second Men of Broadcast calendar to raise the profile of male broadcasters raises more than $10,000 for AAJA.

•AAJA celebrates its 30th Anniversary in Detroit, hosted by an enthusiastic and re-invigorated Michigan Chapter. The theme: “Time to Engage.”


William Woo, the first Asian American editor of a major daily metropolitan newspaper, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, was also a longtime friend, supporter and inspiration to AAJA.

Woo spoke at AAJA’s first Executive Leadership Program in 1995 and was the keynote speaker at AAJA’s national convention in 1996. He received AAJA’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 1990.

After retiring from the Post-Dispatch in 1996, Woo was named the Lorry I. Lokey visiting professor of professional journalism and later interim director of the Stanford Graduate Journalism Program.

While at Stanford, Woo wrote his students letters every week about the craft, values, ethics and practice of journalism. When he read those letters to his students, they would lean in to catch every soft-spoken word, recalled Julie Patel, now a reporter for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

After his death in April 2006, his friends and family compiled those letters into a book, called “Letters from the Editor: Lessons on Journalism and Life.”

Woo’s widow, Martha Shirk, and their three sons, Thomas, Ben-nett and Peter, have donated the royalties from the book back to AAJA. More than 100 copies of the book were sold at the 2009 and 2010 AAJA national conventions, and it is featured in the curricu-lums of several college journalism programs.

Born in Shanghai, China, Wil-liam Woo attended public schools in Kansas City and received honors in English literature from the Uni-versity of Kansas. Woo’s first news-paper job was as a phone clerk for the Kansas City Star in 1955.

During his 34-year career at the Post-Dispatch, Woo was

a feature writer, special projects writer, foreign correspondent, editorial writer and Washington columnist. In 1986, he was the first non-Pulitzer to be named editor of the family owned-and-operated newspaper founded in 1903.

Woo was a finalist for Pulitzer Prizes in national reporting, foreign correspondence and commentary and a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University from 1966-1967. He served as a director of the Ameri-can Society of Newspaper Editors and the American Press Institute.

In October 2008, Shirk offered to match up to $5,000 in contribu-tions toward AAJA’s William Woo Internship Fund. Donations poured in from around the country, includ-ing checks from AAJA’s Hawai’i, San Francisco, Atlanta, Los Ange-les and Michigan Chapters.

In September 2009, AAJA announced that it had raised $5,778.35 to meet the challenge.

“Bill was a true wordsmith who cared more about good jour-nalism than the business of jour-nalism. He inspired many to enter this profession – including me,” said former AAJA National Presi-dent Esther Wu.

More information about Woo and his book can be found at www.tinyurl.com/williamwoo.

The Legacy of William Woo

SoURCES: “CoUNTINg oN EACH oTHER,”WWW.AAJA.oRg; PHoTo: bIgSToCK.CoM


OurChinatown is a bilingual, mobile-optimized hyperlocal news and culture blog focused on New York Chinatown — the largest and oldest Asian immigrant enclave in the Eastern U.S.

Since its launch as one of three ELP journalism innovation dem-ostration projects on April 1, 2011, the project, www.ourchinatown.org has provided real-world, real-time bilingual coverage of this critically under-served community, reported and aggre-gated by an editorial staff composed of both veteran and younger journalists.

The goals of the project have been to bridge the many diverse elements that make up this rapidly evolving neighbor-hood, while providing a daily source of news and information that spotlights the real needs and priorities of its residents. To help ensure that these community-based objectives are met, the OurChinatown team has assembled a Stakeholder Advisory Board composed of community leaders and the heads of local civic, service, profes-sional and cultural organizations; in addi-tion, OurChinatown’s monthly Open Town Halls give readers and constituents a regular means to interact with the team and the Ad-visory Board in person.

OurChinatown

has become a unique — and uniquely valued — news source for a community that has historically felt ignored by mainstream media. The project has also demonstrated

an original approach to covering ethnic enclaves that combines traditional and emerging mo-dalities of journalism — offering both street-based reporting, with staffers “walking the beat” of the Chinatown neighborhood daily, with news aggregation, rich me-dia (audiocasts, videos and slide shows) and interactive features.

OurChinatown is directed by ELP graduates Jeff Yang, Paul Cheung and Cindy del Rosario-Tapan and has been generously sup-ported by the McCormick and Ford Foundations.

“We’ve aimed to make it possible for people who are from Chinatown — people who have a stake and a background in this neighborhood — to bring their own unique per-spective to covering it,” says Yang, the project’s marketing and commu-nity outreach director.

“We see this as an opportunity to give a voice to a community that traditionally hasn’t had one, and to talk about news and issues from a point of view that’s relevant to and resonant with members of this community,” says del Rosario-Tapan, editorial director of the project.

“I grew up here, and my family still lives in Chinatown,” says Ch-eung, the project’s online director. “So I know the need firsthand — and I’m glad AAJA has given us the opportunity to help address it.”

ELP Media Demonstration Projects


A S I AARIZONA

LOS ANGELES

SAN DIEGO

SACRAMENTO

SAN FRANCISCO

HAWAII

ATLANTA

FLORIDA

MICHIGAN

MINNESOTA

CHICAGO

NEWENGLAND

NEW YORK

PHILADELPHIA

WASHINGTON DC

NORTH CAROLINA

DENVER

PORTLAND

SEATTLE

TEXAS

AAJA Chapters Worldwide

“The Living Textbook” is another demonstration project celebrating ELP’s 15th anniversary.

News on the site, livingtextbook.aaja.org, is produced by seventh-grade students at McCollough-Unis School in Dearborn, Mich., who have a unique take on what it means to grow up Arab American in post-9/11 America. They are among the first generation of

Americans to have no memory of what life was before the 2001 terrorist attacks.

The projects are the brain-child of Dinah Eng, founding director of AAJA’s Executive Leadership Program and a col-umnist for Scripps Howard News Service.

This project is funded by the McCormick Foundation and The Ford Foundation. Kodak,

Target, and Costco also supor-ted the program. Directors are Emilia Askari, a longtime reporter at the Detroit Free Press and former Free Press recruiter Joe Grimm, now a journalism professor at Michigan State University.

“I hope we can get it to the point where we have a program and a curriculum that others want to use in their classrooms, as well,” Grimm said.

gRAPHIC bY FARHANA HoSSAIN

Left: Frank Witsil helps Niveen dabaja with the project. Right: Students take a field trip to the detroit Free Press. (Photos courtesy Joe grimm)


ARIZONAYear Founded: 1998Membership (2010): 36http://aajaarizona.org/

Maybe it’s Arizona’s wide expanse, or perhaps it’s the dry heat, but journalists of Asian descent working in the Phoenix area in the early 1990s felt particularly isolated and stifled as at-large AAJA members. A group of us believed our needs for a sup-port network, for professional growth, for a full voice, could be met only by banding together as a state chapter. What began as informal meetings in homes and at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University blossomed two years later into a full-fledged chap-ter – and one that has grown to include members in Tucson, Flagstaff and Yuma.

Since its founding, AAJA Arizona has shown an innovative flair for fundraising. Our annual golf tour-nament quickly became a signature event, gathering journalists and friends to join in on a friendly round in this golf mecca and raising thousands of dollars for scholarships. We’ve also hosted a number of wine and spirits tastings at some of Phoenix’s up-and-coming art galleries. We’ve expanded into rummage sales and silent auctions and we’re planning our first trivia bowl.

A lot has changed over 13 years, but AAJA Arizo-na has remained committed to diversity and helping our members grow. We’ve awarded scholarships to students studying journalism at the state’s three uni-versities and stipends for members to attend AAJA’s annual national conventions, for professional train-ing and for mentorship programs.

Our work has drawn support from national figures, including actor/performer Lane Nishikawa and Alberta Lee – the daughter of maligned scientist Wen Ho Lee – to our scholarship banquets. We’ve also played host to AAJA ELP sessions and to at least one AAJA spring national board meeting.

The future looks bright – with an established student mentorship program that may seed the es-tablishment of a student group, returning us to our roots at ASU.

ASIAYear Founded: 1996Membership (2010): 29http://aajaasia.wordpress.com/

The Asia Chapter was founded in 1996 by two AAJA members working in Asia, Allen Cheng in Hong Kong and Alan Ota in Tokyo. When Ota returned to the U.S. in 1997, Cheng stayed on as president and Dalton Tanonaka became vice president. An early highlight was an ambitious series of programs in Hong Kong for AAJA members and other visiting journalists who covered the handover of the territory to China in 1997.

Today, the Asia Chapter has members from across the region. They work for a range of media, from The Associated Press and Thomson Reuters to CNN, ABC, VOA and CCTV. We are a networking group for AAJA members in Asia and the Pacific and a bridge for AAJA members who come to the region or want to work here.

In 2011, we partnered with the University of Hong Kong to hold our inaugural regional confer-ence. About 90 people attended a daylong event that looked at the Internet in China, coverage of the tsunami in Japan, backpack journalists and life after journalism. As AAJA celebrates its 30th anniversary and the Asia chapter celebrates its 15th, we look for-ward to continued growth in this dynamic region.

ATLANTAYear Founded: 1995Membership (2010): 55http://www.aaja-atlanta.org/

In August 1994, Joie Chen, then a CNN anchor, Bob Luke, Atlanta Journal-Constitution business writer and Rodney Ho, Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer, established the Atlanta Chapter in time for the first UNITY: Journalists of Color convention, which

AAJA Chapter Updates


drew more than 6,000 journalists. Today, the Atlanta Chapter has members in tele-

vision, radio, print and online media. AAJA Atlanta’s leadership has facilitated annual journalism skills-building workshops for area college students for more than 10 years. Staying true to the heart of the organi-zation’s mission, the chapter has also held diversity forums and media access workshops in partnership with other journalist and non-profit groups from the Metro Atlanta area and awarded more than $40,000 in scholarships to deserving students.

In 2000, our chapter won AAJA Chapter of the Year for producing public service announcement spots to celebrate Asian Pacific Heritage month. These spots aired on WAGA-TV (now FOX5). AAJA Atlanta President Vino Wong was awarded Chapter President of the Year in 2009 for his strong leadership and innovative approach to fundraising.

In 2010, the Atlanta Chapter broke with tradi-tion and shifted its fundraiser from a Chinese ban-quet to a trivia bowl.

The group’s focus for 2011 and beyond is to pro-

vide its members with more opportunities to engage with one another while still providing support to students and the Atlanta community.

CHICAGOYear Founded: 1989Membership (2010): 89http://aajachicago.wordpress.com/

The idea for the Chicago Chapter grew out of a meeting at O’Hare International Airport that Linda Yu, David Ibata and a handful of other Asian Ameri-can journalists had with then-AAJA National Presi-dent Lloyd LaCuesta.

In the beginning, the chapter focused on reach-ing out to Asian American college students so that they might have some role models in the industry. The chapter also organized media access workshops for Asian community organizations.

One of the chapter’s milestones was hosting the AAJA national convention in 1988. Chicago was the host city for the fourth UNITY: Journalists of Color convention in 2008.

The Chicago Chapter used the momentum from the 1998 convention to create a scholarship in Yu’s honor. A few years later, former chapter president Ted Shen organized a successful fundraiser to establish a print scholarship in honor of Ibata, another co-found-er. The chapter is proud to have provided $5,000 in scholarships to college students for each of the last 10 years.

To replenish our scholarship funds, the chapter has organized trivia bowls, which have become a sig-nature event in the Chicago media. Last year’s event drew nearly 30 teams. Today, the Chicago Chapter is a healthy organization with members including high-profile broadcasters as well as the future of America’s newsrooms at the city’s colleges and universities.

DENVERYear Founded: 1988, decertified 1990, recertified 2010Membership (2010): 11http://www.aajadenver.org/

The Denver Chapter is the newest chapter re-cently recertified by national AAJA. After two years as a provisional chapter, we were given full chapter status at the Los Angeles Convention in 2010. We cover Colorado and neighboring states, which are not great markets for Asian American journalists. But Denver has always had a core of TV stations with visible Asian American and Pacific Islander report-ers and anchors, and the Denver Post has hired some Asian Americans over the years. We’re also finding

ATLANTA

CHICAGO


success reaching out to the area’s journalism stu-dents, at both the high school and college level.

AAJA Denver includes working journalists and journalists who are in transition, as well as non-jour-nalist supporters and journalists of all ethnicities. We have open invitations to non-members to attend our meetings and events, and have tried to build bridges by co-sponsoring events with area groups includ-ing the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ), Colorado Association of Black Journalists members, Colorado Press Association and the local Society of Professional Journalists chapter.

We’ve held several social mixers to gain visibility for the chapter, and also focused on educational and information panels and events. We worked with the Asian Pacific American Bar Association and SPJ to host a panel discussion on copyright law and blog-ging; hosted both “Men of Color” and “Women of Color in Broadcast News” panels with prominent local TV journalists; and held the first in a series of Asian community media training workshops. We also feted NAHJ members at a downtown reception when the NAHJ convention was held in Denver last summer.

So we’re all about raising our visibility within our community, and building bridges with other me-dia organizations!

FLORIDAYear Founded: 1988, decertified 1989, recertified 1996Membership (2010): 25http://chapters.aaja.org/Florida/FLAAJA.html

The Florida Chapter’s biggest accomplishment has been the creation of our cookbook called “Yum-my,” which includes recipes from members, family and friends from throughout the Sunshine State. Proceeds go to scholarships for AAJA professional

and student members. The cookbook, which was put together two years ago, has been a tremendous suc-cess. Recipes are being sought for a second edition.

We’re proud of winning AAJA Chapter of the Year in 1996 and hosting the 2007 AAJA national con-vention. During the day we attended amazing work-shops at the Hyatt Regency in Miami. And at night we partied on South Beach, enjoyed delicious meals in Little Havana, and danced the night away at some of the hottest clubs around. AAJA Florida has partnered with the Florida Society of News Editors to host a multimedia workshop in Miami.

Throughout the years, we have held our an-nual “Dim Sum Event” right around Mother’s Day in South Florida. We’ve expanded our events to Tampa and Orlando. Earlier this year, we organized our very first Dim Sum Event in Orlando. Our chapter held a fun fundraiser at a Tampa art gallery, with sushi and wine. At our Clothing and Household Item Swap, guests went home with new outfits and items, plus had all the food and wine they could drink for $25. We also donated a carload of items to the abused women’s shelter.

The chapter’s annual Holiday Bookstore Gift Wrapping Event in Tampa has become a wonderful tradition and one of the favorite events of the year. Bookstores provide us with gift-wrap and space in their stores to wrap books for customers. People then leave donations in a jar.

HAWAI‘IYear Founded: 1987Membership (2010): 42http://www.aajahawaii.org/

In 1987, AAJA started a chapter in Hawai’i, the state closest to Asia with a wide swath of journalists being Asian American. It’s the same state where Bar-bara Tanabe hails. She became the first Asian woman to anchor in the U.S., and the first in Hawai’i in 1974. It’s a proud state where Larry Nakatsuka was honored in 2002 with an AAJA Lifetime Achievement Award for his work as a cub reporter covering the Pearl Har-bor attack, among his other achievements.

Every year the chapter offers scholarships and internships for students. Some interns have gone on to have bright careers, like Honolulu Star-Advertiser photographer Cindy Ellen Russell.

Honolulu was also the site of two AAJA na-tional conventions, in 1995 and 2006. Members who were present for both remember the seminars be-ing crowded, despite the fact that sunny beaches awaited them outside the windows. Chapter member Jeanne Mariani-Belding, the editorial and opinion


editor at the former Honolulu Advertiser, was AAJA national president. Craig Gima, Star-Advertiser on-line editor, was named AAJA’s 2010 Member of the Year.

Since 2004, the chapter has hosted an annual AAJA Hawai’i Media Basketball League featuring spring and summer games between print and TV news teams on Oahu. In addition to raising funds for scholarships and internships through entry fees, the Basketball League provides a fun activity and creates strong bonds and camaraderie among many island journalists. Other fundraisers include sushi and sake events and silent auctions. In 2011, the chapter launched its new web presence with aajahawaii.org.

LOS ANGELESYear Founded: 1981Membership (2010): 214http://aaja-la.org/

Los Angeles is honored to be the first and found-ing chapter of our 30-year-old organization. Through-out our chapter history, we have remained among the largest and most philanthropic, donating more than $50,000 to AAJA National’s capital campaign and al-locating more than $100,000 to student scholarships, stipends for mid-career journalists and to support professional development programs.

Our outreach involves active work with edito-rial partners. We have collaborated with local multi-media outlets including the Los Angeles Daily News, The Orange County Register, KABC, KNBC and KTLA to provide internships to undergraduate and gradu-ate students. This year, we are launching two unique mid-career programs, an Online News Media Training Fellowship and an Ethnic Media Fellowship.

Through the decades, one of our most visible successes is Trivia Bowl, launched in 1994, our signa-

ture annual fundraiser for scholarships, internships and professional programs. Initially, this unique, increasingly ultra-competitive, team quiz-style game was created as a low-budget, low-tech local event. What started as a modest whimsical effort has ma-tured into our popular trademark community “fun-raising” experience. Media groups, corporate sponsors and community partners attend to support AAJA-LA and to continue their “cross-town” rivalries in this unparalleled arena. For Trivia Bowl XII, our 25th An-niversary, we raised nearly $90,000.

Los Angeles has hosted the national convention three times: first, in 1987, with the “Making a Differ-ence” theme; in 1993 with “Building Towards Unity;” and in 2010 with “Back to the Future.”

MICHIGANYear Founded: 2003Membership (2010): 24http://chapters.aaja.org/Michigan/join.html

The Michigan Chapter has been a significant part of AAJA history, participating and leading many of the group’s major initiatives, including: fundraising for the national endowment, running one of the ELP’s three media demonstration projects, and hosting the national convention in Detroit during AAJA’s 30th anniversary.

The Michigan Chapter’s history can be traced back to the Detroit Chapter, which was founded in 1988 but dissolved in the mid-1990s when the Detroit Free Press and Detroit News went on strike and many chapter members left. In 2001, journalists from De-troit, Lansing and Grand Rapids decided it was time to rebuild a chapter in the state. A group of about 20 Michigan journalists made their case for chapter status to the AAJA national board at the 2002 Dallas convention. The Michigan Chapter became AAJA’s

HAWAI‘I LOS ANGELES


19th chapter in 2003. Michigan Chapter members now include former national officers, chairs of key committees, a member of the governing board and top executives in the news industry.

In its first year, the Michigan Chapter began host-ing a variety of events for students and to raise money for the chapter. In 2005, the chapter held a major fundraiser, “Remembering Vincent Chin: A conversa-tion about Civil Rights and Journalism” to benefit the national endowment. In 2009, the national board awarded the 2011 convention to the chapter, beating a competitive bid from the New York Chapter.

Last year, the chapter began working on the ELP media demonstration project, teaching mostly Arab-American middle school students in a school in Dearborn to document their world using journalistic techniques. This year, the chapter was awarded with AAJA national a $250,000 Ford Foundation grant to continue that project as well as support the con-vention. The chapter has been a leader in national fundraising for the convention -- bring in some of the largest contributions to AAJA in years.

MINNESOTAYear Founded: 1993Membership (2010): 20http://www.aajamn.com/

Minnesota became the 14th AAJA chapter when it was founded in 1993 by Les Suzukamo, Tawn Nhan, Wendy Tai, Nghi Huyhn, Ben Chanco and Gregg Wong.

In the 18 years that have followed, the Minnesota Chapter has had many highlights and proud moments.

The Minnesota Chapter hosted the AAJA national convention in 1996 and 2005. Chapter member Neal Justin, co-founder of J Camp and 2005 convention chair, was named AAJA Member of the Year in 2006.

Other AAJA Minnesota highlights include estab-

lishing annual programs benefiting college students. They include a yearly scholarship awarded to a Uni-versity of Minnesota student, a summer internship program that places AAJA college students in area newsrooms and our yearly “AAJA Spotlight Awards” recognizing the best in Minnesota college journalism.

The chapter also continues to offer professional development stipends that include sending AAJA members to ELP, the national convention and other training programs.

The Minnesota Chapter continues to be active in the local community. Taste of AAJA has become our flagship food, entertainment and fundraising event that attracts Twin Cities journalists as well as the larger community. The Minnesota Chapter is proud to continue to carry out the founders’ vision to provide mentorship, professional development and community outreach.

NEW ENGLANDYear Founded: 1988Membership (2010): 41http://aajane.org/

What have been the defining moments of the New England Chapter? Since our founding in 1988, we have joined an exclusive AAJA club: we have proudly hosted two national conventions -- one in 1997 and another in 2009.

The two conventions represented two complete-ly different eras in journalism. The 1997 convention drew a record number of attendees and what we now fondly remember as the good times in media. The 2009 convention, following the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, attracted a much smaller crowd and the focus turned to how we can adapt and become multi-platform journalists, something none of us imagined in 1997.

MICHIGAN MINNESOTA


The rise of ESPN in Connecticut has also shaped our membership. Not only does the chapter have more members from ESPN, but we also have a new tradition, thanks to our members from the sports hub. AAJA Day at Fenway Park has become a rite of sum-mer with members and friends enjoying an afternoon at the storied ballpark. The Boston Red Sox don’t always win, but we always have a good time.

What does our future hold? The New England Chapter hopes to build more relationships with His-panic and black journalists in New England. We are doing more activities together -- whether it’s to learn new Web skills, play softball, or celebrate the Lunar New Year.

NEW YORKYear Founded: 1987Membership (2010): 316 http://chapters.aaja.org/NewYork/

The New York Chapter was founded in 1987, with president Jeannie Park, treasurer Shirley Kwan and secretary Alan Llavore as its first officers.

The chapter is AAJA’s largest and is known for our forward-thinking membership and our activism, from condemning columnist Jimmy Breslin for his infamous anti-Asian outburst in the New York News-day newsroom to stepping into the controversy over the non-Asian casting in the Broadway show “Miss Saigon.” The chapter’s activism led the AAJA national board to develop guidelines and procedures by which chapters and national could address crises and po-tentially controversial issues.

The chapter has had the privilege of hosting the national convention in 1990 and 2000 and is ready to host again.

The New York chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League honored AAJA-New York for help-ing to defuse any negative coverage in the media on the 50th anniversary of Pearl Harbor. The chapter has been home to many power players and leaders in the organization, as well as in the industry. Members Jeannie Park, Corky Lee, Steve Paulus, the late Dith Pran, Helen Zia and Henry Moritsugu have all been recognized with special national AAJA awards.

Today, the AAJA New York Chapter is thriving and looking to the future in the changing landscape of journalism. We embrace new technology by train-ing our members and build strength in the economic downturn by bringing people together through networking events and mixers. Over the years, AAJA has given thousands of dollars in scholarships and stipends to students and members to attend the con-vention and pay for training.

Our sponsors range from The New York Times to CNN to News Corp. Our members work in every major and minor media organization in New York, in print, broadcast, radio and online, at all levels. Some mem-bers have reached the top of the publishing ladder or are stars on TV; others are students or mothers rejoin-ing the industry. We strive to support all of them.

NORTH CAROLINAYear Founded: 2006Membership (2010): 20http://www.aajanc.org/

The North Carolina Chapter was founded in 2006 by a small group of AAJA members who had moved here from other states. At the end of a pro-bationary year in December 2006, it became AAJA’s 20th chapter.

Over the years, the chapter has held media ac-cess workshops to help Asian American and Pacific Islander organizations in the community understand how to work with the media.

We also hold annual career workshops for col-lege journalism students about breaking into the business as well as seminars for professional mem-bers on topics ranging from career strategies to using social media.

PHILADELPHIAYear Founded: 1995Membership (2010): 21http://aajaphiladelphia.wordpress.com/

AAJA Philadelphia has been a wonderful re-source over the past 16 years to Asian American jour-nalists and students in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware. Membership in the chapter peaked in 2006


with 59 members under then-president Murali Balaji. One of the pioneers of the Philadelphia Chapter

was former president Siani Lee, the first Asian Ameri-can television news anchor in Philadelphia. The 39-year-old KYW-TV anchor was killed in a car accident in October 2001.

During its peak years in the mid-2000s, AAJA Philadelphia became more engaged with partner organizations, such as the National Association of Asian American Professionals (NAAAP).

Under Balaji’s leadership, the chapter was also vocal in speaking out against prejudicial remarks about Asian Americans. In one case, the chapter took the lead in challenging Clear Channel over a radio host’s use of an offensive term against South Asians, leading to a daylong workshop addressing how to bet-ter cover Asian American communities.

The chapter under Balaji also began to raise money for an annual scholarship, hosted an art exhibit with the Asian Arts Initiative and held two Asian Americans and Excellence banquets with NAAAP.

In recent years, the chapter has held one major event a year, such as the mini-regional conference in 2008, a panel discussion with news editors in 2009, and a panel talk with mid-level AAJA professionals in 2010. The chapter continues to reach out to students at Temple University, the University of Pennsylvania, and suburban colleges.

In the past few years, it has offered scholarships to students or young professionals to help them at-tend the AAJA national convention. That has been done through generous donations from John Curley, the former president, chairman and CEO of Gannett Co., who now teaches at Penn State University. He re-ceived AAJA’s Leadership in Diversity Award in 1996.

PORTLANDYear Founded: 1987Membership (2010): 33http://aaja.wordpress.com/

Stanford Chen helped co-found AAJA Portland in 1987. Other founding members included Cathy Ki-yomura, Brian Wong, Bryan Hori and Alan Ota.

Chen was an AAJA leader at the local and na-tional level, serving as AAJA National Secretary and National Vice President for Print. He was author of “Counting on Each Other: A History of the Asian American Journalists Association from 1981 to 1996.” AAJA established the Stanford Chen Internship Grant to honor Chen, who was awarded a Lifetime Achieve-ment Award in 1998. Chen died in 1999 at the age of 51.

The Portland Chapter has hosted panel discus-

sions with Asian American state political leaders and reporters and tours of the state Capitol. The chap-ter has led media access workshops, done outreach with other Asian American groups in the region, and funded journalism scholarships and internships. It also has been the host for authors, both Asian Ameri-cans and those who write on topics of interest to Asian Americans.

SACRAMENTOYear Founded: 1985Membership (2010): 52http://www.aajasacramento.org/

AAJA Sacramento was AAJA’s fourth chapter when it was founded in 1985. The chapter’s territory stretches from California’s Central Valley to as far north as the Oregon border.

The founding chapter board members were Judy Tachibana, Lonnie Wong, Corinne Chee, Sharon Ito, Sydnie Kohara, Mary Downes, Edd Fong, Sandra Gin and Mai Pham. Wong is still active in the chapter,

PHILADELPHIA

SACRAMENTO


serving as a board member.AAJA Sacramento was honored as Chapter of

the Year in 2006 and 2010. The chapter has never wavered from AAJA’s mission. We have provided scholarships and internships to students. We have or-ganized media access workshops and attended com-munity events. We have offered training and stipends for professional members.

2010 was a momentous year for AAJA Sacra-mento. In February, the chapter donated $25,000 to AAJA national as part of a successful effort to close AAJA’s deficit. In October, AAJA Sacramento marked its 25th anniversary with its fourth annual Photo Showcase and Silent Auction, where attendees enjoyed food and wine from well-known restaurants and bid on donated photographs.

SAN DIEGOYear Founded: 1986, decertified 1993, recertified 2000 Membership (2010): 25 http://www.aajasandiego.org/

The San Diego Chapter has come a long way since its rebirth in 2000! Despite being one of the smaller chapters, San Diego hosted the AAJA national convention in 2003, awarded students and profes-sional members with scholarships and stipends and even coined the “San Diego’s Got Talent” fundraiser. Chapter members also continue to be acknowledged for their contributions not only in the journalism industry but in the larger San Diego community.

SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREAYear Founded: 1985Membership (2010): 187http://www.aajasf.org/

It was 26 years ago when a group of about 15 journalists met to discuss forming an AAJA chapter in Northern California. The original 47 paid members were mainly broadcast journalists. Today, the San Francisco Bay Area Chapter spans all mediums and is among the oldest as well as one of the largest AAJA chapters.

The chapter has remained very active over the years, hosting two AAJA national conventions in 1989 and 2001.

In 1986, the chapter established an annual schol-arship program with other minority journalist orga-nizations in the area. Since then, AAJA-SF has kept the tradition alive by organizing its own fundraisers for scholarships, including the chapter’s most popu-lar one started in 2006 called East West Eats, which showcases food by the Bay Area’s top Asian chefs.

The event has proven a success each time, generating more than $10,000 toward scholarships for students aspiring to become journalists. In 2010, the chapter changed the event to East West Clicks, a silent auc-tion featuring the works of Bay Area photojournalists.

Beyond its fundraisers, the chapter has put to-gether workshops covering everything from freelanc-ing to multimedia, as well as media access work-shops for nonprofits. It also hosts an annual student pizza night, where students meet with professionals in the field to talk about the most pressing issues fac-ing journalists today. On the social front, the chapter hosts an annual Lunar New Year banquet, a sum-mer picnic and a holiday party, in addition to mixers throughout the year.

SEATTLEYear Founded: 1985Membership (2010): 102http://www.aajaseattle.org/

The third AAJA chapter in the country – Seattle

SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA

SAN DIEGO


– was kicked off on July 13, 1985, at the Bush Asia Center in the International District. Founding mem-bers included Lori Matsukawa and James Hattori of KING TV; Ashley Dunn of the Seattle Post-Intelli-gencer; Ron Chew, editor of the International Exam-iner; and Frank Abe of KIRO Newsradio. Early events included a fundraising auction at the iconic Space Needle featuring Star Trek’s George Takei and skills workshops on investigative reporting.

Seattle was the site of the 1991 national conven-tion and 1999 UNITY: Journalists of Color convention. The chapter invented Student Pizza Nights for the national convention and has continued them since 1999. Several AAJA national officers have come from Seattle – Sharon Chan (President); Mark Watanabe, Sharon Prill and Candace Heckman (Treasurer); and Janet Tu and Athima Chansanchai (Secretary). The chapter has adopted the Lunar New Year Banquet & Silent Auction as an annual fundraiser and celebrates local student journalists with the annual Northwest Journalists of Color (NJC) scholarship. In 2007, the chapter completed a four-year, $100,000 NJC endow-

ment campaign, and we celebrated the scholarship’s 25th anniversary this year.

Twenty-six years after our start, we’re still a big part of the journalism community. We have held digi-tal media workshops and salons, visited newsrooms for a friendship tour of Vancouver, British Columbia, and hosted conferences for AAPI organizations on how to get their stories told in the media. We sup-port ethnic media initiatives, such as the Sea Beez project. We advocate on behalf of our current and former members: The chapter took an early national leadership role in calling on Syria and Iran to release Dorothy Parvaz, a longtime Seattle journalist who was detained by those countries while reporting for Al-Jazeera English.

TEXASYear Founded: 1988Membership (2010): 40http://www.aajatexas.org/

AAJA Texas was formed in 1988 with five mem-bers. Its membership has grown to include journal-ists, associate members and students from across the state.

The Texas Chapter has been among the smaller chapters in the national organization. However the Lone Star State stands tall when it comes to raising funds, providing volunteers and serving AAJA na-tional.

AAJA national presidents who have come from the Texas Chapter include Catalina Camia, Esther Wu, Victor Panichkul and Doris Truong. Texas also hosted the national convention in Dallas in 2002. Since 1998, the chapter has hosted numerous state conventions to bring together its members who span the vast state.

The chapter offers professional stipends, stu-dent scholarships and organizes mixers and profes-sional workshops.

WASHINGTON, D.C.Year Founded: 1986Membership (2010): 100http://chapters.aaja.org/Washington/

Since its formation in 1986, AAJA-D.C. has seen a surge in membership, making it one of the largest chapters in the organization. Several members have also gone beyond the local level to serve as national AAJA leaders. In 2004, the nation’s capital hosted the third UNITY: Journalists of Color convention, which drew more than 8,000 attendees.

SEATTLE

TEXAS


Over the years, the chapter has consistently provided workshops and panels to members, utilizing resources in the region like The Washington Post and NPR. Past topics of discussion included the Middle East, United States elections and online media. Also, our members are asked regularly to offer their insight on journalism and current events.

We continue to branch out and connect with our community. Every month, the chapter hosts net-working opportunities open to members and groups who want to learn more about our organization. We also co-sponsor events with Asian American Pacific Islander groups like the Organization of Chinese Americans. This year, we celebrated the success of former chapter president Cheryl Tan and the launch of her new book.

AAJA-D.C. has donated thousands of dollars in grants and stipends for student members, and to ac-complish that we have held photo auctions, Scrabble

tournaments and trivia bowls. Trivia Bowl 2010 raised more than $4,000.

AT LARGEYear Founded: 1997Membership (2010): 77

While not officially an AAJA chapter, the At-Large designation was created to recognize and loosely organize the often more than 100 AAJA mem-bers who work in small markets or at small newspa-pers miles away from other chapters.

At-Large members are at the front lines of AAJA, are often the only Asian American journalists in their city, and are sometimes the only witnesses to the rac-ist or stereotypical portrayals of Asians in their local media.

Former AAJA National President Benjamin Seto used to say that all AAJA national officers should be-come At-Large members, because At-Large members are the only ones in AAJA who give all of their mem-bership dues to AAJA national.

The AAJA national conventions are also more meaningful to us because they’re often the only times we get to see, connect and network with the rest of the larger AAJA family.

At-Large members have also brought items to the Silent Auction, have contributed to as well as won scholarships and fellowships, and have oc-casionally hosted AAJA national board meetings. The Arizona, North Carolina, Denver and Florida Chapters, among others, were all carved out of what used to be the At-Large region. So in that sense, the At-Large chapter can be considered the birthplace of future AAJA chapters. We might even host an AAJA national convention someday.

WASHINGTON, D.C.


In 2003, AAJA established the Dr. Suzanne Ahn Award for Civil Rights and Social Justice for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in memory of Dr. Ahn, a Korean American physician, neurologist and inventor who used her wealth and privilege to promote civil rights and social justice for all Amer-icans, especially women and Asian Americans.

The award recog-nizes excellence in cover-age of civil rights and/or issues of social justice of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. The winner receives a $5,000 prize and an award plaque presented at the AAJA national convention’s scholarship banquet.

The first winner was Helen Zia, an award-win-ning journalist, former executive editor of Ms. Magazine, and author of the 2001 book “Asian American Dreams: The Emergence of an American People.”

“Asian American Dreams” traces the historical experiences of Asian Americans from the 17th century to the 20th century, not-ing their struggles against racism, discrimination and xenophobia while documenting their progress toward the ideal of equality and justice. The book chronicles the flashpoints in Asian Americans’ struggle for equal treatment and social justice.

“Receiving the Suzanne Ahn award for my first book was one of the great honors of my journal-ism career,” Zia said. “My book was all about the political, social and cultural struggles of APIs to be

full participants in this American democracy. AAJA was very much a part of that history, and Dr. Suzanne Ahn was not only an extraordinary leader and voice for Asian Ameri-cans, but she keenly recognized the

importance of news me-dia to the fair treatment of these communities.

“I had the privilege of meeting Dr. Ahn, who was so dynamic, outspo-ken, smart – and elegant. I first met her when we both testified before the U.S. Civil Rights Commis-sion on the significant and harmful impact of the campaign finance corruption scandals of the late 1990s, with their singular focus on ‘Asian’ political party activists. I spoke on the role of the news media while she testified on the devastat-ing effect on API political participation. I remember that she was stunning in her Chanel suit, pointedly

telling the conservative-leaning Commission that she and her fam-ily had made political contributions to both parties ‘in the six figures… and now we have FBI files.’ Boy, did they sit up and listen to her outrage!

“Being the first recipient of Dr. Ahn’s award was especially hum-bling, for to me it is a living testa-ment to her indomitable spirit, to her belief that API journalists and AAJA have critically important roles and responsibilities, and that, if we try, we can make a difference.”

The 2009 winner of the Dr. Ahn Award, Corky Lee, whose business card identifies him as the “undisputed, unofficial Asian American photographer laureate,”

said he used the award money to publish his first photography book, tentatively entitled “Not on the Menu: More or Less Chi-nese America,” and to present a solo photographic exhibit at the Queens Museum of Art called, “Asian Pacifically New York.”

Over his 40-year career docu-menting Asian Pacific Americans, Lee has taken photos ranging from APA cultural traditions to civil rights struggles, including the 1982 beating death of Vincent Chin, to a historic photo of the descendants of 1800s-era Chinese railroad workers who worked to connect the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads.

As both a role model and mentor to aspiring photojournal-ists, Lee’s award-winning work has appeared in more than 42 books, including the Organization of Chinese Americans’ “Voices of Healing,” on how Sept. 11, 2001, af-fected the Asian Pacific American community. He was also featured in “100 New York Photographers,” by Cynthia Dantzic, alongside photographic icons such as Bruce Davidson, Annie Leibovitz, Mary Ellen Mark and Elliott Erwitt.

“As I had mentioned in my acceptance of the award, once I have the book published, I would donate the proceeds of the sale during the next convention back to AAJA,” Lee said.

The Dr. Suzanne Ahn Award winners:

Loni Ding (2010) Corky Lee (2009)Dmae Roberts (2007)Ti-Hua Chang (2006)Ray Rivera (2005)David Chen & Rinku Sen (2004)Helen Zia (2003)

Dr. Suzanne Ahn Awardfor Civil Rights and Social Justice

dr. Suzanne Ahn

Corky Lee


Leadership in Diversity Award WinnersIn 1995, AAJA created one of its most prestigious awards to recognize and honor those who have promot-

ed greater diversity in their companies as well as the media industry as a whole.John C. Quinn, the first recipient, was lauded for promoting diversity in newsrooms and journalism edu-

cation. Other recipients, such as Dinah Eng, Joe Grimm and Simon Li, have made significant personal dona-tions in addition to their professional contributions.

Simon Li (2011)ESPN (2010)Jeannie Park (2009)Dori Maynard (2008)Bobbi Bowman (2007)Larry Olmstead (2006)Joe Grimm (2005)P. Anthony Ridder (2004)Los Angeles Times (2003)

Time Inc. (2002)Reginald Stuart (2001)The Ford Foundation (2000)Skip Rhodes (1999)Dinah Eng (1998)Alex MacLeod (1997)John Curley (1996)John C. Quinn (1995)

Lifetime Achievement Award WinnersAAJA created this award to honor individuals who have demonstrated courage and commitment to the

principles of journalism over the course of a life’s work, as well as dedication to the issues important to the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities.

The first recipient, James Omura, was a World War II journalist who was ostracized by the Japanese American community for his opposition to the U.S. government.

When Lloyd LaCuesta won the award in 2004, he jokingly protested that it meant he was old. But infact many Lifetime Achievement Award honorees have continued to work as journalists and serve as AAJA leaders and role models after being recognized.

Nick Ut (2011)Annie Nakao (2010)Dinah Eng (2009)Dith Pran (2008)Sam Chu Lin (2007)Duong Phuc and Vu Thanh Thuy (2006)Lori Matsukawa (2005)Lloyd LaCuesta (2004)Tritia Toyota and William Hosokawa (2003)Yen Ngoc Do (2001)

Larry Nakatsuka (2000)Henry Moritsugu (1999)Stanford Chen (1998)K. Connie Kang (1997)David Louie (1996)Dorothy Ing Russell (1995)Willie Kee (1994)Ken Kashiwahara (1993)Morgan Li Kung Jin (1992)William Woo (1990)James Omura (1989)

Nick Ut

dith Pran

Simon Li

dinah Eng Lloyd LaCuesta david LouieStanford ChenAnnie Nakao

AAJA National Office >> WWW.AAJA.ORg


5 THIRD STREET, SUITE 1108SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA 94103

T: 415.346.2051 | F: 415.346.6343E: [email protected]

EXECUTIVE dIRECToR Kathy ChowMEMbERSHIP & CHAPTER dEVELoPMENT MANAgER Antonio M. Salas, MDIV, MAPRoFESSIoNAL PRogRAMS CooRdINAToR Marcia K. SantillanSTUdENT PRogRAMS CooRdINAToR Nao VangEVENTS & FUNdRAISINg CooRdINAToR Annabelle A. Udo-O’MalleyACCoUNTANT (CoNSULTANT) Glenn SugiharabooKKEEPER (CoNSULTANT) Karen Sugihara

The Executive Leadership Program, created in 1995 by then-AAJA National President Dinah Eng with a $65,000 grant from The Freedom Forum, aims to shatter the glass ceiling in media companies by help-ing Asian Americans and others understand the cul-tural values they bring to the office and their jobs, and how that can influence perceptions and promotions.

Over its first 15 years, 408 journalists have gradu-ated from the program. Many of them return year after year to recharge their career batteries, share war stories, re-inspire, and re-affirm each other. Several with upper management aspirations were selected to participate in the ELP Mentor Program, which matched participants with high-ranking industry executives in a one-year mentorship program.

Surveys show that 55 percent of ELP graduates received at least one promotion at their company or at a new company after going through ELP. Eighty-three percent of those who received promotions attributed much of their success to the program’s training.

In 2010, in recognition of the enormous con-tribution ELP has had on the lives and careers of its graduates, AAJA presented its Special Recogni-tion Award to trainers Ron Brown, president, Banks Brown; J.D. Hokoyama, president and CEO, Leader-ship Education for Asian Pacifics, Inc.; Glenn Kawa-fuchi, principal, Kawafuchi Consulting; and Audrey Yamagata-Noji, vice president of student services, Mt. San Antonio College.

Dinah Eng received AAJA’s Leadership in Di-versity Award in 1998 and its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009. After spearheading ELP’s 15th An-

niversary Media Demonstration Projects, she stepped down as ELP director in 2010.

Among the ranks of accomplished ELP gradu-ates, an elite few have been chosen for even greater recognition for making the most of their ELP lessons and becoming exemplary leaders in their newsrooms and in the media industry.

“We started the ELP Outstanding Leadership Award to recognize those who go through the program and achieve more than personal success,” Eng said. “While ELP gives participants tools to advance in the workplace, the program also teaches that leadership means giving back and helping others to succeed, as well.

“Each year, we solicited nominations from ELP graduates, and the trainers and I would choose a win-ner. Those who won not only rose in the ranks of their newsrooms, they were chosen for their contributions to AAJA and efforts to promote diversity industry-wide.”

ELP Outstanding Leadership Award Winners

Shirley Leung (2010)Kim Moy (2009)Andrew DeVigal (2008)Katharine Fong (2007)Randall Yip (2006)Mae Cheng (2005)Fred Katayama (2004)Victor Panichkul (2003)Joie Chen (2002)Gail Rayos (2001)David Ng (2000)

AAJA Executive Leadership Program


National OfficersNATIoNAL PRESIdENT Doris N. Truong Multiplatform Editor, The Washington Post*NATIoNAL VICE PRESIdENT FoR bRoAdCAST George Kiriyama News Reporter, NBC Bay Area News *NATIoNAL VICE PRESIdENT FoR PRINT Janet H. Cho Business Reporter, The Plain Dealer *NATIoNAL SECRETARY Athima Chansanchai Founder/President, Tima Media*NATIoNAL TREASURER Rene Astudillo Executive Director, Lupus Foundation of Northern California *

2011 National Advisory BoardARIZoNA Abe Kwok Online News Editor, azcentral/The Arizona Republic*ASIA Tomoko A. Hosaka Reporter, Tokyo Bureau, The Associated PressATLANTA Kim Bui Executive Producer, CNNCHICAgo Lorene Yue Reporter, Crain’s Chicago* BusinessdENVER Tillie Fong Freelance JournalistFLoRIdA Victoria Lim Reporter/Anchor, Bright House Sports NetworkHAWAI’I Wes Nakama Freelance JournalistLoS ANgELES Henry Fuhrmann Assistant Managing Editor, Los Angeles TimesMICHIgAN Frank Witsil Web Producer, Detroit Free Press*MINNESoTA Nancy Ngo Reporter, St. Paul Pioneer PressNEW ENgLANd Tali A. B. Smith Managing Partner/Editorial Director, TLABS Media LLCNEW YoRK Paul Cheung Global Interactive Editor,The Associated Press; Annalisa Burgos Senior Editor, Real Estate, HGTV’s FrontDoor.com*

NoRTH CARoLINA Marc Kawanishi CEO, MediaMission InternationalPHILAdELPHIA Steve Bien-Aime Staff Editor, FOXSports.comPoRTLANd Nicole Dungca Reporter, The OregonianSACRAMENTo Judy Lin Staff Writer, TheAssociated PressSAN dIEgo Jenny Hamel Anchor/Reporter, San Diego 6 NewsSAN FRANCISo Ellen Lee Freelance Journalist* / Patricia Tom West Editor, Insurance Journal, Wells PublishingSEATTLE Sanjay Bhatt Reporter, The Seattle Times*TEXAS Tom Huang Sunday & Enterprise Editor, The Dallas Morning NewsWASHINgToN dC Sherri Ly Reporter, WTTG/ FOX5REPRESENTINg AT-LARgE MEMbERS Don Chareunsy Editor, VegasDeLuxe.com*

* GOVERNING BOARD OFFICERS

Appreciation and CreditsThis commemorative keepsake marking AAJA’s 30th anniversary is dedicated in loving memory of

Stanford Chen, former AAJA Vice President for Print, former reporter and deputy editorial page editor for The Oregonian, and author of “Counting on Each Other: A History of the Asian American Journalists Association from 1981 to 1996.”

In accepting AAJA’s Lifetime Achievement Award at the 1998 Chicago national convention, Chen said: “AAJA has been like a family to me. The mission of journalism has helped me and, in turn, I feel the need to give back as much as I can to keep the mission going, keeping diversity alive and making sure the industry does, too.”

We would also like to gratefully acknowledge AAJA’s founders and pioneers, without whose ground-breaking work we could never have reached this historic milestone.

This book was a collaborative effort of the following people: Janet H. Cho, Chris Chow, Kathy Chow, Rufus Friday, Joe Grimm, Suzanne Kai, Tim Kelly, Sandy Louey, Scott Mitchell, Denise L. Poon, Antonio Salas, Marcia Santillan, David Stone, Reginald Stuart, Annabelle Udo-O’Malley, and Jeff Yang. The book was de-signed by Tan Ly, a lead news designer at The Washington Post ([email protected]).

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