SEJ Board of Directors 2022-2023
Luke Runyon, President
Sara Schonhardt, First Vice Pres. & Programs Chair
Michael Kodas, Second Vice Pres. & Membership Chair
Kathiann Kowalski, Treasurer & Finance Chair
Annie Ropeik, Secretary
Rico Moore, Vice Pres., Diversity, Equity, Inclusion Committee
Sara Shipley Hiles, Vice Pres., Fundraising Committee and Rep. for Academic Membership
Sadie Babits, Vice Pres., Governance Committee
Tony Barboza
Sam Eaton
Rocky Kistner
Rebecca Leber
Nadia Lopez
Mark Schapiro
Jennifer Bogo, Rep. for Associate Membership
Ex Officio Board Member
Jim Detjen, Founding President
Past SEJ Board Members
Past SEJ Board Presidents
SEJ Staff
Meaghan Parker, Executive Director
Jay Letto, Director of Annual Conferences
Meagan Jeanette (MJ), Marketing and Programs Associate
SEJ Consultants and Advisors
Christine Bruggers, Senior Advisor, Awards and Elections
Joseph A. Davis, SEJournal Writer/Section Editor; Editor, EJToday; Member, SEJ FOI Task Force
Adam Glenn, SEJournal Editor and Editorial Director, Publications
Cindy MacDonald, Web Content Manager
Beth Parke, Founding Executive Director
SEJ Advisory Boards, Committees and Task Forces
Advisory Board
Audit Committee
Awards Committee
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee
Editorial Advisory Board
Elections Committee
Finance Committee
Freedom of Information Task Force
Fundraising Committee
Governance Committee
Leadership Committee
Membership Committee
Past Board Presidents
Programs Committee
Stolberg Committee
SEJ Board of Directors 2022-2023
President
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Luke Runyon is a reporter and editor covering the Colorado River Basin for public radio station KUNC in Greeley, Colo., where he produces feature stories for a network of public media stations in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, New Mexico, Arizona, California and Nevada. Before covering water at KUNC, Luke covered agriculture for five years as the station's Harvest Public Media reporter. He has also reported for Aspen Public Radio in Aspen, Colo. and Illinois Public Radio in Springfield, Ill. His reports have been featured on NPR's Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Weekend Edition, Here & Now and APM's Marketplace. He’s a graduate of the University of Illinois Public Affairs Reporting program. You can find him @LukeRunyon. Current term: 2021-2024. Contact Luke.
First Vice President and Programs Chair
Sara Schonhardt is an international climate reporter with E&E News. Previously, she was the managing editor for Internews' Earth Journalism Network, where she worked with journalists around the world to develop and produce stories that look at the human impacts of climate and environmental change. A longtime international reporter, she worked for nearly eight years in Indonesia for outlets such as The New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, Voice of America and The Wall Street Journal, where she was a staff reporter until 2017. Her joint work on “No Good Choices,” an interactive project about domestic worker abuse in Hong Kong won the 2015 Society of Publishers in Asia award for Excellence in Reporting on Women’s Issues. Sara traveled to Guatemala in the fall of 2017 through a fellowship with the International Reporting Project to document how women were responding to issues related to the environment. Born and bred in Columbus, Ohio, Sara has a degree in journalism from Ohio University and a master's degree from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. You can find her at www.saraschonhardt.com and @saraschonhardt. Current term: 2020-2023. Contact Sara.
Second Vice President and Membership Chair
Michael Kodas, senior editor of Inside Climate News, is an award-winning author, reporter, photojournalist and journalism educator as well as the former Deputy Director of the Center for Environmental Journalism at the University of Colorado Boulder. He was the winner of the 2018 Colorado Book Award for General Nonfiction for his book, "Megafire: The Race to Extinguish a Deadly Epidemic of Flame," which was also named one of the 20 best nonfiction books of 2017 by Amazon. He is also the author of "High Crimes: The Fate of Everest in an Age of Greed," which was named Best Non-Fiction in USA Book News’ National Best Books Awards of 2008 and was the subject of a question on the game show Jeopardy. In 1999 he was part of the team at The Hartford Courant awarded The Pulitzer Prize for breaking news coverage and has been honored with awards from the Pictures of Year International competition, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Competition and the National Press Photographers Association. His work has appeared in the New York Times, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, The Boston Globe, The Denver Post, Newsweek, National Geographic News, Mother Jones and many other publications. His photography was featured in the Ken Burns/Lynn Novick documentary "The Vietnam War" and he has appeared on the HBO program "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver," in the American Experience documentary "The Big Burn" on PBS and more. From 2013 to 2019 Kodas was one of the directors of the prestigious Ted Scripps Fellowships in Environmental Journalism, which brings five mid-career journalists focused on environmental topics to the University of Colorado Boulder. Kodas was a Ted Scripps Fellow in Environmental Journalism at the University of Colorado (2009-10), a Davidoff Scholar at the Wesleyan Writers Workshop (2005) and is a graduate of the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism. Current term: 2022-2025. Contact Michael.
Treasurer and Finance Chair
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Kathiann M. Kowalski is a freelance journalist based in Ohio. She’s written 25 books and more than 750 articles spanning a wide range of environmental, science and social issues. Her work has appeared in Energy News Network, Science News for Students, Eye on Ohio, Cobblestone, Front Vision, American Forests and other publications. Her work has garnered awards from the Ohio chapters of the Society of Professional Journalists, the Society of School Librarians International, the ASPCA, and the National Science Teachers Association and Children’s Book Council. She is an alumna of fellowships awarded by the Heinrich Boell Foundation, the CUNY Resilience Fellowship Program, the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL), and the Institute for Journalism & Natural Resources. Prior to her journalism career, Kathi spent 15 years practicing law, with an emphasis on environmental issues and litigation. She is listed in Who’s Who in American Law and is admitted to the bars of Ohio, New York, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, and the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. Current term: 2020-2023. Contact Kathi.
Secretary
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Annie Ropeik is a freelance journalist in Portland, Maine. She is the assistant director of the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk, a journalism collaborative based at the University of Missouri, and writes about energy, climate change, drinking water and other environmental issues in the Northeast for outlets such as the Maine Monitor. A Maryland native and Boston University graduate, Annie spent a decade as a public radio reporter and host for NPR member stations in Alaska's Aleutian Islands, Delaware, Indiana and New Hampshire, and later worked for Spectrum News Maine. At New Hampshire Public Radio, she covered climate policy in the 2020 presidential primary, founded the newsroom climate desk By Degrees, co-hosted the 2021 podcast Windfall and worked on reporting projects with NPR and the New England News Collaborative. Annie has received numerous awards for her environmental reporting, including from the Public Media Journalists Association and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in New England. You can find her @aropeik. Current term: 2022-2025. Contact Annie.
Vice President, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion Committee
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Rico Moore is a freelance journalist based in Washington state. His work focuses on the confluence between environment and humanity. His reporting has primarily centered on issues affecting the Western United States, including the intersections of state wildlife management, natural resource extraction, Tribes, as well as the politics of federal and state environmental policies. He has also reported on issues of environmental and climate racism and justice, as well as the intersections of these issues with democracy and human rights. He often focuses on the cultural and linguistic dimensions of these stories with an eye toward historical context. He is the recipient of a grant from SEJ's Fund for Environmental Journalism for a forthcoming story preliminarily titled, "Ancestral Territory or Public Lands?: Indigenous sovereignty and reporting on Bears Ears." His work has won awards from the Society for Professional Journalists and appears in Audubon Magazine, Boulder Weekly, DeSmog Blog, The Guardian and High Country News. He is particularly focused on issues of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion within the field of environmental journalism. Current term: 2021-2024. Contact Rico.
Vice President, Fundraising Committee and Representative for the SEJ Academic Membership
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Sara Shipley Hiles is an associate professor at the University of Missouri School of Journalism, where she teaches environmental, science and health reporting; online journalism; and investigative reporting. She is also the executive director of the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk, a reporting network focused on covering agriculture, water, climate and related environmental issues across one of the world's largest watersheds. She has worked at The Times-Picayune in New Orleans; The Statesman-Journal in Salem, Oregon; The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Kentucky; the St. Louis Post-Dispatch; and as a freelancer for numerous outlets. She has taught at Western Kentucky University and Bowling Green State University in Ohio. She received a bachelor's degree from Loyola University in New Orleans and a master's in journalism from MU, where she is helping to build the school's science communication program. Current term: 2022-2025. Contact Sara.
Vice President, Governance Committee
Sadie Babits is a public media journalist, editor and educator based in Phoenix, Arizona. She's a professor of practice at Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication where she is the sustainability director in the Cronkite News/Arizona PBS newsroom. She teaches students how to cover environmental stories as multimedia journalists. Sadie received a prestigious Ted Scripps Fellowship in Environmental Reporting in 2017-2018 to focus on public lands reporting. Previously Sadie was the News Director at Colorado Public Radio where she guided and edited daily and long-term coverage for this statewide network. Her work has aired on National Public Radio shows including Morning Edition and All Things Considered, and has been recognized nationally with an Edward R. Murrow Award for Investigative Journalism and by the Society of Environmental Journalists. She’s reported from Kenya, Israel and many places in between, but she calls the West home where she can often be found exploring trails on her mountain bike. Current term: 2020-2023. Contact Sadie.
Tony Barboza is an editorial writer for the Los Angeles Times who focuses on climate change and environmental justice. Before joining the editorial board in 2021 he worked for 15 years as a Times reporter, covering air quality, climate change, environmental health and other topics. He was born and raised in Colorado, graduated from Pomona College and began his journalism career as an intern at High Country News. Tony was hired by the Times in 2006, reporting on Orange County before moving onto the California coast beat. After completing a Ted Scripps Fellowship in Environmental Journalism at the University of Colorado in 2013 he spent several years writing about California's air quality. You can find him @tonybarboza. Current term: 2021-2024. Contact Tony.
- "Environmental Journalist Paves Way for Truth, Diversity in Work," DailyLobo.com, April 25, 2022, by Megan Gleason.
Sam Eaton is the Seattle-based National Correspondent for Scripps' 24-hour news network, Newsy. His reporting and documentary films from the western US and beyond focus on climate change, the environment and the communities struggling to adapt to a rapidly warming planet. Before that Sam was the founding Senior Reporter for sustainability coverage at Marketplace, a Pulitzer Center grantee and a Special Correspondent for PBS NewsHour, The Nation magazine and PRI's The World. His reporting and filmmaking have taken him to more than two dozen countries around the world. Sam's films have screened at Washington DC's Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital, DOC NYC, The World Economic Forum and the United Nations Secretariat, and he is a three-time winner of the Society of Environmental Journalists Awards for Outstanding Beat Reporting and Outstanding Investigative Reporting in a large market. Current term: 2021-2023. Contact Sam.
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Rocky Kistner is an independent environmental journalist based near Washington, D.C. Over the past four decades, he has produced environmental stories as a producer/reporter for The Center for Investigative Reporting, ABC News, PBS Frontline, Marketplace public radio and NRDC’s onEarth, as well as freelancing for other national and local outlets. He also publishes stories on his website www.TheRockyFiles.org and can be reached via Twitter @therockyfiles. Current term: March 2023-Fall 2023 election.
Rebecca Leber is a senior climate change reporter at Vox, based in Washington, D.C. Before Vox, she was an environmental reporter at Mother Jones, an editor at Grist and a staff writer at The New Republic. Her investigations into fossil fuel disinformation and climate obstacles have exposed government corruption and launched congressional oversight. She is a two-time recipient of SEAL's environmental journalism awards and has completed fellowships with Vermont Law School and CUNY Journalism School. You can find her on Twitter at @rebleber. Current term: 2022-2025. Contact Rebecca.
Nadia Lopez is an environment reporter at CalMatters, where she covers air pollution and climate policy, with a special focus on California's major goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Previously, she helped launch the Central Valley News Collaborative at The Fresno Bee, a first-of-its-kind enterprise project that tells the stories of the San Joaquin Valley's diverse Latino community. There, she started reporting on environmental issues by exploring how climate change and drought are reshaping the valley and the lives of the region's most vulnerable — particularly immigrants, low-income residents and those who work in the agricultural industry. She was born and raised on the U.S.-Mexico border in Chula Vista, California and graduated from San Francisco State University. You can find her @n_llopez. Current term: 2022-2025. Contact Nadia.
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| Photo: © Luis A. Hernandez |
Mark Schapiro is an award-winning investigative journalist specializing in the environment. His most recent book, "Seeds of Resistance: The Fight To Save Our Food Supply," chronicles the search for food crops capable of resilience to climate change, and the battle underway to control them. Previous books include "The End of Stationarity: Searching for the New Normal in the Age of Carbon Shock," revealing the hidden costs and consequences of climate change; and "Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products and What’s at Stake for American Power," an investigation into the health and economic impacts of the U.S. retreat from toxic chemical regulations. Mark's work is also published in Harpers, Yale 360, Mother Jones, The Nation, The Atlantic, the Guardian, Bay Nature, Los Angeles Times and elsewhere; and broadcast on TV, for PBS FRONTLINE/World, NOW With Bill Moyers and KQED. He was formerly Sr. Correspondent at the Center for Investigative Reporting, and is currently a Lecturer at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. Awards include Sigma Delta Chi Award from the Society of Professional Journalists, Kurt Schork Award for International Reporting, a Columbia-DuPont Award (shared), a Society of Environmental Journalists award (Television) and a National Magazine Award (shared). Current term: 2021-2024. Contact Mark.
Representative for the SEJ Associate Membership
Jennifer Bogo: As Vice President of Content, Jennifer Bogo leads the editorial and art teams that distinguish Audubon for its outstanding journalism on birds and conservation and set the high visual standard for the organization writ large. In this role she serves as editor-in-chief of the quarterly Audubon magazine, which under her direction has won multiple National Magazine Awards, including Personal Service for the magazine's innovative and inspiring Climate Action Guide in 2020 and the General Excellence, Special Interest honor in 2021. She also leads the development and growth of editorial brand extensions such as the Audubon Photography Awards, Audubon for Kids!, and the Audubon Mural Project. Jennifer came full circle to Audubon, and to birds, after stints extolling the virtues of robots and space probes as the science editor at Popular Mechanics and executive editor of Popular Science. Stories she edited for those publications have also won a National Magazine Award and been included in the "Best American Science Writing" and "Best American Science and Nature Writing" anthologies. Jennifer has made frequent media appearances as a science expert, and she has traveled to research stations from the Arctic to the Antarctic to report feature stories herself. Current term: 2021-2024. Contact Jennifer.
Founding President
Jim Detjen served as Director of the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism and Knight Chair at Michigan State University from January 1995 through May 2012. Previously Detjen spent 21 years as a professional newspaper reporter and editor at The Philadelphia Inquirer, The (Louisville) Courier-Journal and other publications. His reporting has won more than 50 state, national and international awards including Polk, National Headliner, Stokes and Meeman awards. He is a three-time finalist for a Pulitzer Prize. Detjen is a contributor to or author of four books on environmental and science journalism topics. He has lectured widely and has taught journalism workshops in the British Isles, Australia, Russia, Ukraine, China, Japan, Portugal, France, Italy, Germany, Hungary, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Mexico and throughout the U.S. Detjen helped found the International Federation of Environmental Journalists in 1993 and served as IFEJ president from 1994 to 2000. He earned a bachelor's degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY. and a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University. Detjen was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to teach at Nanakai University in Tianjin, China, during the spring semester of 2002. Ex officio board member and founding president, 1990. Contact Jim, 517-353-9479.
SEJ Staff
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Executive Director
Meaghan Parker has been the executive director of the Society of Environmental Journalists since 2018. Under her leadership, SEJ has doubled the size of its Fund for Environmental Journalism; launched new fellowship, training and outreach programs; and committed to integrating equity throughout its activities, which has significantly increased the diversity of its membership. Previously, she was the senior writer/editor and partnerships director for the Environmental Change and Security Program and the Global Sustainability and Resilience Program of the Wilson Center, a nonpartisan policy forum in Washington, D.C., where she worked for 15 years. She was the founder and editor-in-chief of the award-winning New Security Beat, a daily blog covering environment, health and security. She was the supervising producer of the award-winning documentary trilogy, "Healthy People, Healthy Environment," which was filmed in Tanzania, Nepal and Ethiopia. She was the lead editor of "A New Climate for Peace," an online platform and independent study commissioned by the foreign ministers of the G7. Before stepping down to join the staff, she served for six years on SEJ's Board of Directors. She currently serves on the Advisory Council of Planet Forward and is a member of Investigative Reporters & Editors, JAWS (Journalism and Women Symposium), the National Association of Science Writers and The Uproot Project. Contact Meaghan, 202-558-2033.
Annual Conference Director
Jay Letto, a founding member of SEJ, has been the group's annual conference director since 1993. He also works as a freelance writer and editor. From 1986 to 1992, Letto served as director of the environment program at the Scientists' Institute for Public Information in New York City, where he was also co-editor of SIPIscope. Letto has organized scores of programs for journalists on the full spectrum of environmental issues. As annual conference director for SEJ, he works with the board conference chair and dozens of member-volunteers to organize a balanced, diverse and news-making program dealing with the myriad aspects of news reporting on environmental issues. Letto earned his B.S. in biology and environmental studies from the University of Michigan. He also holds an M.A. in journalism, with a certificate in science and environmental reporting, from New York University. Contact Jay, 509-493-4428 (West Coast - Pacific Time).
Marketing and Programs Associate
Meagan Jeanette (MJ) assists with all of SEJ's programs and initiatives, marketing, SEJ member and customer support, donor gifts and pledges, paid press releases, ad orders, reimbursement requests, Listserv subscriptions, conference marketing and app management, exhibit tracking, membership data reports and development of basic procedures. Based in Louisville, Kentucky, Jeanette is also a classically-trained chef with an Associate of Science degree in Culinary Arts from Sullivan University. Contact MJ, (202) 558-2055.
SEJ Consultants and Advisors
Senior Advisor, Awards and Elections
A. Christine Bruggers has served with distinction in multiple staff roles since 1993. Currently, she provides advice and expertise for our Awards and Elections. Her leadership and creativity have produced a base of systems for SEJ programs and operations including the building of database systems for membership, listservs and accounts; marketing, planning and implemention of annual conferences, awards, FEJ and other programs; training and supervising administrative and program staff; design and production of SEJournal; and leadership with SEJ's board on membership policy and elections procedures. She is responsible for moving membership applications and member data from paper to electronic files in 2009. Bruggers also serves as Director of SEJ Awards and as such developed one of the earliest online entry-form procedures for journalism awards in 2010. She also supervises the annual board election and created online balloting in 2010, both saving money and increasing voter participation. Bruggers earned a B.A. in professional writing from Kutztown University in Pennsylvania. She is also an accomplished photographer. Contact Chris.
SEJournal Writer/Section Editor; Editor, EJToday; Member, SEJ FOI Taskforce
Joseph A. Davis is a freelance writer/editor in Washington, D.C. who has been writing about the environment since 1976. He writes SEJournal Online's TipSheet, Reporter's Toolbox and Issue Backgrounder, and curates SEJ's weekday news headlines service EJToday and @EJTodayNews Twitter feed. Davis also directs SEJ's Freedom of Information Project and writes the WatchDog opinion column. Davis was senior writer with the Environmental Health Center until 2002, where he was acting editor of EHC's Environment Writer as well as principal author of EHC's reporter's guide on the science of global climate change. Between 1982 and 1989, he covered energy, environment and natural resources for Congressional Quarterly in Washington, D.C. Davis earned his B.A. from Harvard University and a Ph.D. in American Literature from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He has experience in database reporting and has taught Web publishing. Contact Joe.
SEJournal Editor and Editorial Director, Publications
A. Adam Glenn is an award-winning journalist, digital pioneer and journalism educator with more than four decades of experience, including in online, magazine and newspaper newsrooms. He was named editor of the SEJournal in 2012, after having been its features editor and then co-editor with SEJ founding member Kevin Carmody in the 1990s. As editorial director for SEJ publications, Glenn oversees initiatives such as SEJ's special reports, Climate Change Resource Guide and Environmental Issues Area pages. He is also a member the SEJ editorial advisory board. A long-time specialist in environmental news, Glenn previously worked as environment producer for ABCNews.com, executive editor of Greenwire and D.C. bureau chief for a group of environmental and health & safety newsletters. In addition, he has launched two grant-supported climate news sites: the Reporter's Guide to Climate Adaptation and AdaptNY, which led an award-winning citizen science project on urban heat waves with WNYC Radio. Glenn is currently deputy editor at the Freedom of the Press Foundation, working with the team that produces the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. He is also a journalism lecturer at the City University of New York, having previously taught at New York University and Columbia University. Glenn has won numerous fellowships and grants, including a public policy fellowship at the Wilson Center think tank. He holds a Master of Arts degree in international (environmental) policy from the Fletcher School of International Law and Diplomacy, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism from Boston University. He is a Brooklyn native and currently lives in the Lower Hudson Valley. Contact Adam.
Web Content Manager
Cindy MacDonald, SEJ's web content manager, develops and maintains fresh, accurate and timely content for www.sej.org on a daily basis. She has applied her technical expertise and extensive experience as a detail-oriented writer and administrator to this creative and critically important service to the SEJ community since December 2000. She also serves as a copy editor for SEJ, casting her nitpicking "Eagle Eye" over publications large and small. Based in Fenelon Falls, Ontario, Canada, MacDonald is an avid proponent of accurate information in general and on environmental issues in particular. She is a French/Spanish undergraduate of the University of Windsor, Canada. Contact Cindy.
Founding Executive Director
Beth Parke became SEJ's first executive director in 1993. She provides entrepreneurial leadership to clarify, protect and advance SEJ's mission. Parke's responsibilities include implementation of board policies, budget and finance, development, strategic planning, university relations with regard to annual conferences, and collaboration with partners in the journalism community. From 1984-1992 Parke was senior producer and host for Consider the Alternatives, an award-winning radio series on public policy issues. Prior to that she was employed as a producer for National Public Radio affiliates WGBH-FM, Boston and WHYY-FM, Philadelphia. Parke earned a B.A. in Communications from Boston College, and an M.A. from the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. View a tribute to Beth. Contact Beth.
SEJ Advisory Boards, Committees and Task Forces
Advisory Board
Marla Cone
Steve Curwood
Gregg Easterbrook
Charles Eisendrath
Judy Muller
Rich Oppel
Gene Roberts
Rick Rodriguez
Sandy Rowe
Teya Ryan
Robert Semple
Judy Woodruff
Walter Cronkite (1916-2009)
Peter Desbarats (1933-2014)
Katherine Fanning (1927-2000)
Thomas Winship (1920-2002)
Audit Committee
An Audit Committee, appointed by the board, shall arrange for and oversee an annual independent audit of the organization's financial statements. The Committee shall be composed of three members, none of whom shall be the current Treasurer. At least one member shall be a board member other than the Treasurer, who will act as the primary liaison between the committee and the Board, and at least one member shall be an SEJ member who is not currently serving on the Board. Committee members will serve staggered three-year terms, but no member shall serve more than two consecutive three-year terms. More.
Jenny Bogo (Chair)
Amelia Jaycen
Robert McClure
Awards Committee (SEJ Awards for Reporting on the Environment)
Annually, at its January meeting, the SEJ Board of Directors will appoint an Awards Committee consisting of at least three people, as well as a non-voting board liaison, each of whom will serve one-year terms. The committee must always have an odd number of members to avoid evenly split votes, and the board must appoint a replacement if there is a mid-year vacancy. More: SEJ Awards 2023 Rules.
Heather Dewar, Second Nature News
Parimal Rohit, Austin Business Journal
Third seat vacant
Sara Schonhardt, International Climate Reporter, E&E News and SEJ Board Liaison to the Awards Committee
Chris Bruggers, Senior Advisor, Awards and Elections
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee
The DEI Committee works with board members/committees, SEJ members and related groups to ensure SEJ is diverse, equitable and inclusive of all races, gender identities, socioeconomic statuses, ages and backgrounds. Our goal is to ensure SEJ — and environmental journalism in general — is more representative of the diverse array of voices working in the field. More.
Emilia Askari
Nadia Lopez (Co-Chair)
Rico Moore (Co-Chair)
Annie Ropeik
Editorial Advisory Board
The role of the Editorial Advisory Board, or EAB, is to help maintain the editorial integrity and independence of SEJ publications by consulting regularly with publication editors on editorial content for SEJ publications. The EAB may also be called upon to advise SEJ's executive director on publications strategy, as needed. The EAB convenes periodically to review the workings of the publication team, identify important environmental topics worthy of in-depth coverage, or address other matters related to SEJ publications.
The SEJ Board of Directors delegates the authority to form the EAB to the SEJournal Editor. The SEJ Board understands that the Editor will form the EAB by recruiting SEJournal Editors. The members of the EAB will elect a Chair. The SEJ Board will designate one SEJ board member to be a liaison to the EAB. (Approved by the SEJ Board, March 4, 2023, with delegation of authority voted annually.) More
Robert McClure (Chair)
Adam Glenn (SEJournal Editor and Editorial Director, Publications)
Michael Kodas (Board of Directors Liaison)
Brandi Addison
Emilia Askari
Frances Backhouse
Joseph A. Davis
Yessenia Funes
Tom Henry
Rocky Kistner
Chioma Lewis
Carolyn Whetzel
Christine Woodside
Bob Wyss
Elections Committee
The election of SEJ board members and votes on bylaws amendments proposed by the SEJ board are accomplished by a combination of live balloting at the SEJ Annual Membership Meeting and absentee ballots returned either by mail by a deadline set by the elections committee or electronically by the end of live balloting at the SEJ Annual Membership Meeting. The election is supervised by a five-member Elections Committee. The board secretary shall be a voting member of the committee. More.
Christine Heinrichs
Chuck Quirmbach
Annie Ropeik (Board Liaison)
Meera Subramanian
Ex Officio: Chris Bruggers, Senior Advisor, Awards and Elections
Finance Committee
The SEJ Board of Directors has delegated oversight responsibility for the Financial and Accounting Controls policy to the SEJ Treasurer and the Finance Committee of which the Treasurer is the chair. More.
Kathiann Kowalski (Co-Chair)
Tony Barboza
Jenny Bogo
Sam Eaton (Co-Chair)
Mark Schapiro
Freedom of Information Task Force
The Society of Environmental Journalists board of directors formed the FOI Task Force in March 2002 "to address freedom-of-information, right-to-know, and other news gathering issues of concern to the pursuit of environmental journalism." More.
Timothy Wheeler (Chair)
Deon Daugherty
Joseph A. Davis
Carey Gillam
Liza Gross
Estelle Lamotte
Chris May
Rico Moore (Board Liaison)
Benjamin Purper
Nano Riley
Ry Rivard
Lisa Sorg
Jimmy Tobias
Fundraising Committee
Emilia Askari
Sam Eaton
Rocky Kistner
Rebecca Leber (Co-Chair)
Nadia Lopez
Kate Sheppard
Sara Shipley Hiles (Co-Chair)
Governance Committee
The SEJ Board of Directors created a standing Governance Committee on March 7, 2020. The Governance Committee is responsible for the health and functioning of the board. It recruits new members, conducts orientation, produces board materials and evaluates the performance of the board itself. More.
Sadie Babits (Co-Chair)
Jenny Bogo (Co-Chair)
Kathiann Kowalski
Rebecca Leber
Donovan Quintero
Leadership Committee
Luke Runyon, President
Sara Schonhardt, First Vice Pres. & Programs Chair
Michael Kodas, Second Vice Pres. & Membership Chair
Kathiann Kowalski, Treasurer & Finance Chair
Annie Ropeik, Secretary
Rico Moore, Vice Pres., Diversity, Equity, Inclusion Committee
Sara Shipley Hiles, Vice Pres, Fundraising Committee and Rep. for Academic Membership
Sadie Babits, Vice Pres., Governance Committee
Membership Committee
SEJ's membership policies are designed to uphold SEJ’s identity and integrity while maximizing participation by journalists, educators and students. The SEJ board, its membership committee and SEJ staff implement these policies in accordance with the SEJ bylaws to determine prospective and existing members' eligibility for one of five classes of membership — ACTIVE, ASSOCIATE, ACADEMIC, STUDENT and HONORARY. More.
Michael Kodas (Co-Chair)
Jenny Bogo (Vice Chair)
Sara Shipley Hiles (Vice Chair)
Donovan Quintero
Sara Schonhardt
Programs Committee
Tony Barboza (Co-Chair)
Rico Moore
Annie Ropeik
Mark Schapiro
Sara Schonhardt (Co-Chair)
Stolberg Committee
The David Stolberg Meritorious Service Award is presented by SEJ each year to honor exceptional volunteer work by a member. The Award was created by the SEJ board in 1998 and named for SEJ’s founder David Stolberg. More.
Meaghan Parker
Luke Runyon
Sara Schonhardt
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