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Best Practices: Editorial/Commentary in CyberspaceAgenda | Speakers | Fellows | Resources | BlogFellowsGina Acosta is currently assistant editor of the editorial page for The Washington Post and is working with washingtonpost.com producers to develop integrated opinion content for both the print and Web editions. Employed at The Washington Post since 1997, she was copy/slot editor, metro and foreign editor, editorial page before taking her current position in 2006. Acosta was copy/slot editor, news and sports for the Tallahassee (Fl.) Democrat from 1995 until 1997 where she also served as sports ombudsman and wrote columns. She has received the Hispanic Media 100 Award, Latina magazine's Latina of Promise Award, Women in Communications Leadership Award, Tallahassee Democrat Award for Newsroom Excellence Dow Jones Newspaper Fund Intern Award and Hearst Journalism Award; scholarships from National Federation of Press Women, National Association of Hispanic Journalists and Knight Foundation, and fellowships from Investigative Reporters and Editors, Poynter Institute and American Society of Newspaper Editors. In 2007, Acosta was an Indiana University School of Journalism teaching fellow and a Maynard Media Academy Scholar and Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. She graduated from Florida A&M University with a degree in newspaper journalism. Email: Dawn M. Bracely has been an editorial writing at The Buffalo (N.Y.) News for more than seven years, concentrating on local political and educational issues with additional emphasis on technology and transportation. In addition, she writes an occasional boating article for the newspaper and produces a monthly teen radio show for the Buffalo Association of Black Journalists, which is aired locally and in Florida. Earlier, Bracely was a reporter for the Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle for 10 years, including being loaned briefly to USA Today's sports department. She also worked for the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times as a police reporter and for the Citrus County (Fla.) Chronicle as a municipal reporter. Bracely holds a degree in journalism from the University of Maryland, College Park and technical writing certification from the Rochester Institute of Technology. Email: Linda P Campbell has been an editorial writer and columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram since 2000. From 1994 to 2000, she was a senior reporter for the newspaper, covering courts and higher education among other assignments. Earlier, Campbell was national legal affairs correspondent for the Chicago Tribune, legal affairs reporter for The Washington Times and a reporter for Texas Lawyer. Her many honors include awards for editorial writing from the Houston Press Club, Society for Professional Journalists Fort Worth First Amendment Award for Commentary, Association for Women Journalists Dallas Fort Worth Chapter Commentary award, State Bar of Texas Gavel Award for Commentary and Texas State Teachers Association School Bell Awards. Campbell is a board member of the National Conference of Editorial Writers and member of the Leadership Fort Worth Class of 2008. She earned a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Texas at Arlington, a Master of Studies in Law from Yale Law School and did graduate study in journalism at City University (London) on a Rotary Foundation Fellowship. Email: Vanessa J gallman Gallman has been editorial page editor of the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader since 1997 and is the current president of National Conference of Editorial Writers, sponsor of the Opinion Pool online commentary project. Formerly she was national correspondent in the Knight Ridder Washington bureau for three years, assistant city editor at The Washington Post from 1991 to 1994, an assistant professor at the University of Maryland at College Park 1989-1990 and metro editor of the Washington Times from 1985 to 1989. Gallman earned a Bachelor of Arts in journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Email: Joseph Garcia is community conversation editor for The Arizona Republic, responsible for the Web component of community conversation at http://www.aztalk.ascentral.com and for Sunday Viewpoints, the op-ed section of the newspaper. He also writes editorials, Web logs and occasional columns. Previously, Garcia was senior editor for the Republic's East Valley bureau. In 2005, he was editor of The (Farmington, N.M.) Daily Times. Starting in 1987, Garcia had a 17-year career at the Tucson Citizen, serving as senior editor, assistant managing editor and weekly columnist, among other positions. He broke into journalism as a staff writer for The Associated Press. Garcia serves on the national board of Associated Press Managing Editors and is a member of National Association of Hispanic Journalists. He won first place for editorials in 2005 from New Mexico APME and New Mexico Press Association and has also received Best of Pima from Pima Community College and Tucson Citizen Publisher's Award. Garcia holds a degree in journalism from the University of Arizona. Email: David Holwerk is editorial page editor for The Sacramento Bee and vice president of the National Conference of Editorial Writers where he is involved in the Opinion Pool project. Before moving to The Sacramento Bee, he was an editor at the Duluth (Minn.) News Tribune from 1998 to 2001 and bureau chief, editorial page editor and managing editor during 18 years at the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader. Holwerk has become a multimedia journalist in the last ten years of his career as he works to use news and opinion content to strengthen civic life. He earned a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Kentucky. Email: Kevin F Horrigan is an editorial writer and columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, where he writes political and public policy editorials and assists in the day-to-day operations of the editorial page as deputy editor. Horrigan worked for the Post-Dispatch in 1977-1989 as reporter, special project editor and sports editor, leaving to become a columnist for the short-lived St. Louis Sun. Following stints as radio talk show host for KMOX Radio (1990-1996) and KTRS Radio (1996-2000), he rejoined the Post-Dispatch in 2000 and was named deputy editor in 2007. Horrigan began his journalism career as a reporter at The Kansas City Star. The veteran journalist has not kept track of his many state and local journalism awards, but has published two books, "White Rat, A Life in Baseball," with Whitey Herzog, and "The Right Kind of Heroes." Horrigan earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Houston and a graduate degree from the University of Missouri. Email: Richard (Dick) A Hughes is editorial page editor at the (Salem, Ore.) Statesman Journal, concurrently serving as newsroom trainer and weekly columnist. He has also been opinion editor, editorial writer, city editor, night city editor, copy editor and reporter with regional, city and state/legislature beats during his 27 years at the Statesman Journal, which included a four-month loan of his skills to USA Today in 1986. Before employment with the Statesman Journal, Hughes was news editor, regional reporter and features reporter for the (McMinnville, Ore) News Register from 1976 to 1981. He earned money during high school and college as a proofreader and summer reporter at the (Twin Falls, Idaho) Times-News. The veteran journalist has won writing, photography and editing awards from Society of Professional Journalists, Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association, Best of the West, National Headliner Awards, Best of Gannett, National Newspaper Association and Education Writers Association, among others. Hughes is an alumnus of Linfield College where he majored in psychology and social anthropology. Email: Carol A Hunter is editorial page editor for The Des Moines Register, an NCEW Opinion Pool pilot site. She was heavily involved in creative approaches to commentary before the Iowa caucuses, partnering with YouTube and Google, among other tactics. Before joining The Des Moines Register, Hunter was editor of the Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1997 to 2004, and spent 17 years at the (Bridgewater, N.J.) Courier-News, starting as copy editor, then municipal reporter, night news editor, metro editor, managing editor and finally editor, winning Gannett's "Most Improved Newspaper" award in 1994. While she was editor of the Press-Gazette, the newspaper was runner-up in Gannett's "Most Improved Newspaper" in 1998. Hunter's innovative Iowa caucuses online interaction also contributed to her being named one of Gannett's 15 supervisors of the year for 2007. She is an alumna of the University of Kansas. Email: Tonya Jameson has just begun an assignment as online political video columnist at The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer, her employer for her 13-year journalism career. Her previous roles at the newspaper have been pop culture columnist (which included a blog, photo slideshow, podcasts and short videos on Charlotte.com), pop music writer, night general assignment report and crime reporter. A 1993 Chips Quinn Scholar and 1997 Knight Ridder Fellow, Jameson holds a Bachelor of Arts and Science from the University of Alabama and a master's in public affairs reporting from the University of Maryland. Email: Lois C Kazakoff is deputy editorial page editor at the San Francisco Chronicle where she has tried a variety of multimedia tools to convey the editorial views of the newspaper and its op-ed writers, while enabling readers to respond online. Before taking on this job in 2001, she was opinion page editor for two years and business wire editor for five years at the Chronicle. Earlier, Kazakoff was business copy editor, staff writer, interim assistant city editor and assistant business editor at the (Walnut Creek, Calif.) Contra Costa Times and California beat reporter for The (Sonora, Calif.) Union Democrat where she initiated wrote and edited the newspaper's first business pages. Her awards from Association of Opinion Page Editors include Best Overall Section in 2007 and 2005, Best Theme Page in 2002 and Best Op-ed Feature in 1999. Kazakoff was invited and testified before Congress on the need for the "Common Cents Stock Pricing Act of 1997." A board member of the National Conference of Editorial Writers, she is chairman of the futures committee. Kazakoff graduated from the University of California at Santa Cruz with a bachelor's degree in French studies and from Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism with a Master of Science in journalism. Email: Michael Landauer is assistant editorial page editor for community opinions at The Dallas Morning News. He was promoted to that role in 2004 after serving the newspaper as editorial writer for suburban pages, and copy editor, page designer, business wires editor, editorial writer and editorial page editor for Arlington Morning News. Landauer was editor of the Best Op-Ed Page in 2006, according to the Association of Opinion Page Editors, and was project manager of a death penalty series that won Best Theme Page in 2007 from AOPE. Other honors include a Katie Award for General Column in Southwest mid-sized markets, Samaritan Inn's Good Samaritan Award for leadership on Collin County homelessness issues and, as a team member, winner of the Edward Willis Scripps Award for leadership on First Amendment issues for urging the Texas Legislature to end voice votes that conceal voting records and American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children media award for leadership on child neglect and abuse issues. Before Landauer joined the Dallas newspaper, he worked at the Houston Chronicle and was a Dow Jones Newspaper Fund copyediting intern. A journalism graduate of Texas A&M, Landauer serves on the Journalism Advisory Committee and Student Media Board at the university. Email: Susan Mannella joined the editorial board as associate editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette last summer after three decades as a reporter, assistant city editor, associate news editor and assistant managing editor at the newspaper. While in the latter role, she produced stories for the Post-Gazette's online editions that differed from the print versions and developed a political blog and a section with expanded governmental content. Now, Mannella is responsible for improving the Web site's opinion section. Among her first moves was videotaping editorial board meetings with candidates before November elections. Her work for the Pittsburgh newspaper has won the Keystone Press award from the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association and Golden Quill awards from the Pittsburgh Press Club. She is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh. Email: Dave Mastio works on the Web at BlogNetNews.com, a site he founded in 2006, but his heart is in newspapers. He has been letters editor, an op-ed editor and an editorial writer for USA Today, starting there in 1995 just as USAToday.com was born. As the youngest person on the editorial board, Mastio was drafted into making recommendations, later ignored, for how to launch an online opinion section. He has also been a reporter for The Detroit News Washington bureau, an editorial writer for The Virginian-Pilot and a speechwriter for a member of the cabinet. Mastio was the founding editorial page editor of the tabloid Washington Examiner where his section was the number-one traffic driver for the online paper. In 2005, He founded InOpinion.com, a syndicate dedicated to creating op-ed content that was not columns and not cartoons. Despite landing customers with a daily circulation of more than three million, InOpinion didn't build enough revenue to stay in business. Mastio is an alumnus of the University of Iowa. Dave Mastio is a Senior Fellow at this seminar. Email: Matthew T (Matt) Neistein Neistein has been editorial online and design editor for The Tampa Tribune since August 2007. The prior five years, he worked at the (Appleton, Wis.) Post-Crescent, initially as a copy editor and later as assistant editor/Community Conversation with responsibilities for print and online opinion sections. During his time at the Post-Crescent, Neistein won first place for editorial pages from Wisconsin Newspaper Association in 2007, best single editorial from Milwaukee Press Club in 2005, second place for local column from Wisconsin Newspaper Association in 2003 and first place for columns and commentary in the Gannett Well Done Awards for third quarter 2005. His first journalism job was copy editor for the Quad Cities (Ill.) Argus/Dispatch. Neistein attended Eastern Illinois University. Email: Miriam A Pepper is vice president, editorial page, at The Kansas City Star, a position she's held since November 2001. The Star's Midwest Voices Web log under her supervision is part of the NCEW Opinion Pool project. Another current role is coordinator of an online cartoon site for McClatchy newspapers. Earlier responsibilities during Pepper's 31 years at the Star include associate editor/readers' representative, business columnist, investigative projects, Missouri legislative reporter, city hall bureau chief, political writer, regional government reporter and general assignment reporter. She was part of The Kansas City Star team coverage of the Hyatt skywalks collapse that won the 1982 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. Pepper has been honored for Excellence in Media by the Greater Kansas City Women's Political Caucus, best editorial pages by the Kansas and Missouri Press Association and Outstanding Media Coverage by the Missouri Association for Social Welfare. Before joining The Kansas City Star, she covered the Missouri Legislature for The Associated Press and was a sports reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Pepper holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of California at Berkeley. Email: George Rede is currently Sunday Opinion editor of The (Portland Ore.) Oregonian, where he has worked since 1985. His positions have included director of recruiting and training, suburban bureau chief, assistant city editor, Sunday editor, and minority affairs reporter. Throughout these years, Rede has worked toward more diversity, training and engagement of staff and readers, efforts he now continues through online projects. Earlier, he was a reporter at the (Salem, Ore.) Statesman Journal and The (Bend, Ore.) Bulletin. Rede earned a Bachelor of Arts in journalism from San Jose State University. Email: Laurence Reisman is Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers' editorial page editor, the first person to hold that position, where one of his key goals is to create more interactivity with readers. His newspaper is one of the pilot sites for NCEW's Opinion Pool. Earlier, Reisman was a reporter, night city editor, opinion page editor and ultimately editor of the Vero Beach Press Journal. During his 20-year tenure at the Press Journal, he won Florida journalism awards for editorial and column writing. While Reisman was its editor, the Press Journal was finalist twice for The Associated Press Managing Editors public service award and twice won more awards than any other Florida newspaper of its size. He also strove to bring minority journalists into the newsroom and cover all communities in Vero Beach. Reisman holds a Bachelor of Arts in journalism from Lehigh University. Email: Kate Riley is an editorial writer and columnist for The Seattle Times, a participating newspaper in the National Conference of Editorial Writers' Opinion Pool project. Riley is also editor of NCEW's journal, the Masthead. Before moving to The Seattle Times in 2002, she worked for 14 years at the Tri-City Herald, Kennewick, Wash., as a business reporter, editorial writer, assistant to the publisher, and editorial page editor. Riley started her journalism career at the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin as a business and agriculture reporter. Sigma Delta Chi Foundation awarded her the 2005 Eugene C. Pulliam Fellowship for editorial writers. Society of Professional Journalists Northwest honors for Riley include first place for editorial (large papers) in 2005, first place for editorial commentary (large papers) in 2003 and first place for editorial (small papers) in 2002. She is a former president of the William O. Douglas Chapter of SPJ. Riley is a graduate of the University of Washington with a degree in economics and communications. Email: Eddie Roth is an editorial writer and multimedia producer for the Dayton Daily News, joining the newspaper after practicing law for nearly 20 years in New York and St. Louis. He also coordinates the Opinion Pool, a project of the National Conference of Editorial Writers in which up to ten properties, including the Dayton Daily News, are working together to build model online templates for opinion journalism. The pilot sites' purpose is to enable traditional newspaper opinion pages to become digital leaders in their local communities. Roth holds a Bachelor of Science in economics from New York University and a Juris Doctor from Fordham University School of Law. Eddie Roth is a Senior Fellow at this seminar. Email: Deron K Snyder is an editorial writer and Community Conversation Ambassador for The (Fort Myers, Fl.) News-Press. A member of the editorial board, he also writes a weekly column on pop culture and social issues, while representing the newspaper in efforts to engage young people and readers. Before joining the editorial board, Snyder wrote a general sports column for The News-Press and was syndicated to Gannett's 85 newspapers. He covered the major leagues as a staff writer for USA Today Baseball Weekly during the 1990s, appearing as a regular radio guest on Washington, D.C.'s WOL and a frequent TV guest on major networks. Earlier, Snyder covered college and high school sports for the (Binghamton, N.Y.) Press & Sun-Bulletin and was a news assistant at USA Today. He has been runner-up for best local columnist in The News-Press Readers' Choice Poll twice and he's been honored for column and sports writing several times by Florida Sports Writers Association, Associated Press Sports Editors, Florida Press Club, SPJ South Florida chapter and Gannett. Snyder holds a Bachelor of Arts in print journalism from Howard University. Email: Christian J Trejbal is an editorial writer at The Roanoke (Va.) Times, a position he has held since 2005. He intends to lead the upgrade of the editorial section of the newspaper's otherwise outstanding Web site. From 1999 to 2005, Trejbal was an editorial writer at The (Bend, Ore.) Bulletin and was a philosophy instructor at Central Oregon Community College during some summers of that period. He also combined journalism with teaching at the University of Minnesota where he was editorial editor of the student-run Minnesota Daily and a teaching assistant from 1996 to 1999. Trejbal has won editorial writing awards in Virginia and from Pacific Northwest Newspaper Association. He has a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy and Bachelor of Science in mathematics from Ohio University and master's degrees in history and philosophy of science from Indiana University and philosophy from the University of Minnesota. Email: Peter Wasson is opinion page editor of the Wausau (Wis.) Daily Herald, his employer for 14 years, and the smallest of the newspapers in the NCEW Opinion Pool project. The opinion page placed second in the Wisconsin Newspaper Association's annual competition for 2007, among other honors during his tenure. In addition to his work for the Wausau Daily Herald, Wasson is coordinating an expanded online reporting of community opinions for four Gannett central Wisconsin newspapers. Before the five years in his current position, he covered crime and city hall for the Wausau newspaper. Earlier, Wasson was crime reporter for the Palladium-Item in Richmond, Ind. A board member of NCEW, he has led workshops at the organization's conventions. Wasson is an alumnus of Miami University of Ohio. Email: Tyson L Wheatley is CNN.com producer/news manager for user participation, a role he's held since May 2007. Before that, he was CNN.com producer, CNN exchange and community for a year, CNN Headline News writer, Prime News Tonight, for two years, CNN Headline News associate writer for a year and CNN TV feeds coordinator/video journalist for a year. CNN.com received the 2007 Edward R. Murrow Award for best television network-affiliated Web site, with judges highlighting the site's "pioneering work in engaging the audience to contribute news, sowing the seeds for big news events in the future." Wheatley's goal every day is to the find the best ways to engage CNN.com readers. He earned a degree in journalism from Indiana University at Bloomington. Email: |
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