2024-25 Arkansas SPJ Board Election Survey

The Arkansas SPJ Board of Directors has 11 seats that are up for election.

Thank you for participating in the Arkansas Pro Chapter SPJ board elections. Only current national dues-paying members of SPJ who have selected to be members of the Arkansas Pro Chapter (the chapter does not charge additional dues) may vote.

Please review the candidates below and select one candidate for president, vice president, treasurer and secretary. If you choose, you can write in a candidate for each position. In addition to executive board roles, you can vote for up to 7 people for seats on the board of directors.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

To ensure the health of the Society of Professional Journalists Arkansas Pro Chapter, the members of the Board of Directors must be current on national dues and be accountable for the following duties and responsibilities:

ATTENDANCE
The Board of Directors meets monthly, and sometimes calls special meetings via video conferencing or email. Board members must attend a minimum of nine monthly meetings during their July-to-June term of office, but strive to make it to all meetings or phone in. Absence from three consecutive meetings, or four or more monthly meetings during their term, will result in the appointment of a new director to the position.

PARTICIPATION

Board members must actively participate in at least one of the following chapter committees: Freedom of Information, Programming, Contests, Membership and Marketing, or other special committees designated by the president. Active participation may include planning at least one event in a year, advancement of the FOIA through lobbying, contributions to the chapter’s website, newsletter or social media campaigns, or other efforts determined by the board.

1.President

WENDY JORDAN
Wendy Jordan is a marketing manager for Crafton Tull, where she is part of a team that handles procurement proposals for the firm in addition to social media postings, blog writing, and other marketing efforts. She is also an online adjunct instructor for Arkansas State University in the undergraduate strategic communications program and an academic assistant in the graduate-level strategic communication program. She is also an FAA-licensed commercial remote pilot and a notary. Previously, Wendy was the managing editor for the Trucker Media Group, which included leading a monthly newspaper and several niche magazines. Prior to her leadership at The Trucker, she spent eight years at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Five of those years were spent as the special sections manager supervising a team producing more than 75 special sections yearly. Wendy continues to be a contributing writer for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. She has also worked as an education and crime reporter for the Paragould Daily Press. Wendy holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a master’s degree in strategic communications from Arkansas State University. She is also a member of Kappa Tau Alpha, a national honor society for journalism and communications. A proud member of SPJ since 2015, Wendy has previously served as Arkansas Pro Chapter’s treasurer, secretary and vice president. Her regular contributions to SPJ include coordination of the Mark of Excellence Region 12 and Green Eyeshade Awards judging swaps, co-chair of the Diamond Journalism Awards and serving as the Region 12 treasurer for several years. She and her wonderful husband, who is an associate member of SPJ, have a two-year-old little star, Orion, and two cats, Mack and Mini.

Other (please specify)

2.Vice President

KEVIN KELLY
Kevin Kelly joined FOX 16 News in March of 2004. He is the evening Anchor for FOX 16 News at 5:30, 6:30 and 9 p.m. Since 1991, Kevin has worked in several top news markets, including San Diego and Phoenix. Over the decades he has traveled extensively covering important local and national stories. He covered Ground Zero in New York shortly after the 9/11 attacks; the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans; the devastating EF-4 tornado that hit Mayflower and Vilonia; the vice-presidential debate in St. Louis and the American Idol Finale in Hollywood, in which Arkansas native Kris Allen was crowned the winner. An avid sports fan, Kevin has also covered two World Series and four Super Bowls. He has also co-hosted several award-winning high school football shows. In addition to his anchoring duties, Kevin launched an anti-bullying campaign called “Step-Up, Stop Bullying.” Over the past several years, he has visited more than a hundred elementary and middle schools throughout central Arkansas teaching kids about the dangers of bullying. Kevin’s hard work and dedication have been recognized over the years. He has been awarded nine Emmy Awards, three Regional Edward R Murrow awards, a Delta Sigma Chi National award and five Associated Press Awards, including “Anchor of the Year.” Giving back to his community is a top priority. Kevin is actively involved with the Arkansas Martin Luther King Jr. Commission, the Victory Over Violence campaign and annually emcees several events. He also loves to play golf, soccer and tennis. He recently completed his fi rst full Ironman in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and has finished more than nine half-Ironman races. He also has done more than two dozen marathons and half-marathons. Kevin is currently an SPJ board member and on the Diamond Awards contest committee.

Other (please specify)

3.Treasurer

ROB MORITZ
Rob Moritz has been on the SPJ Arkansas Chapter’s board for more than 16 years, including one year as vice president. He is currently treasurer. He is also chairman of the Arkansas Freedom of Information Taskforce. Since the fall of 2014, he has been teaching journalism at the University of Central Arkansas and has organized an SPJ student chapter on the UCA campus. Prior to full-time teaching, he spent 30 years working for newspapers in Texas, Tennessee and Arkansas, including the Arkansas Gazette, Benton Courier, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and 15 years as a state capital reporter for Stephens Media. He is married to Gwen Moritz, an editor at Arkansas Business, and they have a dog named Scully and a cat named Fox. They also have two grown sons.

Other (please specify)

4.Secretary

SARAH CAMPBELL-MILLER
Sarah Campbell-Miller joined the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in August 2022 as deputy online editor and was promoted to senior online editor in March 2023. She is a former Arkansas SPJ board member. Her post-college career began in 2011 as a staff reporter and copy editor at The Leader in Jacksonville, Arkansas. She was there until 2016, when she was hired as a print and online reporter at Arkansas Business in Little Rock. She was named assistant online editor there in 2020. Sarah was named Young Journalist of the Year by the Arkansas Press Association in 2012. She has also won 19+ other APA awards for city beat and other reporting, as well as a third-place Green Eyeshades award for business reporting and an SPJ Diamond Award for investigative reporting. She is an Arkansas State University Alumnus and interned for the Jonesboro Sun for 1.5 years. Sarah is married, with two dogs and one cat. She loves animals, horror, Star Trek and the outdoors.

Other (please specify)

5.Select up to 7 people for board member positions

JENNIFER ELLIS
Jennifer Ellis is in her third consecutive term as SPJ’s Region 12 coordinator working with members throughout Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee. She served as Arkansas SPJ president for three years from 2017-2019 and was the chair of the planning committee for the 2018 Region 12 Life and Death Journalism Conference, which contributed to her honor that year as the national Howard S. Dubin Outstanding Pro Member Award for the small chapter division. Ellis has served multiple years on SPJ’s national membership and resolutions committees and serves on the state’s Freedom of Information Act Coalition and Arkansas SPJ’s programming and marketing committees – planning events, designing fl yers, assisting with the chapter’s social media and website and more, all while maintaining her work as Creative Services Managing Editor at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Ellis got her start with SPJ at the campus chapter at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, where she served as president as well as executive editor of the student newspaper The Forum for two years before graduating in 2013. She joined Arkansas SPJ’s board of directors in 2015, helping revive the group, and served as vice president in 2016-2017. She is a 2011 graduate of the SPJ Ted Scripps Leadership Institute. In addition to her work on the regional level, she hopes to continue serving Arkansas SPJ by reaching out to inactive and potential members, creating diverse programming and promoting SPJ’s mission.

SONNY ALBARADO
Lawrence “Sonny” Albarado is the editor-in-chief of the online news site Arkansas Advocate, part of the States Newsroom network. The Arkansas Advocate launched on Aug. 16, 2022. Sonny has been vice president of the Arkansas Pro Chapter of SPJ since 2020 and a chapter board member since 2007. He has been an SPJ member since 1979 and served as national SPJ president in 2012-13. Sonny is also a longtime member of the SPJ Foundation, the charitable funding source of the Society of Professional Journalists. He also serves as SPJ’s representative on the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. Sonny retired from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette at the end of January 2020 after 12 ½ years as the paper’s top investigative editor, supervising a team of four reporters. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and an honorary Doctor of Letters from Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, La.

ANDREW DEMILLO
Andrew DeMillo is the Arkansas Capitol Correspondent for The Associated Press, a position he has held since 2005. Previously, he was a staff writer for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. DeMillo is a graduate of the University of Georgia. He has interned at the Washington Post, the Seattle Times and Lexington Herald-Leader. He is a longtime member of SPJ and a former president of the Arkansas Pro chapter. He lives in Little Rock with his wife, Hilary, and their 10-year-old son, Simon.

STEVE LISTOPAD
Steven Listopad has received honors from the Hugh M. Hefner Foundation, the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, the Journalism Education Association, and the Society of Collegiate Journalists for his work in creating the national New Voices USA legislative campaign to protect the rights of student journalists. He led the passage of laws in North Dakota in 2015 and 2017 and in Arkansas in 2019 as part of the campaign. He continues coordinating the New Voices USA website and the national campaign with the Student Press Law Center. Listopad has had a successful 20-year career as an educator at three universities. He served as an assistant professor of journalism and a student media director at the University of Jamestown and Valley City State University in North Dakota. His converged student media center at UJ was a finalist in North Dakota’s annual professional, entrepreneurial competition, InnovateND, and he was a Scripps Fellow for Entrepreneurial Journalism in 2015. Most recently, Listopad served as a lecturer, media adviser, and internship coordinator at Henderson State University in Arkansas. At HSU his student journalists ran the only community-wide newspaper for Arkadelphia. Listopad received the APA’s Educator of the Year in 2021. He served as president of the Society of Professional Journalists Arkansas Pro-Chapter in 2022-23. Currently, he is a Mitigation Specialist on capitol murder cases for the Arkansas Public Defender Commission. He continues to teach journalism abroad in the summers and has taught in China, France, Italy, and Norway.

RHONDAJA HOWARD
Rhondaja Howard joined KAIT Region 8 in January 2024 as a multimedia journalist. She graduated from Canisius University in Buffalo, New York and received her Bachelor’s of Arts in Multimedia Journalism in 2023. At Canisius University, she was awarded the Buffalo News Scholarship from her communications department. Rhondaja is a Buffalo native, born and raised in the home of the Buffalo Bills. She graduated from Math Science and TechnologyHigh School in 2015. In her free time, she enjoys reading, writing poetry, and being a mother to her eight-year-old daughter.

JEANETTE STEWART
Jeanette Stewart graduated from the University of Central Arkansas with a bachelor of science degree in journalism. After an internship at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, she was hired as a full-time general assignment reporter at The Courier in Russellville. After two years covering the Arkansas River Valley, an opening for a full-time reporter at the Log Cabin Democrat caught her eye in early 2015. Conway had always felt like home to her and she jumped at the opportunity to cover the community. Stewart is currently the editor of the daily Log Cabin Democrat and the weekly Van Buren County Democrat. She serves on the UCA Publication Board and is active in the community, volunteering with the Conway Area Chamber of Commerce, Conway Downtown Partnership and Arkansas Press Association. She is a graduate of the 2021 Conway Area Leadership Institute. She was among the dozens of volunteers canvassing for the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act amendment and act to be included on the ballot.

CAITRIN ASSAF
Caitrin Assaf joined KARK as a general assignment reporter in September 2020 and moved to the desk at 12 and 4 two years later. Since moving to the Natural State, Caitrin has received a Regional Emmy award, a Regional Edward R. Murrow award, and multiple other accolades for her reporting and writing. She comes to Arkansas from Grand Junction, Colorado where she worked as a reporter, anchor and producer for the CBS affi liate, KREX. During her time on the Western Slope, she covered everything from wildfires to congressional races, and anchored and produced the morning, noon and evening broadcasts. Caitrin is a graduate of Boston College and is currently pursuing her master’s degree in government and political communications through Johns Hopkins Advanced Academic Programs, with an anticipated December end date. As an Eagle, Caitrin was also a member of the nation’s oldest collegiate improv troupe and interned at Boston’s ABC affi liate, WCVB. Caitrin is from Boca Raton, Florida and is excited to be back in the South covering the Natural State!

Other (please specify)