SEJ Board of Directors 2024-2025
Halle Parker, President
Bobby Magill, First Vice President and Governance Committee Chair
Karla Mendes, Second Vice President and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Chair
Tony Barboza, Treasurer and Finance Chair
Molly Peterson, Secretary
Sara Shipley Hiles, Vice President, Fundraising Committee and Rep. for Academic Membership
Rebecca Leber, Vice President, Membership and Rep. for Associate Membership
Caleigh Wells, Vice President, Programs
Rocky Kistner
Michael Kodas
Nadia Lopez
Meg McGuire
Tik Root
Angela Rowlings
Mark Schapiro
Ex Officio Board Member
Jim Detjen, Founding President
Honorary SEJ Members
Past SEJ Board Members
Past SEJ Board Presidents
SEJ Staff, Consultants and Advisors
Frances Backhouse, Assistant Editor, SEJournal
Christine Bruggers, Senior Advisor, Awards and Elections (retired)
Joseph A. Davis, SEJournal Writer/Section Editor; Editor, EJToday; Member, SEJ FOI Task Force
Adam Glenn, SEJournal Editor and Editorial Director, Publications
Meagan Jeanette (MJ), Marketing and Programs Manager
Jay Letto, Former Director of Annual Conferences (retired)
Cindy MacDonald, Web Content Manager
Aparna Mukherjee, Executive Director
Anneliese (Lisa) Palmer, Editorial Director for Events
Beth Parke, Founding Executive Director (retired)
Meaghan Parker, Former 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 2024-2025
President
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Halle Parker reports on the environment for WWNO's Coastal Desk as well as its podcast, Sea Change. Before coming to New Orleans Public Radio, she covered Louisiana's environment for the Times-Picayune | New Orleans Advocate and down the bayou for the Houma Courier. She also worked for the National Audubon Society. Some of her past reporting has centered on environmental justice issues, the state's coastal land loss crisis and how climate change affects coastal communities. She's been recognized by the Society of Environmental Journalists, and honored with awards for her writing and photography. Halle is from a small, once-rural community in Virginia, graduating from Longwood University in a town called Farmville. She loves playing soccer, painting with watercolors and starting the morning with a hot cup of tea. You can find her on X (@_thehalparker) or message her on Instagram (@thehalparker). She also is happily a member of the Uproot Project. Current term: 2023-2026. Contact Halle.
First Vice President and Governance Committee Chair
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Bobby Magill is a reporter covering water and public lands for Bloomberg Law in Washington, D.C. He has written extensively about federal land, water and energy with a focus on the EPA, the Interior Department, the U.S. Forest Service, offshore wind development, negative carbon emissions and international climate policy. He covered three United Nations international climate negotiations, including COP24 in Poland in 2018, COP25 Madrid in 2019 and COP26 in Glasgow in 2021. Bobby served on the inaugural seven-member jury for the Fundación BBVA Biophilia Award for Environmental Communication in Madrid in 2019. Originally from Charleston, S.C., he graduated from the College of Charleston in 2001 and started his journalism career covering environmental issues for daily and weekly newspapers in New Mexico and Colorado. Bobby was SEJ president from 2016-2019 and previously served two terms on the SEJ Board from 2015-2021. Find him online at bobbymagill.com and on LinkedIn. Current term: 2023-2026. Contact Bobby.
Second Vice President and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Chair
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| Photo: © Fabio Nascimento |
Karla Mendes, SEJ’s first Brazilian and Latin American board member, is an award-winning journalist working as a Rio de Janeiro-based investigative and feature reporter for Mongabay and a fellow of the Pulitzer Center's Rainforest Investigations Network. She is also a fellow of the Reuters Institute's Oxford Climate Journalism Network. Mendes has been working as a correspondent for international outlets since 2015, and since 2017, she has specialized in covering environmental and land issues. Previously, she worked as a land and property rights correspondent for the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Mendes has won several national and international awards. She was a winner of the 2023 SEAL Environmental Journalism Award for her “powerful work covering the continued encroachment of global corporations into Indigenous Amazon lands.” Mendes received the 2023 Judge J. Elliott Hudson Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of King's College in Halifax, Canada, "in recognition of the contributions she has made to her profession and community." She won second place in the 2022 Society of Environmental Journalists Awards for outstanding investigative reporting for an 18-month investigation that revealed how “sustainable” palm oil triggered deforestation and water contamination in Brazil’s Amazon, affecting Indigenous people and traditional communities. In April 2022, the investigation won third place in the Fetisov Journalism Awards in the Excellence in Environmental Journalism category. Mendes won first place in the Outstanding Explanatory Reporting category in the 2020 SEJ Awards for a project with Max Baring, published by Thomson Reuters Foundation about Maranhão's Guardians of the Forest. The documentary was honored in the Tulum WE Film Festival in July 2022 and by the Colorado Environmental Film Festival in 2020. It received an honorable mention at the Naples Human Rights Film Festival in 2019. Mendes has a master's degree in investigative and data journalism from the University of King's College, Canada, and an MBA in finance from São Paulo's Fundação Instituto de Administração. She is fluent in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. You can find her on LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter. Current term: 2023-2026. Contact Karla.
Treasurer and Finance Chair
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: 2024-2027. Contact Tony.
- "Environmental Journalist Paves Way for Truth, Diversity in Work," DailyLobo.com, April 25, 2022, by Megan Gleason.
Secretary
Molly Peterson is a Los Angeles-based writer for Public Health Watch reporting on issues where climate, environment and health meet. Before that she worked at the California Newsroom, where she edited and managed projects, and reported on wildfires and wildfire smoke. More public media outlets were home before that, including WWNO, LAist, NPR and KQED, where she investigated sea level rise and wildfire preparedness at care homes. With ISeeChange and independently, she used sensors to measure heat and humidity in homes and workplaces. Her writing has appeared at The New York Times, The Guardian, High Country News and other places. PRNDI, IRE, SPJ, SEJ, RTNA (Golden Mikes) and the Los Angeles Press Club have recognized her work and use of sound, and she has won national and regional Murrow awards. A ways back, she went to UC Law SF: she remains a non-practicing lawyer in California. When Louisiana bayou debris put a hole in a kayak she built out of wood and fiberglass, she fixed it. (Now she’s more into scuba diving.) You can find her on Instagram, Bluesky and LinkedIn. Current term: 2024-2027. Contact Molly.
Vice President, Fundraising Committee and Representative for the 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, Membership and Representative for Associate Membership
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Rebecca Leber is an award-winning journalist who has covered climate change for more than a decade. She is currently a senior researcher at Center for Climate Integrity, leading a project investigating the fossil fuels industry. She has been a senior climate reporter at Vox, and a reporter and editor at Mother Jones, Grist and The New Republic. Accountability journalism is a core focus of her work, and Rebecca's investigations into fossil fuel influence have exposed government corruption and launched new federal and local oversight. Her stories on the oil and gas industry have been cited in ongoing litigation against the fossil fuel industry. In 2023, Covering Climate Now recognized Rebecca for reporting that “puts peoples’ everyday lives first and often exposes surprising cracks in systems and best-laid plans… Leber’s work is at once authoritative and accessible.” She is a two-time recipient of SEAL's environmental journalism awards, has completed fellowships with Vermont Law School, CUNY Journalism School and NYU Stern School of Business, and judged journalism awards for Report for America, Overseas Press Club and Covering Climate Now. Rebecca has appeared on programming including CNN, MSNBC, PBS, On the Media, All Things Considered, 99 Percent Invisible and 1A. You can find her on Twitter, Bluesky and LinkedIn. Current term: 2024-2027. Contact Rebecca.
Vice President, Programs
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Caleigh Wells is a reporter for Marketplace, where she frequently covers the intersection of climate and economics. Previously she served as KCRW's climate reporter and host of KCRW's The Anti-Dread Climate Podcast. She reported with The California Newsroom on an investigation into the US Forest Service’s fire mitigation work that won a national Murrow award. She was a fellow in the Solution Journalism Network’s first climate cohort, and was selected to serve on NPR’s high impact climate collaborative. She has spent her career covering climate change for public media, first interning for ideastream in Cleveland and later working for both NPR member stations in Los Angeles. Ask her about that time she tried to qualify for the Olympics in modern pentathlon in 2023. She’s not convinced it’s over…yet. You can find her on LinkedIn. Current term: 2024-2027. Contact Caleigh.
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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: 2023-2026. Contact Rocky.
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.
Nadia Lopez is a reporter at Axios, where she reports on San Francisco. Before that, she covered the intersection of climate, housing and politics at Bloomberg, where she wrote about how climate change is upending California's property insurance market and the implications the insurance crisis is having on the state economy and consumers. As an environment reporter at CalMatters, she covered air pollution and climate policy, with a special focus on California's major goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. She also helped launch the Central Valley News Collaborative at The Fresno Bee, a first-of-its-kind enterprise project focused on the San Joaquin Valley's diverse Latino community. There, she started reporting on environmental issues by exploring how climate change and drought have reshaped the valley and the lives of the region's most vulnerable — particularly immigrants, low-income residents and farmworkers. 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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Meg McGuire founded Delaware Currents — an online, nonprofit news magazine — in 2015, and has been doing the three jobs of an online news site since then: writer/editor, audience development and fundraiser. She was introduced to her current role in the online news ecosystem with a course in Entrepreneurial Journalism hosted by the Journalism Graduate School of the City University of New York. Delaware Currents covers the four-state watershed of the Delaware River, a drinking water source for 14+ million people, which includes 50% of New York City's drinking water. Delaware Currents covers it all from features to editorials, flooding to funding, and river issues and activities from its headwaters in the Catskill Mountains to the Delaware Bay heading toward the Atlantic Ocean. Before that, Meg worked in various newspapers, finally as managing editor of the Times Herald-Record when she walked into work one day to find that the owners decided to fire all the managing editors in the chain. So she knows a bit about the current state of our news business and how important our work is in the era of climate change. Along the way, Meg earned an MFA in Creative Writing from The New School in New York City. Meg is committed to the work of our membership: enlightening readers with accurate, engaging, important reporting from all over the globe; speaking truth to power and finding a way to make a living doing this work. She is also committed to ensuring that SEJ keeps a firm financial footing, pursues an international focus and welcomes all the diversity this world presents. Current term: 2024-2027. Contact Meg.
Tik Root is a senior staff writer at Grist, based in Vermont. He previously worked for The Washington Post and Scripps News. Root started his career as a freelance journalist in Yemen, and has since filed from five continents for outlets such as National Geographic, the New York Times and The Atlantic, among others. He holds a B.A. from Middlebury College and a M.A. in Science, Health and Environment Journalism from Columbia University. Find Tik on X @tikroot. Current term: 2024-2027. Contact Tik.
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Angela Rowlings (she/her) is an independent US/Canadian photojournalist based in Boston and Prince Edward Island. She reports on climate, culture, politics, immigration and human rights issues, and produces long-form visual essays in Boston, Canada and Latin America. She was previously a staff photographer at the Boston Herald for 16 years. Prior to that, Angela worked with The Associated Press, Chicago Tribune and USA Today, and her photography has been published nationally and internationally. Since 2021, Angela has been working on a long-term project about the intersection of culture and climate on Prince Edward Island. Her feature story about a family potato farm on the island was a finalist in the News Photographers Association of Canada's 2022 contest and placed second in the BPPA's 2022 Pictures of the Year competition. Her image of a starfish in a swirl of spilled fuel following post-tropical storm Fiona placed first in the Environment category of NPPA's 2023 Northern Short Course Photo Contest. As a judge in Pictures of the Year International's POY 80, Angela and a panel of esteemed photojournalists judged news categories, including Local Photographer of the Year. She was a 2022 New England Equity Reporting Fellow, 2021 IRE Fellow and 2018 New England First Amendment Institute Fellow. Her work has been included in juried shows in New England, NYC and Canada. Her photos were also displayed in the BPPA's 2021, 2022 and 2023 outdoor exhibits in Boston. Angela has taught photography to teens at the Institute of Contemporary Art Boston and visual journalism to undergraduates at Boston University and Endicott College. She mentors aspiring photographers and has been invited to speak at a variety of universities, community organizations and at Unión Nacional de Escritores y Artistas de Cuba (UNEAC) in Havana. An English/Spanish interpreter, she completed an intensive interpreter training program in 2022 and sees her language access work as complementary to journalism. In addition to her participation in SEJ, Angela is vice president of the Boston Press Photographers Association. She is on Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter. Current term: 2023-2026. Contact Angela.
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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: 2024-2027. Contact Mark.
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.
SEJ Staff, Consultants and Advisors
Associate Editor, SEJournal
Frances Backhouse is an award-winning author and freelance environmental journalist based in Victoria, British Columbia. Her byline has appeared in a wide range of Canadian and American publications, she was a contributing editor for British Columbia Magazine and she has produced an hour-long radio documentary. Frances is also the author of six nonfiction books for adults and one for children, and is currently working on two more kids’ books about wildlife. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in biology from the University of Alberta and a Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing from the University of Victoria. She taught creative nonfiction and journalism in the University of Victoria Department of Writing for six years. Contact Frances.
Senior Advisor, Awards and Elections (retired)
A. Christine Bruggers served with distinction in multiple staff roles from 1993 until her retirement in December 2023 from her last role providing 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.
Marketing and Programs Manager
Meagan Jeanette (MJ) assists with all of SEJ's programs and initiatives, marketing, the mentor program, SEJ member and customer support, donor gifts and pledges, fellowships, 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.
Former Annual Conference Director (retired)
Jay Letto, a founding member of SEJ, was the group's annual conference director from 1993 through 2024, inclusive. 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 hundreds 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 Western Michigan University. 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).
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 2000. She also serves as 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.
Executive Director
Aparna Mukherjee has served as the executive director of the Society of Environmental Journalists since February 2024. Read about Aparna here. Contact Aparna.
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Editorial Director, Events
Lisa Palmer is the Editorial Director for SEJ events, where she develops and manages the intellectual agenda and programmatic elements of the annual conference and contributes to the broader public discourse on environmental journalism. Known for her award-winning work as a journalist, author and environmental and science journalism educator, Palmer collaborates with SEJ member-volunteers, board members and conference co-chairs to develop balanced and diverse programming covering the many features of reporting on environmental issues. She oversees prospective speakers and external partners while fostering collaborations with academic institutions, journalism organizations and industry leaders to improve the content and participation in the annual conference. She brings 25 years of experience to this role, and her objective is to connect journalists and subject matter experts who can effectively inform communities, close information gaps and combat misinformation through credible and evidence-based reporting. Palmer has been actively involved with SEJ since joining 16 years ago. She’s organized and moderated conference panels, mentored journalists, served as a panelist and led journalism faculty and student focus groups. Based in Washington, D.C., Palmer is a freelance journalist and contributes news features to national and international news media. Her book, “Hot, Hungry Planet: The Fight to Stop a Global Food Crisis in the Face of Climate Change” (St. Martin's Press, 2017), chronicles her reporting on agriculture, food security and landscape resilience around the world. She’s a Global Fellow in the Environmental Change and Security Program at the Wilson Center, a non-partisan policy forum where her current research explores science and communication to improve understanding of environmental security and peace. As Research Professor of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University, she is an affiliate faculty with GW’s Global Food Institute and the Climate and Health Institute. She holds a B.S. from Boston University and a M.S. in Communications from Simmons University (previously Simmons College) in Boston. Contact Lisa. Reach out with your ideas about the SEJ 2025 conference in Phoenix. You can also find her on LinkedIn.
Founding Executive Director (retired)
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.
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Former Executive Director
Meaghan Parker was the executive director of the Society of Environmental Journalists from 2018-2023, and is currently serving as executive director of the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing, an SEJ partner. Under her leadership, SEJ 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. Prior to joining the SEJ staff, she was the senior writer/editor and partnerships director for the Environmental Change and Security 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; and the supervising producer of the award-winning documentary trilogy, "Healthy People, Healthy Environment," which was filmed in Tanzania, Nepal and Ethiopia. Before stepping down to join the staff, she served for six years on SEJ's Board of Directors. She currently serves on the board of The Uproot Project and the advisory councils of Planet Forward and the Mississippi River Ag & Water Desk. She is Global Fellow of the Wilson Center's Environmental Change & Security Program, and a member of SEJ, the National Association of Science Writers and The Uproot Project. Contact Meaghan.
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.
Nadia Lopez (Board Liaison)
Robert McClure (term 2023-2026)
Amelia Jaycen (term 2022-2025)
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 2024 Rules.
Cynthia Barnett, Freelance Journalist and Author; EJ Instructor, University of Florida
Dan Fagin, New York University
Susan Hess, Columbia Insight
Breanna Rittman, WMBD-TV/WYZZ News
Parimal Rohit, CoStar News
Ex Officio:
Tony Barboza, Editorial Writer, Los Angeles Times and SEJ Board Liaison to the Awards Committee
Chris Bruggers, Awards Director (cbruggs@sej.org.)
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.
Nadia Lopez (Co-Chair)
Karla Mendes (Co-Chair)
Emilia Askari
Bobby Magill
Molly Peterson
Angela Rowlings
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
Andrew Cullen
Joseph A. Davis
Yessenia Funes
Elyse Hauser
Tom Henry
Rocky Kistner
Chioma Lewis
Marianne Messina
Carolyn Whetzel
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.
Molly Peterson (Board Liaison)
Christine Heinrichs
Chuck Quirmbach
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.
Tony Barboza (Co-Chair)
TBD (Co-Chair)
Nadia Lopez
Meg McGuire
Tik Root
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)
Dillon Bergin
Deon Daugherty
Joseph A. Davis
Kathie Florsheim
Iulia Gheorghiu
Carey Gillam
Liza Gross
Rocky Kistner (Board Liaison)
Estelle Lamotte
Bobby Magill
Chris May
Halle Parker (SEJ Board President)
Benjamin Purper
Nano Riley
Ry Rivard
Lisa Sorg
Jimmy Tobias
Fundraising Committee
Sara Shipley Hiles (Co-Chair)
TBD (Co-Chair)
Emilia Askari
Rocky Kistner
Michael Kodas
Kate Sheppard
Caleigh Wells
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.
Bobby Magill (Co-Chair)
TBD (Co-Chair)
Rebecca Leber
Rocky Kistner
Tik Root
Luke Runyon
Leadership Committee
Halle Parker, President (Chair)
Bobby Magill, First Vice President
Karla Mendes, Second Vice President and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Chair
Tony Barboza, Treasurer and Finance Chair
Molly Peterson, Secretary
Sara Shipley Hiles, Vice President, Fundraising Committee and Rep. for Academic Membership
Rebecca Leber, Vice President, Membership and Rep. for Associate Membership
Caleigh Wells, Vice President, Programs
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.
Rebecca Leber (Co-Chair)
TBD (Co-Chair)
Michael Kodas
Meg McGuire
Molly Peterson
Sara Shipley Hiles
Programs Committee
Caleigh Wells (Co-Chair)
TBD (Co-Chair)
Tony Barboza
Karla Mendes
Angela Rowlings
Mark Schapiro
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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