The Society of Environmental Journalists has hired Melisa Klem as its new executive director, effective January 3, 2017. Klem has spent more than 13 years working in development for conservation and human health nonprofits, and raising millions of dollars. The SEJ Board of Directors selected Klem to serve as the group's second leader, replacing founding executive director Beth Parke who last summer announced her plans to step aside after nearly 24 years of leadership. Klem previously served as the development director at the Seafood Nutrition Partnership, the national director of development at the Izaak Walton League of America, and senior director of development at the Potomac Conservancy.

SEJ members will find it easier to network with a new online profile system. It’s similar to social media: you can connect with other SEJ members (Connections tab — think Friends), share photos and photo albums, post your status and access a directory.

SEJ's founding executive director Beth Parke recounts memorable moments during her 24-year tenure with SEJ.

Yale and Pulitzer Center plan a new program of fellowships, conferences and content sharing that hopes to improve journalism's reporting on climate change. SEJournal Online spoke with Yale Climate Connections Editor Bud Ward about the initiative and its aims.

Starting this fall, we’ll be producing a new SEJournal weekly e-newsletter that will continue the same high-quality news and features you’ve been getting in the print publication, only with a vastly shorter time from pen to (web) publication and in a way that’s easier to search, find, bookmark and share. Not only that, we’re re-imagining the print SEJournal as a topically focused issue worthy of keeping as a reference work, and published as (or almost as) regularly. Read more from SEJournal editor Adam Glenn (pictured).

With SEJ currently celebrating its 25th anniversary year, we asked some of the society’s founders — among them luminaries in the environmental journalism profession — to share their thoughts on what the organization has meant to the field, where SEJ is going next and what they see as the big environmental stories of our time. Here are their insights.  

For the Society of Environmental Journalists, diversity in environmental reporting has long been a concern. Over the organization’s 25-year history, its staff continually has asserted a two-pronged approach to inclusive coverage on the beat. The organization hopes the diversity concern will have its day in the sun at the upcoming annual conference Oct. 7-11, 2015, in Norman, OK.