SPJ/LA announces honorees for 48th Distinguished Journalist Awards
The Greater Los Angeles Pro chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists will honor seven local journalists, a journalism educator and two student journalists at its 48th Distinguished Journalist Awards Banquet on Oct. 23 at Castaway Restaurant in Burbank.
The honorees were nominated by journalists across Southern California and chosen by the SPJ/LA board in recognition of their outstanding contributions across print, television, radio, visual, and digital media. They are: Louis Sahagun, reporter, Los Angeles Times; Toni Sciacqua, managing editor, Southern California News Group; H. Susan Henderson, publisher/editor, Mountain Views News; Salvador Duran, national correspondent, Univision; Margaret Carrero, anchor, KNX; Ashley Alvarado, vice president of community engagement, LAist; Francine Orr, photojournalist, Los Angeles Times and Adriana Chavira, journalism advisor, Daniel Pearl Magnet High School.
The chapter will also recognize two students – one from a two-year college and one from a four-year university – who show promise as emerging journalists. This year’s outstanding students are Cebelihle Hlatshwayo, Santa Monica College, and Anne To, California State University, Los Angeles.
Tickets for the awards banquet will go on sale in August.
The honorees are:
Print, 90,000+ circulation
Louis Sahagun recently retired from the Los Angeles Times, where he started as a floor sweeper in 1973 and went on to work as a reporter for 43 years. During his L.A. Times tenure he covered issues ranging from politics, crime and culture, to religion, the environment and climate change. He was on the all-Latino team of L.A. Times staffers that earned the Pulitzer Prize in Public Service for a series on Latinos of Southern California. Sahagun is the author of the book "Master of the Mysteries: The Life of Manly Palmer Hall," a history of magic and mysticism in Southern California over the past century.
Print, below 90,000 circulation
Toni Sciacqua is the managing editor for digital for the Southern California News Group. Previously, she was the senior editor for the Daily Breeze, which won a Pulitzer Prize for local reporting for its investigation into corruption at a South Bay school district in 2015. Sciacqua started working as a Breeze copy editor and designer in 1998. She was promoted to news editor in 2002, and then managing editor in 2007. Before that, Sciacqua worked on the copy desk of the Long Beach Press-Telegram, which later became a sister paper of the Breeze. Both papers are part of the Los Angeles Newspaper Group. Sciacqua grew up in central California and earned a bachelor’s degree in print journalism from USC. She is a six-generation Californian.
Print, micro/community (below 10,000 circulation)
H. Susan Henderson is the founder of Grace Lorraine Publications and publisher/editor of its subsidiary, the Mountain Views News, “Where Your Community News Comes First.” The paper is legally adjudicated, serving the city of Sierra Madre and seven other surrounding communities since 2007. The paper reaches thousands of households each week via its print and online editions. A member of California Newspaper Publishers Association, the Mountain Views News was named “2023 Business of the Year” for Sierra Madre.
Born and raised in Philadelphia, PA, two of her most influential role models were Ben Franklin and Ida B. Wells, whose lives helped her identify that the written/published word were her true passion. Henderson is an alum of The Ohio State University and University of California, Berkeley, and professionally has traveled the world. She is married and the mother of three adult children, four grandchildren and two great grandchildren.
Broadcast/TV
Award-winning journalist Salvador Duran has worked for Spanish-language television for 30 years, currently as a national correspondent for Univision Network News, delivering the most important news stories affecting the Hispanic community. Duran has covered the immigration crisis along the US and Mexican border, reported on mass shootings, international and national elections and various natural disasters.
Duran is also the author of the novel “The Reporter and the Hurricane.” Salvador's humble beginnings trace back to El Salvador, his country of birth. As a teenager, Duran, who grew up in El Salvador, fled a civil war to immigrate to the US in 1980. After graduating from UCLA, he became an LAUSD teacher before moving into broadcasting as an assignment editor at Spanish language KVEA, Channel 52 in Los Angeles. He became a general assignment reporter and later went on to network news. He also mentors younger and older journalists who need career guidance.
Radio/Audio
Margaret Carrero is an afternoon anchor for KNX News. She moved into the anchor seat full-time this year after spending twelve years as a general assignment field reporter. In her first year with KNX, she did pieces for a group series titled “Tales of the LA Riots,” which won a Gracie Award.
During her time as a KNX News reporter, she covered two Democratic National Conventions and an array of breaking news from the terrorist attack in San Bernardino to the Borderline mass shooting and the Woolsey Fire. She has also covered the Oscars, Golden Globes and Grammy's, various protests and high-profile trials including the Gabriel Fernandez case and the recent murder trial of Rebecca Grossman. Carrero first became a reporter with KMJ in Fresno in 2007 after launching her radio career on the music side of things in Sacramento in the early 1990s.
Digital
Ashley Alvarado is vice president of community engagement and strategic initiatives at LAist (Southern California Public Radio), where she’s spent more than a decade working to engage new and existing audiences across platforms: on air, online, and in person. What started as a team of one is now a department focused on community engagement, newsletters, social media, and partnerships. In 2019, SCPR won the inaugural Gather Award for engaged journalism portfolio at the Online Journalism Awards. SCPR won the award again in 2020 and 2022. Alvarado serves on the boards of the Online News Association and Greater Public, and on the national advisory board of Poynter. She also serves as a digital transformation coach.
Visual Media
Francine Orr is an American photojournalist and was a staff photographer for the Los Angeles Times from 2000-24. Orr served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Yap, Federated States of Micronesia. She has focused on public health and poverty issues in Africa, India, and the United States. In Los Angeles, she has concentrated on the growing homeless crisis since 2005. Focusing on the impact of the coronavirus, she reported from inside 14 hospitals throughout the pandemic. Orr is the 2024 recipient of the Dart Center Ochberg Fellowship at Columbia University and the Knight Fellowship at Ohio University. She has received numerous journalism accolades throughout her career.
Freedom of Information Award
Adriana Chavira is a former newspaper reporter and now advises award-winning student publications at Daniel Pearl Magnet High School in Lake Balboa. She is president of the Southern California Journalism Education Association and on the board of the California Press Foundation. Since the age of 13, Adriana knew she wanted to be a newspaper reporter. Her passion for journalism solidified when she spent two years on her high school newspaper. The passion to tell other people’s stories was strengthened at Cal State Northridge, where she majored in journalism and minored in Chicano Studies.
She is a native of Los Angeles and spent a decade as a newspaper reporter at four different small daily newspapers in Southern California covering local cities, education and Latino issues. Since 2003, she has been teaching for the Los Angeles Unified School District. She holds a master’s in English Education, is a Master Journalism Educator (granted by the Journalism Education Association) and is a National Board Certified Teacher. She recently finished a two-year term on the board of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists as its academic officer at large. When not teaching, Adriana can be found running, hiking and listening to 80s music.
Student Media, 2-year
As an international student from South Africa, Cebelihle Hlatshwayo recently graduated from Santa Monica College with an Associate degree in journalism. At The Corsair, she served first as the Arts and Entertainment editor and later as editor-in-chief, becoming the first Black person to hold this role since the publication’s founding in 1926.
During that time The Corsair received several awards, including First Place, Best News Series and Second Place, Best Breaking News Story at the California College Media Awards. The paper also earned Third Place, Best News Writing at the Southern California Journalism Awards, First Place, Best Special Issue/Section, and Third Place, Best Podcast at the California College Media Awards. As editor-in-chief, Hlatshwayo led the news staff through the coverage of the biggest protests since the Kent State University protests in May 1970. “My journey from South Africa to the U.S. and my work with The Corsair have been deeply rewarding experiences,” she said.
Student Media, 4-year
Anne To is a current fellow with the Berkeley California Local News Fellowship working with the North Coast Journal. At Cal State LA she majored in journalism with a minor in creative writing. She has been a leader in multimedia reporting during her time in college, working as managing editor and editor-in-chief of the University Times. She has also worked as news director and co-station manager for Golden Eagle Radio. Her reporting spans coverage relating to housing issues, the AAPI community, and entertainment. As a freelance audio engineer, she has worked on multiple projects with NPR Next Gen Radio.