SPJ/LA Announces 2017 Officers and Newly Elected Board Members

The Greater Los Angeles Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists has elected its 2017 officers. 

Stephanie Bluestein, a journalism professor at California State University, Northridge, will serve as the chapter's president beginning on Jan. 1, 2017. 

Christina Cocca, lead editor of news curation at BuzzFeed, will serve as vice president. Sarah Favot, a writer with LA School Report, will be the chapter's secretary, while Richard Hendrickson, a journalism professor at California State University, Northridge, John Carroll University in Cleveland and UCLA Extension, will continue to serve as treasurer.

SPJ/LA also elected five candidates to serve three-year terms on the group’s 15-member board. 

The incumbent board members who were re-elected are: Hendrickson; Elizabeth Marcellino, a reporter with City News Service; and former L.A. Times reporter Alice Walton. The newly elected board members are America Arias, a producer with ABC 7, and Irene Moore, a digital desk producer for NBC4 Southern California.

Automotive multimedia journalist Richard Saxton was re-elected to fill the remaining year of an open three-year term. 

The Society of Professional Journalists is the nation’s largest and most broad-based journalism organization, dedicated to promoting high standards of ethical behavior and encouraging the free practice of journalism. Founded in 1909 as Sigma Delta Chi, SPJ works to inspire and educate the next generation of journalists and protects First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech and press. The Greater Los Angeles professional chapter was chartered 25 years later in 1934.