Colorado Professional Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists

Board of Directors election 2015-2016

Deadline to vote: noon Thursday, Aug. 13

Directions: Read carefully the bios and position statements of the candidates. Then send an e-mail with a subject line “SPJ vote” with your votes to Deb Hurley at dchurley@aol.com. Please vote for one president-elect candidate or name a write-in candidate, and one treasurer candidate or name a write-in. The board has four at-large board member positions open and two candidates. You may vote for either or both of the candidates listed plus send in names of write-in candidates. If four at-large board members are not elected, then the board will appoint Colorado Pro members to fill the positions.

If you have questions, contact elections chair Deb Hurley at 303-601-8098.

 

President-elect candidate

Vote for one or send a write-in

Amy Maestas
Amy Maestas is a native Utahn who graduated from the University of Utah with a degree in journalism and mass communication. She has worked as a journalist for more than 25 years in various positions, including as a reporter for the Deseret News, assistant editor of a bank trade magazine, managing editor of The Event, an alternative newsweekly, and as a music reviewer for several small publications in Salt Lake City. She also has freelanced for numerous magazines in the Southwest and nationally. She was a writer and contributing editor for Inside/Outside magazine during its entire existence. In the mid-1990s, Amy joined The Durango Herald as a reporter and covered city government, politics, business and public lands. She has won numerous awards from the Society of Professional Journalists – both nationally and the Utah and Colorado chapters – from the Associated Press and from the Colorado Press Association. In 2012, Amy completed a journalism and management fellowship with the Maynard Media Academy at the Nieman Foundation at Harvard University. Amy also works with the International Center for Journalist as a mentor to young foreign journalists. Her most recent mentoring work was completed in Turkey, Armenia and Uganda.

Amy joined the board of directors for the Colorado Pro chapter because she believes that media leaders need to renew their contributions and involvement to keep our industry successful.

Reason for running:

I am running a president-elect for the Colorado Pro board of directors because I want to continue contributing to a chapter that needs representation outside the Denver metro area. During the last three years, I have been able to help the chapter get the word out in rural areas, and I believe we have done good work that merits continued support as SPJ evolves with the news industry.

My interest fits squarely in with the belief that media leaders need to renew their contributions and involvement to keep our industry successful. As a news editor of a small daily newspaper in Durango, I want to connect with the news industry throughout the rest of the state to be able to work toward a common goal of quality journalism.

I want to continue to interact with Colorado journalists so that I can be part of a conversation about how we not only deliver news to readers and viewers, but how we also create an environment for professionals to thrive. Journalism is enduring challenges that many of us want to take head on. I want to work with statewide colleagues on these challenges.

Treasurer

Please send any write-in names

Bob Burdick

Bob Burdick, 67, is retired after serving on the editorial and business sides of newspapers in California, Colorado, Florida and Kansas. In addition to SPJ Colorado, he has been a member of SPJ in California and Kansas.

He was president and publisher of the Colorado Springs Gazette, and the Naples (Fla.) Daily News; editor and president of the Rocky Mountain News; editor of the LA Daily News; assistant managing editor and special projects editor of The Denver Post; metro Editor of the San Jose Mercury; city editor and assistant managing editor of The Wichita (Kan.) Eagle-Beacon; night city editor of The Palm Beach (Fla.) Post; reporter for The Miami Herald and more.

Burdick was a member of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, Associated Press Managing Editors, Florida Society of Newspaper Editors, California Society of Newspaper Editors, Associated Press News Executives Council and an AP western regional association. He holds a BA from Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton.

Burdick and his wife, Patty Burnett, reside in Greenwood Village with their Schnauzer, Pixie. Burdick does occasional consulting and teaches journalism part-time at Arapahoe Community College. In addition to SPJ, he is a member of Hope United Methodist Church, the Denver Press Club, Alfa Romeo Owners Club of the Rockies, and he is a Meals on Wheels volunteer driver. After a three-decade respite from changing diapers, he has rediscovered the joy of same for his granddaughter, Evelyn.

Reason for running:

I am running for the SPJ Colorado Pro treasurer position because I have the time, experience and enthusiasm to devote to the task. It is not an easy job, but the rewards make it worthwhile.

I have served as chapter treasurer in recent months, and I have helped steer us successfully through an annual SPJ National audit. Further, I have the books organized and I have tried to respond promptly to questions, check requests and so forth.

This is a time-consuming task, but I am prepared to tackle it again for the coming year.

If elected, I’ll continue to do my best to keep the books current, to regularly attend scheduled and special meetings and presentations, as well as volunteer for conferences and other events, and to help the president with other tasks as he/she directs.

Board of directors

Four positions are up for election even though there are two candidates.

Kara Mason

Kara Mason is the news editor at the PULP, a monthly news magazine based in Pueblo. She edits as well as contributes to the publication, which covers Southern Colorado issues in-depth. Her work mostly involves political and investigative coverage of the region. She uncovered the campaign finance behind the recalls of two former state senators, profiled a Superfund site in Pueblo and investigated the economic impact of Pueblo’s Convention Center expansion. Kara is a recent graduate of Colorado State University-Pueblo with a degree in journalism and a minor in political science. While working on her degree she was editor of the award-winning CSU-Pueblo Today Magazine and freelancer for various publication such as the Canon City Daily Record. Kara also worked in Washington, D.C. as an intern at the Scripps Washington Bureau.

Reason for running:

When I first ran for SPJ, it was at the encouragement of my CSU-Pueblo journalism professor Leticia Steffen, a former board member. She said it would be a great opportunity for a student, and I saw it as a chance to represent journalism students and recent graduates from across the state. I quickly realized it was also a great opportunity to represent Southern Colorado journalists as well. During my term I helped organize a workshop on open records requests for journalists and community members in my region. While the event the small, it was a step in getting journalist that are not along the Front Range connected to SPJ and training that is often not held here. In my second term I would like to continue to represent two sets of journalists that are very important to the profession in our state.

Adrian Garcia

Adrian D. Garcia covers Northern Colorado trends, startup news and developments as growth and data reporter for the Fort Collins Coloradoan. In 2014, he graduated from the University of Colorado Boulder (Go Buffs!), having studied journalism, psychology and entrepreneurship. His previous experience includes reporting for the Denver Post, I-News at Rocky Mountain PBS and his hometown paper The Pueblo Chieftain.

Reason for running:

I would like to join the Colorado SPJ Pro board to advance the chapter’s mission of promoting traditional journalism values and principles in today’s media landscape. I am particularly interested in bringing journalists in Northern Colorado, millennials and those with diverse backgrounds into the conversations about how journalism is evolving across the state and country. I’ve previously hosted SPJ functions at the University of Colorado Boulder and attended the 2013 Excellence in Journalism Conference. I’ve also connected with several members who serve on the board, either virtually or in person, and hope to be a valuable addition to an already knowledgeable and experienced team.