The Colorado Professional Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, the nation’s oldest and broadest organization for professional journalists, has named the chapter’s president for 2026-27 and its president-elect, announced new and continuing members of its board of directors, and said thanks and farewell to two departing board members.

The changes follow the chapter’s first contested membership board election in several years. “It is so exciting to have a contested election,” said outgoing chapter president Deb Hurley Brobst. “It shows the hard work of the SPJ Colorado Pro board is getting noticed by journalists in the state.”

Brobst noted how active the board has been, “including organizing diverse programming, a pro-student mentorship program, numerous visits to college journalism programs, a curriculum to help journalists explain to non-journalists what we do, the Top of the Rockies four-state contest, and more.”

The SPJ Colorado Pro board has chosen Doug Bell as chapter president for the coming 12-month period. The retired veteran journalist and educator served as co-president during the 2024-25 cycle.

Board member Marco Cummings has been named president-elect, and will become president of the chapter for two years starting in mid-2027. Cummings, a digital strategist at The Denver Post, also serves as the chapter’s programs chair. He will lead the chapter when it next hosts the four-state SPJ Region 9 Conference in 2028. 

Brobst is exiting the board with the conclusion of her term as SPJ Colorado Pro president, but she will continue to serve the chapter as contests and elections chair. And board member Kara Mason has completed her two-year board term.

As for other chapter officers, Dennis Huspeni will continue as treasurer until mid-2027,  and Beth Potter was selected to serve another two years as chapter secretary.

SPJ Colorado Pro is also announcing new and continuing board members following the recent election by chapter members.

Joining the chapter board are Ryan Lowery, an independent reporter and editor in Colorado Springs, and Michael Braithwaite, a Denver Gazette reporter and digital strategist. Lowery was elected to a two-year term; Braithwaite’s term is for one year. Learn more about them below.

Board members who were re-elected to two-year terms are Isabel Guzman, Mark Harden and Corey Hutchins.

Other continuing board members, in addition to Bell, Cummings, Huspeni and Potter, are Michael de Yoanna, Thelma Grimes and Michael Karlik. Their terms end in mid-2027.

• Click here to learn more about SPJ Colorado Pro board officers and members. 
• And click here to learn how you can join national SPJ and add Colorado chapter membership for no extra charge.

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New SPJ Colorado Pro board members

Michael Braithwaite (term ends 2027)

Michael Braithwaite’s journalism career began at Colorado College. He began writing for the student newspaper his freshman year and, by his junior year, had become its co-editor-in-chief, a role in which he spearheaded initiatives to improve the content, appearance and reach of the paper. The summer before his senior year, he and a friend received a grant for a six-week trip through Europe, during which they provided freelance coverage for The Gazette that detailed the war in Ukraine’s impacts on neighboring countries. Later that year, Braithwaite began a six-month stint as The Denver Post’s breaking news intern, during which he covered the local impacts of national stories, including student loan repayment, food insecurity and election fraud. After his graduation, he joined The Gazette as a part-time editorial assistant, compiling the daily sports agate and digital e-edition before becoming The Denver Gazette’s breaking news reporter. In that role, he covered crime in metro Denver while also diving into complex enterprise stories, such as the sad state of Colorado’s rural highways and the trial of a man accused of fatally poisoning his wife. About three months ago, he moved to the organization’s digital team, a transition that gave him increased insight into the future of journalism as well as the skillset to adapt to it.

Ryan Lowery (term ends 2028)

Ryan Lowery is an independent editor and reporter who returned to Colorado in 2025 after more than a decade in New Mexico, where he served two terms as the president of the SPJ Rio Grande chapter. He is currently the senior editor at Boomtown Los Alamos and has previously worked as the editor of New Mexico News Port, an outlet that showcases the work of student journalists at the University of New Mexico. Lowery is the recipient of the William S. Dixon First Amendment Freedom Award from the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government and the Sunshine Award from the New Mexico Press Association for his reporting that highlighted lack of transparency within multiple government agencies. He has also received several other awards from the New Mexico Press Association and SPJ Colorado Pro, including best solutions journalism for a series of stories on a law enforcement program in Alamosa that emphasizes recovery instead of jail for those struggling with addiction. His enterprise and investigative reporting work has been published by the Associated Press, Los Angeles Times, States Newsroom and many others. He now lives near downtown Colorado Springs, just a few miles from where he grew up.