Event Coverage Highlight
Scott Kraft Re-elected President of the OPC, Welcomes New Board of Governors at Annual Meeting
by Chad Bouchard
On Tuesday night, a total of about 30 OPC members gathered on Zoom and in-person at the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) offices on 38th Street for a hybrid Annual Meeting to discuss club business, announce results of the Board of Governors election, and welcome incoming board members and officers.
Scott Kraft, editor at large for enterprise journalism and special projects for the Los Angeles Times, was reelected to serve a second term as president.
“We take very seriously our responsibility to nurture new generations of journalists, people who want to report from abroad, are reporting from abroad, freelancers – but also those working for small- and medium-sized organizations,” Kraft said. “And we’ll continue to defend and speak out as we always have, to protect the rights of journalists to do this work anywhere in the world.”
Kraft reviewed highlights from the past year, such as recent changes to award names and programs, including training, new installments in the “How I Did It” series, in addition to collaborations with the American Library in Paris. Kraft said in the coming year the OPC will build on the success of its programs.
Jane Reilly, the executive director of the OPC Foundation, said the organization was gearing up for applications to offer 18 scholarships and fellowships in March, including a new Rob Urban Award for those with an interest in reporting in Eastern Europe. She recalled successes of the past year, including the announcement of the William Rukeyser Reporting Grants to help fund the work of freelancers who are current or past OPC Foundation scholars.
Other incoming OPC officers and Governors include three vice presidents: Sandra Stevenson, deputy director of photography at The Washington Post; Deborah Amos, a longtime NPR correspondent who covered the Middle East for three decades and now teaches journalism at Princeton, Columbia and SUNY New Paltz; and Peter Spiegel, US managing editor of the Financial Times. Jodi Schneider, political news director at Bloomberg TV and Radio is Secretary and Marjorie Miller, Administrator of The Pulitzer Prizes, is Treasurer.
Joining the board are Yinka Adejoke, founding editor of Semafor Africa; Stephen J. Adler, board chair of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, founding director of the Ethics and Journalism Initiative at NYU’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute and former editor-in-chief of Reuters and BusinessWeek; Stephen Kalin, a foreign correspondent with The Wall Street Journal; Catherine Kim, executive vice president of editorial for NBC News; Marc Lacey; managing editor of The New York Times; and Minky Worden, director of global initiatives at Human Rights Watch.
Governors reelected to a new term are: Amran Abocar, Global General Manager at Reuters; Singeli Agnew, an independent video journalist; John Avlon, former CNN anchor and political analyst; Josh Fine, an investigator reporter and producer, most recently at HBO’s “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel”; Azmat Khan, an investigative reporter with The New York Times Magazine and a professor at Columbia Journalism School; and Mary Rajkumar, global investigations editor for The Associated Press.
Kraft thanked outgoing governors whose terms have expired: Emma Daly, Albert Goldson, Laurie Hays, Rod Nordland; Liam Stack and Vivienne Walt.
For a list of the full board, please click here.
