Over the past year, our small but mighty staff has launched a new website with a wealth of original content, trained our membership, grown ONA Local groups around the world, and provided guidance to journalists on pressing issues. So it’s with great pleasure that I kick off 2012 by announcing promotions to reward tireless work and staff additions to meet the needs of our rapidly growing ONA community.
Jen Mizgata
Let’s start with our newest hire: Jen Mizgata, who has been connecting members and the journalism community at large through all of our social media platforms and the ONA Issues Tumblr, starts today as our full-time Communications and Social Media Manager. Jen’s role will expand to help create innovative engagement initiatives and campaigns to promote programming, and she’ll serve as the homepage editor for journalists.org.
Jen will report to Jeanne Brooks, now Director of Innovation and Community Engagement and Editor of the ONA Issues Tumblr. Jeanne will remain responsible for all events and training, including our free ONACamps and our (now 30) ONA Local groups worldwide. In her new role, she’ll focus on dynamic programming, member benefits and seeking out emerging tools, technology and platforms to help members communicate with ONA and each other.
Sean Connolly, formerly Web Editor, is now Digital Manager, responsible for the development, design, maintenance and administration of all of ONA’s websites, including journalists.org, members.journalists.org, the annual conference website and upcoming Online Journalism Awards site. Sean works with our current part-time Content Producer, Latoya Peterson, and, later this year, will oversee a part-time Content Editor.
Working closely with staff is Irving Washington, Scholarship Manager, who currently is coordinating the committee in the selection process for the AP-Google Scholarships, now in the judging period.
Over the new few months we’ll be adding a Business Development Manager to the staff, courtesy of our recent $200,000 John S. and James L. Knight Foundation grant, who will handle sponsorships for all of our platforms and events, and build partnerships in the technology community that will benefit our members and colleagues.
The digital journalism community — your sense of promise and the invaluable work you do — inspires us every day. We’ll continue to do our best to give you the tools you need to keep telling stories.