It’s with great pleasure that we announce Irving Washington has been promoted to Deputy Director. In his new role, Irving will act as ONA’s second-in-command and a key contributor to short- and long-term planning and strategy, responsible for all operations, academic programs and professional awards.
In his role as Operations Director over the past two years, Irving has helped oversee administration, HR, budgeting and all conference and event logistics and platforms. He has also been responsible for the administration — and success — of our scholarship programs, including the $1M Challenge Fund for Innovation in Journalism Education, the MJ Bear Fellowships, the Knight HBCU Scholarships and the AP-Google Scholarships.
Last year, he earned the designation of Certified Association Executive (CAE) by the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) and received Connect Magazine’s 40 under 40 award for 2013.
“Aside from keeping the ONA trains running with grace, Irving has been responsible for seeding over $2 million in support to worthy early-career professionals, students and colleges,” said Jane McDonnell, Executive Director. “I’m looking forward to working with him to bring ONA into 2015 and beyond.”
As a media diversity advocate, Irving has managed programming and fundraising initiatives for journalists, media professionals and students nationwide. As program manager for the National Association of Black Journalists, he created new partnerships for its student programs, which annually gave over $100,000 in scholarships. He also launched the organization’s all-digital platform for the annual Salute to Excellence National Media Awards, the largest journalism awards competition recognizing issues affecting the worldwide black community and African diaspora.
Previously, Washington served as Diversity Education Coordinator for the Radio-Television Digital News Foundation, which promotes the hiring, training, promotion and retention of professionals of color in television, radio and digital news. He managed Foundation events and projects, including the High School Journalism Project, Educators in the Newsroom Project, and the scholarship, fellowship and internship programs. He served on the team that launched one of the nation’s first websites exclusively for high school broadcast journalists, hsbj.org.
He is a member of ASAE’s Diversity Executive Leadership Program (DELP), Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. and serves on the Journalism Alumni Society Board of Directors of his alma mater, Ball State University, from which he received a degree in Journalism.