Board of Directors 2011 – 2012

President

 Katherine Rowlands
East Bay Metro Editor
Bay Area News Group/Contra
Costa Times/Oakland Tribune
Walnut Creek, Calif.

Vice president

 Gwyneth Doland
Producer, reporter
KNME-TV
Albuquerque, N.M.

Deputy Vice President

 Sarah Pollock
Professor, journalism & English
Mills College
Oakland, Calif.

Secretary

 Teresa Puente
Faculty, Journalism Dept.
Columbia College
Chicago, Ill.

Treasurer

 Andrea Stone
Senior National Correspondent
The Huffington Post
Washington, D.C.

Director

 Jessica Alpert
Producer
WBUR – FM
Boston, Mass.

Director

 Mary C. Curtis
Independent multimedia journalist
Charlotte, N.C.

Director

 Sandra Fish
Journalism instructor
University of Colorado
Boulder, Colo.

Director

 E.J. Graff
Contributing editor
The American Prospect
Cambridge, Mass.

Director

 Charreah Jackson
Associate editor
Heart and Soul
New York, N.Y.

Director

 Peggy Sands Orchowski
author and Congressional correspondent
Hispanic Outlook on Higher Education
Washington, D.C.

Director

 Jessica Rettig
Independent journalist
Bogotá, Colombia

Director

 Peg Simpson
Freelance/Women’s Media Center
Washington, D.C.

Director

 Lauren Whaley
Multimedia reporter
CHCF Center for Health Reporting
USC Annenberg
Los Angeles, Calif.

Becky Day JAWS Executive Director

Executive Director

 Becky Day
Executive Director
Journalism & Women Symposium

For more about the board, see the JAWS by-laws.

About the Board

Election of JAWS officers and new board members takes place at the annual business meeting, the Monday of fall camp.

Eligibility for the JAWS board: Any active member who has camped with JAWS twice. Officers serve one-year terms; board members serve two-year terms. All are elected by a vote of the membership.

Job description for the board: The primary responsibility of the board of directors is to ensure that the organization operates in a fashion true to its stated mission and principles. The board provides continuity to the organization as individual members come and go.

The board has two trusts: The group’s growth and future, and to further the group’s goals.

It is responsible for setting policies, making decisions, delegating work and assuring the decisions are carried out. The board is legally responsible for governance of the organization and adherence to federal, state and local laws, audits done annually and income tax form filing.

A director’s responsibilities include:

  • Building and guiding long-range plans. This requires the ability to see and predict clearly the future needs of JAWS.
  • Making sure programs and services address membership needs.
  • Recruiting members and making sure members are involved in the group.
  • Raising funds.
  • Contributing and/or recruiting stories and items for the JAWS newsletter.
  • Contributing and/or recruiting program ideas for JAWS camp.
  • Spreading the word in the larger journalism commmunity about JAWS.
  • Attending camp, paying membership dues and attending board meetings.