2025-2026 Board

Officers

President

  • Tanya Gazdik is automotive editor at MediaPost's Marketing Daily. She is the chief programmer for MediaPost's Marketing: Automotive conferences held in conjunction with the New York and Los Angeles auto shows. A longtime automotive enthusiast, the Detroit native also freelances for websites including WardsAuto and A Girl’s Guide to Cars. She previously was animal welfare reporter at The (Toledo) Blade, Detroit bureau chief of Adweek, associate editor at Ward's Automotive Reports and Ward's AutoWorld. She started her career at The Associated Press as an editorial assistant and then a newswoman. She has both a B.A. in journalism and a J.D. from Michigan State University and she is president of the board of directors for The State News Inc., the multimillion-dollar nonprofit that funds the independent student media group at MSU. At JAWS, she is the captain of the Detroit regional group. She is a longtime animal lover and fosters animals for Michigan Humane, transports rescue dogs across the U.S./Canada border for Open Arms Transport, and serves on the board of directors for Leuk’s Landing, an Ann Arbor sanctuary and advocacy group for Feline Leukemia-positive cats.

Vice President

  • Linda Jue is editor-at-large for the investigative site 100Reporters and a DEI program consultant for the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education. She is also a contracted reporting and writing coach for the Fund for Investigative Journalism as well as a contributing editor for palabra. (sic), NAHJ’s news site. Linda was founding director and editor of the G.W. Williams Center for Independent Journalism, which mentored journalists of color, women and youth in public interest and investigative reporting. Linda has been at the forefront of nonprofit and independent journalism for the past 20 years, working on innovative journalism and media projects to strengthen the diversity and integrity of the field.

Officer-at-large

  • I'm a lifetime member of JAWS, NABJ, NAHJ and IJA. I've served as a director and officer on various journalism-related boards, and that includes JAWS. As aretired print journalist and manager recognized with a few awards, I’ve worked at the Daily Press, Newsday, The Charlotte Observer and The Chicago Tribune. 

    I've been at Rivet360, on the audio creation and management side, for the last 12 years. Since June 2024, I've hosted the "Aging Rewired" podcast for Senior Planet/AARP and recently won my first audio award for a 2025 interview.

    I serve as vice chair and am a founding board member of Journal Funding Partners.

    I’ve been inducted into my alma mater’s Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Communications Hall of Fame at Hampton University (Hampton, Va.),  receiving the Ida B. Wells Award given by Medill and the National Association of Black Journalists; and the Chicago Headline Club’s Lifetime Achievement Award. 

    I’ve also been a judge for the National Headliner Awards for the last 12 years,  serve on The Obsidian Collection leadership team and am a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. 

Treasurer

  • As a 30-year journalist, Keeley Webster has worked for publications from small dailies to her current spot at The Bond Buyer, a national financial publication. At this juncture, her goal beyond continuing to practice good journalism, is to mentor and provide encouragement to younger journalists. When she joined JAWS in 2015, she belonged to SPJ, IRE, NLGJA and AZBEE. But once she joined JAWS, attending four national conferences, and many workshops in L.A, her focus shifted primarily to JAWS. She would like to create partnerships with other journalism organizations, and particularly other affinity groups, to ensure that JAWS matches the country’s diversity.

Secretary

Directors

  • I ran the Scripps Howard Foundation’s Semester in Washington internship program for 13 years. Before that I taught journalism, mostly at the University of Maryland-College Park (where I got my MA). I was an assignment manager at News4 (WRC-TV). I started my career in D.C. at The Washington Star, mostly covering Virginia, and was the Virginia assistant bureau chief when the paper went out of business in 1981, part of the wave of the disappearance of afternoon newspapers. Since retiring, I was a tour guide at the Newseum’s final four years. I volunteer through the Cleveland-Woodley Park Village, where we help seniors stay in their homes by running errands or giving rides. I wrote "Your Loving Son, Ty: A World War II Story of Hope and Horror in the Pacific," a book about my mother’s cousin, who was on the Bataan Death Mach in the Philippines in WWII. I grew up in Lincoln, Nebraska, and graduated from UN-L.

  • Sana Siwolop is a journalist, editor and story developer.  She started her career as a science writer for the National Cancer Institute before becoming a staff reporter and editor at Discover and Business Week magazines, where she covered medicine, technology and business. More recently, Sana was a regular contributor to the business section of The New York Times for 15 years. Now an independent digital editor and educator, Sana regularly works with early-career writers, shaping content, narratives and new storytelling forms.  As part of that effort, she taught journalism at St. John's University in Queens, New York, for seven years and worked with the Virtual Mentoring Program at the National Association of Black Journalists. In 2018, she served as a Comparative Effectiveness Research Fellow at the Association of Health Care Journalists, where the focus was to produce accurate, in-depth reporting on medicine and medical decision-making. At JAWS, Sana co-chairs the national regional groups committee and is captain of the New York group.


  • Sylvia Snowden is a reporter/anchor/producer at WGN AM 720 in Chicago, IL, where she provides listeners with up-to-the minute information about the most-pressing local and national stories of the day.

    Prior to that, she worked at the city’s public access television network, CAN TV, for more than 15 years. While there, she served as host and producer of the network’s news affairs program, Political Forum. Some of the topics she covered as host of Political Forum include the unique ways Chicago’s West Side youth experienced the COVID-19 pandemic, the battle between Democrats and Republicans over state-wide mask mandates, the 2020 Chicago riots, the legacy of Black women in Chicago politics and Chicago’s 2023 Mayoral race.

    As a native Chicagoan who proudly hails from the city's South Side, Sylvia still enjoys volunteering with many of the community organizations that helped shape her as a young girl, like Target HOPE, a program committed to sending talented inner-city students to college with scholarships.

    Sylvia currently sits on the executive board of the National Association of Black Journalists–Chicago Chapter and serves as chair of the Advocacy Committee. She is also a member of the Chicago Journalists Association and the Journalism and Women Symposium (JAWS).

    Sylvia is a proud graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism. She is the inaugural winner of the People's Choice Award at the 28th Annual Community Media Awards Presented by Public Narrative. She is the 2nd place winner of the Chicago Journalists Association’s top prize, the 2023 Dorothy Storck Award. She is also the 2023 recipient of the legendary JAWS quilt.

  • Lottie Joiner is an award-winning multimedia journalist with more than two decades of experience covering issues that impact underserved and marginalized communities. She is the former editor-in-chief of The Crisis Magazine, the official publication of the NAACP founded by civil rights activist W.E.B. DuBois. The quarterly journal focused on social and political issues affecting minority communities, Black history, African American art and culture. During her tenure at The Crisis, the magazine won several national awards. 

    Joiner also hosted and produced the weekly Facebook Live show Crisis Conversations, which focused on how the pandemic impacted minority communities. The show featured a diverse lineup of panelists from underserved communities. Later, Crisis Conversations focused on the nation’s racial reckoning after the murder of George Floyd. 

    Joiner’s work explores the conditions and lived experiences of those in underserved communities. She has written extensively about the Civil Rights Movement with articles published in The Washington Post, USA Today, The Daily Beast, The Nation, The Guardian, Time.com and TheAtlantic.com. She has also written for a number of minority-focused publications including Ebony and Jet magazines, Essence, NBCBLK, The Undefeated, The Grio and The Root. 

    In addition to her publishing accomplishments, Joiner has also participated in a number of professional development opportunities. She was a 2015 Center for Health Journalism Fellow at the University of Southern California at Annenberg. Joiner participated in Yale University’s 2016 Thread at Yale Media Storytelling program, and in 2017 she was named a Schuster Institute/Fund for Investigative Journalism Diversity Fellow. 

    In 2019, Joiner was a Pulitzer Center grantee and a Folio 100 Honoree, which recognizes the top innovators in publishing. In 2021, she was chosen for the Maynard Institute’s Maynard 200 Fellowship, participating in its Executive Leadership program. That same year she participated in the Poynter Leadership Academy for Women in Media program. 

    Joiner is a former board member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA), a former board member of the Fund for Investigative Journalism (FIJ) and a former board member of JAWS, where she also served as captain of the DC region. In 2024, JAWS chose Joiner as the organization’s inaugural Alicia Shepard Fellow, in honor of the late award-winning journalist and JAWS member Alicia Shepard. She is based in New Orleans.

  • Kathy Bonk is a founding member of JAWS and has a history of advocating for women journalists. Throughout her career, including at the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund, she spearheaded efforts to end sex discrimination in employment and improve media coverage and the image of women and girls.

    In 1988, Bonk co-founded the Communications Consortium Media Center (CCMC) in Washington, DC. With many other colleagues, CCMC developed strategic communications strategies for policy change on various domestic and international issues, including child welfare, juvenile justice, early care and education, global human rights, women’s health, the Census, child marriage, the environment, learning disabilities and immigration reform. She directed grantee workshops, media training programs, and technical assistance activities under grants from numerous foundations.

    In addition to running a non-profit, Bonk served on a dozen boards of directors, including the National Press Club’s Journalism Institute, a non-profit arm of the Club; Too Young To Wed, founded by Pulitzer Prize photographer Stephanie Sinclair; Families USA; Kakenya School for Excellence located in a remote village in Kenya; and Pathfinder International. Most recently, Bonk served as a consultant to several foundations, the Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy, and the Youth Law Center.

    She is a contributor to Ms. magazine and co-author of the Jossey-Bass Guide to Strategic Communications for Nonprofits. Prior to her current roles, she led the NOW LEDF Women’s Media Project, managed the press operations for the Presidential National Commission for International Women’s Year at the U.S. Department of State, and served as an analyst in the Voting Section, Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice.

    Kathy now resides and sails on the coast of Maine, having moved there after decades of work in Washington, DC. She is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, with roots in Cleveland, Ohio.

  • Julia Métraux is Mother Jones' first disability reporter, where she covers disability as it relates to politics. In addition to being a board member of JAWS, Métraux is also a member of the Association of Healthcare Journalists and the Disabled Journalists Association. Métraux is also an alumna of UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and has received fellowships through JAWS, the National Press Foundation, Solutions Journalism Network, and the Gerontological Society of America. She copes with the world by FaceTiming her family dog.

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