Farewell Message from Outgoing JAWS President Angela Greiling Keane
Angela Greiling Keane/JAWS President 2023-2025
Dear Fellow JAWdesses,
I’m thrilled to hand over the JAWS presidency to Tanya Gazdik as the incoming president of our wonderful organization as we turn 40 years old.
Tanya is a hard-working and experienced journalist who is a longtime truly dedicated JAWS member and volunteer. She’s served on our board, led CAMP planning, fundraised and liaised with members and prospective members across the country. She’s been a steadfast partner as president-elect and will build along the solid foundation the outgoing board has laid.
As I wrap up two years as JAWS president, I am here to tell you that JAWS is in a stronger position than we were when we convened a year ago at CAMP. We have a board full of hard-working members, we have an enthusiastic and capable staff member in Nicole June, and we have the back-end infrastructure an organization needs. We already did have - and still do have - the best members a membership organization could ask for. And to support all this, we have dramatically increased fundraising, both from institutional donors and from the mighty network of JAWS members and friends who comprise our robust individual donor base.
JAWS’ work to support and advance women in journalism is more critical now than ever. We’ve had high demand for our training webinars and for regional gatherings as newsrooms face economic challenges and journalists figure out how to navigate the current political environment.
Highlights of the past two years:
Growing our health reporting fellowship supported by the Commonwealth Fund. Entering its fourth year, we’ve increased the number of fellows while maintaining a high bar for applicants and the projects they conduct during the fellowship
Cementing the transition of CAMP to geographically accessible locations to ensure access for a diverse set of attendees by all metrics, including employment status and income
Creating advocacy statements about reporter access to public events and about our commitment to diversity
Hosting regular webinars on pertinent journalism training topics, open not only to JAWS members but serving the journalism community more broadly
Ensuring the past three CAMPs have been profitable
Transitioning to the user-friendly myJAWS platform for member communications and networking and to facilitate communities within the larger JAWS membership
Collaborating with our partners at NABJ, AAJA, NAHJ and NLGJA on advocacy and an annual DC job fair
Strengthening our regional groups and network and empowering leadership for year-round, in-person events beyond CAMP
Diversifying our financial support network and building relationships with foundation funders as well as with individual donors
Scrutinizing our organizational spending and finding ways to cut costs without reducing services
Ensuring our board and membership is diverse and representative of the journalism community across the country
Revamping our bylaws to reflect the needs of the present and future
Increasing membership and ensuring we have systems in place to keep members engaged
Successful partnering with the Double Exposure documentary film festival, The ReWrite, Power of Narrative, IWMF, the Nonfiction Authors Association and SHRM
I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished, and I want to be honest that it hasn’t been easy. Many parts of leading this organization were hard. We had a very difficult discussion at CAMP last year about our future. We’ve grappled with more aspiration than capacity. And I had to say “no” to good ideas more times than I would have liked because we don’t have enough staff, funding or volunteer power to do everything we would like to do.
But we punch above our weight. People I meet in the broader journalism world are always surprised that JAWS does what we do with our small staff supplemented by volunteer labor. I often refer to JAWS as the (wo)man behind the curtain in a Wizard of Oz reference.
As we look forward, I hope we can continue to grow and do everything we’d like to do.
I am fond of saying “there is no finish line.” We are never done supporting and advancing women in journalism. We are never done defending democracy and a free press and women’s place in that space. We are never done building the network and community of women in journalism. We are never done asking and answering questions about where JAWS needs to be to meet the moment and what we should look like going into the future. And we are never done fundraising to support the work and growth of our amazing organization and our mission.
As your president for the past two years, I’ve stood on the shoulders of the women who came before me leading JAWS. It’s an amazing sisterhood and network, who I called on many times for many things.
I have been honored to lead this organization, and I am also honored to now join the Hall of (Past) Presidents and pass the torch to the talented board we’ve built to lead us onward.
Yours in journalism,
Angela
JAWS President 2023-2025