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The Society of Professional Journalists Los Angeles chapter names a set of "distinguished journalist of the year" honorees each year, ahead of its banquet in the spring. Well ahead, you might say — the date and place of the dinner has not been set yet. Next year's winners will be:
- Jacques Clafin, overnight editor at City News Service
- Gustavo Arellano, editor of OC Weekly
- Keith Goldstein, news director at KCSN
- Cheryl Kunin Fair, vice president and news director at KABC
Michelle Levander, editor-in-chief of ReportingonHealth.org, will receive the group's Distinguished Work in New Media Award. SPJ/LA will also honor Mona Shafer Edwards, the longtime courtroom sketch artist, "for her valued contribution to journalism."
Some bio bits from the release:
Cheryl Kunin Fair is the longest-serving local television news director in Los Angeles, and the only female news director in the history of KABC-TV. Since she joined KABC in 1994, Eyewitness News has become the local news leader in broadcast, digital and social media. Milestones during her tenure include the only locally owned live radar in Southern California, the first high-definition helicopter, and the first regular newscasts in HD live from the studio and the field. Under her leadership, Eyewitness News has implemented new technology to discover, create, present and distribute news and information content and embraced social media as a way to better communicate with consumers.Keith S. Goldstein has spent his entire 33-year professional career in radio news. As news director of KCSN-FM, since 1987, he has led his California State University Northridge student broadcast journalism staff to more than 450 professional local, regional, state and national awards including 49 Golden Mikes in Division B from the Radio & Television News Association of Southern California and 34 regional Edward R. Murrow awards from the Radio Television Digital News Association including KCSN News being recognized four times for overall excellence. Also, under Goldstein’s leadership, the student reporters and writers have received a dozen first place Mark of Excellence Awards from the Society of Professional Journalists. Goldstein created a six-part series on domestic violence that received first place awards from the Los Angeles Press Club and the Associated Press. He also earned three statewide Associated Press awards in the category of investigative reporting, including in-depth stories on staged accidents and the mental health funding crisis in Los Angeles County. A native of Philadelphia, Goldstein is a graduate of Temple University and earned his graduate degree from Pennsylvania State University. Goldstein also serves as a classroom instructor at California State University Northridge for the Journalism Department’s advanced radio news class, the Broadcast News Practicum.
Jacques Clafin has been CNS Overnight Editor for nearly two decades, directing the agency’s overnight news report over a period that has seen the CNS coverage area expand with the addition of San Diego and Riverside counties. Clafin brought a wealth of reporting and management experience gleaned from years of service at United Press International -- as Pacific Division Editor, directing news coverage in 10 Western states, including California; foreign editor, during a period when UPI earned the George Polk Award in Journalism, in the foreign reporting category; bureau chief in Salisbury; and correspondent in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. His assignments included coverage of the Yom Kippur War, the Rhodesian War and the emergence of Zimbabwe under black majority rule in the former Rhodesia. Clafin has reported from a score of countries and the United Nations. But one of his biggest “scoops” was his most anonymous. It came when, based on a tip, the French-speaking Clafin worked the phones in UPI’s New York office and learned from someone at Monaco’s Royal Palace that Princess Grace had died in a car crash. No other organization could match it for hours.
The French-born Clafin attended Alexander Hamilton High School in Los Angeles, Los Angeles City College and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Gustavo Arellano is the editor of OC Weekly, an alternative newspaper in Orange County, California, the author of “Orange County: A Personal History” and “Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America,” lecturer with the Chicana and Chicano Studies Department at California State University, Fullerton, and a consulting producer on FOX’s animated show, Bordertown. He writes “¡Ask a Mexican!,” a nationally syndicated column in which he answers any and all questions about America's spiciest and largest minority. Gustavo is the recipient of awards from the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, the Los Angeles Press Club and the National Hispanic Media Coalition. He was also recognized by the California Latino Legislative Caucus with a 2008 Spirit Award for his “exceptional vision, creativity, and work ethic.” Gustavo is a lifelong resident of Orange County and is the proud son of two Mexican immigrants, one of whom was illegal.
Michelle Levander is founding director of The California Endowment Health Journalism Fellowships at the USC Annenberg School of Journalism and editor-in-chief of its website, ReportingonHealth.org, an online community of journalists, bloggers, health thinkers and practitioners. Reporting on Health, launched in 2008, features commissioned and member blogs and encourages online learning and communication across journalism, health policy and health practice. Two years ago, Levander launched the ReportingonHealth Collaborative under the Reporting on Health banner, which brings together reporters to produce collaborative projects for their news outlets on a shared theme. A veteran editor and writer, Levander previously reported in Asia, Latin America, and the United States for Time Magazine Asia, the Asian Wall Street Journal and The San Jose Mercury News. In Asia, she reported from China, India, South Korea and Vietnam on the region's technology scene and launched a Technology Journal for the Asian Wall Street Journal. She wrote about workplace issues and business health policy at the Mercury News, among other topics. She has received journalism awards from the Overseas Press Club of America (Best Reporting in Latin America), the Inter American Press Association and the Society of Professional Journalists. A former Inter American Press Association fellow, she spent a year in Mexico, studying and researching migrant culture. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from UC Berkeley and earned a master's degree from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.
