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December 8, 2018
Alison Fitzgerald Kodjak elected National Press Club President
Photo: Alison Fitzgerald Kodjak, the new President of the National Press Club, Washington, D.C.
WASHINGTON, D.C., Dec. 8, 2018 — Alison Fitzgerald Kodjak, a correspondent for NPR (National Public Radio), was elected the next President of the National Press Club, the world’s leading professional organization for journalists, on Friday, December 7, 2018.
A three-time George Polk Award-winner during her lengthy career in both print and broadcast journalism, Kodjak will officially assume the duties of the presidency on January 11, 2019.
Kodjak, in her acceptance speech before her fellow members in the Club’s Truman Lounge, pledged to uphold the work of her predecessors in advocating for press freedom worldwide.
“My goal as president is to see the club become a central player in the fight for the future of quality, fact-based journalism here in the US and fight for the freedom of our colleagues around the world.
“Journalists today are under a huge amount of pressure. There are economic challenges - but even more difficult are the attacks on our credibility and character. Also, by habit, we tend to stay in our lanes - we work for the Post, AP or CNN and we compete. We belong to our groups - WHCA, IRE or NABJ. However, the National Press Club is a place where we break those walls down and gather to enjoy each other’s company,” Kodjak said.
Kodjak, who has enjoyed a successful career covering a wide array of subjects in a variety of platforms, is considered well-suited to foster that sense of camaraderie amongst her journalism colleagues. Before joining NPR in 2015, Kodjak spent two years at the Center for Public Integrity, leading projects in financial, telecom, and political reporting. Before joining the Center, she spent more than a decade at Bloomberg News, where she wrote about the convergence of politics, government, and economics, and as part of Bloomberg’s investigative team, reported on the bankruptcy of General Motors Corp. and the 2010 Gulf Oil Spill. A graduate of Georgetown University and Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Kodjak is also the co-author of the book “In Too Deep: BP and the Drilling Race that Took It Down,” published in 2011 by John Wiley & Sons.
Also elected in Friday’s Club elections were: Michael Freedman (UMUC, GW, The Kalb Report) as vice president; Peter Urban (Freelance) as treasurer; and Fouad Arif (Morocco News Agency) as secretary. Elected to the Board of Governors were: Lisa Matthews of the Associated Press, Ferdous Al-Faruque of MedTech Insight, Emily Wilkins of Bloomberg BNA, Del Quentin Wilber of the Los Angeles Times, freelance journalist Antonella Ciancio, and Danny Selnick of Business Wire.
The inaugural gala for the new president of the club, which was founded in 1908 and has 3,100 members worldwide, would be held on January 12, 2019.
Source: National Press Club, Washington, D.C.
|GlobalGiants.Com|
National Press Club, Washington, DC. — Donald Trump's 2014 promise to run for President in 2016. Donald Trump, Chairman and President of the Trump Organization, spoke at a National Press Club luncheon on May 27, 2014. https://t.co/08f6sL27i5
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Edited & Posted by the Editor | 2:28 AM | Link to this Post
