Special to The Mississippi Link
TAMPA – The National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) today announced that Kathy Times has been elected the 18th president of the 3,200-member organization. Also elected to serve for the 2009-11 term are Vice President-Print Deirdre Childress of the Philadelphia Inquirer and Vice President-Broadcast Bob Butler of KCBS Radio in San Francisco.
Times, an anchor for WDBD-TV in Jackson, Miss., won the election with 325 votes or 57 percent of the vote, defeating opponent Angelo Henderson, a Radio One Talk Show host, writer and president of Angeloink, LLC.
The election results were announced at a 6 p.m. press conference following the closing of the polls at the Tampa Convention Center, site of the 2009 NABJ Annual Convention and Career Fair. More than 1,300 votes were cast by eligible NABJ members in this year’s election, conducted online between June 8 and 5 p.m. today.
“This next Board will pick up the gauntlet at a historic moment in journalism’s evolution,” said Melanie Burney, NABJ Elections Committee chair. “These individuals will help to lead our organization to the new frontier of journalism.”
Times, who completes a term as vice president-Broadcast, replaces current President Barbara Ciara, managing editor/ anchor for WTKR in Norfolk, Va., whose term in office ends Sunday.
“We have a lot of work to do and I want to say to you that we will hit the ground running,” Times told a packed room at the Marriott Waterside Hotel and Marina in Tampa where the election results were announc-ed. “Advocacy is part of our mission, it is what we do, it is what we are about.”
A total of 12 board members were chosen by the membership to lead the organization for the next two years. Board members re-elected for a second term in uncontested races include Treasurer Gregory Lee, Parliamentarian Tonju Francois, Region III Director Ken Knight, Region V Director Cindy George, and Associate Representative Aprill O. Turner.
Winning re-election in a contested race was Region I Director Charles Robinson and winning a first term in Region IV was Keith Reed. CNN analyst Roland Martin was elected secretary in another contested race.
Georgia Dawkins, a student at Florida A&M University, was elected Student Represent-ative.
No candidates ran for Region VI Director, which will be appointed by the new president upon taking office.
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