MEET THE CANDIDATES WHO WANT TO

The final candidates forum is 2-4 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 3. Voting continues online through 5 p.m. Friday, Aug. 4.

BY CHARLENE RICHARDS

LEAD NABJ Anderson: NABJ needs to work for more people

BY LENTHEUS CHANEY

Presidential candidate Tre’vell Anderson says they are running to better serve more NABJ members.

“They’re freelancers, they’re independent journalists, they’re queer people, they’re trans people, they are younger people,” Anderson said. “I really felt like who better than me to try to bring some of that change to the organization [that] I’ve seen up close.”

Anchor/Investigative

“Being

Director/Production Manager CNN/Warner Bros.

“I’m doing this because I have a passion for helping people … I know what these local chapters and task forces need.” to navigate.”

University of North Texas

Denton, Texas

“I love hearing people’s voices. I believe that everyone deserves to have a voice.”

Anderson, the first trans person to run for the seat, joined as an NABJ member nine years ago and is now a lifetime member. They have served as the Region IV Director (West Coast) for three years and chaired the LGBTQ+ Task Force since 2017.

Anderson wants to increase NABJ resources to make them more available to freelance journalists.

“I thought to myself, ‘What would it look like if I was president, right, to be able to prioritize those types of folks in our membership while still maintaining all of the work that we do for everyone else who we work so well for as an organization,’” Anderson said. “Especially now with so many layoffs happening, more and more members are going to be forced to be independent journalists.”

Lemon reaching out to new generations

BY LENTHEUS CHANEY

Ken Lemon, NABJ vice president of broadcast, is facing a younger candidate in Tre’vell Anderson, but he feels confident in his appeal to the next generation of journalists entering the field.

“Well, I do it every day.” Lemon said. “I’m with students at North Carolina A&T University. I’m with students at South Carolina State University. I’m with the Emerging Journalists Summit talking to them.

“I have worked with young journalists all of my life, since I started in this business,” he said.

Currently serving his second term as NABJ vice president of broadcast, Lemon joined NABJ 16 years ago. He is the current deputy chair of the broadcast task force and chair of Black Male Media Project.

High Point, N.C.

“If we can get Gen Z interested in the news and possibly get them in our industry working that would be amazing.”

Lemon also emphasizes his advocacy work with ESPN, the National Football League and the Golden Globes to promote diversity and inclusion in media.

“That’s the history that I do on a national level, even more on the local level, helping people in individual circumstances and most recently working in a situation with a young woman who had a racial slur yelled at her while covering the story,” Lemon said.