Two candidates vie for SPJ national president/VP

The national convention of the Society of Professional Journalists is only two weeks away! Along with all the rest of the discussions and celebrations in Washington D.C., SPJ will elect a slate of officers and a vice president, who will then succeed as president of the organization the following year. Per the bylaws, all registered members of SPJ may vote in who leads our organization, whether or not they attend the convention.

This year, St. Louis SPJ invited both candidates to share a little bit about their experience and their plans if they should be elected to lead SPJ. It’s our hope that by sharing more information, we can encourage more participation from our members. After all, we can’t complain if we don’t vote, right?

Meet the candidates:

Nicole DeCriscio

Executive Editor, The Owen News

I’m running for Vice President of SPJ because I believe our organization must lead boldly in defending the First Amendment, strengthen its connection to members and chapters and secure long-term financial stability. With more than a decade of SPJ leadership experience and my recent experience as founder and Executive Editor of The Owen News, I bring both institutional knowledge and proven nonprofit management skills to help support our Executive Director to ensure SPJ not only survives but thrives in this critical moment for journalism and this organization.

First and foremost, SPJ must continue to be the nation’s loudest and clearest voice for the First Amendment. In an era of disinformation and declining trust in journalism, we must stand confidently in our role as defenders of journalists and ethical journalism. That means reviving initiatives like Project Watchdog, not only as an advocacy tool but also as an educational platform. Public-facing campaigns should highlight why journalism matters and what ethical journalism looks like, and SPJ should provide members with tools to address media literacy and misinformation in their communities. Every SPJ member should feel equipped to confidently defend the press to policymakers, peers and the public.

Equally important is rebuilding connections among members, chapters and national leadership. SPJ thrives when its members feel heard, supported and empowered. To strengthen those bonds, we must revive and expand Programs in a Box and create a stronger system for chapters to share ideas, resources and programming. Regional coordinators need clearer guideliknes and training to better serve as bridges between local chapters and the national board. We must also relaunch and expand communities, drawing on the successes of our Freelance and International Communities. This includes revitalizing Gen J with mentorship opportunities for students and early career journalists. Bringing back initiatives like the Student Leadership Institute and the Future Leaders Academy will ensure that SPJ remains valuable to members at every stage of their careers and provide a leadership pipeline for all levels of our organization.

Finally, securing SPJ’s financial future must be a top priority. Current stability relies too heavily on temporary solutions such as grants and additional funding from the SPJ Foundation, which are not sustainable. As a nonprofit leader who has secured more than $350,000 in grant funding for local news and has consistently exceeded fundraising goals, I understand how to diversify revenue and build lasting financial structures. With sound planning, SPJ can move away from financial crisis management and focus fully on its mission: championing ethics, defending press freedom and serving its members.

To help connect with members as I embark on this campaign, I’ll be offering a listening session Thursday, Oct. 9 from 2 to 4 p.m. ET. You can also book 1:1 time though this Calendly link.

Adam Sennott

Metro correspondent, Boston Globe

My name is Adam Sennott. I’m the president of SPJ New England, and a former member of the SPJ national and SPJ foundation boards.

I’m running for vice president of SPJ because the organization needs to do a significantly better job supporting its members, its chapters, and its communities. Successful membership organizations make you feel like you’re part of something bigger than yourself. SPJ doesn’t do that, and it’s a big reason why we’re down to around 3,800 members.

Here are some of the steps SPJ needs to take in order to support its current members and attract new ones.

The SPJ Foundation is giving away about $70,000 in grants this year. Many chapters don’t even know these funds are available. If you’re a chapter or community leader, they should be supporting your work.

I successfully pushed the SPJ Foundation to hold an info session for chapters and communities on their grant program. We must do more of these, encourage chapters to apply, and then the foundation needs to fund the chapters.

I can’t control what the foundation does with SPJ’s money, but they should be using it to support chapters, communities, and the national organization.

The SPJ board also needs to restrict First Amendment Fund grants to chapters, communities, and SPJ national. Right now the national organization isn’t even accepting grant applications. That’s $10,000 that’s frozen. Let’s make it available!

That’s $80,000 we could invest to support chapter and community programming right now! Let’s do it!

We could use some of those funds to replicate chapter programs that work in other cities. As president of SPJ New England I have organized more than 150 Zoom discussions with journalists including Bob Woodward (who I also got as a keynote at our national conference in 2022), Dean Baquet, Marty Baron, and more.  We’re going to set these types of discussions up at the national level.

We can also help student chapters with programming. In April, I got members of the Boston Globe’s famed Spotlight Team to speak with the Emerson College student chapter. It was an incredible event, and we should be setting up talks like this all over the country.

We have to be aggressive in supporting our student chapters. IRE HAS STUDENT CHAPTERS NOW. The IRE Boston University chapter did the same Spotlight event I did, on the same day! They are trying to scoop our student members, and right now we’re letting them.

We also need to help chapters with fundraising. Fortunately, SPJ has Lucas Metropulos as its development director. I worked with Lucas to organize a fundraising training for chapters and communities, and we want to make this a regular event. 

SPJ must do training to teach chapters how to use the new membership database. That is in the works. 

These are just some of the many steps we can take to make SPJ better for everyone. I’d be happy to chat more about this. My cell is (617) 633-0196.

SPJ’s convention takes place Oct. 15-18 in Washington, D.C. Election ballots will be emailed out to registered members during the convention. Not sure if your membership is up to date? Click here to log in to the website and check! There’s still time to renew your membership and have your say in how our organization moves forward. But hurry! You must be registered at least seven days prior to the start of the convention to vote. 

Want to find out more about the other candidates running for office? Click here for SPJ Election Central! There are seven candidates running for two at-large board seats. Missouri is in Region 7, and our regional coordinator, Loretta McGraw, is running unopposed for reelection.