Atlanta Chapter History

In August 1994, Joie Chen, then a CNN anchor, and Bob Luke, Atlanta Journal-Constitution business writer, helped to establish the Atlanta chapter of AAJA in time for the first Unity conference, which brought together the National Association of Black Journalists, National Association of Hispanic Journalists, the Native American Journalists Association (NAJA) and AAJA. Chen and Luke rounded up local Asian-American journalists to support the national AAJA, based in San Francisco.

Today, the Atlanta chapter has more than 40 members in television, radio, print and online media. AAJA-Atlanta has sponsored annual journalism workshops for area college students, held diversity forums with other journalist groups, distributed scholarships and participated in various events to create awareness about Asian Americans and their role in the media. Every November, we hold a fundraising/scholarship banquet.

Chen was the first president of the chapter and is now a CBS News correspondent in Washington D.C. Other chapter presidents have included Charles Tsai, Kim Bui, Melissa Jue, Angeline Correa, Nancy Leung and Rodney Ho.