AAJA/Sacramento Named Chapter of the Year

The Sacramento Chapter of the Asian American Journalists Association was named Chapter of the Year by the national organization at the June 22 convention luncheon in Honolulu. The chapter, led by co-presidents Sandy Louey of The Sacramento Bee and Suzanne Phan of KCRA3/WB 58, was lauded for its outstanding contributions to the organization. According to the AAJA national board, which presents the Chapter of the Year Award, the Sacramento chapter was selected for its "remarkable revitalization." (Click here to read more, or Click this to view photo album)

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CONGRATULATIONS

JONATHAN PINKERTON, a student member from California State University, Sacramento, has earned an internship as a staff writer in The Sacramento Bee's features department. Jonathan will lend his talents on Sidetracks, the section geared towards teenagers. For the past two and half years, Jonathan was a news aide in the news department and had already contributed a handful of articles and graphics for the features department.

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SACTOWN MAGAZINE TO DEBUT IN THE FALL

7/16: AAJA/Sacramento member ELYSSA LEE and her husband Rob will debut a hip new magazine, Sactown, in the fall. It'll be a magazine that "entertains, educates and illuminates -- with a lightbulb moment on every page," according to its snazzy Web site. (Check it out here.)
"As some of you know, since moving here from New York almost two years ago, Rob (aka Mr. Sacramento) and I have been quietly working on launching our own magazine in Sacramento," Elyssa says in an e-mail recently sent to some of her colleagues. "We want to offer a unique perspective on all the amazing things happening in this region today, shine a mirror on how much it's evolved, and show you how it's continuing to grow. We're so excited, and hope you are too."

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JONATHAN MASAKI SHIROMA RETURNS HOME

7/16: Our colleague JONATHAN MASAKI SHIROMA returned home from Iraq, though only briefly. For those who don't know, Jonathan was a fill-in reporter at KXTV News10 before being deployed to Iraq as a member of the California National Guard's 49th Military Police Brigade, where he's referred to as Capt. Shiroma. News10 did a wonderful story on him, and you can check it out here.

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WELCOME OUR NEW STUDENT REPRESENTATIVE

7/12: ESTEE LEE is just finishing her first year at UC Davis and is double-majoring in sociocultural anthropology and English, with an emphasis on creative writing. She is minoring in communications. She was born in Antioch, but lived mostly in the Pocket/Greenhaven area. "I fell in love with journalism as a sophomore in high school, worked on the John F. Kennedy High School student paper for two years (junior and senior years), and plan to join the student paper, The California Aggie, at UC Davis in the Fall." She is currently an intern at the Sacramento News & Review. By the way, she's already made the Dean's list twice.

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CONGRATULATIONS

7/4: News10 Sports Anchor/ Reporter RYAN YAMAMOTO has been awarded an Emmy for his sports feature, "Blind Fury"-- a story about a blind sprinter. Ryan wrote and produced the story while working at KSWB in San Diego.

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NEW MEMBERS

7/2: KARISSE and TIM SAKAHARA. Karisse is the Morning Executive Producer at News10 (KXTV) in Sacramento. She grew up in Hawaii and moved to California for college. She's worked and lived in San Jose, Oregon, Oklahoma and now Sacramento.Tim is a reporter at KTXL-Fox 40. Karisse: "We're both thrilled to be closer to home, especially with our 15-month-old son, Shea, and our two dogs,".

GEORGETTE COPES, reporter, KTXL-Fox 40. In her own words: "I'm a Filipino-American, grew up in San Diego, packed my bags for upstate New York to start my on-air career. After three years on the East Coast, I jumped at the opportunity to move closer to home, accepting a reporter position at the CBS affiliate in Palm Springs and eventually landing a job at KTXL Sacramento."

JONATHAN PINKERTON, student member and editorial aide at The Sacramento Bee. Jonathan is a student at California State University, Sacramento.

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CONGRATULATIONS

5/31: AAJA Sacramento student member ALDRICH M. TAN, graduates from the University of California in June. Tan was an active chapter member, helping organize the student workshop in March and serving as the chapter's webmaster. He is spending this summer as a reporting intern at The Indianapolis Star.

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WATCH

5/31: AAJA/Sacramento's 20th anniversary video. (Link temporarily disabled, 07/10/06; check back in a few days.)

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LONNIE WONG, of Fox 40, was recently honored by the API Legislative Caucus with the group's Media Award for his ongoing commitment to the Asian/Pacific Islander community. He's joined by chapter co-president Suzanne Phan, right, and treasurer Susie Wong.

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NEW MEMBERS

5/25: BOBBY CAINA CALVAN, copy editor at the Sacramento Bee. He is a long-time member of AAJA. Before arriving at The Bee, he wrote for the Boston Globe, Virginian-Pilot, Seattle Times, Detroit Free Press and the (Redding) Record Searchlight. He went to Cal.

ELYSSA LEE, contributing writer for InStyle magazine. She spent five years in New York City as a staff writer for the magazine. Prior to working at InStyle, she was a staff reporter for Money magazine. She has also freelanced for Entertainment Weekly Online, Yahoo! Internet Life magazine, Inc. magazine, the Boston Phoenix’s Stuff@Night magazine and Boston’s South End News. She has degrees in English and Psychology degrees, as well as a Masters in Journalism, from Boston University.

FITZGERALD VO, copy editor at the Sacramento Bee. Before joining The Bee, "Fitz" worked at the Monterey Herald for two years. He is from San Jose and graduated from UC Davis.

TOM VU, assistant editor at BN magazine, a Vietnamese-American monthly. He is also a policy advocate at the Healthcare Trade Association. He grew up in Sacramento and graduated from UC San Diego.