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TEXAS AAJA BOARD MEMBERS AAJA Texas President: Iris Kuo Iris Kuo is a freelance journalist based in Houston. She recently relocated back to Texas from Hong Kong, where she worked for The Wall Street Journal. Iris has reported for The Wall Street Journal and The Wall Street Journal Asia, Houston Chronicle, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, KERA 90.1 and the Knight Ridder Washington Bureau (now McClatchy Newspapers). Iris reported for Voices at the 2006 AAJA Honolulu convention and the United Nations Global Youth Summit. She is a past AAJA Texas chapter student representative and the proud recipient of the Texas chapter and AAJA/S.I. Newhouse scholarships. Iris grew up in Alabama and Texas and loves travel, reading and food. She graduated magna cum laude from the University of Texas at Dallas with dual degrees in business administration and arts & performance. AAJA Texas Vice President: Ted Kim I want to thank the chapter for the opportunity to serve. For those who don't know me, I write and blog about the city of Plano and other suburban and transportation issues for the Dallas Morning News. I moved to Texas from Indiana, where I covered the state legislature, transportation and air travel for the Indianapolis Star and as a correspondent for USA Today. Before that, I worked in Maryland for the Montgomery Gazette and, later, The (Annapolis) Capital, where I covered the Maryland legislature. I have a B.A. in English and Communications from Boston College and a master's degree in journalism from American University. I am a second-generation Korean American. Though my background is rooted in print reporting, I'm intrigued by the emergence of social media and other web tools that are changing our industry. I believe that we stand at a pivotal time. And though the news business faces challenges ahead, I remain bullish on our future and believe that our work is needed now more than ever. AAJA Texas Secretary: Aman Batheja Aman Batheja is a political reporter with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in Texas and a member of the South Asian Journalists Association. His work has also been published in the Houston Chronicle, the Dallas Morning News and the Seattle Times. He is a 2003 graduate of New York University. He is currently pursuing a master's degree in economics at the University of Texas at Arlington. AAJA Texas Treasurer: Caroling Lee Caroling has a varied background in media with experience in television development, Web design and photography. Most recently, she completed her Master's degree in Photojournalism from the University of Texas at Austin. Previous to this degree, she worked for Discovery Networks International as a Program Evaluator, reviewing treatments and acquisitions for international programming schedules. Her web experience began in 1999 as an Associate Producer for Discovery Health Channel's converged television network. She continued as a Producer for the Creative Services arm of AppliedTheory, a Web company outside of Washington, DC. As the Producer, Caroling acts as client liaison for TradeMark Media projects and manages each project to meet deadlines, scope and budget. Caroling lives in East Austin with her pug, Rothko. She enjoys poker, snow boarding, politics, movies, cooking/food, eating crab, photography and travel. AAJA Texas National Advisory Board Member: Tom Huang Tom Huang is Sunday & Enterprise Editor at The Dallas Morning News and Ethics and Diversity Fellow at The Poynter Institute. In 2008, he taught ethics, diversity and leadership issues at Poynter. He is co-editor of Poynter's Best Newspaper Writing book for 2008-2009. He has worked at The Dallas Morning News since 1993, first as a feature writer, then as features editor, and now as the Sunday Page One editor. During Huang's time as features editor, the newspaper's features coverage was named one of the nation's best by the Missouri Lifestyle Journalism Awards and by the American Association of Sunday and Feature Editors. His reporting has taken him from Bosnia and Vietnam and the Athens Olympics to the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing and the 9/11 attacks in New York. Before moving to Dallas, he worked at The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, where he covered courts, city hall, demographics and general assignments. He is president of AASFE and serves on the national advisory boards of the Asian American Journalists Association and the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism. He is a 1988 graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in computer science and engineering. AAJA Texas Advisory Board Member: Maricar Estrella Maricar Estrella has been a journalist for more than 16 years - all at newspapers. She took the leap into the World Wide Web in 2008 when she became an Online Editor/Producer for Star-Telegram.com. Since then, she's led a team of reporters on a print/multimedia series looking into the lives of African-American women living with HIV and launched a social-networking website for moms called mom2momdfw.com. She has been an AAJA member since 1993 and represented the at-large membership as a national board member from 1994 to 1996. In Texas, she has served as Chapter Treasurer (1997-2002), President (2003-2005) and co-chair for the 2002 AAJA National Convention. The Texas convention was a huge success bringing in almost $700,000 in revenue. In 2006, she coordinated the AAJA Legacy Awards, which honored exemplary Asian Americans including civil rights activist Angela Oh, former U.S. civil rights attorney Bill Lann Lee, actor Lou Diamond Phillips and actor George Takei. Maricar was born in Manila, Philippines and grew up in southern California. She left the cozy comforts of southern Cal for the harsh winters of Syracuse, N.Y., to pursue a journalism degree. That education took her to exotic places like Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Wilmington, Delaware. In 1996, she landed in Texas, where the West begins. She currently lives in Fort Worth with her husband James and 8-year-old stepson Kiscada. AAJA Texas Advisory Board Member: Suzanne Marta Suzanne Marta has spent more than 13 years as a business reporter, working for daily newspapers in Oregon and Texas. Most recently, she worked for The Dallas Morning News, covering airline and tourism issues, the business of sports, arts and launching the paper's Airline Biz blog. She is currently the Web content editor and producer for a special project on the economy for KERA Channel 13/radio 90.1 FM. Suzanne graduated from the University of Oregon with honors and holds a Bachelor of Arts in journalism and political science.

About AAJA Since 1981, the Asian American Journalists Association has sought to increase the number of Asian American journalists, provide a network of support for Asian-American journalists, encourage Asian students to enter the profession and work for fair and accurate coverage of Asian Pacific communities. Our organization started with six people and has since grown to 1,900. Seventeen chapters stretch across the continental United States, Hawaii, and Asia. For more information about what AAJA offers, please visit the AAJA National web site. About the Texas chapter The Texas chapter of AAJA launched in Dallas in 1988 and has grown to include members across the state, from El Paso to Houston. Its first state convention in 1997 brought together more than 40 journalists and students. The chapter continues to hold an annual journalism conference and offers scholarships, professional stipends, mentoring, workshops, job listings, and many more benefits for students and working media professionals. The chapter's board and members meet quarterly.

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