2006 First National Professional Development Seminar for Ethnic Media

Opening remarks:
Gloria Tristani, President, Benton Foundation
Marjorie R. Sims, Vice President of Programs and Operations, Washington Area Women’s Foundation
Lorena Hernandez, Director of Communications, San Francisco Bay Area, Comcast

Investigative Reporters & Editors (IRE), based at the University of Missouri, is the nation's premiere training program for investigative and in-depth reporters.  IRE director Brant Houston will join Cheryl Thompson of the Washington Post to lead this workshop for ethnic media reporters. Participants will receive a one year free membership to IRE.

Speakers:
Brant Houston, Executive Director, Investigative Reporters and Editors
Cheryl W. Thompson, Staff Writer, Washington Post
Moderator: Margaret Engel, Managing Editor, The Newseum

What can you do as an ethnic media practitioner to help your community learn about the opportunities for buying a home-and why does minority home ownership matter for ethnic media?

Speakers:
Christina Diaz-Malone, Director, National Initiatives, Freddie Mac
Julie Sun, Manager, Corporate Relations & Housing Outreach, Freddie Mac

WETA producer Julie Drizin and reporter Wilma Consul share their tips on the best radio techniques, and help participants learn how to pitch stories for public radio.  Malcolm Marshall, producer for Youth Outlook! Radio, talks about the latest trends in youth radio.

Speakers:
Julie Drizin, Producer, WETA 90.9 FM's The Intersection
Wilma Consul, Reporter, WETA 90.9 FM's The Intersection
Malcolm Marshall, Producer, Youth Outlook! Radio

Representatives of the American Association of Advertising Agencies and leading advertising and PR firms from Washington DC share their tips on how to improve your pitch for advertisers and ad agencies.

Speakers:
Simon Rosenberg, President and Founder, NDN
Len Fong, Principal, The Kobayashi Maru Group
Moderator: Adonis Hoffman, Senior Vice-President and Counsel, AAAA

Ethnic media are the leading source of information after health care providers for ethnic audiences, but they're often the last to learn vital news like the FDA ban on spinach. How can you expand and enrich your health care coverage without having a specialist on staff? What resources are out there to help you track the latest trends and decode data for your audiences?

Speakers:
Bob Rosenblatt, Senior Fellow and former reporter for the LA Times, National Academy of Social Insurance
Andres Tapia, Global Chief Diversity Officer, Hewitt Associates
Garth Graham, MD, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Minority Health, US Department of Health and Human Services
Moderator: Dennis Hunt, Vice President of Communications, The California Endowment

How can you give your local story wider context? Veteran journalists share their tips for taking your story to the national edge.

Speakers:
Susan Rasky, Senior Lecturer, UC Berkeley School of Journalism, former Congressional reporter for the New York Times

Speakers:
Sergio Bendixen, President, Bendixen and Associates
Deepak Bhargava, Executive Director, Center for Community Change
John Halpin, Senior Fellow, Center for American Change
Karen DeWitt, Director of Communications, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund

As more Americans grow older than ever before, many of them are immigrants with special needs and wants. What should ethnic media know to better inform and reflect the realities of this population.

Speakers:
Paul Kleyman, Editor, Aging Today, newspaper of the American Society on Aging
Barbranda Lumpkins Walls, Consulting Editor, The Bulletin, AARP
Julia Bencomo Lobaco, Executive Editor, Segunda Juventud, AARP
Karyn Cole, MD, Medical Director, AETNA

A panel of experts update ethnic media practitioners on how the debate over comprehensive immigration reform is whittling down the rights of detainees — not just overseas but in the U.S. and what they propose to do about it.

Speakers:
Andrea Black, Network Coordinator, Detention Watch Network
David Burnham, Co-director, TRAC (Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse)

Top progressive bloggers in the nation demonstrate the "hows" and "whys" of taking your news online and if you haven't already done it, developing blogs for your top commentators.

Speakers:
Liza Sabater, Writer, Blogger, Netactivist, www.culturekitchen.com
Faiz Shakir, Deputy Research Director, www.thinkprogress.org and the Progress Report, Center for American Progress
Chris Rabb, founder and chief evangelist, Afro-Netizen
Moderator: Bill Densmore, Editor, Media Giraffe Project, UMASS-Amherst

Knowing the secret to unlocking public documents can strengthen any news story.  Get an overview of FOIA and as well as federal and state records laws.  Using a health care context, participants will look at accessing records of publicly owned hospitals, reports of disease and mortality rates, and malpractice.

Speaker:
Joel Campbell, Chairman, Society of Professional Journalists, Freedom of Information Committee, and Assistant Professor Brigham Young University