On July 20th,in conjunction with our very successful Cleveland Journalism Nostalgia Night, we elected a new board to serve the Cleveland Pro Chapter in the coming year. We don't have bios and photos from everyone, but we're pleased to share those we have received. In some cases, we have  provided links to websites that tell more about individual board members and/or their affiliations. We are very proud of the all-star lineup here! Please visit our chapter website (see link at right) for updates as we get more bios -- when you get there, click on the Chapter Officers tab).

President: Claudia Taller is a travel and lifestyle writer and has written for many local Cleveland publications, including The Plain Dealer Sunday Magazine, West Shore, Northern Ohio Live, West Shore Live Well, and Long Weekends. She is a regular contributor to Cool Cleveland, the corporate columnist for Paralegal Today, and writes on-line lifestyle and travel content for Yahoo. She attained a B.A. in English Literature and Writing from Kent State University, interned with the Kent State University Press, and received her post-graduate paralegal degree from Dyke College. She has worked as a business transactional paralegal for over 25 years and currently works as a Senior Paralegal at Squire Sanders. She taught Business Organizations for several years at Notre Dame College of Ohio and frequently speaks at professional legal events. She regularly leads workshops on writing, creativity, and spirituality, and has been a reading group member and presenter for over 20 years. Claudia owns Igniting Possibilities, an event and retreat business, as a conduit for writing and creativity workshops. She is a past president of the Cleveland Association of Paralegals, immediate past president of Skyline Writers, and is the current first vice president of Society of Professional Journalists, Cleveland. She is currently working on an Arcadia book entitled Ohio's Lake Erie Wineries and a novel entitled Daffodils and Fireflies.  Find out more about her at Claudia Taller Musings.

Carrie Buchanan

First Vice-President, Membership and Communications Chair: Carrie Buchanan. After 15 years as a reporter and editor - 12 of those for the Ottawa Citizen, the major daily in Canada's capital - Buchanan left the newspaper business in 2000 to pursue an academic career. She taught for seven years and completed the coursework for her doctorate at Carleton University's School of Journalism and Communication in Ottawa, Canada, before moving in 2006 with her husband to Cleveland. She did volunteer work at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, SPJ and the First Unitarian Church of Cleveland while completing her dissertation. She then was delighted to land a tenure-track faculty position at John Carroll University, in the Tim Russert Department of Communication and Theatre Arts. So far she has taught or is scheduled to teach introductory journalism, First Amendment law, political communication, media literacy, editing & design, and health & environment reporting. She has been very involved with SPJ for the past three years, serving this past year as Second Vice-President, Membership Chair and Writer's Week editor. Carrie's blog, which is about the "sense of place" -- the topic she examined in newspapers for her dissertation -- is called Dis.location (Ed. note: Please forgive the lack of recent entries - I want to start writing more about Cleveland but have not had time. This isn't just a "shoot your mouth off" blog. When I write something, like any professional journalist, I do research.). Her personal webpage is here.

Second Vice-President and Program Chair: Audrey

Audrey McCrone

McCrone has served one year already on board for the SPJ Cleveland chapter, and was president of the campus chapter at Cleveland State when she was a student there. She now does freelance work part time, currently for a new monthly publication that comes out on the near-east side of Cleveland and covers county politics, called the County Reporter. Recently, McCrone participated in the SPJ's Ted Scripps Leadership Institute in Indianapolis, Ind. She has joined the Communications Committee, for which she helps update the chapter's Web page. In her new post as Program Chair, she looks forward to helping coordinate events hosted by the chapter.

Secretary-Treasurer: Tom Moore. Click the link to see his excellent bio, photo and blog at the WTAM website.

Cliff Anthony

Immediate Past President: Cliff Anthony, assistant professor of journalism at Lorain County Community College, served as president during 2009-10.
In his 25-year journalism career, Anthony has worked for newspapers in India, Middle East, New York City, Washington, D.C., and Greater Cleveland. Locally, he worked for Sun Newspapers for 10 years and for The News-Herald for five years, where he served as the Geauga County bureau chief. Anthony is a recipient of several journalism awards. Prominent among them are three national awards from Suburban Newspapers of America and five awards from Cleveland Press Club.
He has two master's degrees - one in journalism from Kent State University and another in English from Bombay University, India. Before joining LCCC in fall 2008, Anthony taught journalism at Cleveland State University as a full-time faculty for three years and as an adjunct faculty for five years. His areas of teaching include news writing, feature writing, advanced/in-depth reporting, specialized writing, editing, page design, online editing and public relations.
He also taught English composition and argumentative writing at Lakeland Community College as an adjunct faculty for eight years.

New board members:

Cheryl D'Mello, graduate student at Cleveland State University.

Anup Kumar,assistant professor at Cleveland State University.

Rich Exner

Rich Exner is the computer assisted reporting editor for The Plain Dealer, responsible for database analysis and using mapping and data programs as reporting tools throughout the newsroom. He maintains Data Central, the PD's online home for archived daa, including interactive maps and databases. Previously, he was assistant metro editor, metro reporter and sport copy editor. Before joining the PD in 1991, he was the Ohio state editor and Cleveland Bureau manager for United Press International. In addition to his full-time work, Exner is a freelance columnist for the Buckeye Sports Bulletin, which covers Ohio State sports; and is also beginning to develop Web pages. He lives in North Olmsted and is married with two children, who are students at North Olmsted High School.

Members continuing their terms:
Veronica Dahlberg, Tony Kozlowski and Dave Molpus

New member taking over the remainder of Ken Myers' term:

Rodney Bengston

Rodney Bengston.
SPJ Cleveland board member Ken Myers is running for the District 6 seat on the new Cuyahoga County Council and consequently has stepped down from our chapter's board to avoid any appearance of conflict of interest for SPJ members who might end up covering the election. Stepping in to replace Myers is Rodney Bengston, who has worked as a copy editor, reporter and production editor at Sun News. He now works as assistant editor the Sun Post-Herald, West Shore Sun and Sun Sentinel. He also is a founding member of the Cleveland Comedy Kitchen, which does stand-up comedy shows at clubs, corporate events and charity functions.

Members extending their terms:
Jay Miller, Pete Chakerian, Stan Bullard and Betty Clapp

Stan Bullard is the senior reporter at Crain's Cleveland Business. He

Stan Bullard

joined the staff in 1986 and today covers real estate, construction and related industries. Until 2001, in addition to real estate, he covered government, law firms, utilities, and small business for Crain's.
Bullard has won more than a dozen journalism awards at Crain's. He is currently a board member of the Cleveland Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists and a past president of the group.
Except for a year spent in public relations, he has worked as a journalist covering Northeast Ohio since 1976. He is a Cleveland native and product of Kent State University's School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

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