Join Us for the SPJ South Florida 2009 Annual Meeting

The chapter will elect its 2010 officers and board at its annual meeting Thursday, Nov. 19 at 6:30 p.m. at Hollywood Vine, 2035 Harrison Street, Hollywood. Chapter members will vote on the following slate as prepared by the nominating committee:

President: Julie Kay
Executive Vice President: Darcie Lunsford
Vice President for Membership: Sylvia Gurinsky
Vice President for Programs: Sergy Odiduro
Treasurer: Bill Hirschman
Secretary: Ron Levitt
At-Large Board Members: Paola Iuspa-Abbott, Michael Koretzky, Joe Kollin, Oscar Pedro Musibay, Merwin Sigale, Stacey Singer and Sam Terilli

See below for candidate bios. Please note that there are seven candidates for the six at-large board seats.

Only chapter members may vote. We will have an up-to-date chapter roster on hand to verify membership status.

Following the 6:30 chapter elections, everyone is welcome to join us at 7:00 for a pre-holiday networking social with complimentary hors d’oeuvres and a cash bar.

CANDIDATE BIOGRAPHIES

All biographies were provided by the candidates. They are listed in alphabetical order.

Stacey Singer DeLoye is a 20-year veteran of the news business. She currently covers health for The Palm Beach Post. She has been with the Post since 2004, when she was hired to cover science and Palm Beach County’s foray into biotechnology. Previously, she covered health and consumer news for the Sun-Sentinel, where she took first prize in the FSNE’s 2001 investigative reporting category for a medical mistakes project co-authored with Sally Kestin. Before moving to Florida in 1996, she did a one-year residency with The Chicago Tribune, covered higher education for The Capital Times in Madison, Wis., and helped launch The Moscow Times, an English-language newspaper in Moscow, started shortly after the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991. This year, she helped launch Journalists in Transition, Inc. (www.jitflorida.com), a 501(c)(3) dedicated to assisting displaced journalism professionals.

Sylvia Gurinsky is a freelance journalist and blogger. She also works part-time as an educator at the Historical Museum of Southern Florida. Gurinsky previously worked for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel’s Forum Publishing Group, as a staff writer for the Delray Times and Sunrise Forum community newspapers, and as assistant editor and then editor of the Jewish Journal and Shalom Today weekly papers. Earlier in her career, she worked for WPLG-Channel 10, Miami’s ABC affiliate.

Bill Hirschman is a theater critic and arts reporter for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, a freelancer at-large for several publications and is writing a novel. He has worked as a reporter or editor at newspapers in New York, Missouri, Oklahoma and Kansas before coming to work for the Sun-Sentinel in 1994 as an education reporter specializing in investigative reporting. He has also covered social services and county commission for the paper. He is past president of the South Florida SPJ chapter and past president of the Kansas Professional SPJ chapter. Among many awards, he received SPJ’s national First Amendment Award, reflecting his long-standing battle for public access to government.

Paola Iuspa-Abbott is a reporter at the Miami Daily Business Review. Paola returned to the Review in October 2007 after an 18-month stint at the Sun-Sentinel where she covered western Palm Beach County. Prior to the Sun-Sentinel, Paola had covered real estate in South Florida since 1998. She initially joined the Review in April 2004 as the transactions reporter, covering residential and commercial real estate deals in the tri-county area. Paola previously reported for the South Florida Business Journal, where she covered real estate in Miami-Dade, and for Miami Today, where she covered local government, real estate and development. Paola graduated from Florida International University in 2000 with a degree in print journalism and mass communications.

Julie Kay, a freelance writer, is an award-winning South Florida journalist. She previously covered the southeast United States for the National Law Journal. She also worked for the Daily Business Review, where she authored a weekly column entitled “Justice Watch.” Kay is also the Florida consultant for C-SPAN and freelances for People Magazine, the New York Post and Closer Magazine. Previously, Kay worked as a staff writer for the Miami Herald for five years, covering city and county government in Broward County, as well as for the Palm Beach Post. Kay previously served as president of the South Florida SPJ chapter from 2002 to 2004. She also serves on the national group’s Legal Defense Fund committee.

Joe Kollin, an SPJ member since 1964 when he was a journalism student at the University of Florida, retired last year from the Sun-Sentinel. He worked for Florida newspapers for 42 years, during which time and was considered the state’s most honored legal affairs reporter. Kollin moved to South Florida in 1952, served in the U.S. Naval Reserve and originated the popular condo/homeowner association beat in the Sun-Sentinel in 1986.

Michael Koretzky was expelled from Boca Raton Academy in 1981, suspended from the University of Florida journalism school in 1989, fired from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel in 1997, and brought up on charges of “malfeasance” and “misfeasance” at Florida Atlantic University in 2005. He currently advises the FAU student newspaper and freelances.

Ron Levitt is a freelance writer, former assistant secretary of state, and former United Press staff correspondent. He is also founder/chairman of a public relations firm, the Levitt PR Group. Levitt currently edits Florida Media News, is a correspondent for the Huffington Post and theatre critic for ENV Magazine. He has been president of the South Florida International Press Club since 2000. He also serves on the Board of WLRN Public Radio/TV in Miami., the University of Miami Citizens Board and is vice president of the Theatre League of South Florida. He is a Carbonell voter and a member of the American Theatre Critics Association. As an arts advocate, he has served as chairman of the Dade Cultural Alliance and as vice chair of the Miami-Dade Cultural Affairs Council. During his career in public relations, he served as president of the Florida chapter, Public Relations Society of America, and later as Southeastern Chairman.

Darcie Lunsford is the real estate editor at the South Florida Business Journal and national secretary/treasurer of the Society of Professional Journalists. She served as president of SPJ’s South Florida Pro Chapter from 2004 to 2007. A veteran reporter, Lunsford has spent the past 10 years covering South Florida real estate. She is a former on-air contributor on WPLG Local 10 in Miami, WPBF TV-25 in Palm Beach Gardens and reports stories for the Business Journal on WPTV TV-5, the NBC station in West Palm Beach. Lunsford cut her reporting teeth as a cop and government reporter at the Marietta Daily Journal near her hometown of Atlanta. She moved to Florida in 1993 and went to work for the Boca Raton News and later business the Daily Business Review. She joined the Business Journal in 1997. Lunsford also has penned freelance articles for national magazines such as the American Journalism Review and American Way, the flight magazine for American Airlines.

Oscar Pedro Musibay is an award-winning reporter who has worked in the industry for 15 years at publications including The Miami Herald, Daily Business Review and South Florida Business Journal. He has won top awards as a writer at three different publications including honors from the Society of Professional Journalists and the Florida Press Club. He currently covers real estate and insurance for the Business Journal.

Sergy Odiduro is a reporter for the Forum Publishing Group. She began her journalism career as an editorial assistant at the Daily Business Review. She graduated from Bernard M. Baruch’s School of Communication with a bachelor’s in journalism. While in school, she was features and op-ed editor for the campus newspaper, The Ticker. She was also a contributor to Dollars and Sense, Baruch College’s review of business and society. Prior to joining the Daily Business Review, Odiduro interned with Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) and Radio Soleil D’ Haiti, where she produced and hosted a regular English-language news segment.

Merwin Sigale is associate professor senior of journalism and mass communication at Miami Dade College. His journalism career includes 14 years as Latin American correspondent for major news organizations, including ABC News, UPI, Washington Star, New York Daily News, Westinghouse Broadcasting Co. and Radio Australia. Later, he helped create “Nightly Business Report” on Miami’s WPBT, Channel 2, and was the program’s first managing editor and co-anchor. He was business editor of The Miami News for eight years and won a national John Hancock Award for Excellence in Business and Financial Journalism. He has also written extensively for Newsweek, Reuters and American Banker. Sigale is a board member and past president of SPJ’s South Florida Professional Chapter.

Sam Terilli is an assistant professor of Journalism at the University of Miami and holds a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School. He practiced media, commercial and employment law for 24 years, including 12 years as the General Counsel of the Miami Herald Publishing Company and six years as a partner in a national law firm. He has served on the Miami Herald’s editorial board for six years, writing editorials and columns, and spent two extended assignments in the Herald’s newsroom, once to lead a reorganization of the news operations and once as a working reporting and editor to study the news operations. He has published several articles on media law and management issues. His research interests include privacy, defamation, commercial speech, access to public records and other information controlled by government, newsroom management, media ethics and history, and the relationships between expression and litigation.