March 26, 2021 - The NPPA board of directors gathered for a special meeting on Saturday, March 13, to fill the new Strategic Planning Officer position that was created at the annual board meeting on Jan. 31, 2021. We are proud to announce that the board has elected Sherman Williams to the two-year position.
Williams, bio below, is the assistant managing editor of visual journalism at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and has served in fundraising roles of other organizations such as the National Association of Black Journalists in recent years. The new Strategic Planning Officer position will serve a limited term on the Executive Committee and will focus on fundraising and membership recruitment initiatives.
“It's great to be working with NPPA in this capacity,” Williams said. “NPPA has always been a home for me and the opportunity to contribute and help shape the future of the organization was one I couldn't pass up. It's my chance to give something back to an organization that has given me so much.”
After the election for the new role, NPPA President Katie Schoolov swore in Williams alongside the newest appointed board member, Yousur Al-Hlou. Al-Hlou, bio below, is a video journalist for the New York Times, where she produces, shoots and edits short-form news documentaries. She regularly reports on human rights and women's rights in the Middle East, but has spent the past year covering coronavirus in New York City and across the U.S.
“I'm honored to be a new member of this organization as well as a volunteer on its board,” Al-Hlou said. “When Josh and Katie reached out about the board position, I saw a perfect opportunity to give back to an organization that has for decades helped visual journalists, like myself, succeed. I look forward to contributing to the DEI, Ethics and Education committees, as well as working with you all over the next year.”
The meeting also included introductions from some new and reactivated key volunteers including 2007 Sprague Award winner Kenny Irby, founder of Black Women Photographers Polly Irungu, Education Chair Carrie Pratt, National Clip Contest Chair May-Ying Lam, and Ethics Chair Sean Elliot. The board also heard from researcher Sara Quinn about her new pivotal study on eye-tracking that you’ll be hearing more about from NPPA soon. And elected board member Oliver Janney discussed the exciting next webinars coming up in our Master Your Craft series.
The board also unanimously passed three resolutions. One of them added a new line to our Ad Hoc Event Planning protocols, requiring a strategy for adhering to NPPA’s Event Diversity & Inclusion Policy. Another updated language regarding the board’s right to enter executive session, except when taking official action or formal votes. Lastly, the board unanimously voted to create a permanent Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Committee, to be led by Irungu. The DEI committee held its first meeting on Saturday, March 20.
The board will meet again Saturday, April 3, for a special election to fill the vacant seat of vice president. Nominations are still being accepted and can be sent to Immediate Past President Andrew Stanfill at [email protected].
Yousur Al-Hlou is a video journalist for the New York Times, where she produces, shoots and edits short-form news documentaries. She regularly reports on human rights and women's rights in the Middle East, but has spent the past year covering coronavirus in New York City and across the U.S.
Sherman Williams is assistant managing editor/visual journalism at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He oversees the visual report for Gannett-Wisconsin, a network of eleven newsrooms covering the state. This includes managing capital budgets for the visual staffs and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel newsroom where he has worked since 2000.
Williams is a founding board member of the Associated Press Photo Managers and has served as president and vice president of the organization. APPM is a national organization of managers and leadership-level people responsible for overseeing photography at newspapers and magazines in the United States and Canada. He chaired the National Association of Black Journalists Visual Task Force from 2003-2005 and co-chaired Visual Task Force activities for Unity in 2004. In his years leading the Visual Task Force, he raised more than $250,000 to support workshops, scholarships, and educational activities.
Williams has been a three-time jury chair for the Pulitzer Prize news and feature photography categories. He has served as a guest faculty member at the American Press Institute and the Maynard Institute teaching picture editing, ethics and covering diverse communities. He has judged the University of Missouri’s Pictures of the Year International, Best of Photojournalism, Society for News Design’s Best of Newspaper Design and the 3rd Annual China International Press Photo contest. He was a member of the competition committee for the BOP contest. He is a fellow of the Newspaper Association of America, The James K. Batten Leadership Program and a former News Media Alliance New Media Fellow.
