Officers
President
Andy Schotz
Andy Schotz
Schotz starts a second term as chapter president. He started as a part-time sportswriter for The Altamont Enterprise, a small weekly paper outside Albany, N.Y. After dabbling in part-time government and school board reporting for the paper, he accepted a full-time news job and found his niche. For the last nine years, Schotz was at The Herald-Mail, a daily paper in Hagerstown, Md. He covered the 2007 and 2008 sessions of the Maryland General Assembly and has held various other beats.
Schotz, a Long Island native, has a bachelor’s degree from the University at Albany.
He joined SPJ at the end of 2002.
Besides serving as D.C. chapter president, Schotz has been the chairman of the national SPJ Ethics committee for the past two years.
Besides his previous term as president, Schotz served on the D.C. Pro board since 2004, including terms as recording secretary and vice president.
Vice President
Julie Asher
Julie Asher
Asher is an award-winning national editor at Catholic News Service, an international religion news service for Catholic newspapers and magazines and other publications. She has been an active SPJ member for more than 25 years and a D.C. Pro chapter member for almost that long. She is returning as the chapter’s vice president but over the years she has served as treasurer, two earlier terms as vice president and as president, from 1992-93.
She was also on the national SPJ board as Region 2 director for two terms, 1997-2001.
Treasurer
Amy Fickling
Amy Fickling returns as Treasurer to chapter’s board of directors. She has served the chapter in a number of capacities, including as president (1991-92) and two terms on the national SPJ board as Region 2 director (1993-97). She is editor of Platts’ Energy Trader, a daily newsletter that covers the natural gas and electricity commodity markets.
A native of North Carolina, Fickling has been a journalist in the Washington, D.C., metro area since arriving here in 1984 to pursue a master’s degree in journalism and public affairs at American University.
She worked for the Gazette newspapers in Montgomery County, Md., then The Capital newspaper of Annapolis. After The Capital, she was on the staff of Telecommunications Reports International Inc., followed by two years at Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News — before it was sold to McClatchy.
Fickling returned to an active role in the chapter by joining the board during the year leading up to the 2007 national SPJ convention, which the chapter hosted.
Corresponding Secretary
Sue Kopen Katcef
Sue Kopen Katcef
Sue Kopen Katcef is a lecturer/executive producer at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland. She has been a full-time instructor for the past 10 years but continues to work as an anchor/reporter, on occasion, for former employer, WBAL Radio in Baltimore. She has been a member of SPJ — then SDX — since 1973, when she was initiated into the organization while a student at the University of Maryland.
Kopen Katcef has served as corresponding secretary for the Washington, D.C. Pro chapter for the past seven years.
Besides her local responsibilities, Kopen Katcef sits on the SPJ national board as a campus adviser at-large as well as a member the national Sigma Delta Chi Foundation board.
The SDX, Foundation is the SPJ charitable and education arm.
Recording Secretary
Ben Shlesinger
Shlesinger is Assistant Managing Editor-Associations, USAE News, a weekly publication covering the hotel, tourism bureau and association industry. He writes about associations related to meetings and travel. He also takes pictures for the print edition and occasional online galleries. Based in Bethesda, Shlesinger travels across North America to cover meetings.
He also writes two blogs for examiner.com. One is the D.C. Tourism Examiner blog. The other is the Maryland Terrapins Examiner blog.
He was a sports reporter for the Montgomery Gazette and general assignment reporter for the Montgomery Sentinel.
He is a 2003 graduate of the University of Maryland in broadcast journalism.
Board of Directors
Robert Becker
Robert Becker has been the D.C. Pro Chapter’s FOI chair since about 1992. Additionally, Becker serves as the D.C. Sunshine Chair, and the Mid-Atlantic Region member of the National FOI Committee. In this position, he provides advice and information on access to journalists and others in the D.C. metropolitan area. Working with the National FOI Chairman, Becker developed a program to train journalists, news managers and media outlet owners on the importance of defending public access to government information.
He regularly addresses groups of foreign journalists and government officials visiting the United States on access to government information and has done training projects in Ethiopia, Morocco, Argentina and Uruguay on issues related to press freedom.
Paul H. Byers
Has been a member of SPJ since 1963, serving as president of the AU chapter, VP of the Columbia University J-school chapter, faculty adviser to the AU chapter and member of the D.C. Pro chapter since 1983- Worked for nine years at Post-Newsweek Stations (WTOP AM, FM & TV) as copy-boy, reporter/cameraman, producer and assignment editor
- Worked for 11 years at CBS News in its D.C. bureau, in New York and as Asian bureau chief, covering 40 countries
- Worked for two years at NBC News as coordinating producer of two prime-time news magazines
- Is founder and president of a small video production company (Gateway Video Services, Inc.) specializing in producing and organizing special event coverage for the DNC, World Bank, Kuwait government, Boy Scouts and Commission on Presidential Debates
Byers is currently the chair of the Department of Communication at Marymount University in
Arlington, Va., where he has taught a range of journalism courses since 1988.
Byers served as recording secretary of the D.C. Pro chapter 2008-2009
Tim Ebner
Ebner is a D.C. native and, like most Washingtonians, followed news, politics and the Washington Nationals.He grew up in suburban Maryland and spent four years in the Bronx at Fordham University, earning a bachelor’s degree in American and Spanish studies.
While in college he worked as a general assignment reporter for 90.7 FM, WFUV covering New York City news and politics. His coverage of New York Governor Eliot Spitzer’s resignation aired nationally on NPR in March 2008.
After college, he had interned as a staff reporter and online editorial assistant for The (Annapolis) Capital.
Ebner is now at Xenophon Strategies, a D.C.-based public affairs and crisis communications firm. In his spare time, he freelance for Education Week.
Garth Hogan
Hogan is a communications officer with the American Society for Microbiology. A lifelong D.C. resident, he attended St. Albans School in the District, then Vanderbilt University. At Vanderbilt, he was the Interhall student government’s representative and dorm vice president. As well, he was starting right wing for the university’s fledgling hockey team. A communications major, he wrote for the Vanderbilt Hustler covering student activities.
After graduating in 2003, Hogan worked for Porter Novelli and the Department of Justice. As a side job, he wrote music reviews for Jade Tree.
Since finding his calling at the American Society for Microbiology, he has developed a strong interest in issues confronting professional journalists, especially managing the change to a digital media world, the Free Flow of Information Act and fostering collaboration among natural competitors. He joined SPJ in 2007.
Bill McCloskey
Bill McCloskey is the chairman of the SPJ Bylaws Committee, a member of SPJ’s Public Outreach Committee and former president of the D.C. Chapter. Before retiring, he was the Washington, D.C.-based Director of Media Relations for AT&T, formerly BellSouth Corp. Before joining AT&T in 1987, Bill worked for 11 years with The Associated Press in Washington.
Bill’s professional career started in 1961, when, as a high school junior, he took a summer newsroom job at Metromedia’s WIP Radio in Philadelphia. He remained with Metromedia in Philadelphia until he was drafted upon graduation from Villanova University in 1966.
Following his tour of duty, he was assigned by Metromedia to set up a news department for WASH FM in Washington.
From 1968 until 1975, he worked as news director, network correspondent and TV news producer and writer for Metromedia in Washington.
Bill has been recognized three times with SPJ’s President’s Award for distinguished service to the Society and is a recipient of the coveted SPJ Wells Key Award as well as the D.C. chapter’s Distinguished Service Award.
Steve Taylor
Steve Taylor has worked as a correspondent for ABC News, Satellite News Channel, New Jersey Network and WXEX-TV Richmond. He covered the White House during the Reagan, Bush and Clinton administrations for SNC and for Unistar Radio Network, McNeil-Lehrer NewsHour and National Journal’s CongressDaily. Taylor also has covered Congress, the Supreme Court and federal agencies as well as the last seven presidential campaigns.
He has worked for CBS Radio, Mutual/NBC Radio and KNX Los Angeles.
Taylor was the first broadcast reporter to win the Merriman Smith Award for presidential news coverage from the White House Correspondents Association.
As part of ABC News coverage of the 9/11, attacks he won Peabody and DuPont-Columbia Awards.
He is also an adjunct professor of journalism at George Mason University.
Taylor chairs the Hall of Fame and Distinguished Services Award committee for the D.C. chapter.
Bob Webb, President emeritus
Bob Webb’s long journalism career included stints as night city editor, Washington bureau chief, news editor, editorial writer-columnist and chair of middle management board at The Cincinnati Enquirer. He was founding president of the Cincinnati SPJ Pro chapter and is a member of the Cincinnati SPJ Journalism Hall of Fame. Webb also was president of the Jackson, Miss., Pro chapter of SPJ.
Webb is also active in the International Communication Forum.
Ann Augherton, Region 2 Director
(Ex officio member)
Ann Augherton is the managing editor of the Arlington (Va.) Catholic Herald, the Virginia Press Association’s largest weekly newspaper. Since taking the position in 1991, circulation has continued to grow to the current 61,000, and the newspaper has won several national awards from the Catholic Press Association. Augherton is the recipient of writing awards and her freelance articles and photographs have appeared in several publications and the Catholic News Service.
Although a lifelong resident of the Washington area, she has traveled extensively on international assignments in Europe, the developing world, Asia and most recently to the Middle East.
Augherton was a student SPJ member while earning her degree in journalism at George Washington University and returned as a professional member several years ago. Since then, she has served in several positions with SPJ’s D.C. Pro Board, including two terms as president.