Vote for Your 2024 SPJ Oregon Board Members

Our nine-member board of volunteers meets monthly to plan events, such as the annual regional contest, training opportunities and fundraisers to fund our lobbying efforts in Salem and internships. Meet the candidates running for the board.

Ballots will be sent to SPJ Oregon chapter members via email, and the election runs through Sept. 27.

Education Board Seat

There is one education board seat up for election; one-year term.

Kimberly Cortez

With my phone in my left hand and my notebook in the other, I start running with the group ahead of me. Tired from the days and nights prior, adrenaline keeps me awake and vigilant. As I break from the group, a car emerges from the street. Except it’s not going straight ahead on the road — it’s going towards me and the group ahead.

“Move out of the way!” someone shouts while others run. 

I hit record on my phone. 

As the driver gets out, spraying people with an eye-irritating substance, my throat starts to burn, and my eyes start to water as the particles stay in the air. Through this all, I keep recording. 

Covering protests isn’t easy, but what I experienced showed me the critical role journalists play in documenting social movements. Reporting on a national level on the violence between police and protestors reminded me of the danger journalists are exposed to when we seek the truth, tell the stories of the afflicted and hold the powerful accountable. 

Being able to share these experiences is central to my work as a journalist. I approach every story with a pursuit of a better world through the service of journalism. 

As a member of the SPJ board, I will continue to advocate for the same sort of change in our legislature to ensure that our work as journalists continues to serve our communities. As someone from a non-traditional journalism background, I think it’s important for everyday people to feel represented in the news coverage they read. My position as a student, person of color, and first-generation American will bring an invaluable perspective to the group in ensuring Oregon journalists follow proper style guides from marginalized communities and reach student journalists of color. I am a collaborative and creative journalist hoping to be a part of a wider network of passionate journalists who share the same mission of redefining what media can mean to everyday individuals. 

General Board Seat

There are four board seats up for election; two-year terms.

Ben Botkin

I am a journalist in Salem with a penchant for digging deep and making public officials nervous. I cover state government for the Oregon Capital Chronicle, writing about the intersection of criminal justice, health and human services.

My passions are dogged beat reporting and watchdog journalism. I am eager to support SPJ Oregon’s mission, whether through pushing for open government or helping plan projects that increase our skills.

My 20-year career spans a range of experiences and media outlets. That includes nonprofits like the Capital Chronicle and The Lund Report and legacy outlets such as the Statesman Journal in Salem and The Bulletin in Bend.

Prior to arriving in Oregon nearly five years ago, I covered state government in Idaho, Nevada and Oklahoma. As a result, I’ve scrutinized a colorful mix of government officials and written stories that led to three indictments. I’ve also seen Oregon officials expand health coverage for children in response to my work. 

Turbo-charged, deeply reported journalism changes lives and impacts our communities. 

And, I believe journalism is a public service. We can always improve our craft, reach our audience in new ways and prod Oregon agencies for more transparency.

Let’s do this together.

Kate Cuadrado

I am a freelance journalist working and living in Portland, Oregon. I want to tell you a bit about my love for journalism and desire to join the SPJ Oregon board.

It starts with the story of me, the writer, and me, the metiche. The little girl with her nose in a book or other people’s business, who decided one day, through the push of her freshman year roommate, to apply to her college’s newspaper and use these passions of writing and figuring things out for something. Despite never working for a newspaper before, I was hired, and suddenly the world seemed a whole lot larger and a whole lot clearer. For the first time since I was a child and had settled on part-time-rockstar-part-time-teacher, I knew what I wanted to do with my life. I wanted to be a journalist.

Now four years later, I have graduated with a degree in English and a minor in Ethnic Studies from the University of Portland. There, I worked at the university paper The Beacon in many roles, serving as sports editor, news and managing editor and culminating as editor-in-chief my senior year. In addition to this, I worked as a Snowden Intern at Pamplin Media Group, writing for Estacada News, Clackamas Review and the Portland Tribune. Now, I work as an early freelance journalist, and see joining the SPJ Oregon Board feels like the perfect opportunity to further ingratiate myself in the Oregon journalism community. 

Bentley Freeman

I am the news reporter for Eugene Weekly and a recent graduate of the University of Oregon’s SOJC. I would love to be a voice for young professionals on the board, keeping my thumb on the pulse of rising talent and technology across the state.

While I have only been doing this job full-time for the last three months, I have been a journalist since 2021. As a recently-graduated student, young journalists need our help learning how to navigate the often daunting and ever-changing media landscape.

We need to teach young journalists to be professional, responsive to critique, building up their confidence and creating quick, on-their-feet journalists.

I recognize the opportunities laid out before me at UO — the Snowden internship and Catalyst Journalism Project — paid dividends by spurring my professional experience while an undergraduate student.

I want to pay that forward.

Through my work with SPJ, I know I could help create curriculum, programs and training that would have benefitted me as a junior reporter.

This would not be my first time serving on a board of directors. During my time in college, I served on my fraternity’s executive board, planning fundraisers, community service opportunities and orientations. My position focused on lobbying our national fraternity to highlight and create solutions to the issues facing our local chapter.

Yasser MArte

I am a photojournalist for the East Oregonian newspaper and regional photographer for EO Media Group. As a photojournalist, my job is to communicate news through a lens. Photojournalism allows readers to envision humane moments when covering personal profiles, local issues and events that reflect their community. As a board member I would want to be a voice in that particular field of reporting and take opportunities to not only help out other photojournalists but also reporters who are interested in expanding to that medium. 

The Society of Professional Journalists is an incredible organization that helps the news community preserve our First Amendment right to the freedom of press. One of the most important aspects of SPJ is how you encourage students to work in the field, including myself when I was attending Florida International University, and I would love to be part of an organization that hosts workshops and conferences to help inspire the next generation of journalists. I want to be a part of an organization that reaches out to reporters already working in the field and students who have an interest in stepping into professional journalism, that’s why I would love to run for a seat on the board of SPJ Oregon.

Abbey McDonald

I’m passionate about local journalism, and I want to get more involved and believe I have a unique perspective having worked in every corner of Oregon.

As a University of Oregon student, my internships brought me to Portland, Roseburg and Vale. I then spent a year as a staff reporter at The Astorian, and have worked in my current position at Salem Reporter for two years. In that time I’ve had the honor of receiving four first-place SPJ awards.

My career has given me a deep understanding of how local news looks and feels throughout the state, having been in both historic newsrooms with in-house printing presses and tiny online startups.

I want to do what I can to support other Oregon journalists in their essential work to build community, hold powerful people accountable and record history. I’d also like to work to make the profession more accessible, promote stability in the industry and improve staff retainment.

Penny Rosenberg

I am familiar with the organization’s mission, having served a three-year term for SPJ/LA (Los Angeles) board from 2019-21. I was so committed, I finished out that final year after I already had moved to Oregon.

As a member of the board, I served on the ethics committee and later chaired the award committee, which undertook an expansion and refinement of the award categories. I also administered the nominating process for the awards.

Always dedicated to the profession, I serve as an adviser to my student newspaper and help my master’s program yearly with the selection of a journalist to receive a full-ride scholarship, even from afar.

Now resettled in Oregon, I hope my publications — the Albany Democrat-Herald and Corvallis Gazette-Times newspapers, websites and podcast — speak for themselves, having just come of an amazing and gratifying contest season. The pursuit of excellence, in my opinion, is the key to our survival as an industry.

Steven White

I have been in Portland for about a year and a half now as the Operations Manager for KATU news, the ABC station. I have been a photojournalist since 2003 and have worked in the following markets: Augusta, Pensacola, Fort Myers, Atlanta, Nashville, New York, and now Portland.  I am a multi-AP and EMMY award winner. I have served on the Board of Directors for the EMMY's New York Chapter, I have served multiple times as a judge for the Best of Photojournalism for Documentary for the NPPA, I have helped judge for the National Murrow awards and many others.  I'm an Eagle Scout. Currently serving with the Coast Guard Auxiliary for the past 15 years.

Honestly, I love this job, career, and this industry. Is the industry perfect, no, but when you get a chance to create an amazing story and be in the forefront of making history happen every day, what couldn't make you more excited for what the next day has to come. I also get the pleasure of helping mold the skills of some of the newer photographers coming into the industry and helping them find their style and flow and love of this job. That's the excitement I get to share now.