Mae Cheng
January 2004 - December 2006
Regional Editor
Newsday
Mae Cheng is the Assistant City Editor at Newsday's New York City edition. She works with reporters covering such beats as education, immigration and transportation.

In her 10 years with Newsday, she has won numerous awards for her coverage of the city's immigrant communities as well as for her stories on immigration policy.Mae has received awards from the New York Press Club, the Newswomen's Club of New
York and the New York Newspaper Publishers Association.

At Newsday, Mae has also worked as a general assignment reporter.

Before Newsday, Mae was a general assignment reporter at The Jersey Journal in Jersey City,where she garnered awards from the New Jersey Working Press Club.

Mae graduated from Boston University with degrees in both journalism and political science.

She was born in Taiwan and immigrated to the United States with her family at age 5. Mae was raised mostly in New York City, where she lives today.

Mae is the immediate past president of the Asian American Journalists Association, presiding over the organization as it saw its largest growth in membership and programs in its 23-year history.

Ernest Sotomayor began his career as a reporter at the El Paso (Texas) Herald-Post in 1976, and in 1979 joined the Dallas Times Herald as a reporter where he covered immigration issues, general news, special projects sand social services. He later was state editor with a staff covering a five-state region, and associate editor in charge of newsroom training, recruitment, diversity programs and community relations, as well as serving as a member of the newspaper's editorial board.

He managed a yearlong project in 1987 that cover the immigration amnesty program, for which the Dallas Times Herald won numerous local, state and national awards, including the national SDX Public Service Medal. Ernest joined New York Newsday in 1989 and was Brooklyn/Queens Editor, overseeing coverage in the outer boroughs of New York City until 1995 when the New York edition closed. He then became regional editor on Long Island, and later became deputy business editor for technology and directed the daily local business news reporting staff.

Currently, he is Director of Career Services at Columbia University. He was previously Long Island Editor with Newsday.com until February 2005, overseeing the newspaper's online coverage of local news and the evening production of the web site, which was awarded Editor & Publisher's 2002 Eppy Award as the best online newspaper news site in the country.At Newsday, he was among the editing team covering the New York City Subway Crash in 1991, and the TWA Flight 800 Crash in 1996, both of which won Pulitzer Prizes for spot news coverage.

Ernest served as President of UNITY from January 2003 to December 2004 and was a UNITY board member for four years. He Has has also served as a vice president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, and was a member of the program committee for the UNITY '99 convention in Seattle, and was a managing editor for the UNITY '94 student newspaper project in Atlanta. In 1985, he was a faculty member of the Summer Program for Minority Journalists at UC Berkeley for the Institute for Journalism Education (now the Maynard Institute), and the program's co-director in 1986.

In 1997, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists awarded Ernest its President's Award for his work with the association and other diversity issues.A graduate of the University of Arizona with a bachelor's degree in journalism, Ernest is married to Alicia Medina Sotomayor, and has two children, Ernest Andrew, 19, and Catherine Anne, 16.

Catalina previously directed coverage of Congress and politics as an editor for Gannett News Service, and supervised correspondents covering Washington for nine states. As a reporter for The Dallas Morning News, she covered Congress and wrote a weekly column about Texas lawmakers.

She also reported in Texas for The Dallas Morning News and the Dallas Times Herald, and in the nation's capital for Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report.

Catalina is a former national president of the Asian American Journalists Association and a former president of UNITY: Journalists of Color. She presided over the coalition of black, Hispanic, Asian and Native American  journalists' organizations during its historic 1999 convention in Seattle.

She graduated from the University of Southern California and attended the Maynard Institute's Management Training Center at Northwestern University.  Catalina was recognized for her contributions to journalism by Filipinas magazine and named a "journalist to watch" by Washingtonian magazine.

A member and past president of the Native American Journalists Association board of directors and Independent Native News of Anchorage, Alaska, DeMain presently sits on the Sequoyah Research Center of Little Rock, Arkansas and serves as Chairman of the Navajo Times Publishing Company of Window Rock, Arizona.

Amongst many awards for News From Indian Country and other endeavors, in 2003, DeMain was the recipient of the Native American Journalists Association's WASSAJA award for "courageous reporting" for his editorial perspective and investigative reports regarding the 1975 murder of Annie Mae Pictou-Aquash and the historical case of Leonard Peltier, now imprisoned for 28 years for the killing of two FBI agents on June 26, 1975.

DeMain who had supported Peltier's clemency case for over 25 years, unearthed new sources of information which supported a NFIC investigation that concluded, that Peltier was guilty of shooting the agents he was convicted of killing. During 2003, the United States District Court of South Dakota indicted two principle actors in the murder of Aquash on charges of First Degree Murder in the perpetration of a kidnapping, both were first named as suspects in NFIC articles in 1997. Arlo Looking Cloud was found guilty in February of 2004. John Graham is fighting extradition from Canada.

In 2003, based upon the same work, the FBI launched an investigation into the shooting death of Black civil rights worker Ray Robinson Jr., whose body remains buried in the hamlet of Wounded Knee, South Dakota where he went in 1973, to support an occupation by members of the American Indian Movement.

In May of 2004, DeMain was presented with the Payne Award for Ethics in Journalism by the University of Oregon at Eugene, for reporting on the same cases while under duress from threats and lawsuits.

A former Governors assistant in the State of Wisconsin, and campaign manager for the year 2000 Green Party Vice Presidential candidate Winona LaDuke, DeMain is a first degree Midewiwin in the Grand Medicine Lodge and is seated on both a Chiefs Drum, and Warriors Drum on reservations in the Great Lakes region. DeMain is also a practicing lay counselor in the Lac Courte Oreilles Tribal Court.

DeMain resides in Reserve, Wisconsin with his wife, six children and six grandchildren.

NFIC can be viewed by PC through the NewsStand link as a free downloadable sample at www.indiancountrynews.com

Arthur Fennell
1997
CN8 Regional News
After nearly 25 years in the news industry, Arthur Fennell's current assignment is Principal Anchor and Managing Editor for CN8 news on the Comcast Network based in Philadelphia. Fennell is responsible setting the tone for his nightly 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. newscasts, which can be seen regionally in more than 4 million cable households throughout Maryland, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Most recently, Fennell held various positions with NBC-10 in Philadelphia, PA., including anchor, reporter, host and producer. His background also includes leading on-air positions with WAVY-TV in Portsmouth, Virginia; WSAV-TV in Savannah, Georgia; WCBD-TV in Charleston, South Carolina; WBTW-TV in Florence, South Carolina and The South Carolina Educational Television Network. He began his broadcasting career as a radio announcer in Orangeburg, South Carolina.

Throughout his career, Fennell has been honored with more than 75 awards for his work in journalism and community service, including the prestigious “Vanguard Award” presented by the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists. The Vanguard Award is presented to an honoree who has exemplified commitment and dedication to his community and his industry.

Fennell is past president of the National Association of Black Journalists and served for more than 10 years as a national board member for NABJ. He also served on the board for UNITY: Journalists of Color. In addition to his organizational service on the national level, Fennell served on the local chapter level in Philadelphia and Hampton Roads, Virginia. He is the founding President of the Hampton Roads Black Media Professionals.

A dynamic and captivating motivational speaker, Fennell has shared national speaking platforms with former President Bill Clinton, former Vice-President Al Gore, retired Senate Leader and Presidential candidate Bob Dole and famed defense attorney Johnnie Cochran. He also consults nationally with clients on image enhancement and professional development of their communications skills. He is a former adjunct communications professor at Delaware State University.

In 2001, he founded “The Arthur Fennell Foundation” www.artfennellfoundation.org, which is a public, charitable, non-profit organization. The foundation is committed to raising funds and awareness to assist community based organizations dealing with disease, education and prevention in diverse, under-served populations. Some of the national health organizations that the foundation supports include: The American Diabetes Association, The American Heart Association, The American Cancer Society, and the Sickle Cell Anemia Society.

Each year the foundation hosts the “ Arthur Fennell Celebrity Billiards Championship” as it's primary fundraiser. National celebrities from the recording industry, professional sports, television and entertainment take their "cue" from Fennell by playing team billiards in a fun-filled format before a crowd of spectators. The Billiards Championship is aired in a one-hour television special.

Born and raised in Bennettsville, South Carolina, Fennell is one of 12 children. He is married with two daughters and resides in New Jersey. Fennell holds a communications degree from South Carolina State University.

Bailón previously worked as a reporter at The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, The Los Angeles Daily News, The San Diego Union and The Kansas City Star. Among his reporting awards were: the 1988 Katie Award for Best Series and The 1987 Texas Associated Press Managing Editors Award for Team Effort for immigration coverage.

Bailón was elected treasurer-designate of the American Society of Newspaper Editors in 2003. Bailón became treasurer of the group in April 2004, and will rise through the officer ranks each year until reaching the ASNE presidency in April 2007.

Bailón joined ASNE in 1994 and has been a member of the board of directors since 1999. He has also been active in ASNE committee work, including chairing the diversity and readership committees.

Bailón is past president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and served for a number of years on the boards of NAHJ and Unity Journalists of Color, a consortium of the four national minority journalist associations. He also belongs to the National Association of Minority Media Executives. Bailón is a former member of the board of directors of the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education. Bailón was on the nominating jury for the Pulitzer Prizes for 2000-2001 and also served in 1993-94. Commencing in 2005, he will fill a two-year NAHJ seat on the Unity board

He was selected as the outstanding journalism graduate at the University of Arizona in 1981 and earned his master’s degree in American History from the University of Texas at Arlington in 1992. He was selected to Arizona Daily Wildcat Hall of Fame at the University of Arizona in 2001. He has attended a number of professional development seminars including those at the American Press Institute, the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, the Advanced Executive Program at the Newspaper Management Center at Northwestern University and the Multi cultural Management Program at the University of Missouri-Columbia . Bailón was twice named "One of the Top 100 Most Influential Hispanics" by Hispanic Business magazine.

Sidmel Estes-Sumpter
1993
FOX 5 Atlanta
The 2005 Edition of Who’s Who in Black Atlanta featured her as one of the metro area’s most interesting personalities. But that is just the beginning of the story. As a professional journalist with more than quarter of a century of experience and executive media manager, Sidmel Estes-Sumpter has reached the pinnacle of her career.

She made history in 1991 when she became the first woman president of the National Association of Black Journalists. In 1993, she was included in Ebony magazine’s list of the 100 Most Influential Black Americans and Organizations. She is an honors graduate from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism where she received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees. She is one of the charter inductees of the Medill Hall of Achievement and now serves as a member of the prestigious Board of Advisors for that school. In 2004, she received one of Northwestern University’s Alumni Service awards. She is the newly elected president of the Northwestern University Black Alumni Association (NUBAA).

Ms. Estes-Sumpter has won several local Emmys awards and was inducted in 2003 into the Silver Circle of the National Television Academy. The Silver Circle recognizes individuals who have devoted a quarter-century or more to the broadcasting industry and who have also made significant contributions to the broadcast community. She has also won awards from The Associated Press, American Women in Radio and TV and the Atlanta Association of Black Journalists. In 1988, she was named Media Woman of the Year by the National Association of Media Women (Atlanta chapter). For that honor, Mayor Andrew Young proclaimed November 18, 1988 as “Ms. Sidmel Estes-Sumpter Day.” She has also received the Pioneer Black Journalist award from the Atlanta Association of Black Journalists and been given a lifetime membership from the National Association of Black Journalists and its local chapter.

She served as an adjunct professor in the journalism division of Emory University for more than five years and is a frequent guest instructor in high schools and universities across the country. In 2000, she received a fellowship from the McCormick Tribune Foundation sponsored by the National Association of Broadcasters.

Ms. Estes-Sumpter continues to be honored by community and civic organizations for her service. She received the Trailblazer’s Award from the Atlanta Business League and received the highest honor for merit from Concerned Black Clergy.

Ms. Estes-Sumpter has written numerous articles for national magazines and newspapers. She is the author of an upcoming book and president of her own media management company, Breakthrough Incorporated. She is the daughter of professional educators and a product of the Atlanta public school system. The Atlanta native is an active member of Cascade United Methodist Church. She now resides in Fayetteville with her husband, Garnett and their sons, Joshua and Sidney.