WASHINGTON, D.C. - Cecilia Alvear, producer for NBC News, was elected president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists June 23, defeating James Garcia, editor-in-chief of Politico Magazine, during the association's 18th annual convention in Houston. The NAHJ president serves a two-year term.
The results of the elections were announced during NAHJ's "Noche de Triunfos" Awards Gala.
Alvear , who served as NAHJ's vice president of broadcast for the past four years, collected 155 of the 208 votes cast, capturing 75 percent of the vote.
Alvear succeeds Nancy Baca as president. Baca, special sections editor for the Albuquerque Journal, will serve on the board as an ex-officio member.
"It is an honor to be the first president of the NAHJ in the new millennium, an exciting time to be a Latino and a journalists," said Alvear. "Just as we are changing the demographics of the united States, we will change the demographics of U.S. newsrooms."
In the association's only other contested race, Walter Balleza, TV news photographer for KPRC-TV, Channel 2 (Houston), was elected vice president of broadcast defeating write-in candidate Russ Lopez, a reporter with Fox KTXL (Sacramento). Balleza captured 134 of the 170 votes cast.
Marilyn Garateix, assistant city editor for education at the Boston Globe, was elected vice president of print. Garateix was the board's secretary.
Diana Fuentes, managing editor of the Beaumont Enterprise , was reelected the association's financial officer.
Michele Salcedo, assistant news editor for the state, national and foreign desk of the Sun-Sentinel (Ft. Lauderdale), was elected secretary. Salcedo previously served as NAHJ's Region 5 director.
Richard Luna, managing editor of the Statesman Journal (Salem, Or.), was reelected as an at-large officer. He will be joined as an at-large representative by new board members MariCarmen Eroles, staff writer with La Fuente (Dallas) and Rafael Olmeda, senior reporter with the Sun-Sentinel (Ft. Lauderdale).
NAHJ members also approved several major ballot amendments, including designating two of the three at-large positions to represent Spanish language media and new media. The third at-large post will remain unchange, representing the general membership. An additional position for a non-voting student member was added. These changes will not go into effect until the next national board elections in 2002.
The National Association of Hispanic Journalists is dedicated to the recognition and professional advancement of Latinos in the news business.
The association has 1,661 members, including working journalists, journalism students, other media-related professionals and academic scholars.
Established in April of 1984, NAHJ has worked to open doors for Hispanic journalists in print, radio, television and now, in the new Internet media.
Alvear has been a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists since its inception. She has participated in the annual convention as a panelist, speaker and recruiter for NBC News. Alvear was elected Vice President-Broadcast in 1996 and represented NAHJ on the board of the Radio and Television News Directors Association for 4 years.
CECILIA ALVEAR’S CAREER BIO
Alvear joined NBC in 1982 as the network's Mexico City bureau chief. In 1984 she was transferred to Miami to serve as the senior producer for Latin America. In 1989 she was assigned to the NBC News west coast bureau in Burbank. As a producer, Alvear has covered many major news stories. Among them the wars in El Salvador and Nicaragua, the Mexico City earthquake, the Colombian Volcano eruption, protests and elections in Chile and Argentina, the "War on Drugs" in Bolivia, Peru and Colombia, the Mengele investigation in Brazil, unrest in Panama, two interviews with Fidel Castro in Cuba, the Pan American Games in Havana, the Barcelona Olympics, the Zapatista rebellion in Chiapas, the Colosio assassination, and all the events that have affected the Los Angeles area in the last few years: riots, earthquakes and the O.J. Simpson trial.
January 1997 found her in Lima, Peru, covering the Japanese Embassy hostage crisis for NBC News and MSNBC. In 1998, she was part of the NBC News team that reported on Hurricane Mitch in Nicaragua and Honduras. In 1999, among others, produced stories on the Pope's visit to Mexico, the earthquake that damaged Armenia, Colombia, and the turnover of the Panama Canal to the Panamanians.
In 1988 Cecilia Alvear was one of 12 U.S. journalists chosen for the prestigious Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University where she spent the academic year 1988-89.
Prior to joining NBC News, Alvear worked in the Los Angeles area for KNBC, KABC, and KNXT (now KCBS). While working at KNXT as a producer for "Two on the Town" she was part of a team that won the local "Emmy" in the best series category.
In the 70's and early 80's Alvear was a board member and vice president of the California Chicano News Media Association, one of the first organizations for Latino Journalists. She was honored for her "pioneering efforts" on behalf of CCNMA at their 1996 Scholarship dinner.
Alvear, a native of the Galapagos Islands of Ecuador, became a U.S. citizen in 1984.
