Rosey Robards is also the director of Alaska Teen Media Institute, where teens produce a monthly, public-affairs radio show, podcasts and multimedia content. You might recognize her name from publications such as the Anchorage Daily News, Anchorage Press and The Northern Light. She worked at the ADN as an Interactive Content Producer and currently serves as an Alaska Center for Excellence in Journalism board member.

Victoria Barber works with Alaska Press Club on development and sustainability. Her most recent journalism position was features editor at ADN. She’s lived and traveled around the state as an editor and reporter for several rural Alaska newspapers—including Dutch Harbor, The Arctic Sounder in Barrow/Kotzebue, The Tundra Drums in Bethel and the Seward Journal. In Anchorage, she was editor for the Anchorage Press from 2011-2012. Barber was a 2010 Logan Science Journalism fellow and a finalist for the international Knight Fellowship award at MIT.

Aud Pleas is a community organizer, media advocate, facilitator, mentor, and DJ with a background in academia, broadcast and major music festival productions. Pleas holds two degrees in History and Journalism and Public Communications from the University of Alaska Anchorage. While at UAA they lead KRUA 88.1 FM The Edge as the Program Director and Station Manager and currently serve as the JPC alumni representative on UAA Media Board.

Victoria Petersen is a content producer for Alaska Press Club. She is a freelance journalist covering food, lifestyle, climate and other science stories for The New York Times, High Country News and other outlets. From 2021 to 2022, she was a reporting fellow for The New York Times food desk. Prior to that, she worked as a digital producer for KTVA-11 News in Anchorage, an editorial intern at High Country News and an education and local government reporter at the Peninsula Clarion in Kenai.

PRESIDENT

Julia O’Malley is a freelance journalist who writes about food, politics, the environment and culture in Alaska. She has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, and National Geographic among other publications. Before going freelance, she was a reporter and columnist for the Anchorage Daily News for nine years.

SECRETARY

Tom Hewitt is the opinion editor for the Anchorage Daily News. Born and raised in Fairbanks, Tom received his journalism education at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. He got his start in professional journalism as the government, politics and court reporter for Fairbanks CBS affiliate KXDF. In 2014, he moved to print when he joined the News-Miner as its opinion editor. In 2017, he returned to broadcast as news director for Fairbanks’ two local TV news stations, and in April 2018 he moved south to Anchorage to join the ADN.

TREASURER

Andrew Kitchenman is Editor-in-Chief of the Alaska Beacon. He has covered state government in Alaska since 2016, serving as the Capitol reporter for Alaska Public Media and KTOO before joining the Alaska Beacon. Before this, he covered state and local governments on the East Coast – primarily in New Jersey – for more than 15 years. He enjoys reading, watching movies and walking around Anchorage.

VICE PRESIDENT – CONFERENCE

Tegan Hanlon is a reporter at Alaska Public Media in Anchorage, and works on Alaska’s Energy Desk — a collaboration with reporters across the state who focus on energy issues. She previously worked at the Anchorage Daily News from 2013 to 2019. Before that, she interned at newspapers in Colorado, Texas and her hometown, Allentown, Pa. When not telling stories about life in Alaska, Tegan enjoys hiking, biking and reading a good book.

BOARD MEMBER

Michelle Theriault Boots is originally from the Seattle area. She married an Alaskan and moved north a decade ago. She has been a reporter at the Anchorage Daily News since 2012. Before that, she taught journalism as an adjunct at UAA, worked at newspapers in the Pacific Northwest and California and earned a master’s degree in narrative journalism from the University of Oregon. She was a 2017 fellow of the Kiplinger Program in Public Affairs Journalism and is a 2020 John Jay/Harry Frank Guggenheim criminal justice reporting fellow. She previously served on the Alaska Press Club board from 2011-2012.

BOARD MEMBER

Angela Denning is the Regional News Director for CoastAlaska where she works with half a dozen public radio newsrooms. She’s been a journalist in rural Alaska for over 20 years. In 2000, she started at the Tundra Drums newspaper in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta where she traveled to villages throughout the region. In 2002, she moved on to News Director at KYUK in Bethel where she stayed for 12 years. For the last decade, she’s been working in Southeast at KFSK in Petersburg and now as the regional news director. Over the years, she’s also been a deckhand on a commercial fishing boat and mushed and raced sled dogs.

BOARD MEMBER

Eric Sowl is the Chief Photographer of Alaska’s News Source – KTUU-TV & CH5 CBS. He grew up in Anchorage and attended the University of Alaska – Fairbanks. He has worked at KTUU-TV for over thirty years where he has covered news all over the state and the world. In 2018, Eric was inducted into the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Silver Circle in recognition of his contributions to the broadcast industry.

BOARD MEMBER

Sage Smiley is news director for KYUK in Bethel, Alaska, serving more than 50 villages in an area the size of Illinois with daily news in English and Yup’ik. She’s worked with audio since she was a teenager at radio stations from Alaska to Amman and is passionate about sound-rich storytelling, rural radio and community-centered journalism. When not slinging a shotgun microphone around town, she can likely be found in or around a body of water. 

BOARD MEMBER

Nat Herz is a freelance reporter based in Anchorage. He’s worked in Alaska since 2013 at outlets including the Anchorage Daily News and Alaska Public Media. He now publishes a newsletter, Northern Journal, that’s syndicated through the Alaska Beacon and republished by media organizations across the state.

BOARD MEMBER

Kirsten Dobroth is a senior reporter for Undercurrent News, where she covers Alaska’s commercial fishing and seafood industry. Before that, she was the news director at the public radio station KMXT in Kodiak, where her work was featured on NPR and the PBS NewsHour. She got her start in radio at Aspen Public Radio in Colorado. She lives in Kodiak, and enjoys hiking, snowboarding and beachcombing with her two dogs.

BOARD MEMBER

Eric Stone is Alaska Public Media’s state government reporter, covering the Alaska Legislature and the impacts of state policy on Alaskans’ lives. Originally from Houston, Texas, he started his career at KRBD in Ketchikan. He was elected to the board in 2022 and lives in Juneau. Eric enjoys skiing, getting out on the water, and holding the powerful accountable.