Advisory Board

Toren Beasley is vice president of Seaberry Design & Communications, a Washington, D.C.-based graphic design and editorial services studio. Beasley has been involved in every aspect of newsroom operation in his more than 20-year journalism career, from managing creative departments to reporting and editing. A past chair of the Journalism Center’s Advisory Board, he formerly served as managing editor of Newhouse News Service in Washington, D.C. At Newhouse, he developed the News Service Web site, oversaw the transition to Web-based content sharing and developed the system for the sale and distribution of digital assets via the Web. Under his leadership, Newhouse won the Pulitzer Prize in feature photography for its project “Female Circumcision in Kenya,” which also won World Press Photography and Pictures of the Year awards. A two-time Pulitzer Prize juror, Beasley has lectured on diversity in news coverage and the intersection of photojournalism and art. He serves as an adjunct professor at the Corcoran College of Art and Design in Washington, D.C.

Patty Fisher is a local columnist for the San Jose Mercury News. She previously spent 15 years on the newspaper's editorial board, primarily writing about children and family issues. She received a Casey Medal in 1998 for her series on welfare reform. Fisher was a fellow at the 1996 Journalism Center conference and at two regional conferences. She joined the Journalism Center's advisory board in 2003. Born and raised in the Chicago area, Fisher holds a master's degree in journalism from the University of Missouri.

Peggy Girshman is an executive editor at Kaiser Health News, a nonprofit news service covering health care and health policy. Her career has spanned radio, television and online journalism, and she has helped launch several start-up news organizations including CQ Politics, a free website from Congressional Quarterly. As a managing editor of National Public Radio, she helped begin the convergence of radio and digital news in 2007. At NPR, she also served as a science editor, domestic news editor, and as deputy managing editor. Her television career has included stints in Washington, D.C., covering local news. Girshman was senior producer for several PBS series, including Scientific American Frontiers, and was Senior Medical Producer for Dateline NBC. She’s the recipient of two Peabody awards for covering health policy and a national Emmy award. A co-winner of the AAAS science-writing prize, she’s been a journalism fellow at the Marine Biological Lab and at MIT. She is an officer of the National Association of Science Writers.

David Lawrence Jr. is known nationally as a leader in journalism and early education issues. He is president of the Early Childhood Initiative Foundation and University Scholar for Early Childhood Development and Readiness at the University of Florida. His first career in journalism spanned 35 years as a publisher, editor, and reporter. During his tenure as Miami Herald publisher, the paper won five Pulitzer Prizes. He was publisher and executive editor of the Detroit Free Press, and was editor of the Charlotte Observer. A tireless advocate for early childhood initiatives, he led the innovative 2002 campaign for The Children’s Trust in Miami-Dade, dedicated to early childhood intervention and prevention. He has served on the Florida Partnership for School Readiness and the Florida Governor’s Commission on Education, and is a noted speaker on early education issues. The David Lawrence Jr. K-8 Public School opened in 2006 in Miami, Florida. A fully endowed chair in early childhood studies is established in his name at the University of Florida College of Education. His journalism honors include the John S. Knight Gold Medal, the National Association of Black Journalists’ Ida B. Wells Award and the National Association of Minority Media Executives award for "lifetime achievement in diversity.”

Albert Oetgen is managing editor of NBC News Washington, directing broadcast and online coverage for both “Nightly News with Brian Williams” and “Today Show.” He was formerly Senior Producer for NBC Nightly News. He is a veteran investigative producer, reporting for both ABC News “Prime Time Live" and  “World News Tonight.” He began his career as a reporter at the Savannah (Ga.) Morning News, and later joined the Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch and Tallahassee (Fla.) Democrat. Oetgen, with his NBC News colleagues, has been awarded many of the most prestigious honors in broadcast journalism, including DuPont, Peabody, Murrow, and Headliner awards, as well as eight national Emmy awards. He was named an Ethics Fellow at the Poynter Institute in 2004. He serves on the advisory board of the Media Studies Department at the University of Virginia.

David Park joined America’s Promise Alliance in 2008 as Senior Vice President, Communications and Marketing. With nearly two decades of national leadership in nonprofit, diversity, and corporate public relations, he oversees all aspects of the Alliance’s internal and external communications, including overall branding and messaging, media relations, web initiatives, and event production. He founded Park & Associates, a public relations firm that emphasized nonprofit communications for local and national organizations, including Special Olympics International, the Hispanic Heritage Foundation, the Matthew Shepard Foundation, Fannie Mae Foundation and the Johnnetta B. Cole Global Diversity and Inclusion Institute. For three years, Park produced the Hispanic Heritage Awards, a televised program recognizing public figures who have made a significant contribution to the Latino community. The founder of Kaboom PR, he also held senior roles with Porter Novelli International and Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide. An adjunct professor of communications at Georgetown University, he teaches in the graduate public relations program. He is on the advisory board of VotoLatino.

Laura Sessions Stepp has written for 15 years about the lives, legends and culture of youth and is a Pulitzer Prize-winning former journalist for The Washington Post. Her book, "Unhooked: How Young Women Pursue Sex, Delay Love, and Lose at Both" (Riverhead/Penguin, 2007), was among the first to document broad changes in the dating culture of teenagers and young adults. Her first book was a widely acclaimed profile of middle-school children: "Our Last Best Shot: Guiding Our Children Through Early Adolescence" (Riverhead/Penguin, 2000). She has been a speaker on college campuses and at numerous events including the White House Conference on Raising Responsible Teenagers. She has been interviewed on NBC's "Today" show, CNN and NPR, among other outlets. She received her bachelor's degree from Earlham College and her master's degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She currently freelances and does consulting work as a senior media fellow at the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.

Ruth Teichroeb is a former investigative reporter specializing in social issues who worked at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer from 1997 until the newspaper’s closure in March 2009. Her stories uncovered sexual abuse in residential schools for deaf children, documented the fatal neglect of children in state care, identified flawed forensic testing in the state’s crime lab and revealed the mistreatment of troubled, developmentally disabled adults in privately run group homes. Her investigations won multiple national and regional awards, including a National Press Club award and a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award. She was awarded a John S. Knight Fellowship to attend Stanford in 2007-2008. Before joining the P-I, Teichroeb was a reporter at the Winnipeg Free Press. She has written extensively on children and trauma, and authored the book “Flowers on My Grave: How an Ojibwa Boy’s Death Helped Break the Silence On Child Abuse” (HarperCollins Canada, 1997). Ruth received a Casey Journalism fellowship in 1999 and a Child and Family Policy fellowship in 2000. She is also a board member of the Dart Society, a journalist-run group affiliated with the Dart Center on Journalism and Trauma. Currently, she serves as communications manager for the Pew Environment Group's Arctic program.

Judy Woodruff is senior correspondent for "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" on PBS. A veteran political correspondent and award-winning broadcast journalist, she has covered news for more than three decades at CNN, NBC and PBS. At CNN, Woodruff was host of “Inside Politics,” as well as news anchor and senior correspondent. At NBC News, she served as chief White House correspondent and then as “Today Show" chief Washington correspondent. She anchored PBS' award-winning weekly documentary series "Frontline with Judy Woodruff” and was chief Washington correspondent for “The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour.” In 1982, Woodruff authored "This is Judy Woodruff at the White House." From 2006 to 2007, Woodruff was executive editor and correspondent for the PBS multimedia project "Generation Next: Speak Up. Be Heard." She traveled the U.S. talking to Americans aged 16-25,  hosting two documentaries on PBS stations along with a series of reports on “The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer,” on NPR and in USA Today.