SAJA members re-elected five incumbents and added two new members to the board for next year, in the annual election where ten candidates ran for seven open seats.

Those elected at the annual meeting on Dec. 4 were Sree Sreenivasan, Jigar Mehta, Amita Parashar, Sharaf Mowjood, Raakhee Mirchandani, Shefali Kulkarni and Aarti Virani.

The other candidates, in what was a close election, were Nausheen Husain, Ravi Shankar and Shaumya Vaishampayan.

Sreenivasan, a co-founder of SAJA, is the chief digital officer at Columbia University. Mehta, a former SAJA president is the director of operations for Matter, a new media organization that supports journalism entrepreneurs. Parashar is a producer at NPR's Tell Me More and administers SAJA's scholarship program. Mowjood is an associate producer for NBC's Rock Center. Mirchandani is the deputy features editor and the fashion editor at the New York Daily News.

Kulkarni is a multimedia journalist with Kaiser Health News and Virani is an arts and culture writer.

They join current board members Anusha Shrivastava, Sovy Azhath, John Laxmi and Anup Kaphle.

Leaving the board after five two-year terms is freelancer writer Aseem Chhabra, who will continue to run our New York City chapter events. 

The board will hold its first meeting in February, when it will elect officers for SAJA's executive committee made up of SAJA's president, vice president, treasurer, secretary and an at-large officer.

The new board hopes you will get involved in SAJA activities in the new year. Send ideas, tips, suggestions to saja@saja.org

If you haven't made a donation to support SAJA's work this year, please consider doing so -- every dollar goes to support our programming, scholarships and fellowships.

If you haven't signed up or renewed your membership (just $40 for journalists; $40 for non-journalists; $20 for students), please do so now.