SAJA Announces 2015 Executive Board and multi-year grant from Dow Jones Foundation; South Asian Journalists Association marks its 21st year as a major organization, bringing together 1,000+ journalists in the US and Canada

Feb 5, 2015, New York, NY -- The board of directors of SAJA, the South Asian Journalists Association (@sajahq), appointed a new executive committee at its first meeting of the year in January.

Sharaf Mowjood (@Mowjood), an associate producer at NBC’s Special Reports With Brian Williams, was re-elected as president. Aarti Virani (@aartivirani), a freelance arts and culture writer and contributing editor at Vogue India, was elected as vice president. A new addition to SAJA, Trisha Sakhuja (@Tsakhuja13), content manager at India.com and managing editor at Brown Girl Magazine, was elected as secretary. Veteran SAJA member and Connecticut-based freelance writer, John Laxmi (@johnlaxmi), was re-elected as treasurer. And Divya Singaravelu (@divya_158), who was a student coordinator for SAJA at Columbia University and currently serves as a digital transformation consultant at Sapient Global Markets, was elected as officer-at-large.

Other board members include: Shefali Kulkarni (@shefalikulkarni), digital producer at Public Radio International; Sovy Azhath (@SovyProducer), producer and writer at CNN Headline News; Anup Kaphle (@AnupKaphle), digital foreign editor at The Washington Post; Mythili Rao (@MythiliRao), producer at WNYC; Kamini Ramdeen (@KaminiRamdeen), content editor at Zee TV USA and editor at Brown Girl Magazine and SAJA co-founder and chief digital officer at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Sree Sreenivasan (@sree).

“We are thrilled to welcome new board members who are already bringing in fresh ideas and programming for SAJA,” said Mowjood. “These are exciting times for our organization.”

“As SAJA looks towards the next twenty years, we’re eager to contribute to all our members’ journalism journeys in increasingly meaningful, tangible and effective ways,” said Virani.

SAJA will continue its mission of awarding journalism scholarships to students of South Asian descent or those interested in the diaspora and build upon its other fellowship and internship programs.

Additionally, SAJA is also delighted to announce it has won a three-year grant from the Dow Jones Foundation to help SAJA’s membership and donor base. For the next three years, the Foundation, which is funded largely by Dow Jones, a News Corp. company (@DJNF), will provide SAJA with a base grant, as well as a significant conditional grant that is tied to SAJA demonstrating its ability to broaden its base of supporters.

“SAJA has been instrumental in expanding the diverse pool of journalism talent in the US and we are glad to help them in this pioneering effort to broaden their membership and deepen their base of supporters,” said Raju Narisetti (@raju), a Foundation director. Narisetti is also a life member of SAJA and currently Senior Vice President, Strategy, at News Corp.

“Developing a sustainable, diversified and long-term donor base has been a long-term goal of SAJA and we are grateful for this grant in continuing that process,” said Laxmi.

SAJA’s "Dollar-a-Day" campaign, already launched, has made a great start in cultivating a varied donor base. If you would like to participate in our “Dollar-a-Day” campaign or make a donation of any amount, please go to http://www.saja.org/donate.

To learn more about SAJA scholarships and other funding opportunities visit: http://www.saja.org/scholarships. The new 2015 national board voted on approving up to $50,000 in scholarships and internship funds for its student members. These funds aim to fuel young South Asian journalists and students propel their media careers.