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2018 NAHJ Hall of Fame
May 15, 2018 – During the NAHJ 2018 conference in Miami, FL four of the nation’s top journalists, academics and newsroom innovators will be inducted into the National Association of Hispanic Journalists’ Hall of Fame.
Rosental Alves, leader in online journalism and connecting Latin America and the United States journalism; journalism’s innovator and big thinker, Alberto Ibargüen; Mindy Marques, the first Latina executive editor of the Miami Herald; and master of watchdog journalism, Mc Nelly Torres will be inducted into the 2018 Hall of Fame class. This year’s gala honoring these individuals will be held on Saturday, July 21, 2018 at the InterContinental Hotel during the 2018 International Training Conference and Career Fair.
“I am honored to announce these four candidates for Hall of Fame recognition. These outstanding journalists have pushed the meaning of journalism to new standards and have redefined the industry through their unprecedented positions and inventive ideologies,” said Brandon Benavides, President of NAHJ. “I look forward to celebrating these individuals’ accomplishments.”
Meet the 2018 inductees:
Rosental Alves has worked with foreign correspondence, reporting in Latin America and has played a major role in ushering in the digital age of online journalism. Alves worked as a foreign correspondent and eventually executive editor and director for one of the most important Brazilian newspapers. He later led the work in creating an online platform for this newspaper, making it the first Brazilian newspaper available on the internet. Alves is not only an impressive journalist himself, but he has a focus in teaching and advancing the art and duty of journalism for students at the at the University of Texas in Austin. Alves was chosen as the first Knight Chair in International Journalism and seven years later received a $2 million grant from the foundation to establish the Knight Center for Journalism in America to train journalists around the world in online journalism.
As more than just a journalist, Alberto Ibargüen has used his influence to reinvent the understanding of journalism. He has used his chairman position on various boards, his experience in the Peace Corps, and his involvement in various newspapers to shape his innovative ideas of what journalism should look like and use these positions to push journalism in a modern direction. Ibargüen is the former publisher of the Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald and has worked for the Hartford Courant and the Newsday in New York. Since joining the foundation in 2005, Ibargüen has shifted the focus of the Knight Foundation to support start-ups and entrepreneurs as opposed to focusing solely on education through major institutions. He has always been a leader for change and progressing journalism into an open community for conversation.
Mindy Marques’s career with the Miami Herald speaks for itself. Marques has worked her way through the paper starting as an intern and being promoted up to managing editor. As the Executive Editor and Vice President for news at the Miami Herald, she has reinvigorated the newspaper and earned it Pulitzer Prize Finalist titles. Marques is only the second women to hold her position as executive editor and the first Hispanic editor of the Miami Herald. Not only is she an example of successful Latina women in journalism but she is actively advocating for more women in advanced journalism positions through her input in advisory councils of the Journalism and Women Symposium and the Lilian Lodge Kopenhaver Center for Women in Communication at Florida International University.
Mc Nelly Torres dominates the world of investigative journalism. Through her investigative work she has published stories for the San Antonio Express-News in Texas, the Morning News in South Carolina, The Lawton Constitution in Oklahoma, and the Sun-Sentinel in South Florida. In these capacities she has uncovered local crimes and created change in communities. Mc Nelly served on the board of Investigative Reporters and Editors and the Florida Society in News Editors board. She has contributed to the advancement of investigative journalism by training journalists in the US, Latin American and the Caribbean in data journalism and investigative tools.
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About NAHJ: The National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) is the largest organization of Latino journalists in the United States and dedicated to the recognition and professional advancement of Hispanics in the news industry. The mission of NAHJ is to increase the number of Latinos in the newsrooms and to work toward fair and accurate representation of Latinos in news media. Established in April 1984, NAHJ created a national voice and unified vision for all Hispanic journalists. NAHJ has approximately 2,200 members, including working journalists, journalism students, other media-related professionals and journalism educators. For more information please visit NAHJ.org or follow on Twitter @NAHJ.