LOS ANGELES, July 13, 2024 – Members of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists elected broadcaster Dunia Elvir as president and ratified updated bylaws that reflect the evolution of the organization and the field of journalism.
In voting tallied at the close of the NAHJ 40th Anniversary Conference and Expo in Hollywood, Elvir and six other national board officers were elected for two-year terms.
“I am honored to be elected president of the NAHJ National Board as we embark on our next 40 years of growth,” said Elvir, an anchor for Telemundo 52 in Los Angeles. “Our anniversary celebration showed how far Latino journalists have come, and I’m excited about all the progress we can still make to build newsrooms whose staff and leaders reflect the communities they cover.”
NAHJ’s new bylaws include the following key changes:
- Gendered language has been removed.
- Membership classes and board positions have been updated to reflect today’s jobs, not just newspaper/TV.
- Enfranchisement has been expanded: Academic members can run for board positions, college students can vote for the student representative and regional directors.
- Membership categories have been broadened: Freelancers are now explicitly regular members, retired journalists can stay on as “retired members.”
- Important decisions no longer depend on a single annual, in-person membership meeting.
The bylaw update was a multiyear, consultative process taken across the finish line by board members Julio-César Chavez Andino and Arelis Hernandez, who led the bylaws task force. It was the first bylaw update since 2018, and the first comprehensive update in even longer.
“We are grateful to all the members who gave thoughtful input and who came together to ratify the new bylaws,” said Hernandez. A total of 281 votes were cast, achieving quorum, with 264 (94%) saying “yes” to the new bylaws, 10 saying “no” and 7 abstaining.
The National Board officers were all elected in uncontested races. Each received between 241 and 256 votes, with 1-2 write-in votes in each race.
Dunia Elvir – President
Dunia Elvir is an award-winning journalist and the News Anchor for Telemundo 52’s weekday primetime NoticieroTelemundo 52 at 5:00 p.m. 6:00 pm & 11:00 p.m. Her successful career spans three decades in radio, print and television. She began her journalistic career in 1990 at Telemundo 52 Los Angeles, she joined Telemundo Network in 2002. Elvir is one of seven Latina journalists featured in “¡De última hora! Latinas Report Breaking News,” a bilingual exhibit at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History showcasing the work of Latina journalists and how they wrote the first draft of history for major U.S.
Jaime Cárdenas – VP of Online
Jaime Cárdenas is Director of Social Media and Engagement Strategy for Hearst Newspapers. He helps newsrooms connect with readers and new audiences on social media and prepares reports and analyzes data for leadership teams. He enjoys coaching journalists on the best ways to engage with readers on digital platforms to amplify the reach of their work.
Julio-Cesar Chavez Andino – VP of Broadcast
Julio-César Chávez Andino is a video reporter with Reuters working out of Washington D.C. Prior to his current role, he spent five years as an on-camera reporter with KVIA in El Paso. He currently holds the position of NAHJ VP of Broadcast and has been a member of the organization since 2015.
Nancy Preyor-Johnson – VP of Print
Nancy Martinez Preyor-Johnson is a deputy editor and an opinion columnist for the San Antonio Express-News. She serves as the Region 5 Director for NAHJ, where she helps lead the strategic planning implementation committee. She also serves as President of the San Antonio Association of Hispanic Journalists, which raises scholarship funds for local Hispanic students.
Andres H. Martinez – Financial Officer
Andrés H. Martínez, a journalist at heart, writer and content creator, currently serves as the treasurer for the NAHJ Los Angeles chapter. Prior to landing his job in Los Angeles as an assignment editor at Telemundo Los Angeles, Andrés worked as a news producer in Oklahoma City where he helped rebuild Telemundo Oklahoma.
Dr. Pedro Cabrera – Academic At-Large Officer
Dr. Pedro Cabrera is a nationally recognized educator with nearly 13 years of experience in journalism education and education-specific communication. Over nearly nine years, he managed a state and nationally-recognized journalism program at Judson High School in Converse, TX, which included the creation, editing, and production process of multiple community-wide publications.
Jackie Padilla – Secretary
Jackie Padilla is a journalist at POLITICO. As a Senior Producer, she spearheads local, national, and global stories within the political sphere through video. Padilla graduated from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and started her career as a local broadcast reporter for WTAJ-CBS. In 2020, she moved to D.C. to cover the presidential election and has been covering politics ever since.
Cardenas and Chavez-Andino were both reelected to their positions; Elvir and Preyor-Johnson served on the previous board in different positions. You can read all of the candidate statements here.
No official nominations were made for the positions of Spanish At-Large Officer, General At-Large Officer, and Student Representative so the board will appoint members to those positions after reviewing write-in votes. The National Board officers join the eight Regional Directors who were elected to two-year terms in 2023 to comprise the full NAHJ board.
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About the National Association of Hispanic Journalists
The National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) is the largest organization of Latino journalists in the United States and is dedicated to the recognition and professional advancement of Hispanics in the news industry. Established in April 1984, NAHJ created a national voice and unified vision for all Hispanic journalists. 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. NAHJ has more than 3,600 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.
Press contact: Andrew Sherry, asherry@nahj.org, (305) 954-7571