Meet the Candidates for the 2024-2025 MNSPJ Board of Directors

The Minnesota chapter of Society of Professional Journalists has opened voting to its members to choose who will serve on the Board of Directors for the 2024-2025 term.

Members may vote between now and Friday, August 16th. Ballots will close at 5 p.m. that day.

An electronic ballot will be distributed to each member via e-mail. If you do not receive a ballot and are eligible to vote, please contact us at minnnesota.spj@gmail.com.

Results of the election will be announced at MNSPJ’s annual meeting, which we be held in September (date TBD). Members are welcome to attend the chapter’s annual meeting. More information will be announced soon.

Here are the candidates:

President Elect

Becky Dernbach

Bio: Becky Z. Dernbach is the education reporter for Sahan Journal. She has been recognized for her beat reporting by the Education Writers Association and the Minnesota Society of Professional Journalists. Originally from Pennsylvania, she came to Minnesota to attend Carleton College and never left. She also holds a master’s degree from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. 

Candidate Statement: I was appointed to the Minnesota Society of Professional Journalists board in January. Shortly after I joined, I organized a statement of support for a Worthington journalist facing threats from the community after reporting on LGBTQ and Puerto Rican flags in schools. I think MNSPJ can play more of a role in making journalism a more welcoming and accessible career path for people from diverse backgrounds. In part, that means providing support to reporters in smaller newsrooms who may not have many institutional resources or much of a journalism community. As president-elect, I’d like to help MNSPJ grow its membership by providing more opportunities for our members to build skills and build community, through trainings, social events, and student outreach.

Secretary

Katie Galioto

Bio: I am a reporter covering St. Paul city government for the Star Tribune. I previously covered northern Minnesota for the paper while based in its Duluth bureau. I’ve been a member of MNSPJ’s board since 2021 and am seeking my third term as secretary.

Candidate Statement: Over the last three years, I’ve been a part of MNSPJ’s efforts to bring Minnesota journalists together as many of our jobs became more remote. I’ve helped with mixers, intern night and our signature Page One Awards banquet. I’d like to continue working with the board to grow our existing events, introduce new opportunities for journalists to connect and advocate for the free press when needed. As secretary, I strive to keep our board organized with detailed minutes. Moving forward, I’d also aim to improve MNSPJ’s internal and external communications, with the ultimate goal of boosting membership.

Treasurer

Max Nesterak

Bio: My name is Max Nesterak and I’m running to serve on the board of the Minnesota Society of Professional Journalists. I am the deputy editor of the Minnesota Reformer, where I cover labor. Previously, I worked as a producer and reporter at MPR News and at NPR.

Candidate Statement: I am running to continue serving as treasurer for the MN SPJ board to provide continuity in assisting the board in carrying out its duties and managing its finances. I’m passionate about freedom of the press, government transparency and diversity in journalism and would aim to advance those issues as a board member and treasurer.

Board Members

Samantha HoangLong

Bio: My name is Samantha HoangLong, and I’m the audience growth manager at Sahan Journal. I’m passionate about delivering news in creative and accessible ways to reach younger, more diverse readers. Previously, I worked on the digital team and assignment desk at FOX 9. My pathway to journalism jumpstarted as a high school student participant in ThreeSixty Journalism. Now, I serve on the St. Paul-based nonprofit’s Leadership Council to support its multimedia storytelling programming, as well as mentor students of color interested in working in media.

Candidate Statement: I’m applying for MNSPJ’s Board to get more involved in helping foster an active and connected community of journalists in Minnesota. I’m interested in planning events and its promotions, boosting outreach and membership, and building relationships with mission-aligned groups. I hope to add new ideas and create more educational and professional development opportunities, especially for early-career and student journalists.

Aleesa Kuznetsov

Bio: I am currently a Senior Producer at MPR News where I lead the team for the program Minnesota Now with Cathy Wurzer. I work to bring the top daily news to our audience as well as the unique stories and perspectives of Minnesotans across the state. Previously I was in the local TV world, working all hours of the day as a producer for FOX 9, WISH-TV in Indianapolis and NBC15 in Madison, Wisconsin.

Candidate Statement: I want to be on the MNSPJ board to help connect journalists in unique ways. I’d love to grow our chapter to be a place of learning and continuing education, by hosting panels or workshops. Even though we’re competitors, we only get stronger by learning from each other, and that will help sustain local journalism for the future. Additionally, as the industry undergoes changes and is evolving for the future, I think the MNSPJ could be a leading voice in helping shape that future. I can see our organization working with organizations like Press Forward and the McKnight Foundation to help strengthen local news in Minnesota.

Jessica Lee

Bio: Based in Minneapolis, Jessica Lee serves as Snopes’ Senior Assignments Editor, overseeing a remote newsroom with fact checkers across the globe. Her newsroom experience spans the U.S., including The Seattle Times where she helped lead breaking news operations as a reporter and served as an engagement editor. Before joining Snopes in 2020, Lee was MinnPost’s local government reporter, focusing her work on housing and income disparities and police violence. In addition to her fieldwork, Lee has taught news and reporting classes at the University of Minnesota and participated in national and global efforts to bring journalists together via the Online News Association and International Fact-Checking Network.

Candidate Statement: Thank you for allowing me to serve the MNSPJ community for the past two years. I bring a unique perspective to the board as a Minnesota-based journalist in a newsroom that doesn’t cover Minnesota. I’ve helped coordinate various in-person events, judge journalism contest entries, award college scholarship money and fulfill various administrative duties. With another term, I’ll continue that work — work that is the beating pulse of this nonprofit — while deepening my commitment to establishing connections between Minnesota journalists of all ages, backgrounds, fields and hometowns.

Frederick Melo

Bio: A Boston boy who lost his way and landed far from home, Frederick Melo has been a reporter with the St. Paul Pioneer Press since January 2005. He resides in a 1916 St. Paul home with his St. Paul-reared wife and their two St. Paul children.

Candidate Statement: It’s been an honor to serve on the board of MNSPJ these past seven years, including spending three years as a board officer (Secretary 2018-2020). I’ve worked hard on efforts to connect younger folks to MNSPJ, to jobs, to scholarships, to our national conference and to the good work that journalists do. Throughout my time on this board I have co-chaired our scholarship committee, which awards upwards of $2,000 in funds to college students each year. For all seven years, I’ve also overseen Intern Night, a networking event that draws a wide range of news media employers for a panel discussion with college students each October. I’ve (sometimes) helped organize autumn Media Mixers at St. Paul taprooms. I set the goal in 2022-2023 of better connecting members of MNSPJ to ThreeSixty Journalism, a high school journalism program at the University of St. Thomas that introduces many first-generation girls (and other children, especially but not exclusively children of color) to media. I now sit on the board of ThreeSixty and the relationship has paid dividends. For two years in a row, MNSPJ and ThreeSixty have jointly applied to the St. Paul Jaycees for grant funding to back a summer intern at a St. Paul media outlet. We’ve done this for two consecutive summers, sponsoring Isabel Saavedra-Weiss and now Gwynn Vang to intern at the Pioneer Press. I’m hoping we can fund even more MNSPJ/ThreeSixty interns at even more media outlets in the summer of 2025!

Tim Montgomery

Bio: My career in journalism began at the age of 19 with 4 years as a contributing editorial cartoonist and illustrator with the Star Tribune. I went on to work 20 years at the Pioneer Press where i began ‘graphic reporting’ – creating multi-media packages where i wrote a story and created accompanying interactive graphic elements to convey additional information – and 16 years as a graphic designer at Hubbard Broadcasting (HBI). My work has also appeared on TPT, in Mpls/St. Paul Magazine, MInnesota Lawyer, Finance & Commerce, Asian American Press, the University of Minnesota, and I’m an independent community media producer with SPNN (St. Paul Neighborhood Network).

Candidate Statement: I’ve been a multi-media Minnesota Journalist for over 40 years, and I also have experience working in the areas of contract negotiation, copyright law, non-profit management and tax preparation. As an MNSPJ Board member, I’ve helped in planning the Page One Awards Banquet and other events, addressing the organization’s registration status, coordinating the annual intern night and scholarship awards, and maintaining MNSPJ social media. I’m a strong believer in community journalism, and I hope to create more opportunities for networking among journalists. As a parent of college-aged students, I also have a keen interest in assisting aspiring young journalists. With your support, I hope to continue serving MNSPJ membership on the Board.

Hannah Yang

Bio: I’ve been a journalist for almost a decade in southern Minnesota ever since I started my career in 2015. I’ve covered rural communities during my time as a newspaper reporter for the Rochester Post Bulletin as my first job right out of college and as a county and education reporter for the Austin Daily Herald in 2018. Since 2019, I’ve shifted over to radio broadcast journalism as the southwest Minnesota senior reporter for MPR News and cover 18 different counties for public radio and am currently based in Mankato. I have to be versatile and cover pretty much anything from education to environmental issues to business and politics. While new to radio, I ended up covering the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the ripple effects of George Floyd’s killing in my region. I also am well-versed in photojournalism and have produced award-winning video journalism. I’m approaching five years in public radio. Prior to Minnesota, I was a features intern for The Columbus Dispatch in Ohio and a magazine intern for Akron Life Magazine, along with being a freelance reporter for The Athens News while as a journalism student at Ohio University’s E.W. Scripps School of Journalism.

Candidate Statement: SPJ has been an important organization that helps professional journalists in many ways. Now, I want to be able to do the same for my colleagues and for our next generation. Being based in Greater Minnesota, I think it’s important to remember that there are newsrooms and colleagues beyond the Twin Cities where outreach is vital and crucial to establishing trust and connection with the communities relying on coverage. While I understand the Twin Cities being central in Minnesota for meetings and events, it would be nice to see more in-person engagement for our members who can’t always make it for the functions and be able to engage fellow members in their own regions as well. Whether that means more in-person networking opportunities with student SPJ chapters and having them meet with professional members within their communities, and also hosting workshops or training sessions, I want to invest more into Greater Minnesota recruitment and outreach that’ll also help expand our efforts to bring in different perspectives into our reporting. The relationships I’ve maintained and cultivated while living out in southern Minnesota for the last decade or so has helped me see where those gaps are and I would love the support and backing from SPJ to be able to do that and see more SPJ chapters to grow on college campuses.