Friends of The Daily Texan, Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting The Daily Texan, student newspaper at the University of Texas at Austin, has elected a new slate of officers and board members for the upcoming year.
President of the group is John Reetz of Atlanta. Reetz has been secretary since the group was formed in 2013, and replaces former president Cliff Avery, who served two terms as president, but remains on the board.
John Reetz is co-owner of Media Solutions Partners, an Atlanta-based consulting firm focused on helping media companies transition to a successful and strong digital future. Recent clients include GateHouse Media, Digital First Media, TapClicks, WebMD, The New York Times Co., ClickFuel, Crowdynews, Digital Sherpa, Network Communications Inc., Community Newspapers Inc. and other media-focused companies. John’s career includes stints in community and metro journalism, reporting and editing, and newsroom management for Cox Newspapers, where he led a group that supported the digital efforts at 40-plus websites for Cox. Prior to working at Cox, John was the Assistant Managing Editor of News Operations at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, where he was responsible for copy desks, design, newsroom technology, and newsroom operations. He was chairman of the AJC’s Olympics Operations Committee, coordinating a Cox-wide effort involving several thousand employees focused on Olympics publication efforts. He also was Managing Editor of the Gwinnett Daily News, a New York Times-owned paper.
Cyndi Taylor-Krier of San Antonio is the new vice president. She was one of the original board members. Cyndi leads Krier Consulting Group Inc., a San Antonio-based consulting firm. After more than 30 years in federal, state and local governments, along with private sector experience in business, law and financial services, her work now focuses on helping both public and private sector entities work better together by understanding each other’s perspectives. Services include communications, strategic planning, government relations, public affairs, crisis management and dispute resolution. Clients have included businesses and individuals involved in telecommunications, transportation, technology, financial services, energy, water, medicine, government and economic development. She served two terms as a member of the Texas Senate, served as Bexar County Judge from 1992 – 2001, and served as a UT regent from 2001-2007, including terms as Vice Chairman of the board and as Chair of the Academic Affairs Committee. She is a past president of the Texas Exes alumni organization.
And Alicia Dietrich was re-elected as Treasurer. She is currently serving a dial role as Secretary-Treasurer, pending selection of a new secretary. Alicia worked as a features writer, copy editor, wire editor and eventually copy desk chief and associate managing editor at The Daily Texan between 2002 and 2004. She graduated in 2004 with a degree in print journalism and is currently the public affairs director at the College of Fine Arts at UT Austin. She worked as a copy editor and designer in midsize newspapers for two years after college before transitioning to public affairs in 2006 at UT’s Harry Ransom Center, where she worked for 9 years before moving over to the College of Fine Arts in 2015. She also serves as vice-president of the Austin-Area Terry Alumni Association and is a 2015 graduate of Leadership Austin’s Emerge program.
In addition, the following new board members were elected:
Tom Kleinworth: Tom is vice president for government relations at Baylor College of Medicine. Since 1986, he has served as the medical school’s liaison with the Texas Legislature and numerous State agencies, and also is responsible for the College’s efforts at the Federal and county level. Tom is a 1973 journalism graduate of The University of Texas College of Communication. While attending UT, he was a copy editor, general assignments reporter, volunteer wire editor and assistant managing editor at The Daily Texan, and served as Texan managing editor in the spring 1973 semester. In his first few weeks as managing editor, the Board of Regents shut down the University for a week for lack of heating fuel; President Lyndon Johnson died; the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the case of Roe v. Wade; several former aides of President Nixon were convicted of conspiracy, burglary and wiretapping in the Watergate incident; and the Vietnam Peace Accords were signed in Paris. After that, things started picking up. After graduation from UT, Tom worked as a general assignments reporter and assistant tri-state editor for The Commercial Appeal, the Scripps-Howard morning newspaper in Memphis, Tennessee. He later worked for five years as a legislative aide to Texas State Senator Chet Brooks, and for three years as director of communications at the Texas Pharmacy Association.
Jennifer Morehead: Jennifer is a copy editor at the Washington Post, primarily working on national and foreign news and the Post’s weekly op-ed section, Outlook. After graduating from the University of Texas in 2000, Jennifer received a Hearst Newspaper Fellowship, spending six months each at the Beaumont Enterprise, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the San Francisco Chronicle and the Albany Times Union. She then went to the Houston Chronicle, working as the chief slot for the Sunday news sections. After more than two years, The New York Times recruited Jennifer, where she worked on the national copy desk. Then in 2006 she moved to the Post, where she has edited the Pulitzer Prize-winning Walter Reed medical center series, along with several Pulitzer finalists and other special projects. Jennifer has a BA from the Plan II Honors Program. At The Daily Texan, she worked on the copy desk, eventually becoming assistant managing editor. She lives in Bryan, Texas with her husband, Ken Smith, a web designer.
Dave Player: Dave worked as an associate editor at The Daily Texan from 2008-2011. After graduating with degrees in Plan II Honors and history he attended the University of Texas School of Law. In 2012 he was elected to a two-year term on the Texas Student Media Board, where he served as President for the 2013-2014 academic year, and was on the search committee for the new TSM Director. While in law school Dave interned at the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the Texas House of Representatives, and the Public Utility Commission of Texas. As a student he was inducted into the Friar Society in 2011, was published in the Texas Journal of Oil, Gas, & Energy Law, and was named a “Pro Bono Superstar” as one of the top three graduates with the most pro bono hours. Dave currently works as a corporate and securities associate in Dallas for Jackson Walker L.L.P., where he advises clients in mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance issues, debt and equity financing, regulatory compliance, and general business matters.
Amanda Zamora: Amanda is senior engagement editor at ProPublica. Previously, she spent more than eight years as a digital producer and editor at The Washington Post, leading the site’s election coverage as national digital editor in 2012. She led digital coverage on the metro, foreign and investigative desks before serving as the Post’s first social media and engagement editor from 2010 – 2011. Zamora began her journalism career at the Austin American-Statesman as an editorial aide and reporter. In 2009, she helped launch the Huffington Post Investigative Fund, a nonprofit news site based in Washington, D.C. She is also a previous Knight Digital Media Fellow with the Kiplinger Program in Public Affairs Journalism.
Read more about the board at:
http://www.friendsofthedailytexan.org/about/board-members/
Read more about the group at http://www.friendsofthedailytexan.org/ … and the Friends of The Texan Facebook page.
All positions are voluntary, and all funds raised go directly to support The Daily Texan.
In recent months, the Friends group has donated about $5,300 from its Innovation Fund to purchase new camera equipment for The Texan, and also made a smaller grant for purchase of video equipment.
The group also paid registration to send the Executive Editor and Managing Editor to the annual Media Seminar for College News Editors at the University of Georgia, attended by the top 60 student newspapers from around the U.S.