I served on SEJ’s board from 2022 to 2024, until I navigated a career transition that required me to step down from my active board seat this summer. I have two main reasons I am running (again), now to represent associate members: First, I want to finish the work I started. Second, I know I can be a strong advocate for members working outside of a traditional newsroom. I’m certainly not alone among SEJ members who have faced career changes in an unstable media industry.
In my two years on the board, I served as first vice president and chair of the Governance Committee. My role meant ensuring smooth performance of the board, and I made it a priority to broaden and deepen SEJ’s pipeline of volunteers. I’m proud to say these initiatives paid off and we saw increased engagement in board elections and on committees during my term. I also worked on updating SEJ policies to reflect the organization’s changing needs. Next I’d like to work on improving transitions from one board to the next. It’s a steep learning curve to join the board, and we need creative solutions for keeping the volunteer commitment manageable without compromising on ambition.
There are a lot of ways I would like to see SEJ improve. I have a solid understanding of where SEJ is starting from — the status of its bylaws and its financial position — but also how much room there is to grow.
After spending most of my career working at news outlets, I lost my job this winter in newsroom-wide layoffs. That period of instability has given me fresh insight into how SEJ should modernize. At this year’s SEJ conference, I spoke with a lot of peers facing similar turbulence, or unsure about their future in journalism. I’d like to see SEJ be a better resource for these members with more inclusive membership and retention policies and improved programming.
This is ambitious work, and I’d like to balance both short- and long-term initiatives that help members navigate a difficult time for environmental journalism. In the near future, I think the board can establish clearer grace periods and resources for members facing career changes. Long term, I want to see an organization that is better at responding to the realities of environmental journalism. A mix of perspective and experience of board work will be critical here. And I hope to hear from you how else SEJ can better serve all of its members.
More about me: I served on SEJ board from 2022-2024, and recently joined Center for Climate Integrity as a senior investigative researcher. I have worked as a staff writer and editor for Vox, Mother Jones, Grist and the New Republic, and have volunteered in other capacities outside of SEJ, as an awards judge for Overseas Press Club, Covering Climate Now and Report for America. I live in Washington, D.C., and my favorite way to see a new city is running through it.
— Rebecca Leber
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