The Collegian AIG Board of Directors is recommending two incumbents and two newcomers for this year’s board election. The candidates were recommended by the Board’s Nominating Committee.
Any Collegian alumnus not nominated by the committee, but wishing to serve, may advance their candidacy by sending to the Collegian AIG board a statement of interest, resume and signatures of 20 Collegian AIG members in support of their candidacy. Self-nominations must be received at CollegianAIG@gmail.com by July 30. Candidates must be members of the Penn State Alumni Association and be willing to serve a term of three years.
The terms of current board members R.J. Hufnagel (1994), Chris Korman (2004), Jerry Schwartz (1977) and Barb White Stack (1975) are expiring this year. The online election to fill their seats will be between Aug. 30 and Sept. 6.
With Hufnagel and Stack not seeking re-election, the board-recommended candidates are incumbents Korman and Schwartz and newcomers Jim Kuhnhenn (1976) and Diane Davis Otter (1990):
Chris Korman
Chris Korman is sports editor of The Baltimore Banner, an ambitious nonprofit startup seeking to develop a workable model for local news. He has extensive experience in the news industry, ranging from small-town papers to national publications. He was a senior editor and columnist at For The Win, a sports and culture site for USA Today, and reported and edited at The Baltimore Sun. His work has also appeared in the Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times and Village Voice. Chris spent most of his time at Penn State in the Collegian’s offices, working on the sports desk. But he majored in English, graduating in 2004, and later earned a masters, with honors, from The Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University. He lives north of Baltimore with his wife and three children. Having filled an unexpired position on the board, he is now seeking a full three-year term.
Jim Kuhnhenn
Jim Kuhnhenn is a writer, editor, researcher and consultant with a long career as a Washington journalist. He was bureau chief for the Kansas City Star before becoming congressional correspondent and political editor at Knight Ridder Newspapers. He joined The Associated Press in 2006 as a national political writer; in 2010 he was assigned to the White House to cover the Obama presidency. He retired from daily journalism in 2016. He is past president of the Washington Press Club Foundation and a former member of the congressional Standing Committee of Correspondents. He has appeared on MSNBC, NPR and C-SPAN. In 2019-2020, Jim served as the Press Freedom Fellow at the National Press Club Journalism Institute. Born in Chile, Jim speaks Spanish fluently. A 1976 Penn State graduate, he was Collegian News Editor under the fine leadership of Jerry Schwartz.
Diane Davis Otter
Diane Davis Otter is vice president of editorial at A+E Global Media, overseeing content and production on the websites and connected television apps of History, A&E and Lifetime. She spent the first half of her career working in newspapers including the (Lancaster, Pa.) Intelligencer Journal, now known as LNP; the (Elmira, N.Y.) Star-Gazette; and Newsday, where she served as metropolitan editor in charge of New York City news. She became the first lifestyles editor for the Associated Press and then moved into digital-focused jobs, including editor-in-chief for NBC’s owned television stations’ digital platforms. She was editor-in-chief of The Daily Collegian 1989-1990, where she also served as managing editor and the first sports administration reporter. She graduated in 1990. She lives in Westchester, N.Y., where she has worked on local school board committees to foster community engagement and develop AI academic policy.
Jerry Schwartz spent the entirety of this 45-year career at The Associated Press in New York, starting as a reporter on the city desk. He went on to serve as national special projects editor, national writer, editor of AP Newsfeatures, deputy top stories editor and senior editor at large. He was a long-time member of the team that edited the AP Stylebook, contributed to the book “Breaking News: How The Associated Press has Covered War, Peace and Everything Else,” and is the author of “The AP Reporting Handbook.” A 1977 graduate of Penn State with degrees in journalism and history, he was editor of The Daily Collegian in 1975-76. He a past member of the College of Communications Alumni Board and is running for his third and final three-year term on the AIG board.
The Collegian AIG board is a working group that promotes The Daily Collegian, its staff and Penn State. The board creates opportunities for the Collegian AIG membership to support the work of Collegian student staff professionally and financially. The AIG also provides Collegian alumni ways to connect with each other for personal and professional enrichment.
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