Thank you for your interest in the San Diego chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. For more information about our organization and our activities, please email spjsandiego@gmail.com. You can write to us at:  San Diego SPJ, P.O. Box 880482, San Diego, CA  92168.

The SPJ San Diego Pro Chapter Board meets on the first Tuesday of each month.

The 2023-24 SPJ San Diego Pro Chapter Board of Directors:

President
Jill Castellano
Data / Investigations Editor, Consumer Affairs
@Jill_Castellano
Jill Castellano heads up the data / investigations team at Consumer Affairs after nearly seven years as an investigative data reporter at inewsource. She worked in New York, Philadelphia, Salt Lake City and Palm Springs before moving to San Diego. Her work focuses on using data to tell in-depth stories that expose wrongdoing and hold institutions accountable. Castellano was part of a team from the USA TODAY Network that won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Reporting for a project on the U.S.-Mexico border wall.

Vice President
Bella Ross
Social Media Producer, Voice of San Diego
@bellamayaross
Bella Ross is currently the social media producer at the Voice of San Diego. Prior to joining VOSD, she was the community engagement specialist for The San Diego Union-Tribune’s opinion section and a member of the Editorial Board, a role she started in November 2021. She was born in Phoenix, Arizona, and also lived in North Carolina before moving to San Diego County in 2015. She previously worked as a web producer for inewsource, managing social media content and newsletters, and also freelanced covering local government, schools and equity issues for publications such as Voice of San Diego, CalMatters, North Coast Current and Scripps Ranch News. She graduated from San Diego State University with degrees in journalism and political science in May 2020. She also served as the editor-in-chief of the campus newspaper, The Daily Aztec.

Secretary
Elizabeth Marie Himchak
Editor, PB Monthly
@EMHimchak
Elizabeth Marie Himchak is the editor of PB Monthly and former editor of the Rancho Bernardo News Journal and Poway News Chieftain, all part of U-T Community Press. She has also been the staff reporter for the Rancho Bernardo News Journal since 2006. Her articles occasionally appear in The San Diego Union-Tribune and other U-T Community Press newspapers. Elizabeth has covered community news and events, politics, community government, schools, crime and the Palomar Health district. She also has written features, theater reviews and entertainment stories. The University of San Diego graduate started in journalism at The Vista, USD’s campus newspaper. Her professional career began as a freelance writer for The San Diego Union-Tribune, The Southern Cross and Pomerado Newspapers.

Treasurer
Arthur Santana
Associate Professor of Journalism, San Diego State University
@arthursantana
Arthur Santana is an associate professor of journalism at San Diego State University. Prior to joining SDSU in 2015, he was a journalism professor at the University of Houston. His published research focuses on participatory media, user-generated content and the intersection of journalism, politics and social media. Prior to joining academia, Arthur was a reporter and editor for 14 years, including at the San Antonio Express-News, The Seattle Times and The Washington Post. He’s been the recipient of journalism awards from the D.C. Press Association, SPJ and NAHJ. At the Post, he was part of a team of reporters who were nominated for the 2002 Pulitzer Prize in Public Service. Arthur earned a B.A. from the Univ. of Texas at Austin, an M.S. from Columbia University and a Ph.D. from the Univ. of Oregon.

Board Members

Cody Dulaney
Investigative Reporter, inewsource
@dulaneycd
Cody Dulaney is an investigative reporter with inewsource. His focus is on social impact and government accountability, with an emphasis on housing, homelessness and law enforcement. Cody’s work revealed mismanagement and neglect in COVID-19 hotel shelters run by San Diego County, and exposed half of the county’s local police agencies for breaking state law by sharing drivers’ location data across the nation. Prior to moving to San Diego, he worked on investigative teams with newspapers in Florida and South Carolina.

Hafsa Fathima
Audio producer, NPR
@hafsabadsha
Hafsa Fathima is an audio producer at National Public Radio, where she’s covered pop culture, immigration and invading snails in Florida. She’s also reported for The San Diego-Union Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, producing their narrative podcast, Border City. Before she ventured into radio, she wrote for The Hindu in Tamil Nadu, India. She’s called San Diego home since 2017, and is from both Mississauga, Canada and Chennai, India.

Wendy Fry
Senior Investigative Reporter, CalMatters
@WendyFry_
Wendy Fry is a senior investigative reporter currently working on the Divide team at CalMatters – a statewide media effort aimed at raising awareness about poverty and income inequality through in-depth, local storytelling and community outreach. Previously, Fry covered Tijuana, Baja California and the greater border region for the San Diego Union-Tribune. During the coronavirus pandemic, she lived in Mexico to continue her reporting on cross-border topics. Fry has worked as an on-air reporter at NBC7. She graduated from San Diego State University. Her passion for journalism developed at a young age, and she worked on both her high school and college newspapers. Fry won SPJ’s Sol Price Award for Responsible Journalism in 2012 for her coverage of corruption at the Sweetwater schools, and she won the Grand Golden Watchdog Award from the San Diego County Taxpayers Association in 2017 for her coverage of lead in water at San Diego area schools.

Jennifer Kastner
Reporter, San Diego Business Journal
@jenniferkastnernews
Jennifer Kastner is a reporter for the San Diego Business Journal where she specializes in stories about AI, biotech and life sciences. Before transitioning to print journalism in 2023, she was an investigative reporter for ABC 10News. She has reported for TV stations across the country where her work has been recognized with a Murrow, an Emmy, AP awards and SPJ awards. She’s a native San Diegan and is excited to connect with other local journalists.

Jakob McWhinney
Reporter, Voice of San Diego
@JakobMcwhinney
Jakob McWhinney is a multimedia journalist born and raised in San Diego. He returned to community college during the COVID-19 pandemic and discovered a passion for journalism. By his second semester with City College’s City Times Media, he was appointed Operations Manager of the entire student news organization, which includes a digital news site, a radio station and a weekly TV news show. During that semester he was also hired as an intern at Voice of San Diego, where he wrote stories about homelessness, COVID-19 testing operations and COVID-era right-wing organizing. He was subsequently hired as Voice’s Education Reporter. He strives to communicate to audiences why – in this most convoluted and apathetic of times – they should care about the world around them and the people who inhabit it. He hopes to use journalism to uplift and empower his hometown by communicating complex issues in digestible ways.

Adam Racusin
Executive Reporter, ABC 10News
@AdamRacusin
Adam Racusin oversees the investigative team at ABC 10News in San Diego and has covered everything from the courts and politics to consumer issues across San Diego County. His reporting has led to getting people their money back, putting bad actors behind bars, new policies at government agencies, and encouraging lawmakers to promise new legislation. Adam is also a watchdog over the child welfare system in San Diego County. Since joining 10News, Adam’s work has been honored by the San Diego Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, the San Diego Press Club, the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Pacific Southwest Chapter, the Radio Television Digital News Association, and the National Headliner Awards. He has reported in television markets from Montana to Texas and several spots in between.