I first learned about JAWS as I was joining a newsroom that did not welcome the new Latina editor – me – hired instead of the guys they knew. It was my first official leadership role in a newsroom, and it was lonely. At my first JAWS CAMP, I learned from wise and witty women who had been newsroom leaders before me. They gave me strategies, suggestions – and raucous laughter, when that’s what I needed. I felt like I was home.

Despite all that we faced, we loved this organization enough to fight with and for each other, to cry together, and to hold ourselves accountable for JAWS’ survival. Even in our moment of distress, we tested whether we could become the ambitious, tolerant and inclusive organization we sought to be. To do that, we did what so many women in history fighting for a cause have always done: we trusted the brilliance and ingenuity of women.

Alessandra Galloni, appointed in April 2021 as Reuters’ first female editor-in-chief in the news agency’s 170-year history, said she got some great workplace advice years ago when she had her first child: Return to a bigger job. She took that advice, and it paid off with a progression of increasingly important roles at The Wall Street Journal and Reuters over the past two decades.

Hi, I’m Jenn Kho, the incoming president of JAWS. I want to tell you about something I’m really looking forward to: CAMP. If you’re wondering, that stands for the Conference and Mentoring Project, but it’s more than just a fun name.

Please join us again to explore more ways for women journalists to remain resilient and successful as the media industry changes. In this webinar, Theola DeBose will help you dig deep to uncover the skills women journalists take for granted and learn how to use those talents to transition into new careers or move into leadership roles.

Where were you on that Tuesday 20 years ago? I was a teenager living in my parent’s house in Saudi Arabia. I remember the sound of the hair dryer as I tried to plead with my mother, drying her wet hair, to allow me to go to a party. My younger brother came in and I snapped at him to “wait your turn to speak to Mom!” He calmly said that they interrupted the cartoons for some big breaking news. The blow-dryer stopped and we all stood in front of the television. We watched the second plane fly into the building, live. We were all standing in silence.

At JAWS CAMP 2021, you can expect to find inspiring speakers; educational opportunities for whatever stage of your career; networking and social time for having meaningful conversations, laughing, making friends and experiencing the importance of what we all do as journalists, as women and as human beings. Our fabulous keynote speakers include Deborah Douglas and Amber Payne, co-editors-in-chief of The Emancipator, which reimagines an abolitionist news outlet for a new day, and Melody Spann Cooper, chairman and CEO of Chicago's Midway Broadcasting Corporation, owner of the oldest Black-oriented radio station in the city.

Women journalists who work in small markets providing local news and/or who cover underrepresented communities may apply for a full-registration stipend to participate in the Conference And Mentoring Program (CAMP) happening Oct. 15-17 online and one demand. The stipends, which honor the work of pioneering Black journalist Alice Allison Dunnigan, are available for women not currently JAWS members but who are interested in the organization’s unique professional development, networking, and inspirational opportunities.

Congratulations to JAWS president Mira Lowe on becoming the next dean of the School of Journalism and Graphic Communication at Florida A&M University (FAMU). She will assume her new role on Oct 22. Mira currently is assistant dean for Student Experiences and director of the Innovation News Center (INC) at the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications (UFCJC).

Facebook for Journalists is a Society of Professional Journalists training program in partnership with Facebook, and JAWS is bringing this program to you this month. Join trainer and journalist J. Kyle Foster Wednesday July 28 from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. ET for this workshop aimed at teaching the ways Facebook tools can help create and share incredible works of journalism, as well as engaging the public in the stories about their communities.

For the last 35 years, we at Journalism and Women Symposium (JAWS) have been supporting underrepresented journalists across the US — and beyond — with meaningful networking, advocacy, and personal and professional development. If you’re a 2020 or 2021 journalism graduate who self-identifies as a woman (cisgender and transgender) or non-binary person, we have a graduation gift to help kickstart your career.

WOW! What an incredibly successful Mother’s Day fundraiser! Past president Kat Rowlands offered to match the first $3,000 that came in during our Mother’s Day fundraiser. And you did it! You gave more than $3,000 -- honoring women who’ve inspired you, whether mothers or others. Kat doubled your donations, giving us $6,061 total in May.

In the 1970s, four dynamic journalists arrived at National Public Radio and began shaping a then-scrappy network, as well as demanding airtime and the right to do the kind of serious reporting often denied to women at the time. Instead of reciting headlines, journalists Linda Wertheimer, Susan Stamberg, Nina Totenberg and Cokie Roberts worked to explain the news and its impact, and to deep-dive topics like Washington politics, sexual harassment and the Supreme Court.

On this World Press Freedom Day, the members of Journalism & Women Symposium (JAWS) add their voices of solidarity to the multitude of voices around the world in support of journalists who are targets of press freedom. We especially call on governments and law enforcement personnel to thoroughly investigate online attacks of women journalists. 

JAWS is packed with inspiring women who are blazing journalistic trails — drawing on the strength, love, support and inspiration we’ve gotten from our mothers and from other women who’ve been our models and our mentors. So for Mother’s Day, what better way to honor those women than to make a gift to JAWS — as part of this year’s 35 for 35 campaign?

JAWS and the Association of Independents in Radio (AIR) will present A Freelancers Guide to Protections: Personal, Professional, and Financial Considerations on May 5. A one-hour panel discussion on freelancer protections starts at 6 p.m. ET and will be followed by another hour of breakout room conversations led by our panelists.

The JAWS Board of Directors has decided to host CAMP 2021 on Oct.15-17. Just like last year, it will be online and on demand. We know many of us were hoping we’d be able to meet again in person this year. Unfortunately, there is still a lot of uncertainty regarding travel, vaccinations and large in-person gatherings due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. An online event is the safest and most responsible way for us to gather during the pandemic.

Fran Lewine, one of the founding members of the Journalism & Women's Symposium, would have been 100 years old this month. JAWS has honored her over the years with the Fran Lewine Interview Project to record the stories of women who made a mark in journalism. Fran was a leader among women journalists in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s, protesting discrimination against women in jobs and assignments.

The 9-hour time difference was causing Linda Ngari a problem. She managed to participate in several sessions of the 2020 JAWS virtual conference in December. But others she had to watch later, when it wasn’t the middle of the night in Kenya. Ngari is a fact checker for Africa Uncensored, an independent investigative online media outlet in Nairobi. She was one of 12 journalists who received an Alice Stipend that covered conference registration.

Couldn’t make it to CAMP? Register here for On-Demand access and watch all of the sessions at your own convenience. Tickets cost $50 and once you have registered, you will have access to all of the #CAMPOnDEMAND resources until December 2021.