By: E&P Staff The National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA) named its first full-time staff professional Tuesday to oversee its newsroom training and journalism education programs.
Thomas Cashman Avila was named to the new position of deputy executive director. The association said Avila will be in charge of "all programmatic and communications elements of NLGJA's mission work with a focus on the organization's outreach to the next generation of journalists through NLGJA's ongoing journalism education initiatives."
Avila was previously staff director of the Committee of Concerned Journalists and a writer/researcher for its affiliated organization, the Project for Excellence in Journalism.
"Tom has spent the past six years with two of the leading professional organizations involved in journalism training and research," NLGJA Executive Director Pamela Strother said in a statement. "NLGJA is looking forward to his leadership in helping the industry recognize that fair and accurate coverage of LGBT issues is at the core of good journalism."
"LGBT issues are dominating today's headlines, and teaming Avila and Strother ensures NLGJA is best prepared for our growing role as the go-to resource on LGBT coverage training and programs in the journalism industry," NLGJA National President Eric Hegedus said in a statement.
Last August, NLGJA launched the Leroy F. Aarons Journalism Education Program, which is intended to prepare journalists to cover sexual orientation issues. The program is named after the organization's founder, "Roy" Aarons, a former Oakland Tribune executive editor who died in 2004.
With the addition of Avila, NLGJA has seven professional staffers at its Washington, D.C., headquarters. The group has 1,300 members in 24 chapters.
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