The Asian American Journalists Association’s Asia Chapter (AAJA-Asia) is proud to announce its second joint US-Asia cohort participating in the 26th Executive Leadership Program. This year’s ELP is once again a virtual program spreading over 3 months, from May 7 to July 30.
This leadership program brings together 38 mid- to senior-level journalists across the U.S and Asia to engage in targeted professional development, cross-cultural peer learning and mentorship from top executives in media. Thanks to a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) fellowship supported by the Google News Initiative (GNI), 10 participants from Asia have received a full tuition grant to attend the training.
For more than 20 years, this leadership program has fostered the next generation of journalists who can lead in uncertain times, navigate a quickly changing media landscape in this new poly-cultural and cross-cultural world, and build a sustainable future for journalism.
ELP has trained more than 500 media professionals to date, successfully fostering a pipeline of savvy industry leaders — many at major media companies — and providing graduates with access to a robust, life-long, and supportive alumni network.
Please join us in welcoming our 26th ELP Class and meet our Asia fellows below!
Ana Puod is a multimedia journalist with 25 years of international and national experience producing, reporting, managing, and curating online content, broadcast news programs, documentaries, and live production. She is also a film director and a digital innovator that mentors aspiring journalists focusing on mobile journalism. She is the founder of a digital news startup fully funded by independent journalists and intends to run as a cooperative. She now runs digital new media startup Global Daily Mirror and Nutshell.ph
Andrea Tan is the Asia-Pacific team leader for Daybreak, Bloomberg’s flagship morning news product. She was previously a market structure and regulatory reporter covering the inner workings of exchanges and financial shenanigans such as the 1MDB scandal. Her previous beats included legal, technology and real estate, spanning a career of more than two decades as a journalist
Fasiha binte Mohd Nazren is a senior lifestyle writer at Singapore’s digital news platform Mothership. She has at least 5 years of experience creating digital content from long form features to snappy TikTok videos. Fasiha has interviewed a wide range of individuals, from local and regional artistes to the former Malaysian youth minister. She believes that everybody has an extraordinary story to tell and thinks it’s a privilege to write it for them.
Haruka Nuga is a Senior Producer and Video Journalist at the Associated Press in Tokyo. While working in the video format, Haruka covers the news as a camerawoman. She also leads and organizes the news coverage from Japan for international audiences. Haruka is passionate about visual storytelling and considers herself a multimedia journalist dabbling in photo and text. She started her journalism career in Hong Kong, where she grew up, and holds a bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Psychology from the University of Hong Kong.
Hatty Liu is the managing editor of The World of Chinese, and an award-winning communication studies researcher. Born in China, and raised in China, Canada, and the US, she leverages her multilingual and cross-cultural identity to create more empathetic knowledge production across national boundaries. Prior to joining TWOC, she was the first Vancouver correspondent for China Daily (North America), where she wrote features on Chinese-Canadian veterans and the gentrification of Chinatown. Her research on international newsroom culture and rhetorical analysis has been presented at international conferences, winning a top paper award from the International Communication Association in 2016.
Ika Krismantari leads editorial and social media teams at The Conversation Indonesia, an online media platforms for academics and researchers to share their knowledge and insight to the general public and a part of a global network. She helps grow The Conversation Indonesia from being a pilot project with only 4 four staff in 2017 to become an established media organisation of 17 staff. She holds a Masters in international relations and journalism from Monash University, Australia. Before joining The Conversation, she works for Indonesia’s biggest English daily, The Jakarta Post.
Jeyup S. Kwaak is a Seoul-based independent journalist covering all things Korea, from Kim Jong Un and Samsung to BTS and hanok. In the last decade he has reported for some of the world’s most-respected media outlets like the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Billboard Magazine, with the goal of unearthing stories that were little told in the mainstream news media.
Based in Tokyo, Kurumi Mori anchors the Bloomberg Quicktake Geo show. As Editorial Lead for Quicktake, she shapes video news coverage across the Asia region. Mori has reported from the frontlines of world events including Davos, G7, G20, and the Fukushima nuclear disaster; most recently helming coverage of the Tokyo and Beijing Olympic Games. She holds a Master’s degree in journalism from Columbia Journalism School
Lou Albano is the lifestyle managing editor of GMA News Online, where she also pioneers the website’s coverage on climate and the environment. Lou graduated from Ateneo de Manila University with a Communications degree and a minor in English Literature.
Jolin Cheng defines herself a dreamer and doer who does more than she dreams. By doing, Jolin has achieved many of her dreams which included being a professional video creator, a drummer, embroidery and jewellery designer, an illustrator, and living in 4 different continents. Being a documentarian for most of her career, Jolin has developed a curious mind for human stories, and most importantly, a craving for truth. She believes video is a powerful tool that can elicit attention to important issues and values, eventually causing changes for the better.
Linda Trianita is a journalist for Tempo magazine, Jakarta, Indonesia, and currently an editor for law and politics desk. Linda’s skills are related to investigative reporting, feature news, and exposing wrongdoings in law enforcement. She is interested in corruption issues, human rights, and want to learn about digital media industry.
Mimi Lau is correspondent at the South China Morning Post. She covers human rights, religion and civil society in China. She spent seven years in southern China as the Post’s Guangzhou Correspondent before returning to Hong Kong in 2017. Today, Mimi continues to pursue stories across the country, monitoring and reporting on key political and civil issues. She has won numerous awards for her work.
Ayu Ritzky was born on 4 March, 1992. She is an Indonesian journalist, researcher, lecturer, and freelance writer who has written essays, research reports, and news reports since 2010. Ayu’s writings can be found at several online medias. She is interested in gender, human rights, political issues, public policy, and communication.
Rubatheesan is a freelance journalist attached to the Sunday Times, Colombo, Sri Lanka since 2014. Over the years, Ruba has reported extensively on post-war humanitarian issues, climate change, environment and Indo- Lanka fishing disputes. For his reporting, he was shortlisted twice (2019, 2020) for ‘Joung Journalist’ award, presented by Thomson Foundation (UK) and Foreign Correspondents Association (FCA-UK). Following his cub reporting phase, Ruba was attached to the Investigative Desk of the newspaper to pursue investigative stories related to corruption, accountability and domestic violence. The Editors Guild of Sri Lanka recognized his work with merit ward- Investigative Journalist of the year- 2019.
Shakil Ahmed is a News Head of Ekattor TV, the leading private TV network of Bangladesh. Prior to his current position, Shakil was with Channel 24 as the Chief News Editor and right before created Jamuna TV as Output Head. Shakil started his broadcast career with ETV which the first terrestrial private network of Bangladesh. He received the first transparency international award as recognition of investigative journalism and was an international visitor leadership fellow at the state department of USA. Shakil has also been nominated as Honorary Ambassador for South Asia of Radio Netherlands and founding member secretary of the Board of Trustee of the Broadcast Journalist Center (BJC).
Siti Afifah Kamarudin has been in the Malaysian field of journalism for nearly a decade. She is currently deputy chief sub-editor at Malaysiakini, the top independent news portal in the country. She has a love for words and a strong sense of responsibility in delivering balanced and fair content that will encourage readers to think and assess on their own. She is interested in psychology, human rights, environmental issues, communication and politics. She likes to doodle on the side.
Tanka Dhakal started journalism back in 2009 as a trainee reporter at a local Radio station in Chitwan, Nepal. Tanka then moved to Kathmandu for his Masters in Rural Development. he also worked as reporter at National level Radio network Ujyaalo, while he was doing his M.A. Since January 2018, Tanka is associated with a multimedia news portal called, deshsanchar.com. He focuses on long form features and investigative stories on refugee (Rohingya), child sexual abuse and psychological impact.
Yunita Ong loves creating and expressing herself, and is motivated to uplift and empower others — two drivers that brought her into the world of journalism. Currently at LinkedIn News, Yunita wears many hats as content curator, audience engagement and analytics specialist, community/ creator cultivator and more. She is motivated to learn more about content and media innovation in her career, blending creativity and strategy in my work. She cares about diversity, personal development and mental health. Her hobbies include weaving and performing improv.
ELP Asia DEI Fellowship
For the second consecutive year, the Google News Initiative (GNI) is supporting AAJA-Asia’s ELP Program with Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) fellowships. Ten participants among this year’s cohort, representing journalists from under-represented communities in news media leadership, received a full tuition grant to attend the program.
About the Google News Initiative: Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. The Google News Initiative is our effort to work with the news industry to help journalism thrive in the digital age. The Google News Lab, an initiative under the GNI, was created to support the distribution and creation of the information that keeps us all informed about what’s happening in our world today – quality journalism. Today’s news organizations and media entrepreneurs are inventing new ways to discover, create and distribute news content – and we’re here to provide tools, data, and programs designed to help. For more information, visit g.co/newsinitiative.
About AAJA-Asia
The Asia chapter of the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA-Asia) represents members across the Asia-Pacific region. It is a diverse, multi-ethnic community of local and international journalists and media professionals committed to supporting a vibrant press in the Asia-Pacific region. We are committed to advancing diversity and inclusion in media organizations, providing training opportunities to members, supporting students interested in journalism and advocating for fair media access. AAJA is a nonprofit educational and professional organization with more than 1,500 members across the U.S. and Asia.