Meet Your 2022 NAHJ Chicago Board
| Carly Luque – President Carly first got involved with NAHJ in 2015. During that time, she was instrumental in organizing and executing WBBM-TV’s involvement with the NAHJ Job Fair. During her term as Vice President of NAHJ Chicago, she chaired both the Job Fair and Scholarship Committees. During the 2016-2017 year, the chapter raised enough money to give three students $2,000 journalism scholarships and one student a $500 multimedia scholarship. The following year, the chapter awarded three $2,000 scholarships. As president of the chapter, the scholarship fundraiser has grown each year. Chicago has become a NAHJ model chapter under Carly’s guidance. The chapter partnership with NABJ has executed a successful joint job fair since 2018. She has also met with university students and chapters, encouraging them to apply for scholarships and follow their dreams of becoming journalists. Carly’s focus is to gain more chapter members and continue to organize events to keep Latinos connected with current and future journalists. |
Laura Rodriguez – Vice President Laura served on the Chicago chapter board for several years as a General Member at Large and Social Media Coordinator. Journalism is more than a career for her, “it is a vocation to ensure that Latinos are accurately and genuinely represented in the media.” Laura says she’s a writer at heart but that it’s been a pleasure to also be a part of this organization that allows her to advocate and to change the narrative of journalism in the country by supporting more Latinos to join the industry. She encourages more members to take on leadership roles. As Vice President, her goal is to push for better relationships with other journalists of color, to promote and ensure support for our budding journalists and also encourage seasoned journalists to pursue positions of leadership in their companies. |
Paulina Wysocka – Treasurer Paulina got involved in NAHJ a few years ago and hasn’t looked back since! She says getting more Latinos in news and media is top priority. Being on air and representing Latino culture to the city of Chicago has been such an honor. As treasurer of NAHJ Chicago, her goal is to raise as many funds for our scholarship program as possible. “I strive to create relationships with Latino reporters, producers. small businesses, students and everyone in between,” Paulina says. Building and creating community is what helps us strive as an organization. |
Ismael Perez – Secretary Ismael Pérez is an editorial board member at the Chicago Sun-Times. He is a national award-winning columnist who has written essays about immigration, addiction and being a Latino gay man. Pérez loves talking about movies, tears up during anxiety-filled cooking shows and lives his “Soraya Montenegro” fantasy by watching classic telenovelas. Pérez is a son of Mexican immigrants, grew up along the Texas-Mexico border and his first language was Spanish. He understands the struggles of being a first-generation college student with zero-to-no guidance on how to navigate higher education and the job hunting process.He is passionate about helping the next generation of Latino journalists succeed in the business, and NAHJ Chicago allows him to do just that. Pérez joined the board in 2021 and worked with the other board members to keep the mission alive even when the pandemic made fundraising difficult. He is up for the challenge again this year. |
