The APSE Foundation Board is welcoming two new members.
Gary Estwick and Erik Hall have been voted onto the board by unanimous votes. Both already have indicated an interest in web-based projects that will help the APSE Foundation.
Estwick and Hall are replacing Graham Watson-Ringo and Larry Graham, who resigned their board positions recently to focus on other projects. The board thanks Watson-Ringo and Graham for their efforts to the APSE Foundation.
In welcoming Estwick and Hall to the board, we wanted friends and supporters of the APSE Foundation to know more about them. Here, in their words, is a bit more about them.
GARY ESTWICK
Current job: Editor, Breaking News and Race & Culture at The Tennessean
Why did you want to get involved with the APSE Foundation board? Twenty-plus years into my professional career, I wanted to find a more formal platform to support sports journalists. After all, it doesn’t seem like it was that long ago that I entered quite a few newsrooms and press boxes, unsure how to handle myself.
I had help navigating these spaces. Now, it’s my turn.
Why is diversity in sports journalism important to you? I want to create the best newsroom, gather a variety of voices, from various backgrounds, experiences, skill sets. This ecosystem creates the best ideas, best buy-ins from reporters and the best product for readers.
You have decided to help sports journalists from under-represented groups by getting involved in the APSE Foundation. Were there people along the w0ay who have been helpful for you in getting to where you are?
Back in 1998, I met Justice Hill [former sports editor in Fort Wayne, Ind., and Pittsburgh; and former assistant sports editor in Seattle] crossing the street at the NABJ Convention in Washington, D.C. Twenty-five years later, we still talk daily. Jokingly, he tells me his life would be simpler had he crossed the street faster. But in all seriousness, Justice and other giants of our industry showed me what coaching and caring looks like.
Justice, along with Leon Carter, Sandy Rosenbush, David Squires, Greg Lee, Milo Bryant, Michael Anastasi, Jorge Rojas, Odette Alcazaren-Keeley, Kathy Times and many others, in different ways, showed me how successful first-generation journalists can be with the right support. And now, I’m doing the same for the next generation.
What would you like people to know about the APSE Foundation and/or the APSE Diversity Fellowship?
Don’t think of the fellowship as a one-time, one-year opportunity. It’s an invitation into a brotherhood/sisterhood of sports journalists; relationships that will grow for decades. Put your all into getting to know your mentors, teachers, peers. These relationships will bear fruit.
ERIK HALL
Current job: Digital sports editor at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Why did you want to get involved with the APSE Foundation board?
I know the importance of APSE and the APSE Diversity Fellowship. Networking and education are some of the most valuable aspects of APSE, and I hope to be part of the foundation’s work to bring more diversity to those aspects of APSE. I also want to do my part to help the APSE Diversity Fellowship continue to succeed and do more to incorporate the LGBTQ community.
Why is diversity in sports journalism important to you?
I’ve learned in life, and in journalism, that there is no objective truth. A variety of perspectives are necessary to get the full perspective for any story. In sports journalism, diverse staffing helps obtain the full perspective of society and thus provides the best journalism.
Are there people along your way who have been helpful for you in getting to where you are?
One of the people that comes to mind is Penny Weaver. She was an out lesbian news editor at the Charleston (Illinois) Times-Courier when I worked there for a year as a night copy editor/page designer. I was not out as gay at the time, and her being out helped me feel that I could be out and successful in journalism.
What would you like people to know about the APSE Foundation and/or the APSE Diversity Fellowship?
One of the most valuable aspects of the APSE Diversity Fellowship that I found as a fellow was the community that I created with the other members of my class. Seven years later, I still regularly talk to the majority of my class. They have been valuable sounding boards on many topics as I’ve progressed in my career.