New Voices: J-Lab Staff

J-Lab Staff

Photo of Jan Schaffer Jan Schaffer, former Business Editor and a Pulitzer Prize winner for The Philadelphia Inquirer, is executive director of J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism (www.J-Lab.org) and one of the nation’s leading thinkers in the journalism reform movement. More…

E-mail: jans AT j-lab DOT org

“Can you create opportunities for citizens to get informed and inform others about micro-news that falls under the radar of traditional news organizations? Can you seed participation in community issues? Can you create a sense of news entrepreneurship? Can you train a new, more diverse generation of journalists in new ways of doing news?“—Jan Schaffer

Andrew Pergam, a recovering broadcast journalist and managing editor, is the Editorial Director of J-Lab. In this role, he works with J-Lab grantees and oversees the creation of new learning tools for professional and citizen journalists. Most recently, he led the strategic growth and editorial operations of NBCConnecticut.com. Before that, he spent years as an intrepid television reporter, whose subjects ranged from high-profile federal corruption trials to tic-tac-toe-playing chickens. Andy earned a master’s degree from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism and serves on the school’s alumni board. As an undergrad, he studied writing and political science at Johns Hopkins University. When not focusing on innovations in journalism, he works on his gourmet cooking skills. In accepting the J-Lab position, he officially abandoned his hopes of making it on the professional tennis circuit. Andy and his wife Jen are natives of the D.C. suburbs.

E-mail: andrew AT j-lab DOT org

Photo of Anna Tauzin Anna Tauzin is J-Lab’s Web and Social Media Editor. She is responsible for managing the center’s five Web sites, producing video and audio content for distribution and designing in Flash and for print publications. She has a passion for social media as well as First Amendment law and media ethics. Anna is concerned over the lack of independent investigative news organizations around the country but especially in smaller communities. She holds an MA in Journalism from American University and a BA in Mass Communication from Texas State University. Anna is unapologetically Texan and loves music and collections of short stories.

E-mail: anna AT j-lab DOT org