A Letter from 2022-2023 NJ-SPJ President P. Kenneth Burns

I know I did a brief introduction last month when I was named the incoming president of our chapter. Now, I would like to send a more formal note.

You may have seen my name as the co-chair of this year’s Excellence in Journalism Contest. Outside of SPJ-NJ, I cover New Jersey for WHYY in Philadelphia. You may have heard my reports on that station or on WBGO in Newark or WDIY in Allentown, Pa. I make my home in Trenton, Mercer County, with my wife, who I’ve referred publicly to as the Awesome Mrs. Burns.

Before I continue, I would like to thank Bob Schapiro for his leadership and for bringing me on in the last year, first as moderator of our event at Rowan College at Burlington County, The Press, the Police & the Public. I’m grateful that he will remain on the board as immediate past president.

To say that I am ready to work leading this great chapter is a vast understatement.

I want to take this opportunity to update you on a couple of things.

• We’ve received 168 entries for our 2022 Excellence in Journalism Awards contest. Those entries are currently being judged by a chapter out of the region. We will announce the finalists soon. That leads to my next update…

• I would like to see who is interested in helping plan our awards ceremony where we will hand out the awards! If you are interested, please feel free to contact me directly.

Overall, my goal is to engage journalists throughout our great Garden State who are doing great work every day. Despite challenges that seem to get tougher each year, circumstances have proven how needed we are to our communities.

If you have any questions, concerns, suggestions, things that we should know about, please send an email to kenneth.burns@outlook.com.

Thank you for your trust in leading our chapter for the next year. I look forward to hearing from and meeting each one of you…even in-person should circumstances allow.

Regards,

P. Kenneth Burns