BOARD

SPJ Colorado Pro Leadership

SPJ Colorado Pro officers and board members work on behalf of the chapter’s approximately 75 members to improve and protect journalism in Colorado. They plan events, write advocacy letters, coordinate award programs, work with colleges and universities and much more. 

 

Officers

President Kristina pritchett (Term Ends 2024)

Kristina Pritchett is the marketing & events specialist for the Colorado Sun. She previously was a marketing communications specialist for a nonprofit and a reporter for the Boulder Daily Camera and the Colorado Hometown Weekly.

 

Before moving to Colorado in 2017, she worked as a city editor for a weekly publication in California, and a reporter and copy editor for a daily newspaper in New Jersey.

 

She graduated from Rowan University with a degree in Journalism, concentrating on online and print journalism.

 

While in school, she served on the university newspaper for four years, and was editor-in-chief for two of those years.

 

She is in charge of communications for SPJ Colorado Pro.

Secretary Ali Watkins (Term Ends 2023)

Ali C. M. Watkins is a multimedia journalist and artist based in Denver.

 

She graduated from Metropolitan State University of Denver with a degree in Social Documentary and a minor in Fine Art Photography. 

 

When she’s not reporting, she enjoys writing music and spending time with her cats.

 

She has been secretary for SPJ Colorado Pro chapter since February 2019.

 

treasurer Dennis Huspeni (Term Ends 2024)

 Dennis Huspeni brings more than 30 years of journalism experience to the Colorado Pro Chapter board, most from newspapers like the Denver Post, Colorado Springs Gazette, Denver Business Journal and now Denver Gazette, where he covers business.

 

He also has public relations, and media relations experience from Fidelity Investments.

 

Huspeni is the former president of the Colorado Pro Chapter, from 2012-14, and a Denver Press Club member. A Colorado native, Huspeni currently resides in Parker with his wife, Clare, and sheltie Finlay. 

Board Members

Deb Hurley Brobst (Term Ends 2024)

Deb Hurley Brobst is an editor and reporter for Colorado Community
Media, specifically working for the Canyon Courier and Clear Creek Courant.

Before coming to to the newspapers, she spent two decades as a
journalism professor at Metro State University of Denver, and prior to
that, she worked at newspapers in Wisconsin.

She has been an SPJ member for 40 years and has served in different capacities on the Colorado Pro board over the last 30 years. She also served on the SPJ national board from 1991 to 1996 and from 2004 to 2008.

Currently, she’s the coordinator for the Top of the Rockies Excellence in Journalism contest and is SPJ Colorado Pro’s elections chair.

 

Fred Brown (Term Ends 2023)

Fred Brown joined SDX (as it was then called) in 1965, just two years after he began working at The Denver Post. He retired from The Post in 2002, after serving in multiple roles, including political editor, editorial writer, columnist and statehouse bureau chief.

Thirty years ago, he was president of the Colorado Pro chapter.

He also has been SPJ’s Region 9 director, as well as a longtime member and occasional chair of the SPJ national ethics committee, national SPJ president and winner of the Wells Key.

He now is or has been on the boards of Colorado Public Radio, Denver Press Club, Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition and the Sigma Delta Chi Foundation.

He is passionate about responsible journalism. He teaches media ethics at the University of Denver, consults on the same topic and has completed work on a new edition of the SPJ Ethics Handbook.  

Cara DeGette (Term Ends 2023)

Cara DeGette, a former president of SPJ Colorado Pro, is editor of the Greater Park Hill News, a monthly community newspaper in Denver. She has been an affiliate faculty member in the journalism department of Metropolitan State University of Denver since 2009.

DeGette was a founder and editor of Colorado Public News, housed at PBS member station Colorado Public Television. She also was co-founder and executive editor of the Colorado Springs Independent.

DeGette was an Annenberg National Health Journalism Fellow, and she has won awards from the Education Writers Association, Association of Alternative Newsweeklies and SPJ. She also served as a board member of the Denver Press Club. 

Katie langford (Term Ends 2024)

Katie is the assistant editor at the Broomfield Leader, an online news outlet covering the city and county of Broomfield. 
She has worked in Colorado journalism since 2015, mainly reporting on K-12 and higher education at the Boulder Daily Camera, Grand Junction Daily Sentinel and Montrose Daily Press. 

She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Northern Colorado.
When not digging for scoops, you can find Katie on outdoor adventures with her dog, Cooper, trying new recipes in the kitchen, curled up with a book or planning her next trip. 

Katie is in charge of programming for SPJ Colorado Pro. 

Beth Potter (Term Ends 2023)

Beth Potter is the United States manager for the Journalism Trust Initiative, a nonprofit group affiliated with Reporters Without Borders (Reporters Sans Frontieres) in France. The Journalism Trust Initiative is collaborating with the Colorado Media Project in Colorado to help local journalists.

She has a doctorate in media research and practice from the University of Colorado Boulder and worked for more than 25 years as a newspaper editor and reporter both domestically (mostly in Colorado) and overseas.

Potter worked for about 10 years outside of the United States in the Czech Republic, Iraq and Kenya, among other places. While working overseeas, she held jobs at the Agence France Presse wire service in Iraq and at Reuters news agency in Kosovo, which is part of the former Yugoslavia.

Potter previously was the editor and publisher at Landmark Newspapers (Brighton, Fort Lupton and Commerce City); and a business reporter at the Denver Post. Before that, she was an editor or reporter at other newspapers in Colorado, including the Boulder County Business Report and the Daily Camera in Boulder, and the Times-Call in Longmont.

She loves to ski, hike and scuba dive in her free time.

Dr. Rhema Zlaten (Term Ends 2024)

Dr. Rhema Zlaten is an assistant professor of Mass Communication at Colorado Mesa University. She worked professionally as a journalist in Loveland, Colo. before transitioning to academia, and she has continued to freelance for Front Range Colorado newspapers.

 

Her research focuses on media ethics and the future of digital journalism.

 

She lives with her husband, three kids, and two dogs in Palisade Colorado, and she enjoys hiking, hummingbird watching, painting, playing music, and sunset chasing. 

 

 

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Immediate Past President Doug Bell 

Doug Bell, who retired from a 40-year newspaper career mostly as an editor at various Colorado papers, is in his 30^th year as a journalism instructor at Metropolitan State University of Denver.

 

Bell recently assumed the presidency of SPJ Colorado, and his longtime focus on outreach to students and journalism schools continues.

 

He also serves on the programming committee at the Denver Press Club and chairs the news literacy committee at the Colorado Press Association.

 

Bell has received SPJ’s First Amendment Award, as well as the Keeper of the Flame honor for career achievement.

 

He has been a guest speaker at high school and college classes, and also serves on the board for student media at MSU Denver.

 

In his spare time, Bell plays tennis and ice hockey. He lives in Denver with his wife, Christa, who works in communications for United Launch Alliance.

Region 9 Director, Past President Ed Otte

Ed Otte retired in August 2010 as executive director of the Colorado Press Association.

Before being named to that position in 1995, he served on the CPA board of directors from 1993-1995. Prior to becoming the CPA executive director, Otte worked at the Greeley Tribune from 1980-1995 as city editor, editorial page editor and editor (1990-1995).

While at the Tribune, he was on the adjunct journalism faculty at Colorado State University in Fort Collins from 1991-1995, and served one year as president of the Colorado Associated Press Editors & Reporters. He also won a number of state and national awards for columns and editorials while at the Tribune.

Otte worked in newsrooms from 1969-1980 at the Alamosa Valley Courier, Colorado Springs Sun, Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, Santa Fe New Mexican and El Paso Times. On Feb. 18, 2011, Otte received the CPA Friend of the First Award “in recognition of his commitment to a free press and the public’s right to know.”

On Aug. 26, 2010, then-Gov. Bill Ritter signed a proclamation declaring the date Ed Otte Day in Colorado, citing his accomplishments in his journalism career. The Colorado High School Press Association gave Otte its Friend of Scholastic Journalism award on Sept. 11, 2004, “in appreciation of his work to improve journalism education.”

 

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Past Presidents

 

[Under Construction]

 

• Doug Bell
• Tony Flesor
• Sandra Fish
• Kara Mason
• Dennis Huspeni
• Ed Otte
• Fred Brown