AAJA Announces 2019 Award Winners

The 2019 AAJA National Journalism, Membership and Special Awards were announced on Saturday, August 3 at the 30th Annual Gala Scholarship & Awards Banquet during this year’s national convention in Atlanta. Congratulations to this year’s winners!

NATIONAL JOURNALISM AWARDS

MEMBERSHIP AWARDS

2019 LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

Sharon Chan, Vice President of Philanthropy, The New York Times

This award honors an Asian American or Pacific Islander who has demonstrated courage and commitment to the principles of journalism over the course of a life’s work.

Sharon Pian Chan is Vice President of Philanthopy at the New York Times. Previously, she was the Vice Present of Innovation, Product & Development at The Seattle Times. She previously worked as a deputy managing editor, opinion editor and a digital producer. She spent most of her journalism career as a reporter, covering beats ranging from City Hall to Microsoft and interviewing everyone from Christina Aguilera to Steve Ballmer.

Chan is passionate about diversity in journalism and amplifying underrepresented voices and stories in the news. She has served as national president of the Asian American Journalists Association, as vice president for UNITY: Journalists for Diversity and Seattle chapter president for AAJA.

She received her B.A. from Pomona College and her Executive M.B.A. from MIT in 2017. She lives in Seattle’s Eastlake neighborhood with her husband Danny O’Neil, a radio host at 710 ESPN Seattle, and a wrinkly dog.

2018 LEADERSHIP IN DIVERSITY

NBC Asian America

This award honors an individual or corporation that has made strides in promoting and demonstrating diversity in the news media industry. The Leadership in Diversity Award winner is selected by the AAJA National Board.

NBC News Digital’s diversity verticals came into existence following the newsroom’s recognition that coverage of diverse communities deserves an elevated and deeper look at the stories that matter. NBC Asian America, NBC BLK, NBC Latino and NBC Out all cover their respective communities with original reporting, comprehensive analysis, and a diverse set of editors, reporters and contributors. 

Since its creation in 2014, NBC Asian America is the country’s largest English-language national news resource dedicated to covering Asian American and Pacific Islander news, features, perspectives and more. With the launch of “NBC Asian America Presents…” in 2016, NBC Asian America has grown into a robust multimedia platform for the AAPI community by the AAPI community. Most recently, they launched a special series for Asian Pacific American Heritage Month – #WriteOurStories, celebrating and highlighting Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders’ contributions to American history.

Too often, history books had left out this community’s stories and contributions. NBC Asian America aims to collect and record those histories to highlight the ways Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders helped build and shape this country. 

Recent stories included a four-part series on the Chinese transcontinental railroad workers who helped connect the country, a look at Asian American and Pacific Islander trailblazers in professional sports, how surfing evolved from a Polynesian pastime to an international and Olympic sport, how various groups are fighting to change school curricula and the whole of Wikipedia to include more of these stories and much more.

In the past three years, the NBC Asian America team has received more than 25 awards and honors and has become a go-to news source for the AAPI community and beyond.

For questions about the AAJA awards, please contact Daniel Garcia at danielg@aaja.org.