Board of Directors
Chris Whitley
President, Tarrant County College
Chris Whitley, President, Tarrant County College
Chris Whitley is the director of student publications at Tarrant County College, a community college district in Fort Worth, Texas. He started at TCC in 2008 as an instructor/adviser of TCC’s award-winning newspaper, The Collegian, before becoming director in 2017. Before then, he was the adviser of The Shorthorn at the University of Texas at Arlington. He was a longtime contributing writer to The Dallas Morning News and has worked for WNBC in New York as well as newspapers in Texas and Ohio. He’s been a CMA member since 2001 and served as the director for the 2017 National College Media Convention in Dallas. Whitley was born in Dallas and still lives there with his wife, Melissa Dease. His election to the CMA board is his greatest honor, except for that time he was a pie judge at the State Fair of Texas.
Jackie Alexander
President-Elect, University of Alabama at Birmingham
Jackie Alexander, President-Elect, University of Alabama at Birmingham
Jackie Alexander serves as the director of Student Media at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Alexander started her journey in college media advising and the College Media Association in 2012 during her role as associate director of student media at Clemson University. She also is a former committee member of the Diversity and Inclusion committee and is co-founder of National Summit of Diversity and Inclusion for College Media. She attended and graduated from the University of South Carolina’s journalism school, where she served as editor-in-chief of the Daily Gamecock. After college, she was a professional newspaper reporter in north central Florida. She is a single parent to Little Boss, who is in training to either rule or destroy the world. In her spare time, Jackie enjoys starting new projects, feverishly writing discussion post questions for her master’s program shortly before 11:59 p.m., and reading copious romance novels.
Hillary Warren
Vice President, Member Support, Otterbein University
Hillary Warren, Vice President, Member Support, Otterbein University
Hillary Warren advises T&C Media and is a professor of communication at Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio. A California native, Warren was a political organizer and campaign finance consultant before becoming a producer/reporter in public and commercial radio. She holds a Ph.D. in journalism (1998) from the University of Texas at Austin and was honored to work for Griff Singer, one of the legends of Texas journalism, and Bradley Wilson, one of her advising idols. While at Texas, she worked in the very first workshops and institutes devoted to data journalism, web-based content delivery and website development. Warren taught journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and Denison University before becoming adviser at Otterbein in 2002. In her time at Otterbein, Warren has transitioned the student staff and curriculum from a weekly paper to a magazine and website. She is most proud of the current collaboration between the web, magazine, radio and video students to move to a common website. Since joining CMA in 2003, she has served as assistant convention director and convention director of the New York convention, chaired the SPLC benefit book auction, created the Iron Reporter competition and collaborated to revise the CMA Bylaws and Code of Ethics.
Fredrick Batiste
Vice President, Member Training, Houston Community College
Fredrick Batiste, Vice President, Member Training, Houston Community College
Fredrick Batiste is a journalism instructor and adviser to The Egalitarian at Houston Community College, a community college district in Houston, Texas. A CMA member since 2008, Batiste worked 13 years advising aspiring journalists after spending six years as a journalist covering schools and sports in South Louisiana. He continues to freelance. Batiste currently sits on the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board’s Journalism Field of Study Advisory Committee. The Committee is charged to identify the block of courses which must be substituted in transfer to a general academic teaching institution for that institution’s lower-division requirements for the Journalism degree program into which the student transfers. Fredrick holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Arts in mass communication from Southern University and A&M College. He is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists.
Sacha DeVroomen Bellman
Treasurer – Miami University
Sacha DeVroomen Bellman, Treasurer – Miami University
Sacha DeVroomen Bellman is the business adviser for Miami Student Media at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio where she also teaches journalism. A native of the Netherlands, Bellman moved to the United States at age 14 and received a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Kentucky. At UK, she was an editor of the yearbook and the managing editor of The Kentucky Kernel. Bellman worked at a number of newspapers in Kentucky and Ohio before her teaching career at Miami. While teaching, Bellman received a master’s degree in technical and scientific communication and also served as adviser to the Miami yearbook and student newspaper. She has won a Pacemaker both as a student at UK and as adviser at Miami. Besides serving as newsletter editor and committee member for CMA throughout the years, Bellman is also active in SPJ, where she served as chapter president in Cincinnati twice. Bellman lives in Cincinnati with her husband and two sons.
Joe Gisondi
Secretary – Eastern Illinois University
Joe Gisondi, Secretary Eastern Illinois University
Joe Gisondi is the director of student publications at Eastern Illinois University, where he has also served as a professor of journalism for 21 years. Gisondi previously advised and taught at Valencia College for six years, advising students at both schools who have won national and state awards.
Joe is also the author of “The Field Guide To Covering Sports,” which is used in sports journalism classes across the country. He worked as a sports journalist in Florida for more than 20 years and is currently publisher/editor for ColesCountySports.com, the leading source for sports information in east central Illinois.
Joe is also a staunch believer in the DH, the 3-point shot, and the pitch clock – and thinks no sport is better to watch in person than professional hockey. He’s a pickleball fanatic, always willing for a last-minute game. So bring your paddles.
Contact the Board
President Chris Whitley: General inquiries and conventions
Email: CHRISTOPHER.WHITLEY@tccd.edu | Elected term for President-elect runs October 2019 – October 2021. Whitley stepped in as President in December 2020 to fill Griffin’s vacancy. President term runs October 2021-2023.
President-Elect Jackie Alexander: Strategic partnerships, diversity and inclusion, advocacy.
Email: jackieatcma@gmail.com | Term runs October 2021 – October 2023.
VP of Member Support Hillary Warren: Awards, contests, Hall of Fame, membership.
Email: hillaryawarren@gmail.com | Term runs October 2021 – October 2023.
VP of Member Training Fred Batiste: Certifications, confabs, education.
Email: fredrickjbatiste@gmail.com | Term runs October 2021 – October 2023.
Treasurer Sacha DeVroomen Bellman: Finance and fundraising.
Email: bellmasd@miamioh.edu | Appointed September 2022. First term runs October 2022-October 2024.
Secretary Joe Gisondi: Bylaws, College Media Review, communications and elections.
Email: jjgisondi@eiu.edu | Appointed September 2022. First term runs October 2022-October 2024.
Staff
James Brannigan
James graduated with a bachelor’s degree in communications from Iona College and is currently pursuing his MBA at CUNY Baruch College. During his time at Iona, he wrote for an electronic music publication, garnering more than 300 bylines and covered dozens of music festivals and concerts across New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
He joined Kellen in 2015 and currently serves as the executive director for the American Society of Journalists and Authors, the Home Fashion Products Association and the New York Society of Association Executives. James was born and raised in Long Island and currently resides in Manhattan’s Upper West Side.
Brittany Marinovich
Brittany is CMA’s meeting manager with over 10 years of experience leading event strategy and execution, corporate partnerships, and marketing & communications initiatives. She manages a number of associations with meetings ranging from hundreds of attendees to thousands both national and international.
Previously she was a corporate event planner for a women’s professional development company aiming to promote women in business. She led the logistical planning and execution of dozens events annually in Atlanta and Chicago, ranging from private events, workshops, and annual conferences. She also briefly trotted the global as a Delta flight attendant after graduating college.
Brittany graduated magna cum laude from Kennesaw State University with a Bachelor’s degree in Communications and a minor in Marketing. She was a member of Phi Mu Fraternity where she held a number of leadership roles.