Fresh Air Co-Host Tonya Mosley to Speak at SPJ/LA Awards Banquet
The Greater Los Angeles chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists is honored to announce that Tonya Mosley, co-host of NPR’s Fresh Air, will be the 2025 speaker at the 49th annual Distinguished Journalist Awards banquet on Wednesday, Oct. 22 at the Castaway Restaurant in Burbank, Calif.
Mosley is an award-winning journalist who brings curiosity and depth to conversations that illuminate the human experience. She previously co-hosted NPR’s Here & Now, guiding listeners through some of the most consequential events of our time — from special NPR coverage of Donald Trump’s first presidency and the pandemic to the racial reckoning of 2021 and live coverage of the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection as it was happening.
Before her national radio work, Mosley served as a television correspondent for various outlets, including Al Jazeera America, reporting from across the country on stories that blended urgency with humanity. She is also the founder of TMI Productions, which created the award-winning series Truth Be Told and She Has A Name.
In 2015, she was awarded the John S. Knight Fellowship at Stanford University, where she co-created a curriculum for journalists on the implications of implicit bias. Mosely has also received several journalism awards, including two Webby Awards for Best Documentary and Best Advice Podcasts, a 2016 Emmy Award for her PBS series Beyond Ferguson, and an Edward R. Murrow and NABJ Award for the four-part hour-long series Black In Seattle.
Purchase tickets here
Tickets are now on sale for the awards banquet. The event will honor and celebrate the outstanding careers of six local journalists, a non-journalist who has helped further the free flow of information, and two student journalists.
Our honorees are: Joanne Griffith, chief content officer, Marketplace; Mark Acosta, metro editor, The Press-Enterprise and the Southern California News Group; Larry Maestas, managing editor, Southern California News Group; Lolita Lopez, reporter, anchor, NBC4; Teresa Watanabe, former L.A. Times education reporter; Diana Martinez, editor, San Fernando Valley Sun.
The chapter's Freedom of Information award, given to a non-journalist who has helped further the free flow of information and championed freedom of the press, will go to John F. Szabo, City Librarian, Los Angeles Public Library.
The chapter will also recognize two students – one from a two-year college and one from a four-year university – who show promise as emerging journalists. This year’s outstanding students are Delilah Brumer, Pierce College, and Lex Wang, University of California, Los Angeles.
Read the full bios of each honoree by clicking here.
Tickets may be purchased on Eventbrite by clicking here.