SPJ/LA announces 2026 Distinguished Journalists
Six local journalists and a First Amendment advocate will be declared Distinguished Journalists by the Los Angeles Professional Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists at the 50th annual awards celebration Wednesday, Oct. 7, at the Castaway Hotel in Burbank.
Honorees are Christine Devine, news anchor, FOX 11; Mariel Garza, co-founder and executive editor of Golden State; Mina Kimes, ESPN; Larry Wilson, Southern California News Group; Dr. Paulette Brown-Hinds, founder of Voice Media Ventures and publisher of Black Voice News; and Gary Kohatsu, former editor, Gardena Valley News.
Ann Burroughs, President and CEO of the Japanese American National Museum and its National Center for the Preservation of Democracy, will receive the chapter’s Freedom of Information Award.
The chapter will also recognize the 100th anniversary of La Opinión, the country’s leading Spanish language daily newspaper, as well as two promising journalism students.
Frank Mottek, business news anchor, KABC, will moderate the evening, which brings together Los Angeles area journalists from various media outlets to celebrate journalism and its importance to a free and informed society.
The event is WEDNESDAY, OCT. 7, 2026, at the Castaway Burbank, 1250 E. Harvard Rd., Burbank, 91501. Banquet proceeds benefit chapter programs, including scholarships, journalism education and Freedom of Information issues.
Tickets, sponsorships and program advertising can be purchased through SPJ/LA’s online store.
SPJ is a national, non-profit journalism organization dedicated to promoting Freedom of Information, ethics, scholarship, professional development, etc. The Los Angeles Pro Chapter, established in 1934, is run strictly by volunteers. For more information on SPJ, visit www.spj.org or the L.A. chapter website www.spjla.org (where you can also find a list of past honorees).
Mariel Garza
Mariel Garza is the co-founder and executive editor of Golden State, a non-profit commentary and news analysis publication focusing on California and Los Angeles launched in November 2025.
She has been a reporter, editorial writer and editor for more than 35 years, including stints at the Point Reyes Light, Riverside-Press Enterprise, L.A. Daily News, Southern California News Group, Sacramento Bee and Los Angeles Times. In October 2024, she resigned her position as editorials editor at the L.A. Times after the paper’s owner refused to publish an endorsement of Kamala Harris for president.
Mariel is a graduate of San Francisco State University and lives in Los Angeles. When not reporting, writing, editing or trying to raise money for the new venture, you may find her hiking in the hills and mountains around Southern California with her border collie, Jujube, enjoying the views and picking up trash.
Mina Kimes
Mina Kimes is an NFL Analyst at ESPN, where she is one of the regulars on NFL Live, ESPN's flagship football program, which won Sports Emmys for Best Daily Studio Show in both 2025 and 2026. In addition to her work on NFL Live, Mina also appears on shows such as First Take and SportsCenter, and hosts her own football podcast, The Mina Kimes Show featuring Lenny. Before joining ESPN as a Senior Writer for ESPN the Magazine in 2014, Mina was an award-winning investigative journalist for Fortune Magazine and Bloomberg News.
Larry Wilson
Larry Wilson, deputy opinion editor, Southern California News Group, grew up in Altadena, working on the Eliot Junior High Husky Hi-Lights, and graduated from Blair High School in Pasadena. At UC Berkeley, he was the rock music critic for The Daily Californian from 1974 to 1977; he recently stepped down after six years as chairman of that paper’s board of directors. He was assistant layout editor of the Pasadena Guardian, and founding business manager of the Pasadena Weekly, where he was later a reporter and assistant editor. He became editorial page editor of the Pasadena Star-News in 1987, and from 1994 to 2006 was the Star-News’ editor. He is now on the editorial board of the 11 papers of the Southern California News Group, writing editorials and a twice-weekly column. He lives in Pasadena with his wife Phoebe Wilson, a retired architect.
Paulette Brown-Hinds
Dr. Paulette Brown-Hinds is founder of Voice Media Ventures and publisher of Black Voice News, the second generation to lead the half-century-old Inland Empire outlet. She is transforming BVN from a weekly print paper into a solutions-oriented data journalism and justice-focused news organization, driven by her initiative Mapping Black California, which brings community media, community-based organizations, and educational institutions together around shared data.
A two-time JSK Journalism Fellow at Stanford and former Democracy Policy Fellow at UC Berkeley, she is past president of the California News Publishers Association and currently chair of Rebuild Local News. In 2023 she produced California’s first philanthropy summit dedicated to local journalism and published a companion guidebook for funding it.
Since 2000 she has led Footsteps to Freedom, cultural tours retracing the steps of freedom seekers on the Underground Railroad. Her honors include the California Press Foundation’s Justus F. Craemer Newspaper Executive of the Year.
Christine Devine
Christine Devine, who anchors the 5 and 10 p.m. weeknight news on FOX 11, has 16 Emmys, an honorary doctorate from Cal State LA, and is in the Hall of Fame at her alma mater, Arizona State University.
In 2012, she was named in Los Angeles Magazine among the "50 Women Changing LA" for her Wednesday’s Child segment on foster care and adoption and was honored in Washington, DC by Congress as an "Angel in Adoption."
Devine has received the Governors Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS), Lifetime Achievement award from the Radio & Television News Association (RTNA), and the L.A. Press Club’s President’s Award for Impact on Media.
On a national level, Christine has two Gracie Awards from AWRT-American Women in Radio and Television, the Anna Quindlen Award for Philanthropy Journalism from the Society of Professional Journalists and has been honored by the Child Welfare League of America. She is on the board of trustees at ASU, was inducted into the Hall of Fame at the Walter Cronkite School of Broadcast Journalism and has funded a student scholarship.
Gary Kohatsu
Gary Kohatsu pursued journalism later than most, returning to California State University, Long Beach, at age 27. In 1989, he was hired by a community newspaper, the Gardena Valley News, as a photographer/sportswriter and in 1991, he became the paper’s editor.
In his 35 years at the GVN he established an internship program with El Camino College near Torrance, which led to his being hired as an adjunct photojournalism instructor with the college from 2007 until he retired in 2019.
Kohatsu, who lives in Gardena, is currently working part-time at the GVN and the Culver City News, a sister weekly. He is also the full-time caregiver for his mother, who will be 103 in October.
Ann Burroughs, FIO award
Ann Burroughs is President and CEO of the Japanese American National Museum and its National Center for the Preservation of Democracy. An internationally recognized human rights and social justice leader, she serves as Chair of the International Board of Directors of Amnesty International and previously chaired Amnesty International’s Global Assembly. She also serves on the board of the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation.
Her lifelong commitment to racial and social justice was shaped by her experience as a young activist in her native South Africa, where she was imprisoned for opposing apartheid. For more than 25 years, she has worked with leaders, organizations, and networks in the United States and abroad to advance racial justice and human rights. Her previous roles include Executive Director of the Taproot Foundation and LA Works, as well as consulting for philanthropic organizations including the Omidyar Network and the Rockefeller Foundation.
Student winners: Blake Fagan and Nikki Yunker
Blake Fagan is a student photojournalist based in Southern California, and his work has mainly centered around civil unrest, documenting immigration enforcement operations and protests in Los Angeles and Minneapolis. Fagan has an interest in covering not only breaking news but also documenting the growing divide in the United States on both sides of the aisle.
Fagan is drawn to where emotions reach their critical point and likes to get close and shoot wide. He has practiced photography for four years and started taking photojournalism seriously in 2025 when he had the chance to cover the Los Angeles wildfires. From that point on, he has focused intensively on honing his photographic eye.
Nikki Yunker is a Los Angeles-based multimedia journalist dedicated to bold storytelling and covering underreported topics. Yunker previously served as editor-in-chief of Warrior Life and The Union, El Camino College’s student-run magazine and newspaper. At Warrior Life, her exclusive Q&A with alumna and former journalist Lauren Sanchez Bezos was a first for the publication.
Yunker is experienced in news and feature writing, editing, photography, videography, design and illustration. She received a 2026 A-Mark Foundation Student Journalism Award scholarship and is part of the California Press Foundation’s 2026 intern cohort, where she reported for the Easy Reader News in Hermosa Beach.