AAJA-LA elections underway for 2027 board

Bio: Maneeza Iqbal is the senior analyst of digital content at ABC7 in Los Angeles. She is dedicated to seeing more journalists of color in newsrooms across the greater L.A. region. Maneeza was first introduced to AAJA while working in Sacramento, where she learned to build community and be in community. She joined the AAJA-LA board in 2023.

Bio: Benjamin Pu is a producer for the NBC News Diversity, Equity and Inclusion team. He produces
educational video packages, live streams, panels and internal and external conference training
for NBCU Academy, NBCU News Group’s journalism and news education platform.

He previously served as a 2020 campaign embed for NBC News and covered various
presidential campaigns. He also covered the Iowa and Nevada caucuses, embedding in those
states during the Democratic primary election.

Ben was previously an associate producer for MSNBC Dayside and also worked on MSNBC’s
Meet the Press Daily with Chuck Todd as a video producer and graphics production assistant.
Ben currently serves on the AAJA-LA Board as the SVP of Events. Ben previously served on
the National Governing Board of the Asian American Journalist Association (AAJA) as well as
on the board of the AAJA New York chapter.

Ben graduated from University of California, Santa Barbara with a B.A. in Global Studies. Samples of his coursework included public speaking, international economics and global supply
chain studies.

Bio: Mallory Carra is an award-winning journalist, editor, producer, and professor based in Los Angeles with over 20 years of professional experience across digital, audio, and print. She is a part-time professor who teaches video, audio, and digital journalism at the USC Annenberg School for Communication, and she has served two terms on the Annenberg Faculty Advisory
Council, which advises Dean Willow Bay.

In addition to serving as a 2026 AAJA-LA general board member and the 2026 Trivia Bowl
volunteer manager, Mallory co-leads AAJA’s Mentor Match program and co-directs the recently
revived Radio and Podcasting Affinity Group.

Throughout her 20+ years with AAJA, she has
co-led the VOICES fellowship program and served as an editor/mentor, graduated from ELP in 2023, and received the Dinah Eng Fellowship grant. Mallory is also an alum of programs at the Poynter Institute and the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education.

Mallory mentors high school journalism students in the LA Local’s Youth Journalism Program. At VidCon 2026, she ran speed-networking sessions for industry professionals at the world’s largest convention for online creators and digital culture. She is a longtime freelance journalist and producer who has contributed work to The Guardian US, NBCU Academy, Spotify Studios, and The Spruce Home.

Mallory produces USC professor Charles Zukoski’s climate change podcast, “Electric Futures,” which was a two-time finalist at the LA Press Club’s Southern California Journalism Awards and is now heading into its fourth season.

Bio: Teresa Watanabe is a veteran journalist, storyteller and AAJA-LA board member. As senior
storytelling officer for the California Community Foundation, she writes about Los Angeles
County’s diverse communities, the myriad challenges they face and the nonprofits working to
make a difference. She previously spent more than three decades at the Los Angeles Times,
where she covered education, immigration, ethnic communities, religion, Japan and Pacific Rim
business. She also worked at the San Jose Mercury News and Los Angeles Herald Examiner. A
longtime AAJA member, Teresa has served as Los Angeles chapter president and in several
vice president roles. She was named AAJA National Member of the Year in 2022.

Bio: Jennifer Leung is a highly driven finance executive with over 25 years of experience leading
financial planning, strategy, capital allocation, and operational excellence, with a specialized
footprint particularly in the entertainment industry. Beyond the corporate ledger, Jennifer is
deeply committed to leveraging her financial acumen for social impact and industry
representation. Jennifer has been a dedicated volunteer with AAJA for the past four years.

Jennifer’s leadership extends widely into the non-profit sector, where she has served as Board
Member and Treasurer for non-profit organizations including schools. Combining strict corporate
governance with a passion for philanthropy, Jennifer has orchestrated extensive fundraising
campaigns, streamlined financial processes and transformed the financial health of the causes
she supported.

Bio: Rubaina Azhar is a senior copy editor at the L.A. Times, where she has worked for the last 28
years. She is a longtime AAJA volunteer, most recently serving as a general board member for the L.A. chapter in 2026. In that capacity, she helped administer the Gregory Yuen Yee Training Grants for early-career journalists, managed the chapter’s website and edited the monthly AAJA-LA newsletter. She worked with the AAJA-LA board to create the Henry Fuhrmann copy
editing internship at the L.A. Times in 2023. Previously, she was a member of AAJA’s New England chapter board, worked as a professional staffer for the annual convention’s Voices publication and took part in AAJA’s 2010 Executive Leadership Program. She is a proud
member (or organizer) of all five of the L.A. Times’ championship teams at AAJA-LA’s Trivia Bowl. A Fullerton resident, Rubaina served as a Girl Scout troop leader for over a decade and continues to volunteer with the Girl Scouts of Orange County. Her husband teaches engineering and coaches cross-country at San Clemente High School and their two children are both UC students, one at Davis and the other at Berkeley.

Bio: Sona Patel is the director and an investigations editor for the Local Investigations Fellowship at
The New York Times, a program aimed at developing the next generation of local accountability reporters. She started her career as a beat reporter for The (San Luis Obispo) Tribune where she covered one of the largest municipal bankruptcies in state history. From there, she pivoted to audience work and was the first Social Media Editor for The Seattle Times where she was part of the team that won the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting in 2010. She joined the Audience team at The New York Times in 2012. She teaches part-time at Cal State Long Beach and graduated from UC Irvine.

Bio: Chase Kang is a Los Angeles-based bilingual journalist covering AAPI communities,
entertainment, and K-pop. Born and raised in Seoul, she reports on how K-pop changes as it moves beyond Korea and who gets to define what the “K” means. Her work has been published in Rolling Stone Korea, Genius, AsAmNews, Korea Times US, and Radio Seoul, and she has appeared on BBC World Service, NBC News, and FOX 11. She is a 2026 Gold House Journalism Accelerator fellow, a recipient of the Gregory Yuen Yee Training Grant from AAJA-LA and the Los Angeles Times, and a panelist at the 2026 AAJA National Convention.