Election results: Members elect AAJA-LA board for 2026

Samantha Masunaga is a reporter at the Los Angeles Times who covers the business of the Hollywood movie studios. She also writes The Wide Shot newsletter, which focuses on the entertainment industry. She has worked at the L.A. Times since 2014. Samantha has been involved with AAJA since she won a scholarship from AAJA-LA as a UCLA student. She was part of the AAJA-SF chapter while at grad school at UC Berkeley before rejoining the LA chapter in 2014. She has served on the board since 2017 in a variety of roles, including treasurer, National board advisory representative, advisory board member and president.

Benjamin Pu is a producer at NBC News, where he produces educational video packages, live streams, panels and internal and external conference training for the national news group. He previously worked as a national political reporter for NBC News and in a variety of production roles at MSNBC. He has previously served on the National Governing Board of AAJA and the board of AAJA-NY and has successfully fundraised tens of thousands of dollars throughout his over a decade of involvement with AAJA.

Maneeza Iqbal is the senior analyst for digital content at ABC7 Los Angeles. She has worked more than a decade in online production and audience engagement. Previously, Maneeza worked at the Los Angeles Times and at KCRA and KXTV in Sacramento. She was born and raised in the Midwest and now calls California her home.

Sona Patel is the program director and an investigations editor for the Local Investigations Fellowship at The New York Times. 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 and now oversees a fellowship that aims to develop the next generation of investigative reporters across the country. She teaches part-time at Cal State Long Beach and graduated from UC Irvine.

Hanna Kang is a reporter for the LA Local, where she covers Koreatown, Pico Union, and Westlake. She previously reported on city government for the Orange County Register, also covering the 2024 presidential election. She holds a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Southern California.

Anh Do, Los Angeles Times deputy editor for culture and talent, helps manage the internship and fellowship programs, along with staff training. Before this job, she worked as community engagement editor and as Metro reporter at the paper, focusing on Asian American issues and general assignments for 11 years. Do is part of the Times team that won a Pulitzer Prize for breaking news coverage of the San Bernardino terrorist attacks in 2016, and she has reported for the Seattle Times, the Orange County Register and Nguoi Viet Daily News, the largest Vietnamese publication in the U.S.

Pam Chen is vice president/news director of ABC7/KABC-TV Los Angeles. Pam is the first Asian American to lead a news department at a network-owned local station in LA. She began her career at KABC as a morning producer and has also served as executive producer and assistant news director. Since joining KABC, her leadership and direction have helped lead the newsroom to multiple regional Edward R. Murrow, Emmy, and Golden Mike awards covering some of the biggest news events affecting Southern California. She holds a master’s degree from USC’s Marshall Business School and a bachelor’s degree from UC San Diego. She also serves on the board of LA’s Chinese American Museum.

I’m a multiplatform editing lead (a copy editor who regularly slots) at the L.A. Times, where I have somehow managed to stay employed for 27 years. I have volunteered with AAJA over my career, including serving as a board member with the New England chapter when I was a reporter at the Hartford Courant, and working as a professional staffer with the annual convention’s Voices publication. I worked with the AAJA-LA board to create the Henry Fuhrmann copy editing internship at the L.A. Times, have copy edited and written blurbs for the Trivia Bowl program and other chapter materials, and have helped organize The Times’ Trivia Bowl teams for several years running — including a few that won the coveted Rice Cup.

Karena Phan is an audience engagement editor at The Associated Press. In addition to managing the AP’s homepage and social media accounts, she has developed audience and promotion strategies for the AP’s election coverage and investigations. Previously, she worked as a news verification reporter at the AP, covering online misinformation, producing fact-checks and vetting user-generated videos.

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, teaching video, audio, and digital journalism at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and mentors high school journalism students in the Koreatown Storytelling Program in partnership with The LA Local. Outside of teaching, Mallory is a journalist and senior podcast producer who contributed articles to NBCU Academy, The Spruce, E! News, the New York Daily News, and the Columbia Journalism Review, among many others; and worked on hit podcasts for Spotify and USC Annenberg.