V.V. Ganeshananthan, known as Sugi, a writer and author, was elected vice president. Ganeshananthan (pronounced "SOO-ghee [not SOO-jee] gun-ay-SHAN-an-than"), the first Sri Lankan-American member of the SAJA Board, is a journalist and fiction writer. She grew up in Bethesda, Maryland. She is a 2002 graduate of Harvard College, where she was the managing editor of The Crimson.
SANDEEP JUNNARKAR is an associate professor at the new CUNY Graduate School of Journalism (The City University of New York) and the editorial director of Lives in Focus, a Web site that uses video, audio and photographs to present the voices of those who are rarely given space or time in traditional news media.
The annual SAJA contest has 12 categories including print, broadcast, new media, photography, commentary & student work - Including the SAJA Daniel Pearl Award for Outstanding Print Reporting on South Asia + a new one-time category: Outstanding coverage of the political turmoil in Pakistan in 2007.