A Letter to the MIJE Family from Evelyn Hsu

Dear MIJE Family and Friends:

All of us at the Maynard Institute were moved by the wonderful tributes to Dori Maynard on her untimely death last month.

Our task now is to continue her legacy and the work of helping the media better reflect our diverse society.

Our goals remain the same. Our work will continue, as Dori had urged it must. Now, we are fashioning new strategic directions.

Whenever I’ve faced a big task at the institute, I think about our founders, a wondrous group of journalists who were far ahead of the time.

These nine journalists were black, white, and Hispanic. They included Bob Maynard, for whom this organization is now named, his wife, Nancy Hicks Maynard, Dorothy Gilliam, Frank Sotomayor, Steve Montiel, and Leroy Aarons, who would later found the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association. Our board chair, Mark Trahant, is Native American. I’m proud to be the institute’s first Asian American executive.

Our founders saw needs and built solutions, at times serving themselves as teachers in training programs for journalists of color. Their ideas were widely copied by academia and by the industry.

This is now another time that requires creative solutions. We have the opportunity to teach and train through a variety of methods and mediums. We can train cross-generationally, not just from older to younger. All can be teachers; all are learners.

I’ve had the opportunity to speak with many of you in the weeks since Dori’s death. You’ve asked what you can do to help the institute.

So, I ask this:  Think of the problems. Think of possible solutions. Think of something you could build. Think of experiments the institute could try. What could you teach? What do you want to learn? What can we do so money is not a barrier?

Let me know your thinking. I can be reached best at ehsu@mije.org.

Fondly,
Evelyn