DETROIT, Sept. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- At its September board meeting the
Detroit Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists welcomed four new
members to its board of directors and elected Steve Raphael, a free-lance
health care business writer, as chapter president for the coming year.
    The chapter's board also named as its new officers: Joan Silvi, news
director of WDET 101.9 FM Detroit Public Radio, as 1st vice president; Janet
Mendler of the Michigan Press Association Foundation as 2nd vice president;
Ken Kish, managing editor of the Macomb Daily, as treasurer, and Wensdy White
of Observer & Eccentric newspapers as secretary.  All board officers serve
one-year terms.
    First-time SPJ members elected to the board this year include: Joel Kurth,
a Detroit News reporter; David Sachs, a copy editor with the Detroit Jewish
News; Gloria Olman, a retired Journalism teacher from Sterling Heights and a
long-time SPJ member; Tim Kiska of U-M Dearborn's Journalism staff and a
veteran Detroit newsman.  They join four other board members who were re-
elected to the 13-member board this year, including Kish, retired GM media
director Jack Harned, Mendler and White in helping to lead the Detroit
chapter's programs and activities in the coming year.
    Raphael succeeds Sandra Combs Birdiett of MSU's Journalism staff, who has
served two terms as Detroit Chapter president.
    Detroit/SPJ is one of the oldest chapters of the National SPJ
organization, headquartered in Indianapolis, IN.  The group supports Freedom
of Information activities, helps secure and protect First Amendment rights for
members of the working press, and promotes and provides educational and
scholarship programs for journalists.

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