Meet the 2024-2026 CJA officers, who are leading one of Chicago’s oldest organizations of journalists.

Stephanie Choporis, President

Stephanie Choporis is a multimedia journalist who has been telling stories across the Chicago area for a decade.

In 2014, she joined the Chicago Journalists Association as the inaugural Associate Board Chairman, a committee specifically geared for college students and recent graduates. During her four years in this role, she grew the board to roughly 15 directors, organized journalism events/workshops and regularly contributed articles for CJA’s website. She also launched the organization’s Facebook and Twitter pages and organically grew them to several hundred followers. In 2018, she was promoted to Vice President/Secretary.

Aside from CJA, she served as the co-founder and managing editor of Happenstance, a mobile app that aimed to share little-known mini-podcasts about the people and places in the city, from 2015-2020. While there, she oversaw the production of 80 mini-podcasts and handled all company communication. Happenstance was named one of four Tech + Apps finalists at the RedEye’s 2017 Big Idea Awards and voted a top exhibiting startup at Chicago’s 2018 FUND Conference.

Choporis holds a B.A. in Journalism and Communication & Media Studies from DePaul University (’12) and an M.S.J. from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University (’15). She is currently the content writer for Envision Unlimited, a full spectrum of care organization that helps people with disabilities live their best lives. More on her here.

Executive Board of Directors

Jean Hodges

Jean Hodges is the director of communications for the American Library Association. She also coaches newsrooms on content and business strategy with the Medill Local News Accelerator at Northwestern University. She previously worked as senior director of news culture and communications at Gannett, owner of USA Today and hundreds of local news organizations. Hodges has dedicated her career to journalism training, ethics and transforming news organizations into inclusive, welcoming workplaces. She has coached newsrooms for the past 15 years, and she mentors young journalists as part of Report for America. As a news veteran, Hodges led groundbreaking projects that won national acclaim and held the powerful to account. She got her start covering criminal justice in New Mexico, and she has worked in California, England and Texas before moving home to the Chicago suburbs. 

Maia McDonald

Maia McDonald is a Chicago-based freelance journalist currently doing reporting, investigations and visual journalism with the Investigative Project on Race and Equity. She’s reported for several news outlets including Block Club Chicago, Borderless Magazine, The Chicago Reader, City Bureau, In These Times, The TRiiBE and The Guardian, among others. She graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 2018 with a bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism.

Alexandria Jacobson

Alexandria Jacobson is a Chicago-based investigative reporter with Raw Story, where she focuses on covering money in politics, government accountability and electoral politics. She joined Raw Story in 2023 with an extensive track record of social justice, business and tech reporting, which has been published by numerous national and local outlets, including ABC News, the Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Tribune and The Chicago Reporter. 

Jacobson’s investigative work has been recognized with a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award and Peter Lisagor Award, and she’s earned first place prizes from the Chicago Journalists Association, National Federation of Press Women and the Illinois Woman’s Press Association. Her Raw Story exclusive reports about members of Congress violating a federal law designed to stop insider trading, curb financial conflicts of interest and enhance public transparency won first place in the 2023 ION Awards contest. 

She earned her master’s and bachelor’s degrees in journalism from Northwestern University and has taught journalism classes at Northwestern University and DePaul University. She’s also a skilled multimedia journalist, particularly in the realm of news and documentary video reporting and editing.

Asal Rezaei

Asal Rezaei is a multilingual general assignment reporter at CBS News Chicago, primarily covering crime and immigration issues. She is an Iranian immigrant who was born and raised in Germany until she was 6 years old. 

After attending Columbia College Chicago, Rezaei began her career as a morning anchor and reporter in Yuma, Arizona, where she reported on court cases and border issues, including the beginning of the Trump administration’s immigration strategy. She also worked in Milwaukee – covering civil unrest following the death of George Floyd and the shooting of Jacob Blake – Greensboro and Raleigh, North Carolina, where she informed audiences about numerous hurricanes and tornadoes. Most recently, she spent months in Minneapolis, Minnesota covering the Derek Chauvin trial as a national correspondent.

Since she moved back to the Windy City, Rezaei won an Emmy award for her work during the 2022 July 4 parade shooting in Highland Park. She believes journalism is a true public service and takes pride in making a difference through storytelling.

Karen Kring

Karen Kring is an independent photojournalist whose work has appeared in the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times and other local and national publications. She has studied at Northern Illinois University, Columbia College Chicago, Northwestern University and Ohio University. She’s a former president of the Association for Women Journalists-Chicago. By day, she serves as marketing and communications manager for Envision Unlimited, a nonprofit organization helping people with disabilities live their best lives. In her spare time, she interviews news producers about their jobs and views on news to demystify “the media” for the general public. You can check out episodes on her Media Curious channel.

Amaris E. Rodriguez

Amaris E. Rodriguez is a first-generation Mexican-American journalist and writer, hailing from the northwest suburbs of Chicago. She is currently a freelance writer for various Chicago and suburban publications.

Rodriguez previously worked as the education reporter for Growing Community Media in Oak Park, covering various districts for its four publications. She has also worked for The Waco Tribune-Herald in Waco, Texas, where she was the police and fire reporter, as well as The Northeast Georgian Newspaper, covering Habersham County, Georgia. During her time in Georgia, she advocated for growing coverage of the Hispanic community and covered the county’s first Hispanic Heritage Month Festival. 

Rodriguez is a 2019 graduate of Northeastern Illinois University (NEIU), where she majored in English with a minor in journalism. During her time at NEIU, she wrote for “The Independent” and served as the opinions editor and co-managing editor. In 2019, she was featured on WTTW’s Latino Voices to discuss her article, “Teachers double as tech help for Hispanic families,” which was published by Borderless Magazine.

Maudlyne Ihejirika, President Emeritus

Maudlyne Ihejirika is an award winning, Urban Affairs Reporter/Columnist with 35 years experience in Journalism, Public Relations and Government. She holds a B.A. in Journalism from the University of Iowa (’85) and an M.S.J. from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism (’87). She is currently the Media & Storytelling Program Manager at the Field Foundation and the author of “Escape From Nigeria: A Memoir of Faith, Love and War.”

In nearly 30 years with the Chicago Sun-Times, she served as assistant city editor and covered beats from crime and the inner city to housing and education, politics and philanthropy. She penned the Sun-Times “Chicago Chronicles,” long-form columns on “people and places that make Chicago tick.” As Weekend City Editor in 1997, she left to work for Gov. Jim Edgar as press secretary for the Illinois Department of Children & Family Services until 1999, when she launched the Ihejirika Media & Communications Group, managing media operations for members of the U.S. Congress, Illinois Legislature and City Council.

After returning to the Sun-Times in 2003, her numerous journalism and civic awards include the prestigious Studs Terkel Award, and top national and local awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and National Association of Black Journalists. A frequent guest contributor on PBS-TV’s “Chicago Tonight: Week In Review” and FOX-32’s “Good Day Chicago,” she has appeared as a political analyst on CNN, TV One, ABC, CBS, NPR and WBEZ.

Allen Rafalson, President Emeritus

Rafalson was an award-winning magazine editor and editor-in-chief of a weekly Chicago-area newspaper. He launched his journalism career as a copy boy at the Chicago Sun-Times and Chicago Daily News. He also ran his own public relations consulting firm and penned the fictional novel, “The Santa Claus Trial.”

When Rafalson joined the Chicago Journalists Association, it was known as the Chicago Press Veterans Association. Interested in expanding opportunities to all journalists, he rebranded the group as CJA and served as president for 15 years, the longest term of any president in the organization’s history. He remained a strong supporter of CJA and his successors after retiring from his post in 2018. He died in 2022 at age 92.

Other Past Presidents

Sy Adelman
Edward Bush
John O’Brien
Donald Agrella
Robert Manewith
Ed Baumann
Earl Moses

Honorary Members

Hon. William J. Bauer, Senior Judge,
U.S. Appeals Court-7th Circuit

Lourdes M. Ceballos