We are very pleased to introduce this accomplished group of candidates. These seven design professionals highlight the range of experiences, backgrounds, platforms and geographical locations that comprise the membership of the Society for News Design. All have been supporters and active members of SND throughout their careers. And they have all stepped to the current moment and risen to the challenges the Society now faces.
Over the next few weeks, the SND Leadership Council will meet with the candidates to help answer and share orientation and context on the Society’s current and past efforts. We’ll hold a public Candidate Q&A session where SND members can hear from each candidate and ask them questions about their vision for the future of SND.
We’ll follow that with a formal election. Please recall that this year’s election is unique in that we have five (5) open board positions. The recent member vote on bylaw changes approved the move that will see the Society leadership ladder shift from an officer panel with the associated board of directors, to a more condensed model. The Society is shifting its leadership model to a new format that includes five (5) board members at large, serving 2-year terms each. The new board will elect a presiding officer from their ranks that will serve a 2-year term. For the sake of this first election cycle, two (2) board members will serve 1-year terms; 3 board members will serve 2-year terms. Going forward, every year half of that board of directors would be up for re-election and potential new candidates would be welcomed to apply and run for the board.
LEARN MORE: Read more about the new board structure.
Meet the candidates
Björn Heselius
Björn Heselius is first and foremost a people person – but also principal designer of Nitor Sweden, a Northern European consultancy. Nitor focus on sustainable design, digital development, and agile ways of working. Björn’s responsibilities range from overseeing and building strategic client relations for the consultancy to leading and coaching cross-functional teams of designers and developers on customer premises. He provides a customer-first approach to meet constantly changing user needs and ensures the feasibility of projects, ideas, and innovations.
Ryan Hildebrandt
Ryan Hildebrandt is a Senior Manager of Digital and Print Design at The Design Center for the USA TODAY Network. His team art directs and designs enterprise and special projects across digital and print platforms for USA TODAY and dozens of Gannett newsrooms across the country. An SND member since 2006, Ryan served as site chair for SND’s 2013 Annual Workshop in Louisville, Ky.
Rebecca R. Markovitz
Rebecca R. Markovitz has been a visual journalist for 16 years, working at The Wall Street Journal, Crain’s Cleveland Business, GateHouse Media and, most recently, Gannett’s Design Center. In her current role as a director of small/midsize markets, she manages a staff of eight teams, approx. 85 employees and oversees the daily print design of approx. 150 news sites, while also focusing on engagement and development initiatives. She has won dozens of industry awards for her work and designed a Pulitzer Prize-winning section for the Cincinnati Enquirer. (She also once hired a muralist to paint a cover illustration on a city wall, but that’s a whole other story!) Within SND, Becky is a frequent print competition volunteer and a former news team judge. A graduate of the University of Pittsburgh with a degree in Journalism, she currently lives in Pittsburgh with her cat, Duke, and spends her free time scouring antique stores and flea markets for treasures to add to her many collections and projects.
Tara McCarty
Tara McCarty is a designer at The Washington Post, focusing on A1 design and the presentation of investigation, national and politics stories. Previously, she worked at the Tampa Bay Times in St. Petersburg, Fla., in many roles, first as a post-press staffer at the printing plant in 2008, eventually becoming the director of print design in 2019.
McCarty is also a member of the Poynter Women’s Leadership Academy, October 2020 class, and has previously served as a judge for the James Beard Foundation Media Awards and the American Society of Business Publication Editors Awards of Excellence.
Sean McKeown-Young
In my years as an Art Director, Creative Director, Design Editor and Designer, I’ve been lucky enough to have a diverse career and work with a great number of U.S. publications and global news media professionals. I’ve won multiple AP Awards (New York and Pennsylvania,) Ohio SPJ Awards, Ohio Excellence in Journalism Awards, Michigan Press Association Awards, Wisconsin Newspaper Association Awards, Best of Gannett Awards and an SND placement (that I am most proud of.)
Currently, I’m an Art Director with Advance Local. The position has let me really expand my skills as an Illustrator, Interactive and print graphics designer and visual researcher. I get to work with people that I greatly admire and it has been incredibly exciting to be accepted in this world of important ideas and stories. Great journalism and truth-telling is globally critical now more than ever. I am deeply proud to be part of the community fighting to deliver on this need.
Douglas Okasaki
Douglas Okasaki was born in São Paulo, Brazil. He started working with editorial design early. In Brazil, he worked in the country’s biggest publications such as Folha de S. Paulo, O Globo, and Editora Abril. He was selected to participate in the Reuters Foundation Scholarship Program in London. Also had opportunities to work in Tokyo and Dubai. Douglas served as the Society’s president in 2017.
TK Sajeev Kumar
I am a visual journalist with 27 years of experience with print and online media. Started my career as Sports Editor in Kerala Kaumudi, a leading regional daily in Kerala, India. But later shifted to the post of Visual Editor. This gave me the opportunity to interact with designers and consultants worldwide. That is when I thought about creating a platform where designers of the Asian region can interact. In view of it I started a website www.newspaperdesign.in in 2009. It is a non-profit website with a view to spread the importance of design in print media. It is Asia’s first news design website. I have conducted four international newspaper design competitions without any entry fee. I was lucky to get designers of international acclaim as consultants and judges of those competitions. Main purpose of the competition is to recognize the talent of news designers. In the last competition (2020) I had 633 entries from 55 newspapers from all around the world. My website’s forthcoming international news design competition is based on the Tokyo Olympics.