colorado Press Association Convention
Speaker BIOs
Convention Presenters
Meet the Experts
The 2020 annual CPA Convention will be held in Glenwood Springs from April 30, 2020 – May 2, 2020. Get to know the presenters.
Jessica Mahone
Jessica Mahone is a researcher in the DeWitt Wallace Center for Media and Democracy at Duke University. An expert on local journalism, she is the co-author of "Who Produces Local Journalism," which analyzes the output of four local news outlet types in 100 communities. She has also written about local news and civic engagement, who is interviewed by local journalists and the local media infrastructure of all 50 states. Mahone received her Ph.D. in political communication from the University of Florida, M.A. degrees in communication and sociology from East Tennessee State University, and a B.A. in religion from King College.
Lisa Schlichtman
Lisa Schlichtman, a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, is a professional journalist with over 25 years of experience as a reporter, editor and publisher. She and her husband, Mike, owned weekly newspapers in Southwest Missouri from 1995 to 2005. The couple sold the newspapers to Rust Communications, and Schlichtman continued her career with the newspaper company, serving as editor and co-publisher of the Monett Times and the Cassville Democrat and editor of a monthly regional lifestyles magazine and a quarterly outdoor magazine. Since July 2013, Schlichtman has served as editor of the Steamboat Pilot & Today.
Les Zaitz
Two-time Pulitzer finalist Les Zaitz is editor and publisher of the Malheur Enterprise, a weekly news operation based in Vale, Oregon. He also is founder and editor of the Salem Reporter, an all-digital news service in Oregon's capital city. He has been an Oregon journalist for 45 years, working as a senior investigative reporter and editor in his 26 years at The Oregonian in Portland. He took over the Enterprise after retiring from daily in 2016 and since then it has won state, regional and national journalism awards and has had partnerships with Pro Publica and Report for America.
Robert Slocum
Robert Slocum is an owner/publisher of the weekly Timber Lake Topic in South Dakota. A journalist for 17 years, Slocum bought his first paper in 2011. He is third vice president of the South Dakota Newspaper Association board of directors.
Peter W. Wagner
Peter W. Wagner is said to be one of the publishing industry's leading "idea men" and one of the nation's most honored community newspaper publishers. He founded his first paper right out of college in 1962 and established his nationally recognized N'West Iowa REVIEW in 1972. The REVIEW is Iowa's largest circulation weekly newspaper. His publication company has grown to 17 newspapers, shoppers, specialty tabloids and magazines which have won over 400 local and national awards.
Heidi Legg
American, Canadian writer and journalist Heidi Legg is Director of Special Projects at the Harvard Kennedy School's Shorenstein Center where she publishes landscape papers on the state of media from The Fight Against Disinformation to Emerging News Models in Local News to Digital Magazines and Brand Affinity. Founder of TheEditorial.com where she wrote about emerging ideas, her work has been published in the Atlantic, the Boston Globe, on CNN, WGBH, Cognoscenti, the Globe and Mail and the Ottawa Citizen. A graduate of Concordia Journalism in Montreal with years in tech and journalism, her hybrid career finally makes sense.
David Chavern
David Chavern is president and CEO of News Media Alliance, the news industry's largest trade organization. In addition to developing an entirely new brand and identity for the organization, Chavern has been intensely focused on telling the powerful - and optimistic - story of the news industry and offering members new products that help them run their businesses better every day.
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