Washington, D.C.- Today NLGJA - The Association of LGBTQ Journalists is excited to announce that NLGJA President Jen Christensen is the recipient of the 2016 CNN Diversity Ovation Award. Christensen is an exemplification of NLGJA's commitment to diversity and mission to ensure more fair and accurate coverage of LGBTQ issues and people, and NLGJA is proud of her accomplishment.
"In her leadership roles, Jen consistently helps newsrooms around the country better understand how they can create more inclusive newsrooms in which people of diverse backgrounds can thrive," said CNN Worldwide President Jeff Zucker. Claudia Morales and Veronic Molina also received Diversity Ovation Awards.
Christensen is a producer and video editor for CNN's health, medical and wellness unit, and is also a writer and producer for CNN.com . She has been a member of NLGJA since 1996 and has served as President since 2013. She helped to launch NLGJA's mentorship program and serves on the board of Unity Journalists of Diversity. She has previously received Peabody and Alfred I. duPont—Columbia University Awards.
"One of the most important jobs we have as journalists is to create opportunities to give a voice to those who may not otherwise have a voice," said Christensen. "Winning this award for recognizing the importance of including those voices in our stories, as well as as an additional recognition of all the important work that NLGJA does to make all newsrooms more inclusive, means the world to me."
In addition to instituting the mentorship program, Christensen has been active in expanding NLGJA's reach throughout the media industry. She has promoted diversity in membership and programming, and oversaw the expansion of NLGJA's Excellence in Journalism Awards program to 30 categories. NLGJA offers awards in a diverse and inclusive assortment of categories including book writing, podcasts, daily and non-daily news and feature writing, multimedia, social media, HIV coverage and local television, among many others.
NLGJA would again like to extend our warmest congratulations to Christensen on her CNN Diversity Ovation Award.
About NLGJA — The Association of LGBTQ Journalists:
NLGJA is an organization of journalists, news executives, media professionals, educators and students working from within the news industry to foster fair and accurate coverage of LGBTQ issues. NLGJA opposes all forms of workplace bias and provides professional development to its members. For more information, visit www.nlgja.org .
