The National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) Announces 2025 Salute to Excellence Awards Winners

The National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) announced its 2025 Salute to Excellence Awards winners during its annual gala at the #NABJ25 Convention & Career Fair on Saturday in Cleveland.  Congratulations to the winners.

2025 Hall of Fame Inductees

NABJ paid homage to the following legendary Black journalists and communicators who have made outstanding contributions to the news and media industries:

• Callie Crossley, hosts the radio show and podcast “Under the Radar with Callie Crossley” and co-hosts the radio show and podcast “The Culture Show” for public media radio and TV station GBH Boston. Her numerous honors include a National Emmy, the prestigious Gold Baton DuPont Columbia, and an Oscar nomination as Producer/Director/Writer for the” Bridge to Freedom” hour in the documentary series, “Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years.”
• Pam Moore, anchored KRON4 evening newscasts until her retirement in December 2023 after 32 years. Moore’s work on KRON4’s series “About Race” garnered the  prestigious George Foster Peabody Award, the Pew Center Batten Prize for Civic Journalism and more. She was nominated for an Emmy for the special ‘Selma to Ferguson” and has been inducted into the NorCal National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Silver Circle.
• Gregory L. Moore, served as editor of The Denver Post for 14 years, during which the newspaper won four consecutive Pulitzer Prizes, including for coverage of the Aurora Theater shooting in 2012. Over his 40-year career, he has been a recipient of NABJ’s Lifetime Achievement Award, the Benjamin C. Bradlee Editor of the Year Award from the National Press Foundation, and more.
• Leon H. Carter, a prominent figure in sports journalism, is known for his commitment to diversity and mentorship. In 1999, Carter was named the first African American sports editor at the New York Daily News. In 2010, he joined ESPN as a vice president. In 2021, he joined The Athletic, where he’s the Editor at Large. Carter has received numerous accolades for his journalism contributions, including the 2009 Legacy Award from NABJ and the 2022 Red Smith Award from the Associated Press Sports Editors.
• Cecil Williams, a photographer for over 60 years, owns the largest image collection of racial change in America. JET Magazine hired him at 18 to continue capturing the struggles which ignited the American Civil Rights Movement. Over decades, Williams used injustices as inspiration to overcome and achieve freedom, justice and equality. In addition to over two hundred awards and citations, he earned the Governor’s Award for the Humanities, the Order of the Palmetto, and The Times and Democrat’s 2018 Person of the Year.
• Bob Reid, who has spent nearly 60 years in journalism, was NABJ’s third president (1979 – 1981). He was the first broadcast journalist to lead the organization and created the Salute to Excellence journalism awards. Reid later produced syndicated news and entertainment programs, won three National Emmy Awards, and was EVP and GM at Discovery Health Channel (now OWN), and The Africa Channel, which he helped launch in 2005.
• Leon D. Bibb, is a Cleveland newscaster with more than 50 years experience in television news. In 1977, he became the first Black television prime time Monday-Friday news anchor in Ohio (Columbus) and the ninth in the United States. He has been awarded local Emmy Awards ten times and interviewed figures such as Presidents Barack Obama and George H.W. Bush, astronaut Neil Armstrong, convicted assassin James Earl Ray and U.S. Army Brigadier General Paul W. Tibbets.
• Wayne Dawson, is co-anchor of WJW/Fox 8 News in the Morning, Cleveland’s Number 1 morning show. An eleven time Emmy winner, he previously served as co-anchor of the weekend editions of FOX 8 News. An ordained minister, he is a member of the Broadcasters Hall of Fame, an inductee of the NATAS Silver Circle and a recipient of the Chuck Heaton Award for the Cleveland Press Club.

2025 Special Honors Awards

NABJ honored the following journalists and communicators for their groundbreaking accomplishments and work to support the Black community in the media. 

 Angelo B. Henderson Community Service Award — Eric Brian Sellers

• This award recognizes a Black journalist who has had a positive impact on the Black community outside the normal realm of journalism. Sellers is a seasoned sports and television production professional who currently serves as an associate producer at ESPN. Since 2016, he has worked on some of ESPN’s biggest productions, including Monday Night Football, College Football, the NFL Draft, and the NBA Draft. He currently serves as chairman of NABJ’s Broadcast Task Force and president of the Southern New England Association of Black Journalists (SNEABJ), where he leads initiatives to support, connect, and empower Black journalists and media professionals nationwide.

Best Practices Award — Colorado Public Radio

• This award recognizes a news organization for exemplary work in covering issues of great significance to the Black community or the African Diaspora and/or for its efforts in increasing diversity among its newsroom staff and management. Colorado Public Radio is the largest non-profit news organization in Colorado. Through radio, digital news sites, newsletters and podcasts, CPR strives to tell stories important to Coloradans while collaborating with other news organizations across the state. CPR is committed to factual, fair, ethical journalism that checks power, elevates community voices and educates our audiences.

Chuck Stone Lifetime Achievement Award — Art Holliday

• This award recognizes a journalist with 15 or more years in the industry, who has made an extraordinary contribution to the enrichment, understanding or advancement of Black life and culture. Holliday is the news director at St. Louis’ KSDK-TV/5 On Your Side. His broadcasting career spans more than four decades in news and sports. In December 2020, he was named interim news director; he became the permanent news director in March 2021. Holliday’s broadcasting work has been recognized with numerous awards, including two Outstanding Achievement Sportscaster Emmys in 1985 and 1989.

Ida B. Wells Award — Amanda Barrett

• This award recognizes an individual who has provided distinguished leadership in increasing access and opportunities for Black journalists and improving the coverage of communities of color in American media. Barrett is Vice President for News, Standards and Inclusion at the Associated Press. Barrett created an Inclusive Storytelling drive focused on broadening the global AP news report to bring in more diverse audiences and viewpoints. Barrett also works to recruit a wide range of journalists into the AP and mentors staff and colleagues across the industry.

Journalism Educator of the Year Award — Dr. Yanick Rice Lamb

• This award recognizes the service, commitment, and academic guidance of an outstanding journalism teacher, professor or educator. The candidate must teach or advise students within the field of journalism at a high school or an accredited four-year college or university, and must have helped to increase the number of Black journalists in newsrooms. Dr. Rice Lamb is an independent journalist, author, professor and former chair of the Department of Media, Journalism and Film at Howard University, where she is co-director of HUNewsService.com and teaches reporting, editing, and health and science writing.

Journalist of Distinction Award — Kim Gusby

• This award recognizes a Black journalist in broadcast markets 1-16 and print/digital circulation under 150,000, who has distinguished themselves with a body of work, a story, series or photographs published in print, digital or aired that was extraordinary in depth, scope or significance to people in the African Diaspora. Gusby is Savannah’s longest-serving morning news anchor, joining WSAV-TV in 1993.Gusby has also won several AP and Regional Edward R. Murrow Awards for her stories documenting Black History in the Coastal Empire and Lowcountry.

Journalist of the Year Award —    Astead W. Herndon

• This award recognizes a Black journalist who has distinguished themselves with a body of work, a story, series or photographs published or aired that was extraordinary in depth, scope or significance to people in the African Diaspora. Herndon is national politics reporter for the New York Times and host of the NYT politics podcast, “The Run-Up.” His work has shaped Times political coverage since 2018. “In Search of Kamala Harris,” Herndon’s 2023 cover piece in New York Times Magazine, was nominated for a National Magazine Award in profile writing. He is a recent recipient of the Distinguished Journalist Award by DePaul University’s Center for Journalism Integrity & Excellence, a former Pritzker fellow at the University of Chicago Institute of Politics and a longtime analyst for CNN.

Legacy Award (Posthumously) — Rev. Dr. Timothy Lamar Tooten, Sr.

• This award recognizes a Black print, broadcast, digital or photojournalist of extraordinary accomplishment who has broken barriers and blazed trails. Honorees have contributed to the understanding or advancement of people and issues in the African Diaspora. Rev. Dr. Tooten, Sr. shared Maryland’s stories as a journalist for WBAL-TV 11 News in Baltimore for 35 years. For much of that time he was the city’s only full-time education reporter, gaining the respect and trust of parents, educators, students, elected leaders, and advocates alike. While his career focused on education, he also covered the Million Man March in Washington, D.C., and the night when President Ronald Reagan was shot. Dr. Tooten earned an Emmy Award for his half-hour documentary shot in Liberia, West Africa, “Africa’s Maryland,” and a National Headliner Award for his “East is East” documentary, which profiled life as an African American growing up on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. He also earned an Associated Press award for his undercover investigative series of reports on the history of discriminatory practices in the private clubs in West Virginia. For 25 years, he also helped educate a new generation of journalists and media professionals as an adjunct professor of communication and media at Loyola University Maryland. A proud husband, father, and grandfather, he later founded and served as the pastor of a nondenominational church, Harvest Christian Ministries. After retirement in 2003, Dr. Tooten shared his knowledge through media training and performance seminars and was inducted into the Emmy Silver Circle Hall of Fame in 2024.

Michael J. Feeney Emerging Journalist of the Year Award — Tiana Woodard

• This award recognizes a Black journalist with five or fewer years of experience in the industry and displays a commitment to NABJ’s goal of outstanding achievement by Black journalists and providing balanced coverage of the Black community and society at large. Woodard covers Black communities for The Boston Globe. She is also part of the newsroom’s Money, Power, Inequality team, a grant-funded initiative to report on consequences of and solutions to Greater Boston’s massive racial wealth gap. The recipient of a NABJ Salute to Excellence Award, a SABEW Best In Business Award, and multiple Report for America Local News Awards, Woodard graduated from The University of Texas at Austin, where she co-founded the school’s sole Black-interest publication.

Patricia L. Tobin Media Professional Award — Alexis N. Johnson

• This award recognizes an entrepreneur, public relations/advertising/marketing professional, or media owner that serves as a trailblazer in the media realm and is responsible for a positive impact of Black coverage and the media profession. Johnson is an accomplished public relations professional with over 10 years of experience across sports, media and entertainment. She currently serves as a PR manager and the head of social impact at Beats by Dre, where she leads consumer communications for the brand’s sports and entertainment projects and oversees its community relations strategy. PRNews recently recognized her as an “In-House Innovator” in the 2025 Top Women in PR Awards.

Student Journalist of the Year Award — Jacky Dennis Jean-Jacques II

• This award recognizes a Black full-time collegiate journalist who has excelled within the field of journalism through a story, body of work, series or photograph(s) published or aired. The student can be in print, broadcast, digital, radio, photography, or magazine and must display a strong commitment to NABJ and academics. Jean-Jacques II is an alumnus of Howard University with a B.A. in History and a minor in Economics, summa cum laude. He was the Editor-in-Chief of The Hilltop newspaper at Howard University after serving as a section editor since his freshman year. In 2024, he was awarded the prestigious White House Correspondents’ Association scholarship as well as the Percy Newbie Award for outstanding journalism.

Percy Qoboza Foreign Journalist of the Year Award — Ann M. Simmons

• This award recognizes a foreign journalist who has done extraordinary work while overcoming tremendous obstacles that contribute to the enrichment, understanding, or advancement of people or issues in the African Diaspora. Simmons is an award-winning journalist with over three decades of reporting experience across Europe, Africa, the Middle East and North America. Simmons has been on the frontlines of many significant news stories, including the War in Iraq, the Syrian refugee crisis and Hurricane Katrina. She served as bureau chief in Nairobi and Johannesburg for the Los Angeles Times, was a global development writer/editor and was part of the team whose coverage of wildfires in Southern California won the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News in 2004.

Professional Chapter of the Year Award Finalists — NABJ-South Florida, Colorado Association of Black Journalists and NABJ-St. Louis 

• This award recognizes an NABJ professional affiliate chapter for its accomplishments, the number of scholarships awarded, new members added, and community activities and programs held. The winner will be announced during the Convention.
  • NABJ-South Florida — For nearly four decades, NABJ-South Florida has united journalists, media professionals, and students who seek diversity and excellence within the industry.
  • Colorado Association of Black Journalists — Since 1987, CABJ has celebrated the diversity that exists throughout Colorado and the Rocky Mountain region, uplifting the Black community through journalism. 
  • NABJ-St. Louis — For more than four decades, NABJ-St. Louis has advocated for Black working journalists and communications professionals, as well as invested in educating future media professionals.

Student Chapter of the Year Award Finalists — NABJ North Carolina A&T State University, Carolina Association of Black Journalists University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Louisiana State University Association of Black Journalists

• This award recognizes an NABJ student chapter for its accomplishments, and the number of new members who joined the chapter and its campus and community activities and programs.
  • NABJ North Carolina A&T State University— Through workshops, short courses, fundraisers and community service events, the N.C. A&T chapter continues to cultivate the next generation of Black media professionals, empowering students to lead, create, and inspire within the journalism industry and beyond.
  • Carolina Association of Black Journalists University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill— Since 1991, the Carolina Association of Black Journalists (CABJ) at UNC-Chapel Hill has promoted Black student success in journalism, media, and communications.
  • Louisiana State University Association of Black Journalists— The LSU chapter is rooted in the pillars of achievement, service and opportunity, with a mission to provide a safe, empowering space for students in the LSU Manship School of Mass Communication to grow both personally and professionally.