Who We Are
OUR MEMBERS are freelancers, journalists, and PR professionals in Avondale, Buckeye, Chandler, Gilbert, Glendale, Goodyear, Maricopa, Peoria, Phoenix, Scottsdale, Surprise, Tempe and all around the Phoenix metro area and the state of Arizona. Their job titles vary (and include editor, reporter, producer, freelance writer, photographer, copy editor, publisher, columnist, communications specialist and designer) but they all share the same goal: to educate the public about their First Amendment rights and to inform the public about the stories and events that affect the communities in which they live and work.
WE’RE AN AWARD-WINNING CHAPTER. In 2023, SPJ honored the Valley of the Sun chapter with its Circle of Excellence Award for Professional Development for small chapters, citing our annual Valley Publicity Summit — a gathering each fall of media and public relations professionals to discuss story pitching preferences and ideas — as particularly noteworthy. The Society honored us with the same award in 2025, once again citing the Summit — celebrating its 20th year in 2024 — as well as the chapter’s efforts to revitalize the First Amendment Coalition of Arizona and holding insightful programs such as one offering tips on covering the November 2024 elections.
We also were honored twice as national Chapter of the Year, in 1991 and 2003.
Above: Attendees at a recent Valley Publicity Summit. Photo by Bill Pedene
OUR CHAPTER LED EFFORTS to declare three Arizona places as SPJ National Historic Sites in Journalism: the Tombstone Epitaph building, which chronicled the 1881 gunfight at the OK Corral; Tubac Presidio State Historic Park, home of Arizona’s first newspaper, The Weekly Arizonian, first published in 1859; and the Hotel Clarendon in Phoenix, where an assassin shot and killed Arizona Republic reporter Don Bolles in 1976.
Above left: Former SPJ National President David Cuillier (at left) helps unveil a plaque in 2013 designating Tubac Presidio State Historic Park an SPJ National Historic Site in Journalism. Photo by Mark Scarp
SPJ: Phoenix, Arizona Chapter 