Board of Directors
As a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation, The Red & Black Publishing Company, Inc. is governed by the following volunteer board of directors:
Executive Officers
David Pektas | President and Chair
Pektas is a digital marketing consultant with an extensive background in search marketing and “traditional” media planning. Over his career, he has worked with brands such as American Express, Ikea, IBM, T-Mobile & Zillow. A 1993 UGA graduate, he received his MBA from the University of Central Florida in 2018. During his time as a student in Athens, he worked at The Red & Black as an ad sales rep and student ad manager.
Tracie Powell | Vice President and Vice Chair
Powell is a leader in philanthropic efforts to increase racial equity and diversity in news media. She is the founder of The Pivot Fund, which seeks to support independent civic news and information. A fall 2021 Shorenstein Center Research Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School, Powell produced groundbreaking research about the mechanisms for funding and capacity building for hyperlocal community newsrooms. She is past board chair of LION Publishers, a professional journalism association for independent news publishers where she served on the board from 2017 to 2023. Before her work with The Pivot Fund, Powell was founding fund manager of the Racial Equity in Journalism (REJ) Fund at Borealis Philanthropy. Powell is also the founder of AllDigitocracy.org, which focused on the media and its impact on diverse communities. She was a senior fellow with the Democracy Fund, where she worked on the Public Square initiative that seeks to support informed dialogue through nonprofit journalism investments. Powell was a 2016 JSK (Knight) Fellow at Stanford University and has written regularly for the Columbia Journalism Review and Poynter Online. Her work has been highlighted by countless journalism and academic institutions, including Harvard’s Nieman Journalism Lab. She is a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center and The University of Georgia’s Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication.
Theresa Giarrusso | Secretary
A Grady College grad and twice editor in chief of The Red & Black, Theresa Walsh Giarrusso has worked as an editor for newspapers, magazines and digital media across the U.S. She specializes in content for families and children, having worked as The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's News for Kids editor and later as its parenting blogger and columnist. She also ran social media for two major parenting magazines. She has worked with K-12 students on writing for publication and spent many hours teaching about journalism in classrooms. She taught digital media at Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism. She currently is a freelance editor and is teaching a media literacy workshop that she created to teachers, parents and students in New Jersey. She is married to a fellow Grady and R&B alum, Michael Giarrusso. She has three kids.
At-Large Board Members
Leigh Burns
Since 2017, Leigh Burns has been the Director of the Fox Theatre Institute, a division of the Fox Theatre in Atlanta. Before joining the Fox Theatre, she held positions as the Education Coordinator with the Georgia Main Street Program and additionally served as the Outreach Program Manager and Certified Local Government Coordinator with the Georgia Historic Preservation Division. Leading the Fox Theatre Institute, Leigh oversees all grant programs, education, membership, statewide theatre presenting and preservation partnerships. Since 2008, the Fox has awarded $3.1 million dollars in financial support for historic theatres in Georgia and the Southeast. In addition to these programs, Leigh assists in supporting the ongoing preservation of the 1929 National Historic Landmark theatre in the heart of midtown Atlanta. Leigh has 24 years of professional historic preservation experience including internships with the National Park Service and the Historic Oakland Foundation and received a Masters of Heritage Preservation Degree from Georgia State University. In 2014, she received an Award of Excellence in Historic Preservation Service from the Atlanta Urban Design Commission. She currently holds board positions with the Georgia Downtown Association and Young Harris College Alumni Board. A native of College Park, Georgia, Leigh resides in Atlanta and serves on the boards of the Georgia Downtown Association and the Young Harris College Alumni Board.
Amy Cox
Amy Cox worked at CNN for almost 20 years. There, she spearheaded teams on new and emerging digital products/platforms, and also guided digital editorial coverage of world news, U.S. elections and other large-scale projects. Along with her current role as consultant to newsrooms, Cox teaches digital journalism at Kennesaw State University. She earned a master’s degree in digital journalism and design from USFSP and an undergraduate degree in journalism from the University of Georgia.
R. Lee Guarnella
Lee has been a Senior VP at Capital One Business Banking in New York for five years focusing on companies with up to $100 million in gross revenue. Before joining Capital One, he spent 12 years at JP Morgan Chase in Business Banking as a Senior Relationship Manager. Lee graduated from Columbia University with a M.A. in 2007 with a focus on the financial markets of the Arabian Gulf and Arabic and from UGA in 2000 with a B.A. in Journalism and a Minor in Spanish. Lee's journalism background includes CNN.com (formally CNN Interactive) and the Media Line News Agency based in Jerusalem. Lee attended the American University of Beirut in Lebanon studying Arabic and Economics. During his time in the Middle East, Lee traveled throughout Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Iraq from 2003 to 2004. He currently lives in Long Island, New York with his wife, Kimberly. Lee is blessed with a blended family and has six sons and daughters: Jaiden, Anna, Aliyah, Vivian, Roman and Greyson.
Lance Helms
A former editor in chief of The Red & Black, Lance Helms earned an ABJ in Newspaper Management from UGA's College of Journalism & Mass Communication. He served in various editorial roles at the Thomson Newspapers before moving into advertising sales there and at Southern Community Newspapers, Cox Media Group, Tribune Publishing, McClatchy and DallasNews Corp. He currently serves as a sales leader at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Samira Jafari
Samira Jafari is an award-winning journalist who has worked at CNN for nearly 15 years. In her current role as deputy managing editor of CNN Investigates, she leads teams on ambitious multi-platform investigative projects on high-impact topics, including climate change, policing and disinformation. Jafari is also a former Associated Press correspondent and an active member of the Georgia First Amendment Foundation. She graduated from the University of Georgia's Grady College in 2002. While at UGA, she worked at The Red & Black, serving as editor-in-chief among other roles.
Hubert Kang
Hubert Kang is the Founder and Owner of Peachtree Labs, a boutique agency that serves small businesses with marketing and management advice. Throughout his career, Hubert has held various Marketing roles at Microsoft, IBM, and NCR. His passion for Small Business comes from a previous stint as a gym owner, as well as a 2-year role at UGA's Small Business Development Center teaching digital marketing. He is a 1994 UGA graduate where he worked in Production at the R&B, and later received his MBA from Emory University. He currently lives in Atlanta with his wife Joann.
Jamar Laster
James Robinson is the Chief Marketing Officer at Cochran, where he brings a wealth of experience and a proven track record of successful marketing leadership.
Before his current role, Robinson held the position of Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer at Insurate, where he played a pivotal role in shaping the company's marketing strategies and overall strategic direction.
Before his tenure at Insurate, James made significant contributions as the Head of Marketing for Pro Host, Airbnb's professional hosting category, where he was instrumental in driving the company's growth and enhancing its brand presence. His career journey also includes influential positions at Ladder, Mosaic, SolarCity (Tesla), and Amazon, where he played a critical role in launching pioneering initiatives such as Amazon ads, Kindle, and strategic campaigns in collaboration with top Fortune 50 brands. Robinson's tenure at Amazon resulted in him acquiring multiple patents and winning the company's first advertising awards.
In addition to his corporate roles, James Robinson has made noteworthy contributions as the Group Creative Director of Ascentium and co-founder of Mercury Cloud, a Seattle-based experience design agency.
James Robinson's journey began at the University of Georgia, where he graduated in 1997. His career started with a three-year tenure at the Red & Black, where he worked in advertising sales and eventually held the role of Special Projects Manager.
Beyond his professional achievements, James values his family life, cherishing quality time with his wife, Lucy, and their four children.
Mark Anthony Thomas
Mark Anthony Thomas is the President & CEO of the Greater Baltimore Committee, the first since the organization's spring merger with the Economic Alliance of Greater Baltimore (EAGB). Mark has served in public leadership roles in Pittsburgh, New York, and Los Angeles shaping economic development strategies and partnerships. Before entering the public sector, Mark worked in the media sector, shaping content and investigative journalism on social impact development, and effective governance. He is a graduate of the University of Georgia (BA), Columbia (MPA), and MIT (MBA) and has served on several boards supporting college access, creative arts, and civic innovation. A R&B alum, he served as editor in chief while a student at UGA.
Student Board Members
Claire Han
Student ad manager for fall 2023, Han excelled since joining The Red & Black advertising department, where she most recently held the position of senior account executive. She also served as a member of our DEI committee. A senior, Han is a risk management and insurance major.
Elizabeth Rymarev
Fall 2023 and Spring 2024 editor in chief, Rymarev is a senior journalism student. She has previously served as senior editor for guides & magazines.
Ex-Officio Members
Charlotte Norsworthy Varnum
As executive director of The Red & Black, Varnum serves on the board representing the organization as a whole. Previously editorial director and newsroom adviser at The Red & Black, Varnum also worked as the news editor as a student. In between, she worked at NPR, Bloomberg News, Cartoon Network and The Outlaw Ocean Project, a New York Times non-profit investigating maritime crime and lawlessness on the high seas. Varnum has her bachelors degrees in journalism and political science from UGA and her master's in journalism from UGA.
Lori Johnston
Lori Johnston teaches a variety of journalism classes at UGA, including Reporting I (Critical Skills for Reporting and Storytelling), religion reporting, home and garden reporting, critical writing, feature writing and investigative reporting. She was one of four recipients of UGA’s 2024 Creative Teaching Award and was Journalism Department Teacher of the Year for the 2020-2021 academic year. She also teaches Media Savvy: Becoming Digitally Literate, one of four courses in the Certificate in News Literacy. She directs the Cox Institute’s Journalism Writing Lab, a hub for publishing and producing stories on beats including poverty, county government and lifestyle journalism. Through this experiential learning program, students hone their reporting, fact checking, editing and multimedia skills as well as learn more about audience engagement and transparency with projects that contribute to: industry partnerships with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Oglethorpe Echo, Oconee Enterprise, The Athens Banner-Herald, The Current and other media outlets; the Covering Poverty website (coveringpoverty.uga.edu), an online toolkit for journalists and professionals, and The Carter Center’s Mental Health Parity Collaborative. Prior to teaching at the journalism school, Johnston worked as an Associated Press writer and magazine editor. She co-founded Fast Copy News Service with her husband, Andy. She is a Red & Black alum and former editor in chief, under the byline Lori Wiechman, holding her bachelors and master of fine arts degrees from UGA.
