Ken Chitwood was elected to a two-year term as Religion News Association’s next president in advance of the organization’s annual conference last month in Bethesda, Maryland.

Chitwood previously served as RNA treasurer and was elected by his fellow board members in advance of the meeting to replace Betsy Shirley, who served as president from 2020-2023.

Chitwood is a religion scholar and freelance newswriter based in Germany. He is a senior research fellow with the Muslim Philanthropy Initiative and journalist fellow with the University of Southern California’s Center for Religion and Civic Culture’s Engaged Spirituality Project. His writing has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, Religion News Service, The Guardian, Christianity Today, The Houston Chronicle, Sojourners Magazine, New Lines Magazine, The Conversation, Religion Unplugged, and elsewhere.

"It’s a humble joy and great honor to serve an organization that has given me my career in religion newswriting. I look forward to the next two years in the role and, in 2024, helping RNA celebrate its 75th anniversary as the premier association for people who write about religion in the news media," said Chitwood.

Shirley remains on the board and will turn her attention to the work of the Governance committee while Associated Press Global Religion Deputy Editor Holly Meyer, who served as secretary, will replace Chitwood as treasurer.

“It’s been an honor to serve RNA as president during such a critical juncture in the association’s history." said Shirley. "In the past few years, we’ve said farewell to former staff, navigated the challenges of a pandemic, and welcomed Christine Di Pasquale as our executive director. I’m excited for RNA’s future and grateful for Ken’s leadership as our new president.”

At its annual members meeting—hosted in conjunction with the March 16-18 conference—two additional board members were elected:

Liam Adams, religion reporter at The Tennessean, serves on the Membership committee and will replace Meyer as secretary. Before moving to Nashville, Liam lived in Denver and worked full-time as a reporter for Colorado Community Media, while also freelancing news stories about religion for national outlets.

Kalpana Jain is senior religion and ethics editor at The Conversation. Jain holds a Master in Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School. She has worked at Harvard as an editor, writer and researcher and was a 2009 Nieman Fellow there. She previously worked as a journalist at The Times of India.

"We are excited to welcome Liam Adams and Kalpana Jain to the board this year," said Chitwood. "Not only are they top-notch newswriters, they are also colleagues I trust and whose contributions as volunteers and committee members at recent conferences have already proved valuable. They represent some of the best of what RNA members can do and we are lucky to have them on the board"

Peter Smith, who had served on the board for three consecutive three-year terms (including one as president), stepped down in October 2022 but will continue to organize RNA’s annual Religion Story of the Year contest along with Chitwood, who has collaborated with him on the project for the last three years.

Rounding out the board are: Dawn Araujo-Hawkins, The Christian Century; Deepa Bharath, Associated Press; Elaine Justice, Emory University; Jack Gordon, InterFaith-ish; and, Dina Zingaro, Harvard Divinity School.

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