American Community Media (ACoM), the nation’s first and largest association of ethnic news outlets, has announced the appointment of Jaya Padmanabhan as its new Executive Director, effective Feb. 1. She succeeds ACoM founder Sandy Close, who, after three decades of leadership will step into the role of Director Emeritus.
“Jaya represents a new generation of leaders at ACoM who bring energy, ideas, tech smarts and business savvy to the sector at a time when AI is transforming not only how we gather and distribute news, but the very idea of what news is,” Close says.
A three-time Emmy-award winner, Padmanabhan brings more than a decade of deep experience in ethnic media, after making a bold career shift from a successful software engineering role in Silicon Valley to pursue her passion for journalism. A veteran journalist, essayist, and fiction writer with over 250 published articles and short stories, she has received 25 awards for journalism and 8 awards for fiction, most notably the San Francisco Press Club’s Overall Excellence Award three times and the Lorian Hemingway Award for short fiction.
Padmanabhan was the Editor of India Currents from 2012 to 2014 and now serves as its Editor Emeritus, contributing writer, and board member. Her career includes writing as a biweekly columnist for the San Francisco Examiner, and most recently working as project manager for the University of Southern California Center for Health Care Journalism’s Ethnic Media Collaborative. In that role, she provided mentorship, management, and editorial support to ethnic media fellows across multilingual newsrooms throughout California.
“Ethnic media teaches me a different way of understanding news, documenting the intimate life of communities and amplifying voices largely unheard and unseen in the public space. I learned the enduring power of news outlets that provide a collective voice for their communities — the ‘we’ rather than the ‘I’ of journalism.”
A Moment of Reckoning for the Sector
“Despite a glut in information technology, people crave authentic voices and real, in-person connections,” Close says. “The hunger for trusted messengers who help people navigate the changes going on around them has never been greater even as revenue to support local news platforms has never been more scarce. We are at a moment of reckoning for our sector that will require integrating high-tech skills with high-touch engagement and collaboration. Jaya is poised to seize the moment.”
ACoM Co-director Julian Do, who was part of the organization’s early years and rejoined in 2019, sees Padmanabhan’s appointment as a pivotal opportunity for the field. “Jaya will add a powerful advocacy voice for our sector as we implement new strategies to expand its social marketing role and audience reach.”