Journalism Education Association president Mark Newton named Frank LoMonte, the executive director of the Student Press Law Center, as a liaison to the JEA board of directors.

Frank LoMonte speaks at a Hazelwood Symposium. ©2012 UNC Center for Media Law and Policy, used under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license

LoMonte will serve as the JEA/SPLC liaison effective immediately.

“Having a SPLC liaison on the JEA board will enhance the relationship between the two organizations,” Newton said. “JEA has been donating a significant amount of money to SPLC each year to support our collective missions of student freedom of expression and this partnership will strengthen the relationship even more.”

“Adding Frank as JEA/SPLC liaison will solidify a connection that has always been there, but directly make possible interaction and planning between the groups,” said John Bowen, chairman of the Scholastic Press Rights Commission. “Everyone should benefit.”

“I love the idea of having Frank take a more active role with JEA,” Newton said. “His insight and ideas will enable both organizations to collaborate, support and better understand each other. I’m excited and honored that Frank has agreed to serve.”

LoMonte is an experienced commercial litigation attorney who joined SPLC after practicing with the Atlanta-based law firm of Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP and clerking for federal judges on the Northern District of Georgia and the Eleventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. Before law school, LoMonte was an award-winning investigative journalist and political columnist in state Capitol bureaus in Florida and Georgia and in Washington, D.C., with the Morris newspaper chain. LoMonte graduated magna cum laude from the University of Georgia School of Law, where he was a senior editor of the Georgia Law Review.

For more information on the Student Press Law Center, visit splc.org. For more information on the Journalism Education Association, visit jea.org.