Election

Participating as a board member offers the opportunity to develop new leadership skills, expand your professional network, and learn the legal, financial and ethical responsibilities of nonprofit associations.

Elections take place annually in the February. Below are the open positions followed by the candidates, respectively:

2026 Candidate Slate (Coming soon)

Candidate Name

All positions are two-year terms that begin May 1.

JEA’s seven-member board of directors should comprise a variety of skill sets, leadership styles and diversity of thought and background. Great candidates will possess:

Passion for scholastic journalism education
Eagerness to participate
Preparedness for events
Desire for stewardship and service
Willingness to learn

Board of directors election timeline

2025

Sept. 8
Candidate sign-up

Oct. 31
Deadline to sign up as a candidate

Nov. 14
Candidate list presented at JEA’s General Membership Meeting

Nov. 17
Candidate list available at JEA.org

2026

Jan. 5
Candidate statements available at JEA.org

Jan. 15
Voter rolls are created based on active teacher/adviser members

Late Feb. 23 - March 4
Members vote via electronic ballot

March 9
Board members announced at JEA.org

May 1
Two-year term begins

How to run for the board

To run for a two-year position on the board of directors, submit your interest by Oct.

1.
Voting election will take place over a ten-day period. Only JEA teacher-adviser members (see Article III, Section 1, Paragraph A of JEA’s bylaws) current as of Jan. 15 will be eligible to vote.
2.
Carefully read the job descriptions for JEA leadership, including duties for all positions, elected positions and specifically for the position being sought.
3.
Craft your candidate statements to be published on JEA.org. Candidates will answer each of the following questions in 300 words or fewer:
- Why do you want to serve, and how will you help advance JEA’s mission?
- What do you think is the greatest challenge facing scholastic journalism education today?
- Why do you believe your voice is an important voice or perspective that needs to be heard?
4.
Submit a nomination form. The form will be available in Sept., and must be submitted by Oct. The nomination form includes the candidate statements above and a professional headshot.
5.
In November, candidates will be invited to do a one-on-one interview with the chair of the nominations committee via Zoom. Recordings of the interview, as well as written answers to the above prompts, will be made available to the general membership January.

How to vote

1.
Voting in the election will take place over a ten-day period. Only JEA teacher-adviser members (see Article III, Section 1, Paragraph A of JEA’s bylaws) current as of Jan. 15, will be eligible to vote.
2.
The candidate slate will be announced at JEA.org. Full candidate statements will be available online in Jan.
3.
All teacher-adviser members eligible to vote will receive an email at their preferred email address from JEA headquarters (specifically, noreply@qualtrics-survey.com) in Feb. with a link to their ballot. Each link is unique to the individual voter and can only be accessed once. Do not forward your ballot to anyone. You can verify your preferred email address in the JEA Member Hub.
4.
Elections will be carried out using ranked-choice voting, sometimes called “instant runoff voting.” Voters have the option to rank candidates in order of preference: first, second, third and so forth. In short, if no candidate has a majority, the candidate with the least first-preference votes is eliminated, and their votes are redistributed based on voters’ subsequent preferences until a candidate achieves a majority. Read more about ranked-choice voting and our decision to use this method.
5.
Two reminder emails will be sent to eligible members who have not yet cast a ballot during the voting window.

Role of the nominations committee

The nominations committee serves as an independent party in helping to conduct the election. Committee members develop timelines and procedures in accordance with JEA bylaws. The chair of the committee is appointed by the JEA president, and members of the committee are appointed by the chair.

While the committee assists headquarters in conducting the election, perhaps its most important role is in helping recruit nominees to run for office. The committee is charged with “evaluating interest and willingness on the part of candidates to serve the organization as an elected officer” and to “seek nominees who represent gender, ethnic, racial and cultural diversity and prepare a slate to present to the membership that includes such diversity.”

Candidates not included in the slate presented by the nominations committee may still be placed in nomination by any voting member at the general membership meeting.

Members of the Nominations Committee for the 2025 Elections

Michelle Balmeo, MJE, is the adviser of The Whirlwind news staff and The Pedigree yearbook staff at West Albany High School in Albany, Oregon. She is a lifetime JEA member who has served as a curriculum leader, a Partner Project instructor and Outreach Academy facilitator. Michelle is JEA's Nominations Chair.

Ranked-choice voting

For the board of directors elections, the Journalism Education Association will be using ranked-choice voting, otherwise known as “instant runoff voting.” This page is designed to explain how the process works and offer the rationale behind this form of voting.

Why use ranked-choice voting?

When there are more than two candidates for any position, the chances of one candidate receiving the majority of the vote needed to win are slim. In a traditional election, that would force a runoff election, which would in turn require candidates, headquarters and voters to prepare for another vote. RCV saves time and energy for all involved.

Nationally, RCV has become more common in municipal and even statewide elections. Proponents argue that RCV eliminates the concerns about vote-splitting or unrepresentative outcomes by allowing voters to rank candidates in order of preference.

RCV has detractors, too, who argue that the process can seem complicated or violate the concept of “one person, one vote.” For example, in JEA’s ballot, all candidates must be ranked, including those whom a voter may not support. Indeed, several states have passed bans on ranked-choice voting because of these arguments.

Nevertheless, JEA board elections fit well for RCV because of their nonpartisan nature and the potential for large candidate pools. We are hopeful that this process will be a positive and efficient one for members and candidates alike.

How does ranked-choice voting work?

From a voter’s perspective, the ranking is simple: Simply order all of the candidates available from first to last by preference.

It’s helpful to picture the tabulation in terms of “rounds of voting,” even though voters cast only one ballot. In the first round, all of the first-choice selections for each candidate are counted. If no candidate receives more than 50% of voters’ first-choice rankings, then tabulation moves on to the second round.

In the second round, the candidate with the fewest first-choice votes is eliminated, and their votes are redistributed to the remaining candidates based on the voters’ next preferences.

This elimination and redistribution process continues until one candidate obtains a majority of the votes, ensuring that the ultimate winner has the broadest support among the electorate.

You can check out a sample ballot in action here. (However, keep in mind JEA will be using a different service for the actual board elections.) After you “vote” you can check out the results and see how the votes were redistributed from round to round.

In revealing results, JEA will publicly announce the total number of votes cast in the election as well as the total percentage earned by the top vote-getter in the final round of the ranked-choice voting.

Previous Elections

Previous board of directors elections.

2025-27 Board of Directors Election Slate | See the winners

Election information