PRESIDENT – Niroja Arulananthan (MS ’23)
Niroja Arulananthan completed her undergraduate degree and her first Master’s degree from the University of Toronto. Before coming to the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, she had over a decade of professional experience in public and private sectors in progressively responsible leadership roles. She is interested in politics, migration, and human interest stories. She has come to Columbia University from Canada with her family – her husband and the most precious baby girl.
VICE-PRESIDENT – Vaidik Trivedi (MA ’23)
Vaidik is in the MA, Business & Economics program (he can talk about politics, economics, music and football for hours!). Prior to coming to Columbia, he worked as a financial editor and reporter for Industry Dive. His goals include improving his journalistic skill set and long-form writing.
Sarah Aoyagi – Secretary (MS ’23)
Sarah is interested in video, print, and broadcast journalism. She has previously worked at Reuters as a video journalist.
Kevin Lind – Speakers Director (MS ’23)
Kevin is a career changer from hospitality where he worked in fine dining and resorts. Originally from Flushing, Queens, he now calls Jackson, WY home. He is interested in print and long-form storytelling, but is aware these may shift this year at J-school. Excitedly, he is a soon-to-be father.
Andrea Quezada – Events Director (MS ’23)
Andrea recently completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Charleston, West Virginia. She is interested in print journalism, and investigative stories have really caught her attention for now.
Debadrita Sur (Film/Documentary Coordinator)
Debadrita is an English graduate from Presidency University, Kolkata, who is currently enrolled in the MS program. She worked as a film journalist and can talk Wong Kar-Wai and David Lynch for hours. She aims to acquire proper skills to be a good multimedia journalist.
Anvita Patwardhan (Deadline Club / Professional Liaison Lead)
Born and raised in the California Bay Area, Anvita Patwardhan is an alumna of U.C. Berkeley, where she received her B.A. degree in English. She worked as a legal assistant in the San Francisco Financial District before applying to Columbia Journalism School, where she hopes to pursue longform narrative print journalism and data journalism.
Natalie Novakova (Publicity Director)
Natalie recently completed a Dual BA degree between SciencesPo Paris and The University of Hong Kong. She is interested in multimedia production and print. During the past year, she worked part-time as a Marketing assistant at the Financial Times HK office.
Megan Wordell (Community Service Chair)
Originally from Jacksonville, FL, Megan Wordell (she/her) is a data journalism student and is SPJ’s current community service chair. When she’s not researching for her next investigative story, she works for ABC News as a Regional Desk Producer. Her favorite things about J school are the opportunities to learn from such incredible journalists and the Joe Coffee connected to Pulitzer.
Gabrielle Barone (Student Life Chair)
Gabrielle Barone is a current full time student at Columbia University School of Journalism fufilling her masters. Gabrielle has hopes of working in the broadcast/ E-news business upon graduation in May of 2023 in New York City. Gabrielle serves at the Student Life coordinator on the SPJ student government, where she fulfills her duties of creating engaging and fun events for students on campus. By this December she will have already hosted three events for students! Gabrielle can be reached at gb2802@columbia.edu for any inquiries, information and ideas for her role at any time.
Pooja Dantewadia (Web Editor)
Prior to attending Columbia Journalism School, Pooja previously worked as a developer, data journalist and visualizer at Mint (HT Media – a mass media company based out of India), CNN-News18, and IndiaSpend. She has pitched and produced hundreds of data stories and interactive graphics.