Dart Society

The Dart Society Board of Directors elected Ochberg Fellows Arnessa Garrett and Jeff Kelly Lowenstein as officers during its annual meeting in November in Atlanta.

The Dart Society is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to the compassionate reporting about victims of violence and tragedy. It represents recipients of the Dart Center Ochberg Fellowship Program, now in its 10th year, and winners of the Dart and Mimi awards. 

Garrett, a senior editor at The Lafayette Daily Advertiser in Louisiana and a 2006 Ochberg Fellow, was elected treasurer of the Dart Society. She is a recipient of the 2006 Dart Award for Excellence in Reporting on Victims of Violence and has traveled twice to Tbilisi, Georgia, on Dart-sponsored missions to help train journalists covering the wars in the Caucasus. She has also worked for The Times-Picayune in New Orleans and The Boston Globe.

Garrett brings a collaborative approach to her service on the board, particularly as the society plans its long-term growth and outreach efforts. She served as senior fellow to the 2007 Dart Center Ochberg Fellowship class and is committed to supporting journalists who cover the most difficult stories around the world.

"I am so pleased to be able to give back to an organization that has given me so much," Garrett said. "I'm looking forward being a part of the Dart Society's next chapter and helping to spread the message that how we cover victims of violence matters."

Kelly Lowenstein, who was elected board secretary, is a staff reporter for The Chicago Reporter and a 2008 Ochberg Fellow. His work covering sex offenders in Chicago received the 2006 Peter Lisagor Award for Exemplary Journalism,  and he was a 2007 Racial Justice Fellow at the Institute of Justice and Journalism at USC's Annenberg School of Communication. He taught in South Africa in 1995 as a participant in the Fulbright Teacher Exchange Program.

A successful blogger, Kelly Lowenstein will focus on web-based outreach to society members and journalists around the world, and building brand awareness of the missions of the Dart community. 

“I’m thrilled to be working with the other board members, fellows and the Dart Center to get the word out about Dart community members’ remarkable work,” Kelly Lowenstein said.   

Garrett and Kelly Lowenstein replace outgoing board members Ruth Teichroeb, a 2002 fellow formerly with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and now communications manager with Pew's Arctic program, and Gary Tippet, a Walkley Award-winning reporter with The Age in Melbourne who was a 2004 fellow. 

Officers serve three-year terms on the six-person board that also includes President Scott North of The Herald in Everett, Wash.; Vice-Presidents Miles Moffeit of The Denver Post and Mike Walter of Walter Media in the Washington, D.C., area; and officer Tina Croley, a former Detroit Free Press editor now living in North Carolina.