The organization
Youth Journalism International is registered and recognized formally by the U.S. International Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) public educational charity within the United States. We operate globally.
Our board
The Board of Youth Journalism International oversees the strategy and operations of the organization, in line with its vision, mission and values, and principles of good governance. The board is made up of seven individuals from around the world. Alongside the founders of the organization, the board includes longtime advisors to the organization, alumni and a current student. The board currently has two committees: the Finance and Oversight Committee and the Events Committee, and one board member serves as a liaison to the YJI Action Team of students and alumni.
Current board members
Tekla Ali Johnson , Board Member. Grants Point Person
Steve Collins, Board Member and President. Finance and Oversight Committee, Events Committee, Revenue Committee
Sreehitha (Sarah) Gandluri, Board Member. Events committee
Noah Haynes, Board Member. Events Committee, Finance and Oversight Committee
Holly Hostettler-Davies, Board Member and Secretary. Events Committee
Jackie Majerus, Board Member and Executive Director. Finance and Oversight Committee, Events Committee, Revenue Committee
Collin Seguin, Board Member. Finance and Oversight Committee, Revenue Committee
Mike Soltys, Board Member and Treasurer. Finance and Oversight Committee.
Linus Unah, Board Member and Auditor. Finance and Oversight Committee, Revenue Committee
Board member biographies
Linus Unah
Linus Unah is a journalist, producer, and documentary filmmaker with a passion for crafting powerful stories that foster a deep appreciation for wildlife and the environment.
His work has been featured on several media platforms, including Mongabay, Al Jazeera, The Guardian, National Public Radio, the Los Angeles Times and Devex, among others.
Linus currently works with Wild Africa where he leads public awareness campaigns aimed at reducing demand for illegal wildlife products and promoting local support for conservation efforts.
A native of Nigeria, he is a graduate of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism where he co-directed the short documentary, “Split Jury,” for his master’s thesis.
Mike Soltys
Mike Soltys was hired in 1980 as a college intern by ESPN’s founder, Bill Rasmussen, and served 43 years in ESPN’s corporate communications department, the last 20 as a vice president. He currently is a part-time Historian for ESPN and is working on a documentary and book on Rasmussen and the launch of ESPN.
After graduating from the University of Connecticut magna cum laude in 1981, Mike joined ESPN’s communications department full time. He served on ESPN’s Editorial Board for 20 years, longer than anyone.
He was named Media Relations Professional of the Year by PR News in 2004 and, in 2008, The US Basketball Writers Association honored him with the Katha Quinn Award for service to college basketball media.
Mike resides in Southington, Connecticut, where his community involvement includes, since 2016, serving as Chairman and now Chairman Emeritus of the Board of Directors of Bread for Life. After advising Youth Journalism International for years, he joined its board in 2023.
In 2011, the Greater Southington Chamber of Commerce presented him with the Gail DePaolo Community Spirit Award. In 2013, he and wife Teresa received the Compass Award from the Southington YMCA for their “focus on youth development, healthy living and social responsibility.” In 2015, the Knights of Columbus honored him with a “Catholic Citizens Award.” In 2021, in recognition of his community contributions, Mike received the Gold Medal Award from the Southington chapter of UNICO International. And in 2024 he received the Dean of Sports Award from the Franciscan Life Center.
He received a Master of Arts from the University of Hartford in 1994. Mike was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award from UConn’s School of Communications in 2024 and was named a Distinguished Alumnus by the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS) in 2025. He, his wife and their four children, all UConn grads, were honored as a family at the 2016 UConn Alumni Legacy Breakfast. Mike and his sisters sponsor an annual scholarship at UConn, in honor of their parents, for an undergraduate who is working toward a career in athletic communications. He joined the Advisory Board for UConn’s CLAS in 2025.
Previously, Mike has served on the Board of Directors of the Bristol Family Center and the Southington Chamber of Commerce. He helped open the Imagine Nation Children’s Museum in Bristol and served them for 10 years as an advisor. He also coached several youth sports, including 11 seasons of basketball, and for many years was a lector and confirmation mentor at his church.
Collin Seguin
Collin Seguin is an Assistant Vice President leader within Travelers’ General Liability Complex Claim organization, leading a team that handles some of the largest liability files in the company. This includes premises liability, product liability, construction liability, construction defect, and oil and gas claims. In his nearly 20 years at Travelers, he has held a variety of roles within Claim Legal and as a leader in the claim organization.
He holds a BS in Print Journalism and BA in History from Boston University, and his JD from the University of Connecticut School of Law. At UConn Law, Collin was a Lead Articles Editor on the Insurance Law Journal, a member of the Moot Court Board, and an evening student representative on the Student Bar Association.
Collin is a proud alumnus of YJI and is excited to contribute to the growth of the organization as a Board member. He was named a “40 under 40” honoree by the Hartford Business Journal in 2019 and a “New Leader in the Law” by the Connecticut Law Tribune in 2014. In addition to his work with YJI, Collin is a Mentor in the UConn Husky Mentor Network, an alumni officer for Kappa Sigma Fraternity, and for the past several years has been a volunteer judge for the US Chamber of Commerce National Civics Bee.
Jackie Majerus
Working with student reporters, artists and photographers, Jackie Majerus guides young journalists as they tackle serious societal issues such as teen suicide, school violence, politics, war and terrorism through gripping newswriting, gut-wrenching personal commentary and artwork. She also works with students writing about popular culture, entertainment and everyday teenage life.
Under Jackie’s guidance, YJI provides a platform for the voices of students from many nations and all seven continents.
Before dedicating her professional work completely to YJI in 2011, Jackie enjoyed a successful career as a newspaper reporter at daily papers in Connecticut, New York and Illinois.
She also worked as a freelance reporter for The National Law Journal and United Press International.
A co-founder of Youth Journalism International, Jackie has regularly been selected for prestigious teaching posts and as keynote speaker, and has also served as a judge in high school journalism contests put on by the National Scholastic Press Association, Baruch College in New York City and the Florida Scholastic Press Association. Jackie has also won her own awards. In 2023, she received the gold laureate Global Youth & News Media Prize for news/media literacy, from Global Youth and News Media. In 2024, the Journalism Education Association named Jackie one of four recipients of its “Friend of Scholastic Journalism” honor.
Jackie is a member of the Journalism Educators Association and a graduate of The University of Iowa. She grew up in Iowa and Wisconsin, and also lived in Illinois, New York and Connecticut before moving to Auburn, Maine. She and her husband Steve Collins, a YJI co-founder and journalist, are the parents of a grown son and daughter.
Holly Hostettler-Davies
Holly Hostettler-Davies, from Wales, UK, is a committed gender equality advocate with a keen interest in sexual and reproductive health and rights.
In April 2024, the UK government selected Holly as the nation’s first Youth Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights Advisor. In that role she attended and spoke at the United Nations’ Commission on Population and Development conference at the UN headquarters in New York. While there, she took part in sessions with government officials and collaborated with other youth delegates.
Holly has been active with YJI since 2020, attending all three of YJI’s Global Conferences. In the 2023 and 2024 conferences, she took on a leadership role and is a key organizer for the 2025 Global Conference in Cape Town, South Africa.
She is also a qualified Teaching English as a Foreign Language teacher, having taught students aged 6-70 across Europe and with the Chilean Ministry of Education.
Holly is a 2024 graduate of Cardiff University with a first-class degree in English Literature and Creative Writing. She is currently studying a Masters of Law in International Human Rights with the University of Law.
Noah Haynes
Noah Haynes is a high school student in Copenhagen, Denmark. His family originates from England.
He has been part of Youth Journalism International for almost two years and is now a Social Media Editor and Correspondent.
Being an avid lover of culture, fashion, and diplomacy, Noah has written many articles about EU politics as well as culture.
In the future, Noah hopes to work as a magazine journalist or diplomat.
Sreehitha (Sarah) Gandluri
Sreehitha (Sarah) Gandluri is a first-year Honors Carolina Scholar at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, majoring in Political Science and Global Studies.
She has been a student reporter of Youth Journalism International since 2020, working on several collaborative projects, including the No one is safe global investigation into the trauma of sexual assault. Through her work, she’s risen to the rank of Senior Correspondent.
Sarah, who is from Maryland, U.S., has taken part in YJI global conferences in Istanbul and Mexico City. She has published work in local and national newspapers in the United States, including USA Today and the Washington Blade.
Steve Collins
A journalist since 1987, Steve Collins has worked for daily newspapers in New York, Connecticut and Maine.
Steve is the political columnist for the Maine Trust for Local News and his work appears in the Portland Press Herald and other daily papers across the state.
He served as the State House reporter for the Sun Journal in Lewiston, Maine until 2025.
Steve was the Maine Press Association’s Journalist of the Year in 2022. Among his other awards are the New England Newspaper & Press Association’s Bob Wallack Community Journalism Award and its history-writing prize in 2022 and 2023, the Society of Professional Journalists’ 2016 Ethics in Journalism Award, the I.F. Stone Whistle-Blower Award in 2015 and scores of state awards in Maine, Connecticut and New York.
Collins is a founder and board president of Youth Journalism International.
Born in Massachusetts, he grew up in a military family that took him to Norway, Ohio and Virginia, where he earned a degree in history from the University of Virginia.
Tekla Ali Johnson
Tekla Ali Johnson earned a Ph.D. in history with an emphasis in African American Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2005. At UNL she studied under World System Theorist Andre Gunder Frank and was introduced to Africology at the Black Studies Department at UNO.
Tekla has served as an Instructor of African American History at North Carolina A & T State University, and at Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, North Carolina where she was Coordinator of the African & African American Studies Minor, Coordinator of the History Program, and was the co-founder of an emerging Concentration in Public History.
Her first book ‘Free Radical’: Ernest Chambers, Black Power, and the Politics of Race was published by Texas Tech University Press.
She is currently a member of the history faculty at the University of South Carolina.
Images of board members over the years
Above at left, Cassie Lloyd Perrin, Steve Collins, Shaina Zurlin, Jackie Majerus and Arooj Khalid at YJI’s 2023 Global Conference in Prague. At right, Mike Soltys and Regina López at ESPN in Bristol, Connecticut in 2022.
Above left: Board members Arooj Khalid and Holly Hostettler-Davies at Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, Cape Town during the 2025 Global Conference. At right, board members Susan Millar and Jackie Majerus in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
