Officers

Jonathon Berlin
President

Jonathon has been a volunteer for SND since 2000, when he started writing and designing for the Update newsletter. That experience gave him a glimpse into how the Society works and many of the neat things it does. And the chance to meet and talk with designers from all over the world. He took over editing the newsletter in 2001 and started editing Design Journal in 2004 until becoming secretary and treasurer in 2010.

In his professional life he’s worked at the Chicago Tribune, San Jose Mercury News, Rocky Mountain News and The Times of Northwest Indiana. He’s been a design director and designer, a graphics editor and artist. He’s worked days and nights, sports, features and news. He’s rolled out Web sites and redesigns. Invented new publications and fixed old ones.

Right now he’s the graphics editor at the Chicago Tribune, where he lives in the city with his wife, two boys and dog. He likes running and tries to do one marathon a year.

Rob Schneider
Vice President

Rob is in charge of design, graphics and illustration for The Dallas Morning News. Rob has led successful redesigns of the DMN, The Providence Journal and various other print and digital products.

Previously, he was an editor, designer, writer, photographer, copy editor and sports editor for newspapers in Missouri (St. Joseph News-Press and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch) and Nebraska. (Omaha World-Herald) His work has been awarded by The Society of News Design, Malofiej, Communication Arts, Illustrator’s Annual, PRINT magazine and other state and regional journalism competitions. He’s also an exceptional butter carver, although he has long chosen to remain an amateur in this arena. Rob has been faithful and passionate servant of the Society of News Design since 1997. He has been a regular volunteer and a judge at the creative competition in Syracuse and a speaker and volunteer at three national workshops (Houston, Las Vegas and Denver). Rob has organized and hosted several SND Quick Courses in Texas and has been a featured speaker for SND and other organizations at events around the country.

David Kordalski
Secretary/Treasurer

David has worked as a visual journalist since the early 1980s. He’s currently the AME/Visuals for The Plain Dealer in Cleveland, Ohio.

In 1999, David Kordalski returned to his hometown of Cleveland as AME/Visuals at The Plain Dealer. His primary goal: Stitch the photography, graphics, news and features design departments into a seamless visual team. He guided The PD through a redesign in 2001, and gave it a major tweak in 2009.

In 27 years as a visual journalist, David has worked at large- (Detroit News), midsize- (Dayton Daily News, South Bend Tribune) and small-circulation dailies (Wooster Daily Record), as well as a weekly or two.
Prior to embarking on his newspaper career, he ran a youth center and was a third-shift supervisor in a microfiche manufacturing plant — two jobs that he credits for his passion for reader advocacy and relevance.

David’s work has been recognized by the Society for News Design and other professional organizations in nearly every design, photography and graphics category. He’s a regular speaker for professional and student groups.

SND involvement: David has been SND’s Region 4 director and served as the organization’s first Education Committee chair. As a member of the competition committee, he’s often been a facilitator at the annual competition. He was selected as a judge for the 26th edition. He’s an occasional contributor to Design magazine, has spoken at the SND annual workshops in Houston and Orlando and a number of Quick Courses in the U.S. and Canada, and he’s served as host for several Quick Courses. In 2005, David received an SND President’s Award for volunteerism. The Plain Dealer will host SND’s annual conference in 2012.

Read more about David and his plans for SND at votekord.org.

Stephen Komives
Executive Director

Stephen has served the Society in various capacities since 2002: he’s judged the annual print competition, served as president of the Malofiej infographics competition jury, co-chaired SND’s diversity committee and directed and taught the design quick courses. He also helped organize two annual SND workshops — 2006 in Orlando and 2002 in Savannah, Ga.

He spent 20 years in newsrooms — most recently as design editor of the Orlando Sentinel, where he worked for five years.

He is a graduate of the University of Connecticut and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. His first day as SND executive director was Nov. 16, 2009.

Steve Dorsey
Immediate Past President

Steve is the vice president for R+D at the Detroit Media Partnership and a design consultant. He’s been involved in user-centered information design research for many years as well as publication design, deadline art direction and production. Steve joined the DMP after working for 11 years at the Detroit Free Press, most recently as the deputy managing editor/presentation + innovation.

Steve has been a speaker at conferences internationally, a recurring visiting faculty member at The Poynter Institute, a visiting professor at Syracuse University, and a frequent speaker and coach in many newsrooms. Steve has presented at SND affiliate conferences: the SND-Chinese News Page Design Boot Camp (Hangzhou, China), the IFRA Conference on Design (Paris), and the Malofiej Information Graphics Summit (Pamplona).

Since first volunteering as a Syracuse University student at the annual competition, Steve has worked in service to the Society for News Design and the craft for nearly 20 years, he’s held numerous positions within the Society.

Before Detroit, Steve worked at the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader — named one of SND’s World’s Best-Designed™ in 1998. Before that he was at the York (Pa.) Daily Record, The Syracuse (N.Y.) Newspapers and the Norwich (N.Y.) Evening Sun. He graduated from Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and the Poynter Institute’s visual apprenticeship program.

Steve is a news and culture junkie. When he’s not working, he enjoys playing golf, poker and Xbox – although any success is purely accidental.