Meet the new ONA Mizzou student leaders

President: Erin Dismeier 

Hello everyone! I'm thrilled to be the new ONA Mizzou president.  I'm a junior from Chicago in the convergence journalism sequence. I also have minors in film studies and business.  I've chosen to focus on radio reporting and newsroom management in the coming year.

This summer, I will be interning in the news department at WGN Radio in Chicago, as well as writing for Foodmafia.  Along with these two journalistic pastimes, I will be working as a quality reviewer for Millennium Information Services in Itasca, Ill., and waitressing in Lake Geneva, Wis.

Fun facts for your reading pleasure: I love boating, country music, "Boondock Saints" and the Chicago Cubs.

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Vice President: Dalton Barker

Raised in Peoria, Ill., you could describe my childhood as a balance between sports and sleep. I’m still working on the latter. I was lured to MU after working for my high school newspaper and after my mother convinced me lawyers were, in her words, "a dime a dozen.” I enjoy participating in an "MIZ-ZOU" chant at sporting events, and I like traveling and accepting free food whenever it presents itself.

I have a passion for journalism and look forward to expanding ONA at MU and throughout the country. A convergence journalism major by trade, I am intrigued by the proliferation of online-centric news and how to serve and engage the public. In my opinion, discussion is necessary to bring out the best in people and ideas, so I hope to conjure up some interesting tidbits for readers to dissect and debate.

I’ll leave you with words from Charles Dickens that everyone should live by: "When a man bleeds inwardly, it is a dangerous thing for himself; but when he laughs inwardly, it bodes no good to other people."

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Secretary: Laura Davison

Hello current and potential ONA members! I’m Laura Davison, ONA Mizzou secretary for the 2012-13 school year. I’m excited to have this opportunity to work with all of you and to help ONA Mizzou grow this coming year.

I’m a junior from Shawnee, Kan. I escaped my home state to come to MU to study convergence journalism and Spanish, and I've spent this semester studying at the University of Navarra in Pamplona, Spain. It’s been a great semester of honing writing and designing skills, learning about Europe’s media landscape, and practicing two foreign languages (Spanish and HTML). 

When I’m not j-schooling — an all-inclusive term I use to refer to reporting, editing, sitting in the Futures Lab, reading journalism-related emails, etc. — I enjoy running, baking, watching "Mad Men" and planning vacations for when my journalism career makes me fabulously wealthy.

Although my getting wealthy might be a pipe dream, this executive board has some big, but attainable, goals. We're looking to increase involvement in ONA Mizzou from all areas of the J-school, and we want to explore new tools and topics.

Do you have thoughts on how to make ONA Mizzou better? Let us know. That’s why we’re here.

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Social Media Coordinator: Andrew Gibson

Are you ready for another semester of ONA Mizzou tweets? I sure hope so.

I'm Andrew Gibson, and I'll be returning in the fall semester as the club's social media coordinator. In the past year, the outgoing leaders and I worked to turn ONA Mizzou's Twitter and Facebook feeds into sources of useful digital-journalism information. The goal for the coming year is to build on this mission. My fellow leaders and I will continue to push out links and resources related to online news, and we'll work to make you want to keep clicking.

This summer, I'll be a business-reporting and multimedia intern at The Gazette in Colorado Springs, Colo. I hope to work in my hometown of Denver when I graduate. But for now, I'm looking forward to my two remaining years at the Missouri School of Journalism.

If you find a link related to digital journalism you think our followers would be interested in seeing, send it to the @ONAMizzou Twitter account. Social media isn't social without interaction.

Happy almost summer to everyone. We look forward to seeing you at our fall events.

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Treasurer: Stacey Welsh

Hi y'all! I am so excited to serve as the new treasurer for ONA Mizzou! I am a senior broadcast journalism major, but I've always been connected to online content. I currently work as a reporter and anchor for television station KOMU. I also work as a paid Web editor for KOMU.com, meaning I post stories and update the station's Facebook and Twitter pages.

As a Spanish minor, I had an amazing opportunity to put my skills to the test through studying in Buenos Aires, Argentina, during summer 2011. I worked with a documentary producer for the organization Asociación Madres de Plaza de Mayo. I also contributed content on environmental topics for an Artemisa Noticias blog. It's an online news magazine based in Buenos Aires.

When I'm not hauling a large video-camera case around Columbia, Mo., I also work as a swim instructor at the Mizzou Student Recreation Complex. I grew up swimming competitively and running track in my hometown of Frisco, Texas.

I also post my thoughts on journalism and life in general on a blog called "Welshful Thinking" (clever title, right?!).

Follow Stacey Welsh on Twitter