Associated Press names Larma, Stewart, Sato, Stathis as US regional photo editors

AP names 4 to US regional photo editor positions

NEW YORK — Four veteran Associated Press photojournalists — Jacqueline Larma, Mike Stewart, Kiichiro Sato and Tom Stathis — have been appointed U.S. regional photo editors for the news cooperative.

The appointments were announced Tuesday by Director of Photography Santiago Lyon. The four will lead AP’s U.S. photo coverage in their regions of the United States, reporting to Deputy Director of Photography Denis Paquin in New York and working closely with the AP regional editors in the East, South, Central and West.

“Jacqueline, Mike, Kiichiro and Tom bring many decades of journalist experience and photographic expertise to these important leadership roles,” Lyon said. “Together they are a formidable team and will be instrumental in continuing AP’s dominance of photographic coverage in the U.S.”

The four are responsible for ensuring strong photo reports for all 50 states, providing outstanding visual coverage of stories of state, national and international importance in their regions. They will oversee AP’s award-winning U.S. team of photo news editors, staff photographers and photo freelancers, working closely with AP member newspapers.

Larma, who has been interim East regional photo editor since November 2009, oversees AP photo coverage across formats for the region based in Philadelphia. She was a member of AP’s four-person 1995 Pulitzer Prize-winning team in feature photography for its work covering the aftermath of the genocide in Rwanda.

Larma joined the AP in 1991 in Jerusalem, transferred to London in 1994 and returned to Jerusalem in 1997. From 2000 to 2003 she was the chief photographer and photo editor in Jerusalem, then transferred to Philadelphia as staff photographer. She was named Pennsylvania photo editor in 2005.

She has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas.

Stewart, who has been interim South regional photo editor based in Washington, D.C., will transfer to the AP’s South regional desk in Atlanta.

Stewart joined the AP in 2005 at the State Photo Center in Washington, and transferred to the New York headquarters desk in 2007. In those roles he helped lead efforts to enhance U.S. newspaper photo contributions to the AP.

Stewart began his career as staff photographer at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in Little Rock in 1989, and became director of photography at the Columbia Daily Tribune in Columbia, Mo., in 1994. He was named director of photography at The Albuquerque Journal in 1999, and in 2002 he became senior photo editor for Polaris Images in New York.

He has a bachelor’s degree Cameron University in Lawton, Okla.

Sato, based at the Central Desk in Chicago, had been serving in the interim regional photo editor role.

Sato joined the AP in 2005 as administrative photo editor in Columbus, Ohio, before transferring to Chicago in 2009.

He began his career as a staff photographer at the Press-Register of Mobile, Ala., in 1991 and became the paper’s director of photography in 1996. He left the newspaper in 1999 to obtain a master’s degree at Spring Hill College in Mobile before returning in 2001 as director of photography.

Stathis, who had served since 2007 as assistant national photo editor based in Los Angeles, will transfer to Phoenix as regional photo editor for the West.

Stathis joined the AP in 1981 as a photo editor in New York, and in 1991 he became senior photo editor/North America, responsible for all U.S. photo coverage. He was named California state photo editor in 1998, and in 2004 he became regional photo editor-West, based in Los Angeles.

Stathis began his career as a staff photographer at the Clearwater (Fla.) Sun in 1976 before becoming a freelance photographer in 1979. He has a bachelor’s degree from the University of South Florida.