Lloyd LaCuesta

McLean, VA. – UNITY congratulates Lloyd LaCuesta, who is retiring after 43 years of service as a broadcast journalist and a diversity leader. LaCuesta, South Bay Bureau Chief for KTVU in the San Francisco Bay Area, steps down in June.

LaCuesta is a longtime leader, mentor and advocate for diversity in journalism who co-founded the UNITY alliance. He announced his retirement Tuesday.

“Lloyd is not only one of our UNITY founders, he is our friend. As a passionate champion of greater diversity in the news media and more opportunities for promising young journalists and aspiring newsroom managers, Lloyd set an example for all of us to follow,” said Joanna Hernandez, president of UNITY Journalists. “We congratulate him on his well-deserved retirement and wish him well in whatever adventures he has planned next.”

LaCuesta was instrumental in the founding of the UNITY alliance. He understood even then that diversity is not just the right thing to do, but the best thing to do for the sustainability of journalism.

“Lloyd has groomed more than one generation of journalists to careers that follow on his example of excellence in reporting and to serving our Asian American and Pacific Islander communities,” said Doris Truong, national president of the Asian American Journalists Association. “He has inspired us in AAJA by sharing his personal stories, and this is a well-deserved transition for someone who understands the value of maintaining a balanced life.”

While AAJA president, LaCuesta attended a historic 1988 Baltimore summit between AAJA, the Native American Journalists Association, the National Association of Black Journalists and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. He and other leaders there created a vision for the UNITY alliance at that meeting.

LaCuesta’s first job in journalism was at the Los Angeles Herald Examiner where he worked as a high school correspondent. He has also worked in radio at KNBC, KNX and as a military broadcaster in Korea with the American Forces and Military Radio Network. He joined KTVU as a reporter 36 years ago. He currently teaches journalism at San Jose State University.

LaCuesta was UNITY’s first president in 1991 and served as AAJA’s first elected national president from 1987 to 1990. He has also mentored countless Asian American journalists as a longtime trainer for AAJA’s 15-year-old Executive Leadership Program. LaCuesta was named to UNITY’s seed list of the top journalists of the past century, has won AAJA’s Lifetime Achievement Award and was recently featured in the AAJA Men of Broadcast calendar.

LaCuesta says he plans to come to the UNITY convention on Aug. 1-4 in Las Vegas, where you can offer him your personal congratulations. Register for the UNITY convention by June 29 for the best rates at http://unityconvention.org.

 For release April 26, 2012
Contact: Onica Makwakwa, Executive Director
UNITY: Journalists of Color
Telephone: 703.854.3594
Email: executive@unityjournalists.org

About UNITY

UNITY Journalists, an alliance of four journalism organizations representing more than 4,000 journalists, is the nation’s most diverse journalism organization. It is a strategic alliance advocating fair and accurate news coverage about people of color and LGBT issues and aggressively challenges news organizations to increase diversity in whom they employ at all levels of their companies.