Washington Informer

The Washington Informer team consists of talented staff journalists, photographers, social and multimedia personnel and interns who are dedicated to carrying out the newspaper’s mission. The team collectively brings years of experience gathering and disseminating information to the general public. They are as follows:

Shantella Sherman, Managing Editor
Shantella Sherman is a Washington, D.C., native.  She holds degrees in mass communications (B.S.) and historical theory (M.A.), both from Jackson State University in Mississippi.
Sherman is a doctoral candidate at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln, where her field of scholarship includes African-American Popular Culture, Black British Film History, Women & Gender Studies, and the American Eugenics Movement.  Her dissertation is entitled: In Search of Purity: Popular Eugenics and Racial Uplift among New Negroes 1915-1940.”  Sherman is the author of the novel, Fester.

Tracey Gold Bennett, Assistant Managing Editor
Tracey Gold Bennett has written and produced news for numerous radio and television stations across the country (New York, North Carolina, Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia,) and has also worked as a columnist and freelance reporter for the Washington Examiner, managing editor and reporter for Naval District Washington's Waterline newspaper and as a Black Entertainment Television (BET) news reporter. She is the author of four books about Washington, D.C.

Dorothy Rowley, WI Web Editor
Dorothy Rowley has worked in print journalism for more than 20 years in capacities from reporter and staff writer to copy editor and news editor. Rowley also has a background in public relations and teaching.
She has worked for daily newspapers that include The Progress Index in Petersburg, Va., and the Baltimore Examiner in Maryland.
Rowley earned her B.A. degree in journalism from Virginia Union University and did graduate studies in educational media at Virginia State University. Rowley’s interests include interior decorating and indulging in collectibles such as black memorabilia items.

Ron Burke, Advertising/Marketing Director
Ron  Burke is a native of Hampton, Va., and was raised during a time that racial discrimination and segregation were deeply threaded in the fabric of society. As the product of a loving two-parent home, he was encouraged to never let anything stand in his way. 
As a business management major at Hampton University, it’s no wonder Burke decided to commit himself to serving the black community in the District of Columbia. Coming on board in 2002 as the advertising/marketing director, Burke has been building partnerships and maintaining the Informer’s visibility since that time. 

Burke sits on the board of directors of MACNET, which is the advertising and marketing network for MACPA (Mid Atlantic Community Papers Association), and his fundraising acumen helps to support the programs of The Washington Informer Charities, Inc., a non-profit organization focused on education and literacy.

James Wright, Staff Writer
James Wright has held reporting and editing jobs at the Washington Post and the Washington AFRO-American newspaper. Throughout his 20-year career, he has interviewed some of the most prominent political figures in the news and has won awards for stories on Associate Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, the treatment of black women in the criminal justice system and rising professional boxer Dominic Wade. He has traveled to Africa, Europe and Afghanistan to report the news.

Carlos Hernandez, Editorial Intern
Carlos Hernandez is currently is in his senior year of journalism studies at the University of the District of Columbia (UDC).  Hernandez, 21, who was born and raised in Washington, D.C., describes himself dedicated, outgoing and resilient.

Hernandez also dabbles in photography and when once asked what he wants to accomplish through journalism, his response was, “I just want to give it my all and keep learning everything I can -- I want to be a catalyst for change in this world, and it all starts with our news.”

John E. De Freita,Sports Photographer
Prior to joining the Washington Informer staff in 1980, John DeFreitas worked as a freelance photographer covering diplomatic functions for five Caribbean embassies in the District of Columbia. He also photographed administrative personnel for three major universities in D.C.
A sports enthusiast, DeFreitas started photographing sporting events in the Washington metropolitan area and continues to contribute photographs to Soccer America Magazine in New York City and Referee Magazine in Franksville, Wisc.
DeFreitas graduated from Howard University in 1972 with a bachelor’s degree in accounting and attended George Washington University where he specialized in international marketing.

Shevry Lassiter - is the owner of Sure Shot Photography, a studio based in the Washington metropolitan area. Lassiter has been in the photography business for 10 years and since starting her career, has captured numerous historical events affecting the African-American community. Lassiter is a notable event photographer. Some of her clients include Reach Media and Tom Joyner, The Joint Center for Political Studies, Greater Mt. Calvary Holy Church and What’s Happening Washington.

Lassiter is a native Washingtonian and attended Calvin Coolidge Sr. High and American University. She is married to Michael Lassiter and they have two sons, JoVaughn Davis (30) and Michael Lassiter, Jr. (26), and one daughter, Tyler (20).