OFFICERS

Judd Cooney
Chairman 2008 - 2009
President, 2007 - 2008
Director, term ends 2009
Pagosa Springs, Colorado

Cooney has been active in the outdoor writing and photography fields since 1964. In 2001, Cooney was inducted into the Bowhunter's Hall of Fame and he has been a senior member of the Pope and Young Club since 1980. During the past 41 years, while Cooney has written about and photographed the outdoor experience full-time, he's also provided guiding and outfitting services. Cooney's specialty is hunting but he's covered a vast array of subjects, from politics to flowers. His images have graced the covers of Outdoor Life, Sportsmen's Bowhunting, Colorado Outdoors, Harris Publications, Vulcan Publications, Aqua Field Annuals, American Hunter, Deer & Deer Hunting and many more. Cooney is currently the calling editor for Fur, Fish & Game, and he has a column titled "Cooney's Corner" in Predator Extreme. Cooney has also authored three books: Advanced Scouting for Whitetails, Bowhunter’s Field Manual and Decoying Big Game.

Chris Chaffin
President 2008-2009
Treasurer, 2006 - 2007 & 2007 - 2008
Director, term ends 2009
Melbourne Beach, FL

Chaffin is President and CEO of Chaffin Communications, Inc. and former vice-president of public relations and conservation – and the executive director of Fish & Wildlife Journal and STEP OUTSIDE TV for The Outdoor Channel. Former positions also include director of PR/Conservation Partnerships and SHOT Show press room manager for NSSF. Chaffin has been an outdoor communicator for more than 30 years. He combined his degree in communications – with emphasis on public relations and advertising – with his love of the outdoors and spent 20 years as an information officer and supervisor for both the Utah and Idaho state wildlife management agencies. He also did some freelance writing and photography. Over the last 15 years, he has worked on the national scene representing several prominent components of the outdoor community – promoting hunting, fishing, the shooting sports and conservation. Chaffin served two terms as president of The Association for Conservation Information. He has helped craft national conservation legislation and chaired the IAFWA Education, Outreach and Diversity Committee. Chaffin also served on the national Ballot Issues Coalition Steering Committee and currently sits on the North American Hunting Heritage Steering Committee.

Michael Faw
Treasurer 2008 - 2009
Director, term ends 2010
Polk City, Iowa

As a professional outdoor communicator and photographer for more than two decades, Faw has written works and shot photographs that have appeared in dozens of international, national, regional and state publications. He currently works full-time as a freelance editor, writer and photographer; and covers a wide range of outdoor sports with an emphasis on hunting, shooting and optics. Faw's education and vast outdoors experiences have helped him work as a full- or part-time editor and writer for numerous publications. Working as an editor, Faw learned about the corporate media environment and the challenges faced when preparing magazines, books and electronic media. As a full-time freelancer, he has learned the challenges that today’s writers and photographers face when trying to earn a living and building working relationships within the corporate environment.

Rick Story
Secretary 2008 - 2009
Director, term ends 2011
Columbus, Ohio

Rick Story is senior vice president and secretary of the board of directors of the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance.

He is an association management and fund raising executive with special expertise in government relations and public affairs.  He began with the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance in 1981 as director of communications and has since held about every job in the place. He is a veteran of virtually every battle throughout America dealing with sportsmen’s rights for the past 30 years.

His background includes a five-year tour as outdoor writer for the former Columbus, Ohio Scripps Howard newspaper, the Citizen-Journal. He was a freelance outdoor writer and sold to various publications, including Outdoor Life, Great Lakes Fisherman and others.

DIRECTORS

Jay Cassell
Director, term ends 2010
New York, New York

Cassell is a veteran editor, writer, book author and outdoorsman who serves as the deputy editor for Field & Stream magazine. After earning an M.A. in magazine journalism from Syracuse, he got his first job as production editor of Outdoor Life. Moving to Sports Afield, he became part of an editorial team that built that magazine into one of the best outdoor magazines in the 1980s and 1990s; then, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Cassell went to The Lyons Press and, as its editorial director, helped ramp it up from a small publishing house to one that published more than 270 books a year during his tenure. Cassell has also written for Field & Stream, Sports Afield, Outdoor Life, Petersen's Hunting, Time, Business Week and many other publications. He has hosted a number of outdoor television shows, has written or edited five books, and is working on his sixth.

Andy Lightbody
Director, term ends 2009
Gunnison, Colorado

Lightbody has been an avid outdoorsman since early childhood and has been active in the outdoor writing/journalism field since 1977. He has written several dozen books and hundreds of articles, edited thousands of manuscripts and selected thousands of photos for use in various publications in the U.S. and abroad. Lightbody owns Rocky Mountain Television (RMTV) Network, through which he produces and hosts outdoor-related, syndicated TV programs. Lightbody is also a regional correspondent for Fishing & Hunting News and a regular contributor to many leading outdoor publications.

Bill Miller
Director, term ends 2010
Anoka, Minnesota

Miller is the Vice-President, Media Development & Production of the North American Media Group (NAMG), Executive Producer, North American Outdoors Television and Executive Director of the North American Hunting Club (NAHC). Upon graduation from the University of Wisconsin, Miller landed a job as the first-ever associate editor for the North American Hunting Club's (NAHC) North American Hunter magazine. Twenty-three years, 11 magazines, 12 television shows, 10 job titles, dozens of book contributions, two complete NAHC books and millions of words have passed, and Bill remains with the North American Media Group (NAMG). Miller authors an every-issue column for NAH, occasional features, television scripts and some freelance projects. He also hosts North American Hunter on VERSUS Network and ESPN’s Shoot More, Shoot More Often.

Kevin Tate
Director, term ends 2011
West Point, Mississippi
 

As an avid hunter and fisherman and an insatiable reader, Kevin Tate has been a student of the outdoors and of outdoor writing since childhood. The words of Patrick F. McManus, Gene Hill, Robert Ruark and many others drove him to take up the writer’s trade.

Current Mossy Oak Productions products include: Mossy Oak’s Hunting the Country, Mossy Oak Classics, Whistling Wings, Browning’s The Best There Is, and The Obsession Revealed. In the past, Kevin has also produced copy for American Hunter, Step Outside, Remington Country and others.

Whether focusing on print or video, Tate’s mission is to deliver products that not only make the company proud, but make all hunters proud of what they do.

Larry Weishuhn
Director, term ends 2011
Uvalde, Texas

Larry Weishuhn is one of America's most respected and recognized professional wildlife biologists, outdoor writers, speakers and outdoor television personality.

As a professional biologist he has established quality wildlife management programs on well over 12,000,000 acres.

As an award-winning writer he has served on staff with numerous national publications, worked as an editor, and on occasion as a publisher as well. He continues to serve on staff with numerous national publications. He has also authored several books, is a sought after event and sportsmen’s show speaker and national spokesperson. He has long been a featured speaker with the National Rifle Association’s Great American Hunters Tour and is also a member of POMA’s Speaker Bureau.

As a television personality, Weishuhn has produced and owned his own shows was as a featured co-host and host on such shows as T/C Game Trails, North American Hunter, and Whitetail Revolution and others. Weishuhn currently serves as the host of Versus Country’s upcoming Winchester’s World of Whitetail.

MANAGEMENT

Laurie Lee Dovey
Executive Director
Past Secretary 2005 - 2006
Johnstown, PA

Dovey has been crafting outdoor copy for 20 years, with an emphasis on hunting and fishing. Dovey has had over 1,600 articles and 600 images published and has received more than 50 writing and photography awards. In addition to crafting several monthly columns, Dovey writes a wide range of hunting, fishing and technical features for dozens of international and U.S.-based publications. Dovey was a founding board member of POMA and added the POMA executive director position to her full-time freelance writing and photography career in 2006. lldovey@professionaloutdoormedia.org or lld@lldovey.com.

 

Shelly Moore
Executive Assistant
Johnstown, PA

Moore maintains POMA's office in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Shelly manages the day-to-day administrative business, including accounting, banking functions, membership records and databases, application processing and general membership communications. smoore@professionaloutdoormedia.org