Megan Stokes named Editor of the Year at SPJ Awards 

In a ceremony that honored Florida news publications including the Miami Herald and Tampa Bay Times, the Society for Professional Journalism awarded Oviedo Community News Editor-in-chief Megan Stokes the honor of Editor of the Year at its annual Sunshine State Awards Saturday. 

The ceremony, held at the Hollywood Central Performing Arts Center in Hollywood, Florida, honored journalists throughout the state, including OCN reporter Eric Orvieto in the Beat Reporting – Underrepresented Communities category for his multi-part series on the struggles and triumphs of the historically Black communities in Oviedo. 

One of Orvieto’s entries submitted in the category focused particularly on the community’s long push to have its cemetery incorporated into Oviedo’s city limits after nearly a century of being excluded from the city that surrounded it. That included the moving of bodies that had been paved over when a road was first built to reach the cemetery. Another profiled local activist Kathy Hunt and another covered the groundbreaking of Historic Oviedo Colored Schools Museum.

In the statewide Special Awards category, the SPJ awarded OCN’s editor-in-chief with Editor of the Year for her work to build the nonprofit news agency that also adds civic education and how-to guides to help engage readers. 

One judge wrote: “What Megan Stokes has been able to accomplish is nothing short of stunning and inspiring. Communities deserve more Megan Stokeses across the country, who, when faced with challenges to building news organizations, somehow find a way to get it done. It’s a testament to her, and also, the community.”