Careers We Helped Nurture

Kimberly Seals Allers
The Mocha Manual Co.
Allers wrote for TNJ during the magazine?s Brooklyn years, while she was a journalism student at New York University. In her post-college career, she has been a reporter for Fortune, The New York Post, The Times in London, and a senior editor at Essence. She freelanced for magazines such as Real Simple, Black Enterprise, Upscale, Better Homes & Gardens and Working Woman. Allers is the author of The Mocha Manual to a Fabulous Pregnancy (Amistad/ Harper-Collins), a co-producer of the video of the same name and owner of The Mocha Manual Co. Inc.

Milton Allimadi
Black Star News
Allimadi was part of the original TNJ staff, when the magazine was based in the Bedford-Stuyvesant community of Brooklyn. At the time, he was a contributing writer and an editor. He became a New York Times stringer and wrote The Hearts of Darkness: How White Writers Created the Racist Image of Africa (Black Star Books). He is the founder and publisher of Black Star News.

Christopher Chaney
NV magazine
Chaney served as TNJ?s advertising director from June 1996 to June 1998, at TNJ?s offices in Brooklyn, where he played a major role in the inaugural ?40 Under Forty Achievement Awards.? He joined NV immediately after leaving TNJ and is now that magazine?s advertising director.

Darryl Dye
Essence.com
Dye came to TNJ in 1998 as an advertising account executive. At the time of his departure in 2000, he was the advertising director. He subsequently was an account executive at Ebony magazine and account director at AOL Black Voices. Currently, he is the digital sales director for Essence.com.?

Alyssa Fant
Black Enterprise
Fant was part of the original event planning team in 1998 that worked on TNJ?s inaugural ?25 Influential Black Women in Business? luncheon. She currently is an event coordinator at Black Enterprise.?

Renee Flagler
Aspicomm Media Inc.
Flagler came to TNJ as a young writer interested in learning about the publishing world. Today, she is a frequent contributor to the magazine, author of three novels and founder of Aspicomm Media Inc., which specializes in publishing, marketing and events. In 2005, Aspicomm launched the Independent Self-Publishing Symposium, the only annual business conference for self-published authors and independent publishers.

Maximillian Hamilton
Black Enterprise
Hamilton joined TNJ in 2002 as an account executive and remained with the magazine until December 2007, when he joined Black Enterprise magazine. At the time of his departure from TNJ, he was the magazine?s advertising director. He is now a senior account executive at BE.

Kenneth Meeks
Black Enterprise
Kenneth Meeks was a member of the strategy team for the launch of TNJ in 1993 and one of the magazine?s first writers. He is now the managing editor of Black Enterprise. Prior to joining BE, he served as the assistant managing editor for The New York Amsterdam News, and as managing editor at Black Elegance and Belle magazines. He is the author of Driving While Black: What to Do When You Are a Victim of Racial Profiling (Broadway Books) and a contributing author to Brotherman: The Odyssey of Black Men in America (One World/Ballantine).?

George Orwel
DTN news service
While a student at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, Orwel was a contributing writer for TNJ during the magazine?s early days in Brooklyn. He subsequently joined The Hartford Courant as a reporter and later became an oil reporter for Dow Jones. He is the author of Black Gold: The New Frontier in Oil for Investors (Wiley). Currently, the petroleum editor for DTN news service, he remains a contributing writer for TNJ, with special focus on economics and finance and responsibility for the new Capital Markets page.

Tania Padgett
Newsday
Padgett was a member of the strategy team for the launch of TNJ and landed her first journalism job with the magazine in 1993 as a reporter, copyeditor and assigning editor. Today, Padgett is a features editor at Newsday newspaper, covering weddings, New York City events, travel, fashion and lifestyle.