Erica Whitaker of Louisville, Ky., is the new chair of trustees for Baptist News Global. She began the role Feb. 6 at the conclusion of the board’s annual meeting, succeeding Larry Brumley of Macon, Ga., who is rotating off the board due to term limits.
Whitaker serves as chief operating officer of BSK Seminary and is a former pastor in Louisville.
Erica Whitaker
BNG board members also elected three new trustees and one returning trustee, adopted a $900,000 budget for the current year and affirmed a policy on use of artificial intelligence.
Newly elected trustees joining the board are:
- Janice Anderson, a lay member of South Main Baptist Church in Houston, who is returning to service after a one-year gap required by BNG’s bylaws.
- Laura Ellis, a former BNG Clemons Fellow, who previously worked as project manager for Baptist Women in Ministry and now is director of operations for Fabled Bookshop in Waco, Texas. She is a graduate of the University of Mary Hardin Baylor and the Boston University School of Theology, where she earned a master of divinity degree.
- Steven Follis, a deacon at St. John’s Baptist Church in Charlotte, N.C. A double graduate of Baylor University, he works in the technology field as a senior product leader.
- Bob Freeman, a Realtor in Metro Atlanta and North Georgia who is a deacon and lay leader at The Church at Wieuca in Atlanta. He is a graduate of Carson Newman University and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Five trustees rolled off the board after this meeting at the end of their terms: Larry Brumley; Carol Younger of Brooklyn, N.Y., Craig Martin of Richmond, Va.; Kevin Pranato of Little Rock, Ark; and Mike Parnell of Raleigh, N.C. Aidsand Wright-Riggins also recently resigned from the board due to other commitments, including his service as mayor of Collegeville, Pa.
The new policy on AI codifies what has been BNG’s most recent practice. It states:
- AI-generated content will not be used in published articles unless it is expressly identified as such in the context of reporting or commenting on AI.
- Any background research that is known to have been AI-generated, such as through Google Search summaries, will be double-checked by the author for its veracity. BNG articles will not quote AI-generated content as an attributed source.
- BNG journalists and contributing writers are strongly encouraged to exercise critical human oversight in the use of any AI programs to draft or generate portions of preliminary article content.
- BNG will not knowingly publish any article generated through AI.
- AI-generated visual content (including photos, graphics, videos and captions) will not be published by BNG or any BNG social media account unless they are clearly identified as such. While AI-generated images may be used to illustrate feature or opinion articles, AI-generated images never will be used in news articles or published as a representation of actual events.