Jennifer Nicholls and David Sommers were elected new board members at the Annual Meeting held on December 12, 2023.
Jennifer Nicholls
Jennifer Nicholls is a small business and real estate attorney with Brophy Schmor, LLP. As a lawyer, she represents business owners and individuals throughout Southern Oregon. As a partner in the firm, she is active in all facets of firm management.
Jennifer currently serves on the boards of the Center for Nonprofit Legal Services, the Business Law Section of the Oregon State Bar, and University of Oregon Law School Alumni Association (Treasurer). Previously, she held numerous positions (including chair) of the Oregon State Bar’s New Lawyers Division, receiving multiple awards for her work. She holds degrees from the University of Oregon School of Law (Coif) and Mount Holyoke College.
David Sommers
In April 2023, David Sommers became the publisher of the Rogue Valley Times—a new publication launched by Oregon-based and family-owned EO Media Group in early 2023 to serve Jackson County and Southern Oregon. Before joining the Times, Sommers served for five years as CEO of Pacific Community Media and as Publisher of the Long Beach Post and Long Beach Business Journal, one of the largest local media organizations in Southern California.
During his tenure in Long Beach, he grew the newsroom from a staff of three to nearly 30 full time employees and journalists, serving over one million monthly readers and viewers through community engagement, print, digital, social media, broadcast, and solutions journalism efforts.
Sommers previously served as the Chief Operating Officer of Pacific6 Enterprises, a $350 million private equity fund, with investment interests in over a dozen local, national and international businesses and industries, where he helped lead the company’s highest-priority initiatives and managed day-to-day corporate operations, including finance, human resources, real estate development and major capital projects.
He started his journalism career as a newscast producer at NBC affiliates in Idaho and Oregon and is the son of retired Salvation Army officers and a graduate of California State University, Sacramento.
Sommers and his wife, Anne-Marie Pedersen, a college professor at Southern Oregon University, are parents to 12-year-old son Aaron and nine-year-old daughter Hazel.
Other current members of the DMA Board of Directors
Richard Barney, Clay Bearnson, Brendan Binger, EJ McManus, Jason Nelson, Phyllis Nelson, Lisa Stanton, Sarah Strickler, Marta Tarantsey, Cooper Whitman, and David Wilkerson
2024 DMA Board Officers
President, EJ McManus
Vice President, Richard Barney,
Secretary, Marta Tarantsey
Treasurer, Lisa Stanton
