For DeWayne Wickham, the third time was the charm.

After losing bids for the NABJ presidency in 1977 and 1985, he won the 1987 election - by the widest majority in NABJ history. He inherited the leadership responsibilities of an organization whose basic structure had been firmly established by his predecessors. His task: to move us forward into areas that were largely uncharted by NABJ.

The early losses fueled Wickham's drive to lead the organization, and he won in 1987, he says, because he was "the best-prepared candidate."

In the four years before, he attended every regional and national board meetings but one - the board meeting prior to the 1987 national convention, which coincided with the weekend he married his wife Wanda, owner of a Baltimore-based public relations and production company.

Wickham made a personal commitment to visit local chapters and meet both print and broadcast journalists and black college students. In his travels across the country, he was also instrumental in bringing new chapter affiliates into the NABJ fold. By 1987, he knew the membership and its concerns, as well as the board's strengths and weaknesses.

Besides being well prepared, Wickham rose to the presidency with specific goals for NABJ. He had a burning desire to grow the membership and increase opportunities for its members, helping them to advance in their workplaces and linking them to other employment opportunities. Under Wickham's leadership, NABJ strongly challenged the industry's notion of workplace opportunities.

When employers said, "We can't find any qualified blacks," Wickham saw it as a problem of demand, not supply, and rejected the notion of newspaper and television associations conducting more studies. He urged media organizations to hire more people rather than limiting their diversity efforts to investing in more scholarships and internship programs.

He calls it a "diversity rip-off" for news organizations to limit their diversity efforts to giving $25,000 to $30,000 for scholarship. Many times, he says, it's how they buy time to continue their bad employment practices.

"The truth of the matter is that they're giving you less money than it costs to hire an employee with salary and benefits," Wickham says. "If they do what's right, they show their commitment to diversity."

The recent decision by the American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE) to abandon its Year 2000 diversity goals underscores his assertion that, when it comes to really supporting diversity, the industry has not put its heart or its money where its mouth is.

"It's not enough for media managers to voice a commitment to the hiring and promotion of African-American journalists," Wickham says. "Anything short of real gains is an empty promise."

Wickham brought a new level of independence to the NABJ presidency. Rather than tethering to media organizations the way others had been accused, he got up close and personal in challenging industry leaders to create more opportunities for NABJ members.

He even had the nerve to bite the hand that fed him.

Early in his presidency Wickham, a columnist for Gannett and USA Today, complained at the low level of funding that the Gannett Foundation (now the Freedom Forum) gave to NABJ. While some managers at Gannett were upset, the foundation soon increased its funding to NABJ.

Wickham brought his look-you-in-the-eye and shake-your-hand style to raising funds for the organization, joining NABJ regional directors on visits to the Knight Ridder Foundation, the Times Mirror Foundation, the Gannett Foundation and the Chicago Tribute Foundation to strengthen relationships and increase awareness of NABJ's role in the industry.

He also took many of his board members to meetings with publishers of major metropolitan newspapers and general managers of television stations in major markets. The result: financial support for NABJ conventions, scholarships and internships increased substantially, along with the organization's reputation as a force to be reckoned with.

In addition, Wickham has donated thousands of his own dollars to support NABJ scholarships, both at the national and local levels.

One of his biggest challenges as NABJ president, Wickham says, was to get NABJ's financial house in order and get the organization to operate within a structured budget, and he also instituted board approval of budgetary matters. He upgraded NABJ's financial review process to a formal annual audit to ensure a sophisticated method of checks and balances. The newly instituted financial management systems resulted in the 1988 convention netting what was then the largest profit in our organization's history, approximately $190,000.

Not only did Wickham raise more money for NABJ than any previous president, but he also left the organization with a greater net profit at the end of his two-year tenure.

Money wasn't the only thing that grew under his leadership.

Membership more than doubled. According to the first-ever published membership report compiled by the national headquarters in October 1987, NABJ had 845 members. When his term ended in August 1989, the total was 1,939.

Wickham's vision helped create the Unity Board and first Unity convention in 1994. He created the Council of Presidents for a second tier of leadership within NABJ that combines expertise with institutional memory. He led the move to computerize the organization's balloting process to make national elections more efficient, and he expanded what had been an awards reception into the full-fledged ceremony that highlights each year's conference. And the gospel brunch that he created as 1985 convention chair has become a favorite mainstay.

"DeWayne Wickham always had a vision for NABJ and he helped us move to a new level," said Pam Moore, former NABJ vice president-broadcast and anchor at KRON-TV in San Francisco.

"He was very focused and directed about what he wanted our organization to accomplish," she said. "He helped us gain national standing as a professional organization. He helped to get our operational systems working in a more businesslike fashion. He really helped us grow up. And he helped to build NABJ into a position of respected leadership, both in print and broadcast, throughout this industry."

The man's strong no-nonsense leadership style drew mixed reviews. Some who weren't part of the process complained that he was a dictator. But most board members say he was effective throughout his tenure and every motion he introduced was approved.

"Wickham's unique leadership style was to make each meeting the most productive it could be," says John Hanson, a former board member who is general manager of the Longhorn Radio Network in Austin, Texas. "In doing so, he provided you with all the information you needed to make a knowledgeable decision. He expected you to have read the information before the meeting. If you hadn't, there was hell to pay!"

A natural leader, Wickham also founded the Trotter Group, a coalition of black newspaper columnists. The group has been called upon by the White House for consultations with Vice President Al Gore, Secretary of Labor Alexis Herman and then-United Nations Ambassador and current Secretary of State Madeline Albright.

The fire for leading others into change still burns brightly in Wickham, as does his love for and commitment to NABJ.

His advice to future NABJ presidents?

"To be true to our founding convictions," he said. "We have steered away from those founding principles. We have not made them the centerpiece of our efforts as much as we should have."

Sheila Brooks is president and chief executive officer of SRB Productions Inc. in Washington, D.C. She is a former broadcast journalist who served as NABJ secretary from 1986-1991.