2023 Meet the Expert 

Meet the Expert — a popular workshop offering — makes nationally acclaimed scholastic journalism educators available to consult individually with publication staffs.

A consultant will work with a staff on theme development, ways to expand coverage, trends for 2024 yearbooks, tips to improve photography, in-person critique of the 2023 yearbook or newspaper, traditional and alternative copy presentations or any other individual concerns.

Susan Massy, Linda Puntney and Margaret Sorrows will be available on Tuesday, June 27, and Wednesday, June 28, at the following times both days —

9:30 a.m. • 10:30 a.m. • 1 p.m. • 2 p.m. • 3 p.m. • 4 p.m.

While the consultants are not company employees, the Meet the Expert program is made possible by our sponsors: Herff Jones, Jostens and Walsworth.

Advisers sign up for each session, although the entire staff attends. Advisers may purchase more than one session. The cost is $75 for each 50-minute session.

Susan Massy advises the Lair yearbook and the Northwest Passage newspaper at Shawnee Mission Northwest High School, Shawnee, Kansas, where she teaches newspaper, yearbook and photojournalism. Both publications have earned CSPA Crowns and NSPA Pacemakers.

Massy was honored as the 1999 JEA National Yearbook Adviser of the Year.

Linda Puntney, MJE, holds the distinction of retiring as the executive director of the Journalism Education Association twice. She is an emeritus professor of journalism at Kansas State University, Manhattan.

She served as director of Student Publications Inc. and the adviser to the Royal Purple yearbook and Update magazine. From 1990 through 2010, the Royal Purple won both the ACP Pacemaker and CSPA Gold Crown, one of the only books in the nation to do so.

Puntney has received the NSPA Pioneer award, JEA Medal of Merit, Lifetime Achievement Award, Carl Towley Award and the Teacher Inspiration Award. She was awarded the CSPA Gold Key and the Charles O’Malley Award for Teaching and is a member of the CMA Hall of Fame.

Margaret Sorrows retired in June 2015 after 36 years of advising yearbooks and teaching digital photography, most recently for 24 years at Bryant High School in Arkansas.

She was the 2014 JEA H.L. Hall Yearbook Adviser of the Year. Her yearbooks won Gold and Silver CSPA Crowns and NSPA Pacemakers, including selection to the NSPA Hall of Fame in 2008. Her honors include a JEA Lifetime Achievement Award, NSPA Pioneer Award, CSPA Gold Key, TAJE Texas Trailblazer Award and runner-up to Arkansas Teacher of the Year.

She is currently an ambassador for Jostens, serving as an educational and creative consultant.