2024 Meet the Expert 

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

Vanessa Martinez and Margaret Sorrows will be available on Tuesday, June 25, and Wednesday, June 26, 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: 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.

Vanessa Martinez advises The Legend yearbook and AGO News at El Dorado High School in El Paso, Texas. 

She teaches graphic design and commercial photography, started advising in 2014 and earned the JEA Rising Star Award in 2019. She also coaches the UIL journalism team, and helped several students qualify for state competition. 

The Legend has earned multiple CSPA Silver and Gold Crowns, ILPC Stars and NSPA Pacemakers, along with NSPA Design of the Year in 2020.

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 (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.