Martha Akers, 2005 JEA Yearbook Adviser of the Year, advises the Saga at Loudoun Valley High School (VA). The Saga consistently earns NSPA Pacemaker, CSPA Gold Crown and VHSL Trophy honors. Akers has received the CSPA Gold Key, NSPA Pioneer Award, VHSL Lifetime Achievement Award, VHSL Torch Award, VHSL Hall of Fame and the SIPA Distinguished Service Award.
Alyssa Boehringer is in her 13th year of advising journalism at her alma mater, McKinney High School (TX). She advises broadcast, yearbook and online news and loves taking kids to journalism conventions. She is incoming president-elect for the Texas Association of Journalism Educators and was the 2017 JEA National Broadcast Adviser of the Year.
Jennifer de la Fuente is a web designer and developer who has operated her own business, Rosebud Designs, since 2009. She specializes in building custom WordPress sites and has been teaching code to all levels of learners (and many journalists) for the past eight years. She began teaching at the USC Annenberg School for Journalism in 2014. Before running her own business, she spent 10 years in journalism — almost all of it in sports — as a reporter, copy editor, page designer and web producer. Her journalism career includes stops at the Orange County Register, Arizona Daily Star, The News Journal (Wilmington, DE) and The Sacramento Bee.
Sam Effinger has been teaching photography at the Gloria Shields Workshop since the workshop’s early years. Before retiring, Effinger taught journalism, photography and advised award-winning yearbooks and newspapers at several high schools in Oklahoma including Putnam City High School and the Casady School. His yearbook at Putnam City High School was a consistent CSPA Crown and NSPA Pacemaker winner. Effinger has earned the CSPA Gold Key and was named a JEA Distinguished Yearbook Adviser in.
Mitchell Franz is an independent photographer and video producer. Formerly the director of media and communications for the largest privately-held senior healthcare company in Texas, he also operates a digital marketing firm when not shooting photos or videos for clients. His work includes a wide range of people, places and things from Ross Perot to Istanbul, Turkey to medical implants in Memphis. You can also find Franz working with Jensen Larson Photography of Florida on additional visual projects. Franz actively participated in scholastic journalism during high school and won top state and national awards. He has taught workshops for ATPI, ILPC and Walsworth.
Don Goble is an award-winning multimedia instructor, international speaker and published author from St. Louis. JEA named Goble the 2015 Broadcast Adviser of the Year. Don speaks internationally offering educators innovative ways to leverage video and media literacy into the classroom. Don was a part of the 2011 Apple Distinguished Educator class.
Corey Hale has advised high school newspapers for 15 years and is in his third year advising The Red Ledger online student newspaper and the Lovejoy News Network broadcast program Lovejoy High School (TX). Hale cut his journalistic teeth in the wilds of Central Arkansas, where he wrote, edited and designed in the sports department of a medium-sized daily. In 2012 he was the Lewisville High School (TX) Teacher of the Year. He also received the ILPC Edith Fox King Award.
Charla Harris has advised the journalism program at Pleasant Grove High School (TX) for the past 31 years. Her students have won multiple CSPA Gold Crowns, NSPA Pacemakers and ILPC Star Awards. Harris is an ILPC Max Haddick Teacher of the Year, a JEA and Dow Jones Distinguished Adviser. She is a past president of TAJE.
Bobby Hawthorne is author of The Radical Write, Longhorn Football: An Illustrated History, Home Field: Texas High School Football Stadium from Alice to Zephyr and University Interscholastic League: An Illustrated History of 100 Years of Service. A popular workshop and convention speaker, Hawthorne is a former director of Texas Interscholastic League Press Conference. He has won numerous accolades, including the TAJE Trailblazer Award, ILPC Edith Fox King Award, CSPA Charles O`Malley Excellence in Teaching Award and JEA Carl Towley Award.
Dean Hume has been teaching high school or college-level journalism classes and advising publications for 36 years. A former reporter and columnist for various daily and weekly papers across the state, Hume currently teaches journalism at Lakota East High School (OH), where he is in his 25th year of advising the Spark, the award-winning news magazine that routinely features a staff of more than 125 students. Spark is a consistent CSPA Gold Crown, Quill and Scroll Gallup, NSPA Pacemaker winner as well as a two-time SPJ student publication of the year. A Dow Jones Newspaper Fund Distinguished Adviser, Hume serves as an adjunct professor of Journalism in the School of Informatics at Northern Kentucky University. He has earned the TAJE Trailblazer Award and was named a 2002 President Scholar Educator by the U.S. Department of Education.
Wade Kennedy is a high school journalism adviser and a professional freelance photographer. Kennedy has advised yearbook and newspaper classes at Richardson High School for 10 years. A former ILPC Tops in Texas award winner, Kennedy now enjoys seeing his students win the top state and national awards. Kennedy won the Edith Fox King Award from ILPC.
David Knight is the public information director for the Lancaster County School District in South Carolina and teaches two broadcast journalism classes. He has advised high school and middle school newspapers and has been recognized by state, regional and national press organizations as a leader in scholastic journalism.
Gary Lundgren, associate director of the National Scholastic Press Association, has received the CSPA Gold Key, NSPA Pioneer, JEA Medal of Merit, ILPC Edith Fox King and TAJE Friend of Journalism Award. In his 10 years at the University of Arkansas, the Arkansas Traveler newspaper and Razorback yearbook staffs he advised were consistent CSPA Crown and ACP Pacemaker winners. During his 20 years at Jostens, he launched the Look Book, Jostens Adviser University and edited three editions of the 1,2,3 Yearbook Curriculum as well as editing Jostens Adviser & Staff magazine.
Jim McCarthy teaches broadcast journalism, video production and multimedia production at Joseph A. Gregori High School (CA). He advises JNN, a nationally recognized broadcast program. McCarthy has taught English and journalism at two other high schools where he advised award-winning newspapers and yearbooks.
Mike McLean is a Dallas-based freelance photojournalist. His foundation of storytelling skills comes from his strong news background at the Dallas Times Herald as a staff photographer. He served on a team nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the crash of Delta flight 191 at DFW airport. McLean is a frequent speaker and workshop instructor. He is a co-author of Get The Picture published by Jostens and developed and taught an online digital photojournalism curriculum for a university based in Colorado. He recently developed a photojournalism course sequence for A Backpack Journalist.
Mark Murray currently works as the Director of Technical Services and Systems Integration for the Arlington Independent School District in Arlington, Texas. For the past 33 years, Murray has served as the President and now Executive Director for the Association of Texas Photography Instructors. Murray is a Joseph M. Murphy and Gold Key recipient from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association, a Pioneer Award winner from the National Scholastic Press Association, has been awarded the Carl Towley Award and Medal of Merit by the national Journalism Education Association, has been named a Trailblazer by the Texas Association of Journalism Educators, and ATPI has presented him with their highest honor, the Star of Texas award.
Lori Oglesbee advises EagleNationOnline.com and teaches both photojournalism and journalism at Prosper High School. Oglesbee was named 2009 JEA National Yearbook Adviser of the Year and 2005 ILPC Max R. Haddick Texas Journalism Teacher of the Year. Her students have won top honors at the state and national level for more than 30 years.
Rebecca Pollard, MJE advises the Leopard yearbook at Lovejoy H.S. in Lucas, Texas. During her 18-year career, she has advised yearbook, broadcast, newspaper, online and literary magazine. Her programs have won state and national awards, including NSPA Pacemakers. She has recently been named as a JEA Special Recognition Yearbook Adviser, and was a recipient of ILPC’s Edith Fox King Award in 2013. In addition to serving on this committee, Pollard also serves JEA as the Journalist of the Year Committee chair and as the Leadership and Team Building curriculum leader.
Mary Pulliam advised publications at Duncanville High School for 37 years. And before retirement, she won just about every award out there — including the UIL Sponsor Excellence Award, JEA’s Teacher Inspiration Award, ILPC’s Max Haddick Journalism Teacher of the Year and Edith Fox King awards, TAJE’s Trailblazer Award and Friend of Journalism award, CSPA’s Gold Key and NSPA’s Pioneer award. Her publications also won just about every award, state and national. During her tenure, both publications were inducted into the NSPA Hall of Fame. She has retired from the classroom but not from judging and consulting. Pulliam is an author of Springboard to Journalism, The Second Page and Get the Picture.
Margie M. Raper, MJE, advises student publications and teaches photojournalism and journalism at Highland Park High School in Dallas, TX. She is proud to share her passion for scholastic journalism with her students, see them grow as storytellers and celebrate their achievements. She serves as the president of the Texas Association of Journalism Educators, on the Gloria Shields NSPA Media workshop committee as well as the JEA news gathering curriculum leader.
C. Dow Tate is a journalism teacher at Shawnee Mission East High School in Prairie Village, Kansas, and the director of the Gloria Shields All-American Publication Workshop. He’s the co-author of Scholastic Journalism, 12th edition. In 2011, he was named a Kansas Teacher of the Year finalist. He was inducted into the Scholastic Journalism Hall of Fame at the University of Oklahoma and was named a Texas Legend, as one of the most influential people in the state’s 75-year scholastic journalism history. He taught 14 years at Dallas Hillcrest High School. His students’ publications – the newspaper, yearbook and news website — have earned the nation’s highest honors, including the National Scholastic Press Association’s National Pacemaker and the Columbia Scholastic Press Association’s Gold Crown. Tate has been named the Dow Jones Newspaper Fund’s National High School Journalism Teacher of the Year as well as the Texas Max R. Haddick Teacher of the Year. He served as the president of the Dallas Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists in 1990.
Becky Lucas Tate, has advised both the award-winning newspaper and yearbook at Shawnee Mission North High School (KS) for the past 28 years, Tate has been named a Special Recognition Adviser in newspaper by the Dow Jones Newspaper Fund and in yearbook by JEA. She also received the Engel Award for the Outstanding Kansas Journalism Teacher of the Year in from the Kansas Associated Collegiate Press. In addition, she received a CSPA Gold Key and JEA Medal of Merit. Tate’s staffs consistently earn All-American and Medalist ratings along with Crown and Pacemaker awards.
Sherri Taylor teaches graphic design at S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University (NY) where she also directs the Empire State School Press Association and the School Press Institute. She is a co-author Scholastic Journalism, a high school journalism textbook now in its 12th edition. A former award-winning journalism adviser at Irving High School (TX), Taylor was awarded the ATPI Star of Texas in 2017. She has also earned the CSPA Gold Key and NSPA Pioneer. In Texas, she has earned both the Max Haddick Teacher of the Year and the Edith Fox King awards from ILPC. Taylor has served on the judging committees for the CSPA Crown and NSPA Awards in addition to the Society of News Design annual competition.
Cindy Todd is the Texas Association of Journalism Educators executive director. She formerly advised the yearbook at Westlake High School (TX) where her students earned top awards from ILPC, CSPA and NSPA. Todd has received the 2012 JEA National Yearbook Adviser of the Year, ILPC Max Maddick Teacher of the Year, TAJE Trailblazer, CSPA Gold Key, NSPA Pioneer and the JEA Medal of Merit.
Jeff Tuttle is an award-winning freelance photographer from Wichita, KS, and director of photography for The Journal, a quarterly magazine published by the Kansas Leadership Center. He is an adjunct photojournalism professor at Wichita State University and the team photographer for Wichita State basketball. He has previously served as a staff photographer for the Dubois County Herald in Jasper, IN and The Wichita Eagle. Professional honors including being named the National Press Photographer Association Region 7 Photographer of the Year including once while in college. He has also been nominated for two Pulitzer Prizes.
Scott Winter wrote the 2015 book Nebrasketball: Tim Miles and a Big 10 Team on the Rise and advises the national award-winning Clarion at Bethel University, where he is a professor. In four states, his students have won ACP Pacemakers, Hearst Awards and ACP Best of Show honors.