aspa state convention 75th anniversary program 2012

1937-2012

A huge ASPA thank you to the following peopleDean, Dr. Loy Singleton, and the C&IS Dean’s Office

Dr. Jennifer Greer, Journalism Department ChairCecilia Hammond, Crechale Stevens and the Department of Journalism

Department of Advertising and Public RelationsDepartment of Telecommunication and Film

Department of Communication StudiesDiane Shaddix and the C&IS Graduate Program

Terri Brewer and WVUA-TVPaul Wright and the Office of Student MediaJohn Stevenson with The Randolph Leader

Desert Island Supply CompanyThomas C. Wilson, Associate Dean for Library Technology

Don Brown, Sarah Cole, Carol Cummings, Chelsey Dame, Alec Dixon, Joy Duckworth, Greg Goldstein, Jessie Jones, Angela Martin, Andrea Matei, Haley Namie,

Laura Owens, Alicia Perez, Breanna Thackerson, Deanne Winslett

Special thanks to Vestavia Hills High School for hosting our M-Rave event!

PATRONS

al.comAlabama Press Association

Alabama Web PressThe Birmingham NewsThe Huntsville Times

The Mobile Press-Register

Balfour Taylor PublishingMary Catherine Bartlett

Mike DunnJay Elmore

Jimmy ElmoreChris Nail

Jim RobbinsJoe Robbins

Walsworth YearbooksKane Belew, Tyler Craig

Our ASPA Board Members:President Melissa Dixon; Past President Erin Coggins; Vice President Connie Nolen;

Secretary Nikki Minoso; Director Emeritus Marie Parsons; Director Meredith Cummings Bowman; Graduate Assistant Meredith Qualls

Schedule of events Friday, Feb. 17, at Ferguson Center

8 a.m. Registration at Ferguson Theater9 a.m.. Kickoff and keynote, Mark Mayfield10 a.m. to 12 p.m. On-site competitions10 a.m. Session 1 11 a.m. Session 2Noon Lunch and keynote, Alan Blinder1:30 p.m. Session 32:30 p.m. Session 43:30 p.m. Session 5 4:30 p.m. Session 65:30 p.m. Dinner and closing awards ceremony

M-Rave event immediately following awards ceremony! Saturday, Feb. 18, at Reese Phifer Hall

(Session times vary depending on the duration of the class. See Saturday’s schedule for details.)

9 a.m. Session 110 a.m. Session 211 a.m. Session 3noon Lunch on your own1 p.m. Tours: UA campus tour, The Crimson White newsroom tour and WVUA station tour

Feb. 17-18, 2012 ASPA State Convention

Welcome to the annual

ASPA State Convention at The

University of Alabama.

#ASPA75 on Twitter

Don’t forget to drop in pennies to

represent your school at our Penny Drop to benefit the Student Press Law

Center! (We take other

kinds of money too!)


Mark your calendar for ASPA’s summer camps!June 15-17: The Long Weekend summer camp

June 15-24: Multicultural Journalism Workshop (Deadline to apply is April 1)

and other events ...September 17-21: Fall Regional Workshops

Sept. 17: Mobile Sept. 18: Montgomery Sept. 19: Tuscaloosa Sept. 21: Huntsville

December 14: Deadline for all media for competition and critiques.

For information check the ASPA Web site at aspa.ua.edu.

The goal of Scholastic Journalism Week, Feb. 19-25, is to do something, whether big or small, to raise awareness and promote your program to your community, school and staff. Your involve-ment and that of your students will serve to raise community consciousness regarding the benefits of scholastic journalism. Need some ideas? Check out JEA's Scholastic Journalism Week page, and then become part of the community on Facebook, or Tweet (#sjw2012) your own ideas. We hope for every staff to do something to celebrate, and represent Alabama well!


Onsite competitions begin at 10 a.m. and will be held in the following rooms. Stay in the theater for instructions before reporting to your room:

Yearbook copy and caption writing Theater

News writing 204B

Feature writing 204A

Sports writing 204A

Editorial writing Theater

Stand up/camcorder 204B

Newscast 204B

Sportscast 204A

Yearbook layout Gorgas library

Newspaper layout Gorgas library

10 a.m. Sessions Session 1

ASPA Board meeting (Advisers)The annual State Convention meeting for the ASPA board. All advisers are welcome to attend.Melissa Dixon Anderson Room, 302

Worry, worry, worry. If you do not hook your readers, they will not read your work. In this session, we will identify ways to get readers into your work and keep them so worried about your people/characters, your readers will turn page after page.Laura Hunter Morris Mayer Room, 312

Photography for beginnersLearn the basics of working with a camera, and how to make every shot better with the equipment you have.Dan Meissner Anderson Society, Room 313

The Art of Interviewing Human contact. Don’t hide behind a tape recorder. Do’s and Don’ts. Tips for getting good quotes. Listening and speaking techniques. Michele Gerlach Mortar Board, Room 300

Ya gotta get a gimmick!Get a mascot, a logo or do things that set you apart and create a niche for your program. Jody Evans Room 309

Broadcast interviewingTake your broadcast to the next level! On-camera interviewing, composition, framing, microphones, techniques, what to ask, how to ask it, and quality sound bites.Lesley Bruinton Forum, Room 360

Beating the yearbook drumLearn how to run a successful marketing campaign that will increase awareness and bring value in the eyes of students, faculty, parents and the community.Kane Belew Heritage, Room 322

11 a.m. Session 2

Beginning broadcast writingThis session will teach you how to make your scripts zing with clear, concise, and conversational writing. Dr. Jennifer Greer Room 309

Advisers: Adviser sessions begin at 11 a.m. The 10-11 a.m. period will allow you to help your students locate their sessions. Drinks and snacks are available in the Advisers Hospitality Room in the Anderson Room, 302.

Friday, Feb. 17 sessions, Ferguson Student Center

9 a.m. Welcome! Dr. Loy Singleton, Dean, College of Communication and Information Sciences Jennifer Supri, Chair, 75th Anniversary Committee Meredith Cummings, Director, ASPA Keynote, Mark Mayfield

Feb. 17-18, 2012 ASPA State Convention Multimedia storytellingThe Web gives your staff new storytelling opportuni-ties. Learn interactive graphics, audio slide shows and other ways to ramp up your broadcast or multimedia footage for your site.David Grewe Room 204A

Personality profilesBring your subject to life and paint a vivid picture for your readers with solid, colorful personality profiles.Susan Newell Anderson Society Room 313

Even though it is legal, should you run it?Ethics, censorship and publication. Even though it is legal, what factors decide to run it or not? Students are encouraged to bring real-life examples of stories/deci-sions editors have made. Hear how the Student Press Law Center can help. Dennis Bailey Room 305

I wish I knew that!University of Alabama Society of Professional Jour-nalist members will present tips and tricks that every aspiring journalist should know going into college to get ahead of the game. We will present advice from college lectures, tricks we have learned through stu-dent media internships and jobs, and things we learned the hard way. UA SPJ members Forum Room 360

Writing features students will want to readFor students who dread writing features. How to make them light and interesting, learn skills to keep readers engaged, tips to make writing come alive.Leada Gore Mortar Board Room 300

Theme developmentTheme isn’t just a word, but the blueprint to your en-tire publication. Learn how to weave your theme into every facet of your yearbook.Melissa Dixon Heritage Room 322

The Young, the Old and the Restless (For new advisers)An experienced advisers panel for newcomers. Are you sometimes ready to bow out? Find why these veterans are still around after years, and still looking good! If media advising takes a special kind of crazi-ness, how can you manage to look sane, some of the time?Marie Parsons, Anderson Room 302 Jo Ann Hagood, Nora Stephens

What’s in Your Lunch Bag?Utilizing writing activities, this session will lead you from the mundane-everybody-else-type-writing to the core of your work. We will use common analogies for digging deep into the heart of what you want the reader to gain by reading your work.Laura Hunter Morris Mayer Room 312

Noon Lunch, Ballroom with Alabama Press Association Keynote speaker, Alan Blinder

1:30 p.m. Session 3

PhotographyFrom ordinary to extraordinary. See dozens of examples of strong photojournalism and others that will leave you laughing. Melissa Dixon Heritage Room 322

Planning the Issue (New advisers)Getting organized for the first issue is a challenge for new advisers. An experience adviser provides a framework for developing the newspaper, starting with brainstorming story ideas through sending the file off to the printer.Susan Newell Sparkman Room 358

Writing Effective DialogueIn this session, we will look at dialogue that engages your reader as well as dialogue that diverts. We will discuss the time and place for dialogue tags and theneed for adding action (or not) within the dialogue. Laura Hunter Morris Mayer Room 312

Media law 101 (Advisers)What advisers should know about student press law. Don’t wait until you need to know. Become armed with the information you need now.Reid Carpenter Anderson Room 302

Covering sports gamesTips for keeping score, interviewing, writing leads. techniques on how to cover games for daily and weekly publications and for the Web.Joe Thomas Forum Room 360

2:30 p.m. Session 4

Problem Solving (Advisers)Bring your problems and throw them out for solutions from other advisers.Marie Parsons and Jody Evans Anderson, Room 302


Better bloggingLearn how to attract more eyes to your publication or broadcast through great blogging. Blinder, the lunch keynote speaker, has live-blogged from events ranging from a national college football champion-ship to a Supreme Court confirmation hearing and will share his insights on how to write thoughtful, reflec-tive posts that pack a punch and provoke conversation. (His wife, Meredith, who has worked on multimedia for the Houston Chronicle and the American Press, may toss in a few ideas, too, about how to use visual content alongside the written word to spice up your blog further.)Alan Blinder Mortar Board Room 300

Understanding the reporter’s privilege Freedom of the press is a cherished idea, but in many schools it exists only in textbooks. This session will explore the protections afforded to news reporters un-der the First Amendment of the United States Consti-tution. Commonly known as the reporter’s privilege, the First Amendment provides a mechanism by which reporters can avoid the compelled disclosure of infor-mation learned during the course of the newsgathering process. This discussion will analyze the scope of the reporter’s privilege, as well as different avenues by which the privilege can be overridden.Reid Carpenter Anderson Society Room 313

Headline design for yearbooksLearn how to write headlines that will entice your readers while connecting everything on your spread.Melissa Dixon Heritage Room 322

Focusing your storyNot just the “who, what, when, where, why and how,” but focusing the story even more. Driving it home. Having a compelling lead. Reallyrefining and focusing in on what makes a story great.Dr. Bill Keller and Carol Robinson Room 360

How and Why You Want to Enter Writing ContestsWinning a place in a respected writing contest can do wonders for getting your name out there. This session will cover the aspects of writing that all publisherslook for in deciding which work to select as the best offered. You can use these exercises and comments to better all of your writing.Laura Hunter Morris Mayer Room 312

3:30 p.m. Session 5

Describe that!Make your writing more descriptive and have fun while learning! This session will use food as a technique to learn better descriptive writing.Chip Brantley Morris Mayer Room 312

NewsworthinessIt seems simple, but does your staff know the keys to knowing what is news? For example, news values, editorial policies, etc. A veteran newspaper publisher will guide you through the process.Kenneth Boone Anderson Society Room 313

Print + Web = Success (Advisers and student leaders)Would you like to share your print publication with a larger audience? Don’t have the budget for printed publications? Learn how to use free internet resources to take your students’ work to the Web. In this work-shop, you will learn proper precautions before going on the Web, as well as learn ways to showcase your students’ talents. You can then share the link with your community and celebrate the good things going on in your classroom and at your school. This information can be applicable to all student publications.Brandy Panagos Room 309

Basic and advanced yearbook designThe arrangement of elements on a spread is layout. Thoughtfully leading your reader around the spread to convey a message is design. Discover the difference.Melissa Dixon Heritage Room 322

So many mediums, so little time!University of Alabama student media professionals from online, radio, print and broadcast mediums will demonstrate how to effectively get ahead in the media business today. We will demonstrate how to write for each medium and how to compile a diverse resume throughout college that will be useful to employers upon graduation. This session will focus on how to learn a little bit of everything so each graduating journalist has the competitive edge to land that job.UA SPJ members Forum Room 360


All DayPlease stop by the ASPA lobby on the third floor to say hello, grab a snack and see your home office.

9 a.m. Session 1

Making good reviews greatA veteran newspaper reporter will show you how to take your reviews from flat to fabulous. Learn how to avoid common boring language traps.Richard LeComte Room 346

Tell the whole storyThe sin of omission-failure to do something one can and ought to do. It is the greatest sin committed by yearbook staffs. Learn how to expand coverage through your words, photos and design.Melissa Dixon Room 327 Exercises in style/toneYour writing style needs to meet the expectations of whatever genre you are working on. Expand your writing style in this session. We will use specific writ-ing exercises in how and when to alter your style and keep your tone consistent.Laura Hunter Room 222

InDesign hands-on session Group and individual attention will be provided for advisers and students at their level of learning for their particular publication.Marlin Caddell Room 338

Photography tips and tricksQuick and easy ways to take your photography to the next level. Stop taking snapshots and start making pictures.Scott Bowman Room 341

Podcasting (All media)Podcasts consist of audio and video material that is distributed online for use on iPods and other media players. In this hands-on session, you’ll prepare your own podcast. Please bring your own headphones.Andrew Richardson, Reese Phifer Room 130

10 a.m. Session 2

Hands-on photography (Meet in ASPA lobby then end up in Room 301)This class is limited to eight students. Sign up at reg-istration Friday morning. Photography tips and tricks, as well as one-on-one feedback. Students will go with instructor to take photos and come back to Reese Phi-fer for feedback.Dan Meissner ASPA lobby

Saturday, Feb. 18 sessions, Reese Phifer Hall

4:30 p.m. Session 6

Future of journalismHow to keep up with print, and still keep it alive, as well as how print is evolving online. We will discuss Twitter, Facebook and interacting with readers. Jim Rainey Forum Room 360

Submitting Your Work for Publication This session will explain practical, professional meth-ods for submitting your works so you do not kill the chances of publication before the editor reads yoursubmission.Laura Hunter Morris Mayer Room, 312

Let’s Get Some Mojo! (Advisers and student leaders)Is your staff lacking energy? Are there individuals who just can’t get the work done? Are you frustrated

with the staff not working to their expectations? Learn some ways to motivate staff members to work on time, make deadlines, and take pride in the yearbook. Melissa Dixon Heritage Room 322

Building better graphics and illustrationsMake your graphics and illustrations pop with advice from The Tuscaloosa News graphics editor.Anthony Bratina Room 309

StorifyStorify is an online curation tool for reporting and tell-ing stories using social media. In this session, you’ll look at some good ways to use Storify and then get started on your our own stories.Chip Brantley Anderson Society Room 313

5:30 Dinner, awards ceremony and 75th anniversary celebration


Follow ASPA on Twitter and Facebook!Twitter: @AlaSPA (Hashtag #ASPA75)

Facebook fan page: Alabama Scholastic Press Association

Before, during, and after coverageDon’t just capture the here and now, but learn to publicize what goes on before, and then much later, concerning your school events.Melissa Dixon Room 327

Tumbl It! Pin It! Stori It! (It’s Delicious!) Use social networking and multimedia sites like Deli-cious, Storify, Pinterest, Tumblr and others to promote your school media. These sites can also help you show off reporting and photography, and even get it picked up by the local and national media.Meredith Cummings Room 338

iMovie: How to Produce Video Clips in 15 Minutes or LessIf you have a Macintosh computer, you can add video to your text news story using the iMovie application. We’ll show you how to use iLife’s video application to do BASIC video editing. No documentaries! No news packages! This hands-on session is for those who don’t want to spend a lot of time editing video, but still want the benefits of the moving-picture medium to add a dimension to their story.Andrew Richardson Room 341

11 a.m. Session 3

Storytelling the right wayEveryone has a story to tell. You just have to find it and tell it. Get tips on discovering all the hidden sto-ries your student body has and how to include them in your multimedia packages. Learn what stories make good photo/video multimedia packages and which ones don’t. David Grewe Room 338

Final Cut Pro Lab Hands-on training using the Apple video editing pro-gram Final Cut Pro. Learn to cut and edit videos.Andrew Richardson Room 130

Photoshop for everyone!Hands-on training for students and advisers to use Photoshop to make publications really pop.Scott Bowman Room 341

SportsA Tuscaloosa News sports reporter will offer examples of what works and what doesn’t when it comes to sports coverage. From hockey to football, bring your sports-related questions and get answers.Meredith Qualls Room 327

1 p.m. Session 4, Tours

UA Campus Tour (Meet at front steps of Reese Phifer Hall) This tour will take students on a walk through campus guided by a representative from the Capstone Men and Women.Capstone Men and Women

WVUA Tour (Meet in the Reese Phifer rotunda)Students will tour the television station located in the basement of Reese Phifer, the University’s own WVUA, which signed on the air as News Channel 49 in January 1998. The operation became the first televi-sion station in Tuscaloosa since 1996, when Tuscaloo-sa’s local television stations left the city. Question and answer session to follow.WVUA staff

Getting Involved in College Media (Meet in the ASPA lobby)Students will check out the Student Media building that houses The Crimson White (newspaper); The Corolla (yearbook); and Marr’s Field Journal (literary magazine). Students will also hear about how to get involved in college media at any college. Question and answer session to follow.Crimson White staff


Session leaders

Chip Brantley is a lecturer in emerging media in the Department of Journalism at The University of Alabama. A co-founder of Cookthink.com, Brantley has worked as a features writer for the Albany Times Union and other newspapers, as an editorial producer for Movieline.com and as the head cheese maker at Westfield Farm. As an independent writer, he has contributed to Slate, the Oxford American, Gourmet and many other publications. Brantley’s book about the pluot, “The Perfect Fruit,” was published by Bloomsbury USA in July 2009. He lives in Birmingham, where he’s working on his second book, “The Pistachio Wars.”

Kane Belew While at The University of Alabama studying advertising, Belew got his first taste of sales at The Crimson White Newspaper. He realized that he had the skill of helping customers navigate weekly deadlines, while verbalizing to designers the message the advertisements needed to tell. After graduation, Kane jumped into sales, and landed an opportunity in financial planning before a stint with Yellowbook where he flexed his creative muscles. Belew then found a home with Walsworth Yearbooks. He is committed to helping advisers produce a high quality yearbook that is on time and fits within their budget.

Alan Blinder is city hall reporter for The Washington (D.C.) Examiner. He is no stranger to political reporting. An alumnus of the Washington bureau of Hearst Newspapers and the Houston Chronicle, his coverage has spanned all three branches of government. Most notably, his body of work includes reporting on the Obama White House, international affairs and national political trends. In 2010, he was also Hearst’s lead reporter for the Supreme Court confirmation hearings of Elena Kagan. Less than a year later, Blinder’s reporting again made headlines across the country as he covered an EF-4 tornado in Tuscaloosa, Ala., for The Associated Press. Blinder graduated with a degree in journalism and political science from the University of Alabama, where he was a University Fellow. He was also the 2011 Outstanding Graduating Senior in Journalism. In 2010, USA Today named him as one of the na-tion’s top 40 undergraduate students. His byline has been seen in newspapers around the country. He is married to the former Meredith McDermott, a photojournalist.

Kenneth S. Boone, is an award-winning third-generation journalist and chairman of Tallapoosa Publishers, Inc. He is publisher and editor of two newspapers, The Alex-ander City Outlook and The Dadeville Record, as well as Lake magazine on Lake Martin. Boone is a passionate photographer and has worked as a commercial photog-rapher for the past decade. He is the winner won more than 55 Alabama and Mis-sissippi Press Association awards for photography, writing, advertising and design, including Alabama Press Association’s 1993 Photo of the Year award.He is a 1983 graduate of The University of Alabama’s New College, where he earned a bachelor of science degree with a depth study in general science and jour-nalism. Boone is currently on the board of the Alexander City Schools Education Foundation, and is past president of the Alexander City Rotary Club and the Alexan-der City United Way.


Scott Bowman is a freelance photographer who shoots Alabama football for publications such as Crimson magazine, as well as various promotional advertising materials for businesses. He also shoots weddings and portraits. Before becoming a photographer, he spent more than a decade on the air as a DJ, as well as programming Alabama radio stations.

Lesley Bruinton, from Athens, Ala., received her degree in Telecommunication and Film from The University of Alabama in 2000. She began her career as a broadcast journalist at WMBB-TV in Panama City, Fla. There, she covered five municipali-ties, courts and crimes, in addition to the local education system. While in Panama City, she anchored coverage for Hurricane Ivan. Lesley later returned to her native Alabama to join WIAT-TV in 2005 as the Tuscaloosa reporter. She was later named the Weekend Sports Anchor where she helped develop the format for Inside College Football which airs weekly on CBS 42. In 2007, she left WIAT-TV to become the Public Relations Coordinator for the Tuscaloosa City Schools where she oversees the communications efforts for a 10,000 plus student district. Following time as the head of communications at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, Lesley oversaw the implementation of a social media strategy for an organization with an international footprint. She returned to the position of public relations coordinator of the Tusca-loosa City Schools in March.

Anthony Bratina has been the graphics editor at The Tuscaloosa News for more than nine years. His responsibilities at The News are to create graphics and illustrations for newspaper articles, magazine articles and online publications. He attended the University of Alabama at Birmingham where he majored in art studio. As well as producing work for the newspaper, he has created numerous illustrations and layouts for marketing agencies in and around the Birmingham area, and continues to produce oil paintings and sculptures.

Marlin Caddell is currently the manager for eMedia for Randall-Reilly Business and Media Information. He helps manage Web sites and social media efforts for several products that serve the trucking industry. Caddell is a graduate of The Uni-versity of Alabama with a major in journalism, and served as editor-in-chief of the UA student paper, The Crimson White. He also worked for The Tuscaloosa News as a copy editor. His desire is to equip journalists with the tools to connect better with the audiences they serve and to provide split-second information to that audience.


Melissa Dixon, CJE, advises yearbook and newspaper at Oak Mountain High School in Birmingham. She currently serves as president of Alabama Scholastic Press As-sociation. She was named Adviser of the Year by ASPA and Taylor Publishing’s adviser of the year in 2009. Both publications have been awarded numerous local and national awards.

Jody Evans teaches broadcast journalism at Hillcrest High School. She recently received the Rising Star Award from the Journalism Education Association for her work with PATS-TV, the Tuscaloosa County School’s only broadcast television show. In 2009 she received ASPA’s Susie DeMent Journalism Adviser of the Year Award. She writes a blended-family column for Tuscaloosa’s local magazine, KidsLife. Her stories often come from her family of six kids, one husband, three goats, twelve chickens, and too many honeybees to count.

Reid Carpenter is originally from Talladega, Ala. He joined the firm in 2010 after graduating from the University of Alabama School of Law. At Alabama, he was a member of the National Civil Trial Competition Team, through which he was a recipient of the American College of Trial Lawyers Award and the International Academy of Trial Lawyers Student Advocacy Award. In addition, Reid was selected as a member of the Order of Barristers and served as his class career services rep-resentative. Reid maintains a general litigation practice, but a significant portion of his practice is dedicated to products liability and pharmaceutical litigation. He also defends claims brought against insurance companies and other financial services pro-viders. Outside of work, Reid is an avid outdoorsman and enjoys fishing and spring turkey hunting. He also participates in team roping events and was a professional rodeo cowboy prior to law school.

Meredith Cummings, CJE, is director of the Alabama Press Association and instructor of journalism at UA. She also directs the Multicultural Journalism Pro-gram, as well as the National Elementary School Press Association. Meredith is a freelance journalist, who writes for magazines, websites and newspapers, as well as blogs for al.com on her “good news from Alabama” blog, The Up Beat. She won nu-merous awards throughout her reporting career before accepting a full-time position at UA in 2008. In Alabama, she has worked for The Birmingham News as a reporter and The Tuscaloosa News as community news editor and served on the editorial board. is on the executive board for SIPA, and is on the advisory board for Alabama Alumni magazine. She and her husband, Scott, live in Tuscaloosa with their daughter (and budding reporter and designer), Isabel, 9.


Dr. Jennifer Greer is chair of the Department of Journalism at the University of Alabama. She worked as a professional journalist for newspapers, magazines and online news sites and also worked in public relations before moving into teaching full time. She has taught reporting and news writing at the University of Florida, the University of Nevada, and at Alabama for 18 years. One of her teaching special-ties is writing across media, in which she teaches writing for print, broadcast and online, as well as public relations and advertising. She was one of the first journal-ism educators in the country teaching online news and multimedia news. She’s won college-wide teaching awards twice and serves on the national elected committee on teaching for the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. In high school, she served as the newspaper opinion editor and as the lifestyle editor of her yearbook staff.

David Grewe is a visual storyteller who received his master’s degree in photography with an emphasis on multimedia production from Syracuse University in 2011. He teaches visual journalism and multimedia storytelling at The University of Alabama and has over twenty years of experience working as a multimedia editor and photo editor for The Hartford Courant, The Aurora Beacon News, Copley Chicago newspa-pers and a staff photojournalist for several of New York State’s newspapers includ-ing: The Ithaca Journal, The (Auburn) Citizen and The (Schenectady) Daily Gazette. His still photography, multimedia and video work have been recognized by theOnline News Association, National Press Photographers Association, Pictures of the Year International, the Society of News Design and numerous film festivals.

Leada Gore has been involved with newspapers for almost 20 years, starting as a general assignment reporter and later working as a news editor, columnist, manag-ing editor, editor and publisher. She is now the display advertising manager for the Decatur Daily and is incoming president of the Alabama Press Association. She pre-viously served as president of the Alabama Press Association’s Journalism Founda-tion. Leada is a graduate of the University of Montevallo, where she serves as vice president of the UM Foundation. She and her husband, Greg, live in Madison with their 4-year-old daughter, Sutton.

Jo Ann Hagood advised award-winning papers for 30 years. In 1989 she started Jackson High School’s Aggie Journal. During the 17 years she advised that publication, the staff won awards from ASPA, Troy University and The University of South Alabama/Mobile Press-Register Newspaper Competition. Active in the Alabama Scholastic Press Adviser’s Association, she served as president and won the Susie DeMent Adviser of the Year Award in 1997. In 2000, Hagood became a Certified Journalism Educator with JEA. She is currently teaching English at a private academy and serving as a JEA mentor for Alabama.


Richard LeComte worked for 11 years as a newspaper editor in the features department at at the Reno Gazette-Journal in Nevada. Before that, he worked as a reporter and editor in Missouri, Kansas and Florida. He now works as a communications specialist at The University of Alabama, where he recently earned a master’s degree in library and information studies. He was born and raised on Long Island and earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Wesleyan University in Connecticut and studied journalism at the University of Missouri. He lives in Tuscaloosa with his wife and three children.

Laura Hunter, born in the Alabama hill country of Walker County, lives outside Northport. She began writing in her mid-50s and has short stories published in the anthologies Belles’ Letters and Climbing Mt. Cheaha. Magazine publications can be found in ALALITCOM, Crave Magazine, Explorations (University of Alaska), Bir-mingham Arts Journal, Marr’s Field Journal (The University of Alabama) and Seven Hills Review. Her poetry appears in Beyond Doggerel and Ordinary and Sacred as Blood. She publishes creative non-fiction as a freelance author, most recently in Longleaf Style magazine and in Motif: come what may. She has been recognized on local, state, national and international levels for her writings, which reflect the perse-verance of the downtrodden, those Alabamians who refuse to give up, even against extreme odds.

For most of his career, 16 years, Bill Keller managed the Alabama PressAssociation as its executive director. In his last full-time work, he taughtjournalism at the The University of Alabama for five years. Also, he had workedat newspapers seven years and in public relations eight years, two incorporate PR, six in college PR. He has three degrees from The University ofAlabama, and he is retired now.

Larry Haynes, principal of Oak Mountain Middle School in Shelby County, spent 15 years teaching U.S. History, English, journalism and broadcasting at Montevallo High School, where he advised the school’s bi-weekly newspaper, SPOTLIGHT. In 1991, he started MHS News, one of the first student broadcasts in Alabama. He served two years as president of the Alabama Scholastic Press Advisers Association (2001-2003) and was recognized as ASPA’s Susie DeMent Journalism Adviser of the Year in 1996. He was named a Dow Jones Newspaper Fund Special Recognition Adviser in 1998 and received Columbia University’s Gold Key Award in 2001. In 2005, he added broadcast journalism teaching duties to his administrative responsibilities and worked with his students in producing OMMS News, now produced by Adviser Becky Mantooth.

Marie Parsons is a retired journalist and journalism instructor. She is a past director of the Alabama Scholastic Press Association and University of Alabama Program for Minorities. She is currently a JEA Mentor to three Alabama media advisers.

Susan G. Newell, MJE and NBCT, has advised school newspapers and yearbooksfor over 25 years. Publications she has advised have won Best SIPA publication inAlabama, All-Alabama, All-Southern, All-American, NSPA Best of Show, and CSPA’s Gold Medalist. Her students have won individual awards with SIPA, ASPA, CSPA, Quill & Scroll, and NSPA. Ms. Newell has been a yearbook and newspaper judge and speaker for state and national press associations. She is a past president for ASPA, is the state director for Alabama for JEA, and is on the executive board for SIPA. She is the 2008 Adviser of the Year for Alabama, a 2008 Dow Jones Newspaper Fund Special Recognition Advisor and 2010 Distinguished Adviser, and an ASNE Reynolds High School Journalism Institute fellow.


Dan Meissner has served as a newspaper reporter, photographer, editor and designer. He has more than 30 years of experience teaching journalism at The University of Alabama in reporting, editing and visual journalism courses. At UA, he also coordinates journalism internships at media outlets throughout the state and nation.

Brandy Panagos teaches Creative Writing I and II at Bob Jones High School in Madison. She is a National Board certified teacher and an Innovative Technology in the Classroom grant recipient. As a Radio-Television News Directors’ Foundation teacher ambassador, she has taught student publication workshops at Journalism Education Association Conventions in Chicago, Nashville, and San Francisco. She advises The Eclectic literary magazine, which has earned ASPA’s All-Alabama award as well as the National Council of Teachers of English PRESLM Highest Rank Award.

Meredith Qualls is a journalism graduate student at The University of Alabama. Native to Tampa, Fla., she has covered sports in several capacities, at the high school, college, and professional level. She covered the NHL’s Tampa Bay Light-ning for an SB Nation blog for the 2010-11 season, and currently covers Alabama women’s basketball for The Tuscaloosa News. She also worked as Sports Information Director for Florida College from 2010 to 2011. She received her bach-elor’s degree in Liberal Arts from Florida College in 2011.

Dr. Chris Roberts was both Journalist of the Year and president back when ASPA was called the Alabama High School Press Association. He edited his high school newspaper while also working for two professional papers and three radio stations while at Jacksonville High. After nearly two decades at big-city papers in Alabama and South Carolina, he’s now an assistant professor at The University of Alabama.


Carol Robinson is a senior reporter at The Birmingham News, where she has been a longtime writer covering the police beat. Carol joined The News in August 1986 - her first full-time journalism job after graduating from Auburn University with a degree in public relations/journalism. During her 25 years at The News, Carol has worked on a number of reporting beats including: covering five counties in south-east Alabama, Lifestyle, Business, County Government, General Assignment and Law Enforcement. She took over as the department’s primary police reporter in 1996 and has remained in that capacity ever since. Her duties include covering day-to-day crime incidents throughout Birmingham, Jefferson County, and often state-wide. She also is responsible for coordinating coverage of natural disasters, includ-ing tornadoes and hurricanes. In addition to her daily stories, Carol also reports and writes enterprise articles on a range of topics. She lives in Vestavia Hills, and has an 18-year-old daughter.

Nora Stephens was in her second year of teaching high school English when she set up a journalism department at her school using skills learned as a student journalist. After completing journalism certification requirements, she advised both newspaper and yearbook for nine years. She then advised a CSPA- and state-honored newspaper at Huntsville High School. Stephens twice served as ASPA president and was twice named state Adviser of the Year. She retired after 35 years in the classroom and is in her third year as a JEA mentor.

Andrew Richardson began his career as the media editor and Web Editor for The Crimson White where he handled all of the Web content for the newspaper and started a number of podcasts. He also spent two years in operations at Alabama Pub-lic Radio helping with production of weekend content for the station. Since gradua-tion, Andrew has worked as web/media communications specialist for the College of Community Health Sciences at The University of Alabama.

Jim Rainey is publisher of the Opelika-Auburn News. Since 2002, the Opelika-Auburn News has won the Alabama Press Association’s General Excellence Award six of the past seven years. He has supervised from conception to completion a new 40,000-square-foot multi-media complex that opened November 2007. Jim also serves as news leader for Media General newspapers, television stations and affili-ated websites in the Gulf South Region. In 2006, Jim was named by the Newspaper Association of America’s Presstime Magazine as one of the nation’s top 20 news-paper professionals under the age of 40. Jim serves on the board of directors for the Lee County Chapter of the American Red Cross. He was the 2010 Heroe’s Campaign Chairman. He also serves on the board of directors for the East Alabama Food Bank, the board of directors for the Alabama Press Association, the Lee County United Way Board of Directors and on the Auburn University Student Communications Board.

aspa state convention 75th anniversary program 2012

Documents

aspa state convention

huge aspa

annual aspa state convention

aspa web site

noon lunch

student press law center

awards ceremonymrave

carol cummings