SPJ NewsEvents and DeadlinesSPJ Blogs (National)Quill OnlineJournalist's Toolbox
Rebecca J. “Becky” Tallent is an award-winning journalist and public relations specialist with more than 12 years experience as an energy/environmental and financial journalist plus an additional 16 years experience as a public relations specialist and five years as an educator. She is currently an assistant professor of journalism and mass media at the University of Idaho.
Now in his second term as a campus adviser at-large on the SPJ National Board, George L. Daniels is a former chair of the SPJ Journalism Education Committee. As a graduate student, Daniels participated in the University of Georgia’s SPJ Campus Chapter.
Kym Fox joined SPJ while an undergrad at Arizona State University in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism. She has been president of the San Antonio Pro Chapter and is currently the co-adviser to the Texas State University student chapter. Fox spent the first 20 something years of her career as a reporter and editor, first at the Mesa Tribune, a 40,000 daily in a suburb of Phoenix, and then 18 years at the San Antonio Express-News. She was the deputy metro editor when she left the Express-News to take to the classroom at Texas State. Most of her career, she spent covering courts and legal affairs, thus her affinity for Freedom of Information projects. Over the years she has covered everything from high school sports to George H.W Bush signing NAFTA. She has interviewed the Queen of England and Michael Jackson, though not at the same time. Along with her B.S. in journalism, she earned an M.A. in communications from the University of the Incarnate Word while an editor at the Express-News. At Texas State she is a senior lecturer and coordinator of the journalism sequence. She teaches a variety of writing classes as well as multimedia journalism. Her take on the future of journalism: “Newspapers are NOT dying. They are evolving.” Find her on Twitter @kymfox.
Gordon “Mac” McKerral is an associate professor and the news-editorial sequence coordinator in the School of Journalism & Broadcasting at Western Kentucky University.
Dr. Jimmy McCollum is an associate professor in the department of communication and journalism at Lipscomb University, where he has taught since 1989. He is the director of the Tennessee High School Press Association, which is based at Lipscomb. He advises Lipscomb’s student online news service, www.luminationnetwork.com, and is faculty sponsor of the campus chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. He has served as a reporter/anchor with WSM-AM Radio News.
June O. Nicholson, an associate professor in the School of Mass Communications at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Va., has chaired national SPJ’s Journalism Education Committee since 2000. She has been a member of several other national SPJ committees over the past two decades. She is co-developer of the SPJ newsroom training module on covering diverse communities. Nicholson also is a former president of the Virginia professional chapter of SPJ. 
Lee Anne Peck has taught English, journalism, and communications courses since 1988. Most recently she was an assistant professor of international communications at Franklin College Switzerland, Lugano. Over the years, she has advised three student newspapers.
Renée Petrina is a member of the journalism faculty at Ball State University in Muncie, Ind. She teaches editing and opinion writing as well as a media survey course for freshmen. A native of Richmond, Va., she graduated from Penn State University, where she was on the staff of The Daily Collegian. She is now a member of its alumni group's board. Petrina intends to complete her master's in Media Studies from Penn State in 2010. She completed five internships during college, including a Dow Jones Newspaper Fund editing internship at The Washington Post. After graduation, she worked on the copy desk of The Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville, Fla., then moved on to The Indianapolis Star. When she's not in her office or in the classroom, she enjoys volunteering, baking, and relaxing with her pets.
Jeff South was state editor and database editor at the Austin American-Statesman before heading to academia in 1997 under the mistaken impression he’d have summers off. He is an associate professor in the School of Mass Communications at Virginia Commonwealth University, where he teaches news writing, legislative reporting, communications technology and media ethics. South has served as a trainer for SPJ, IRE, AP and other organizations. He frequently conducts workshops on, and writes about, computer-assisted reporting, online journalism and media convergence. In 2003, South was awarded a fellowship from the American Society of Newspaper Editors to work at The Charlotte Observer. In 2007, he will serve a six-month Knight International Press Fellowship in Ukraine. For more than 20 years, he was a reporter and editor in Texas, Arizona and Virginia for newspapers such as the Dallas Times Herald, the Phoenix Gazette and The Virginian-Pilot. He also served two years with the U.S. Peace Corps in Morocco.
Leticia Steffen is an associate professor in the Department of Mass Communications and Center for New Media at Colorado State University-Pueblo. She joined the CSU-Pueblo faculty in 2004. A native of New Hampton, Iowa, Steffen completed her bachelor’s degree at Saint Louis University, working as a stringer for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the Suburban Journals of St. Louis before moving to Colorado to complete a master’s degree in mass communications and journalism studies at the University of Denver. Before moving to Pueblo, Steffen worked as a writer and editor in the Denver area. Steffen teaches journalism courses and serves as faculty adviser to the CSU-Pueblo online student news website and news magazine, the CSU-Pueblo TODAY.
Nerissa Young is a recovering print journalist employed as assistant professor of print journalism at the W. Page Pitt School of Journalism and Mass Communications at Marshall University in Huntington, W.Va. Before that, she taught three years in the Department of Mass Communications at Shepherd University in Shepherdstown, W.Va., and in the journalism school at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater. Young has nearly 20 years of media experience that includes radio, newspapers, freelance and journalism education. A native West Virginian, she received her bachelor’s degree in secondary education from Concord College and her master’s degree in journalism from Marshall University. She has been a member of SPJ’s national ethics committee since 1995 and spent seven years as chairwoman of SPJ’s national Project Watchdog committee. Young writes a weekly column, “The Back Porch,” about whatever tickles her momentary fancy for her former employer, The (Beckley, W.Va.) Register-Herald. At Marshall, she teaches news writing and reporting and advises the campus newspaper, The Parthenon.
SPJ's Campus Media Statement
Our student media are designated public forums and free from censorship and advance approval of content. Student media are free to develop editorial policies and news coverage with the understanding that students and student organizations speak only for themselves. Administrators, faculty, staff or other agents shall not consider the student media's content when making decisions regarding the media's funding.
Show the Love: SPJ’s Campus Media Statement Program
The Society of Professional Journalists is asking college administrators to show their love for a free student press by taking a vow that includes these three magic words: “designated public forum.” Continue Reading
Copyright © 1996-2012 Society of Professional Journalists. All Rights Reserved. Legal
Society of Professional Journalists
Eugene S. Pulliam National Journalism Center, 3909 N. Meridian St., Indianapolis, IN 46208
317/927-8000 | Fax: 317/920-4789 | Contact SPJ Headquarters | Employment Opportunities | Advertise with SPJ
