Journalism Education Committee Chair
Jeff South
Associate Professor
VCU School of Mass Communications
Bio (click to expand)
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.
Lee Anne Peck, vice chair
Assistant Professor
School of Communication
Journalism and Mass Communications
University of Northern Colorado
Bio (click to expand)
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.
Peck's professional experience began in 1976 as a correspondent for the Moline Daily Dispatch. After graduating with her bachelor's degree, she edited and then managed the regional Choice Magazine of the Front Range. In the mid-1980s, she edited and wrote for publications in Indiana and Delaware; she has worked for the Fort Collins Coloradoan as an editor, a columnist and writing coach and for the Rocky Mountain News as a copy editor. Peck has also worked at the Tampa Tribune's online product, Tampa Bay Online, and for Microsoft's online publication, Denver Sidewalk. Peck began free-lance work in the late 1970s and continues to do free-lance editing, writing, and public relations work.
Her research focuses on all aspects of media ethics. She received a Fulbright to teach journalism at the University of Dubrovnik in Croatia fduring spring semester 2007.
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Journalism Education Committee Members
David Burns
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Mark Butzow
Assistant Professor
Western Illinois University
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Butler Cain
News Director
Alabama Public Radio
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Kym Fox
Senior Lecturer, Journalism Sequence Coordinator
Texas State University-San Marcos
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Bio (click to expand)
Kym Fox is a senior lecturer and coordinator of the journalism sequence at the School of Journalism & Mass Communication at Texas State University, located just south of Austin. She is co-adviser to the student SPJ chapter and a regular faculty member at the annual Dow Jones Urban Journalism Workshop for high school students in San Antonio. Before joining the university faculty, Kym was the deputy metro editor at the San Antonio Express-News. She joined the Express-News staff as a police reporter in 1985 but spent most of her reporting career covering courts and legal affairs before becoming an editor. Kym began her newspaper career at the Mesa Tribune in Arizona after graduating with a journalism degree from Arizona State University. While an editor at the Express-News, she earned an M.A. in communications from the University of the Incarnate Word. Kym is the treasurer for the San Antonio pro chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists and has been an SPJ member since her college days.
Gene Murray
Professor of Mass Communications
Grambling State University, Louisiana
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Bio (click to expand)
Dr. Gene Murray is a professor of mass communication at Grambling State University. His education includes a bachelor’s degree from Murray State University, a master’s in journalism from Ohio University and a Ph.D. from Texas A&M.
He joined the mass communication faculty at Grambling State University in 1992. He has worked for daily, weekly, and military newspapers as a reporter and copy editor. A former military public affairs officer, he was a Summer Faculty Researcher nine summers at the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute. His book, Covering Sex, Race and Gender in the American Military Services, was published in December 2003.
A founder and co-adviser of the Lincoln Collegiate Chapter of SPJ, Murray received the Society’s 2006 “Distinguished Teaching in Journalism” award, and he also was selected as a Diversity Leadership Fellow.
Patti Gallagher Newberry
Miami University
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June Nicholson
Associate Professor
School of Mass Communications
Virginia Commonwealth University
901 W. Main Street
Richmond, VA 23284-2034
804/827-0251
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Bio (click to expand)
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.
At VCU, Nicholson teaches government, enterprise and project reporting and coverage of specialized beats such as science, health, education, urban affairs and the environment. She also teaches a course on International Media Coverage: The Middle East. Before joining the VCU faculty, she was a reporter and editor for some 15 years in North Carolina and Virginia. She is a former acting director, associate director and assistant director of the VCU School of Mass Communications. Nicholson holds a master’s degree in public affairs journalism from The American University in Washington, D.C., and a B.A. degree in journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
“I am a member of SPJ because I believe the organization plays a vital role in protecting the First Amendment, free speech and freedom of information in this country.”
Elissa Sonnenberg
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Karon Speckman
Associate Professor of Communication-Journalism
Truman State University, Missouri
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Bio (click to expand)
Karon Speckman is an associate professor of communication- journalism at Truman State University in Missouri. She also is the SPJ chapter adviser and adviser to several publications at Truman.
Speckman is a member of SPJ because she sees how necessary the organization is to professionals and students. SPJ does so much to help all of us understand how important ethical journalism is to a democracy.
Bonnie Stewart
Assistant Professor
West Virginia University
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Becky Tallent
Assistant Professor
School of Journalism and Mass Media
University of Idaho
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Bio (click to expand)
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.
Becky’s experience as a reporter and editor inside Oklahoma was with the Daily Oklahoman, the Tulsa World, Oklahoma Business News Co. (where she was reporter and editor of the Oklahoma Energy/Environment Report) and as editor of the Oklahoma Banker. She has also covered energy and environmental issues for McGraw-Hills News, Inc. of New York (Platt’s Oilgram News, Engineering Week and Green Markets); Reuter’s U.S. Financial, Inc. based in New York; and the Washington, D.C.-based Oil Daily.
As a public relations specialist, Becky has represented the University Hospitals, the Oklahoma Educational Television Authority, the Oklahoma Energy Resources Board and Epworth Villa (a not-for profit retirement community). From 2002-2006, she was a public relations specialist with Evergreen Productions, Inc. of Oklahoma City where she represented the City of Lawton (OK), Tidal School Vineyards and the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. Her expertise in public relations is writing/publications, working with the news media and crisis communications.
Before Idaho, Becky taught journalism at Bishop McGuinness High School, Southwestern College, the University of Phoenix, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and Northwestern Oklahoma State University.
Some of Becky’s most recent awards include: 2003 Faculty Member of the Year, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University; first place, 2001, American Marketer’s Association, Oklahoma City Chapter, Marketing Campaign for Epworth Villa; second place, 2001, Society of Professional Journalists, Oklahoma Chapter, not-for-profit publications (Epworth Villa); first place, 2000, Society of Professional Journalists, not-for-profit publications (The Oklahoma Banker); and the 1999 Award of Merit from the Oklahoma Chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators for the Oklahoma Banker.
Becky has been a member of SPJ since 1972 when she joined the University of Central Oklahoma student chapter. She joined the Oklahoma Professional Chapter in 1977 and became a member of the Snake River Chapter in 2006. She has served on numerous local and national committees for SPJ. Becky’s dedication to the Society lies in her belief that service in SPJ is a way to contribute something back to the profession.
Becky earned both her Bachelor of Arts in Journalism (1975) and her Master of Education in Journalism (1977) from the University of Central Oklahoma. She earned her Doctorate of Education in Classroom Teaching/Mass Communications from Oklahoma State University in 1995.
Virginia Whitehouse
Associate Professor and Department Chair
Whitworth College, Washington
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Bio (click to expand)
Virginia Whitehouse is an associate professor of Communication Studies at Whitworth College and heads the Journalism and Mass Communication program. She serves as faculty development director of the college's Murdock Charitable Trust Lives of Commitment grant. She recently completed a campus-wide internship text entitled Vocations funded by Murdock and the Lilly Endowment. Dr. Whitehouse's research with colleague Dr. James McPherson has appeared in the Journal of Mass Media Ethics and she is a frequent contributer to Quill, the Society of Professional Journalist's publication. Past president of the Media Ethics Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Dr. Whitehouse serves as co-coordinator of the Annual Workshop on Teaching Ethics in Journalism. She earned both her master and doctorate degrees from the University of Missouri School of Journalism. At Whitworth, she teaches Media Ethics, Media Law, Intercultural Communication, Article and Feature Writing, and Writing for the Mass Media, and directs the department's internship program.
Nerissa Young
Marshall University
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