FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contacts:
Chad Hosier, SPJ Director of Awards, (317) 920-4791, chosier@spj.org
Ellen Kobe, SPJ Communications Coordinator, (317) 920-4785, ekobe@spj.org

INDIANAPOLIS — The Society of Professional Journalists has named Mike Reilley the David L. Eshelman Outstanding Campus Adviser Award recipient. Reilley teaches at DePaul University, where he advises the student SPJ chapter.

The Outstanding Campus Chapter Adviser Award, initiated in 1978, is presented annually to a person who has made an exceptional contribution to the campus chapter for which he or she serves as SPJ adviser. In 1993, the SPJ board voted to change the award name to the David Eshelman Outstanding Campus Adviser Award in order to honor Eshelman, a longtime member of the Society and Board “Parliamentarian,” who was killed in 1993. A list of previous honorees may be seen here.

In nomination letters, students credited Reilley with guidance, hard work and dedication since the DePaul-SPJ chapter’s founding in 2010.

“He not only understands how important it is to have a group for student journalists that expands on the education they’re receiving in the classroom, fights for journalist rights with the First Amendment and Freedom of Information Act, and provides networking opportunities, but he stands behind the organization nationally 100 percent,” wrote Ali Trumbull, former president of the DePaul-SPJ chapter.

Reilley will be honored at the Excellence in Journalism 2013 conference in Southern California from Aug. 24 to 26.

Founded in 1909 as Sigma Delta Chi, SPJ promotes the free flow of information vital to a well-informed citizenry; works to inspire and educate the next generation of journalists; and protects First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech and press. For more information on SPJ, please visit www.spj.org.

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