Columbia Scholastic Press Association

These are the speakers at this year's conference:

Martha Akers, the 2006 JEA Yearbook Adviser of the Year, has been advising yearbook and photojournalism at Loudoun Valley High School for 26 years. Her students’ yearbooks have been recognized at the state and national levels. The Saga has received NSPA’s Pacemaker, CSPA’s Gold Crown and VHSL’s Trophy on numerous occasions. Akers has received CSPA’s Gold Key, VHSL’s Lifetime Achievement Award and SIPA’s Distinguished Service Award. She has also been inducted into OIPA’s National Scholastic Journalism Hall of Fame, and received JEA’s Distinguished Yearbook Adviser Award. Akers judges for numerous state and national organizations. A contributor to various scholastic journalism publications, she co-authored CSPA’s Scholastic Yearbook Fundamentals and the CSPA yearbook critique.

Leah Bailey is Associate Art Director at Cigar Aficionado magazine. She has also served in similar roles at Bicycling, 20/20 and Family Money magazines. A 2000 graduate of James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA, she led their yearbook, The Bluestone, to its first CSPA Gold Crown Award and ACP Pacemaker Award two years in a row.

Rick Brooks is a magna cum laude graduate with degrees in commercial design, graphics and fine arts along with journalism and art education from Fairmont State University in Fairmont, WV. At Fairmont State he edited and designed the award winning Mound yearbook. Brooks, a Northeast Creative Design Manager with Jostens, has worked in publishing since 1986. Numerous PIA, Columbia and NSPA awards have honored his clients including multiple Benny’s, Gold Crowns and Pacemakers. A member of JEA, Columbia, CMA and the Society of Collegiate Journalists, he actively lectures and teaches at national and state conventions. He received the CSPA Gold Key in 2000 and the Keystone Award from the PSPA.

Cali Buckley is an editorial assistant at Penn State University Press and the editor of Wet Paint magazine. She is also former editor-in-chief of Pottsville Area High School's Expression Through Creativity literary magazine.

Dan Charnas is a journalist, screenwriter, record producer and teacher. Charnas was one of the first writers for The Source magazine. He penned cover stories, features, reviews and columns for a variety of publications on artists like L.L. Cool J, Ice Cube, A Tribe Called Quest, and Public Enemy. In 1991, he was recruited by Def Jam-founder Rick Rubin to run the rap department of his new Warner Bros. joint venture, American Recordings. In the late 90s, Charnas met actor/director Forest Whitaker and became VP of Music for Spirit Dance Entertainment, where he managed Whitaker’s label deal with Sony/Epic. Currently, Charnas writes about culture, race, and politics for a number of publications, including the Washington Post. His writing has also appeared in Scratch Magazine, the Chicago Tribune, the Austin American Statesman. He graduated from Columbia Graduate School of Journalism and was named a Pulitzer Prize Fellow for 2007. His book, "The Big Payback: How Hip-Hop Became Global Pop," will be released by Penguin in Fall of 2009. He was born and lives in New York City.

Cary Conover is a freelance editorial photographer in New York City, where he shoots regularly for The New York Times and the Village Voice. In his spare time he is editor of visualdiaries.com, a website that a catalogues his black and white street photography. A native of Wichita, Kansas, his first book "Black Book: A Visual Diary" was published in 2000.

Alena Cybart teaches English and Journalism as English Department Chair at Kennedy H.S. in Waterbury, Conn. She advises her former high school newspaper, The Eagle Flyer, winner of 28 journalism awards, including four 2007 New England Scholastic Press Association awards. In 2006 she received the University of Connecticut's G.O.L.D. (Graduate of the Last Decade) award, as well as the 2004-2006 Generali grants for literacy. Cybart reported for the Hartford Courant, Bristol Press and Columbia Spectator, and was Editor-in-Chief of the 1996 National ACP Newspaper of the Year second place winner, UConn's Daily Campus.

Mary Kay Downes, MJE, has been advising the award-winning Odyssey yearbook for the past 16 years at Chantilly High School in Chantilly, VA where she serves as English Department Chairperson. The Odyssey has routinely received NSPA Pacemaker and CSPA Crown awards. A recipient of the CSPA Gold Key, the VAJTA Douglas Freeman Award and the NSPA Pioneer Award, Downes was named by JEA as a Special Recognition Yearbook Adviser in 2000 and a Distinguished Yearbook Adviser in 2001. She teaches at the summer Gettysburg Yearbook Experience, the CSPA Summer Workshop and the California Yearbook Academy. She judges yearbooks for NSPA, CSPA and SCSPA. Currently she is President of CSPAA. Downes serves on the JEA Publications committee and has had articles published in the CSPA Student Press Review, Journalism Today and the VAJTA Byline.

Paul Ender, who retired in 2000, was adviser to the American yearbook at Independence High School in San Jose, CA, for more than 25 years. Personal honors include JEA Yearbook Adviser of the Year, Northern California Yearbook Adviser of the Year, CSPA Gold Key, NSPA Pioneer Award and OIPA National Scholastic Journalism Hall of Fame. His students’ books earned many state and national awards.

Erica Miriam Fabri is a graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and received her MFA in poetry from The New School. She is the author of the chapbook, High Heel Magazine (winner of the 2006 Belle Letter Press Chapbook Contest on the theme of "WORD AND WOMAN") and her work has appeared in The Texas Review, The Spoon River Poetry Review, The New York Quarterly, Good Foot Magazine and Paper Street. She has performed in a wide range of venues and facilitated poetry workshops for a variety of organizations such as The Brooklyn Public Library, Poet's House, Urban Word NYC, The Fortune Society, The Robin Hood Foundation, and the PEN Prison Writing Program. She currently teaches creative writing at The School of Visual Arts and for the City University of New York (CUNY). www. ericafabri.com

Mark Goodman is an attorney who has been the executive director of the Student Press Law Center, Washington, DC, since 1985. In January, he will become the Knight Chair in Scholastic Journalism at Kent State University. He has received numerous awards including a 1988 CSPA Gold Key. In 1999, he received the CSPA Joseph M. Murphy Award for Outstanding Service.

Robert Greenman taught high school and college English and journalism, and advised school publications, for more than 30 years. Currently, he is a newspaper-in-education consultant for The New York Times; a member of JEA’s Multicultural Commission; and on the board of the Society of Professional Journalists’ New York City chapter. Greenman is the author of The Adviser’s Companion, a guide for high school newspaper advisers, published by CSPA (currently out of print); Words That Make A Difference; and, with his wife, Carol, More Words That Make A Difference (Levenger), vocabulary enrichment books based on words and passages from The New York Times and The Atlantic Monthly. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

John Hampson is an English teacher at Wantagh High School and a co-adviser to Escapades, the WHS literary magazine. In addition to teaching, he is the writer and singer of the 2000 Billboard # 1 hit song, “Absolutely (Story of a Girl)” and has released 7 albums since 1996 with his band, ninedays. He is the recipient of ASCAP’s (American Society of Composers and Publishers) Top 5 songs of the Year in 2000, and his songs have been published worldwide by Warner Chappel Music. He continues to write and perform his music.

Myrtle Jones, Assistant Professor at Rochester Institute of Technology's School of Print Media has consulted for such companies as BlackEnterprise.com, American Bookseller Association, IPDN (intellectual Property Distribution Network) and CDNow. Jones has over fifteen years experience in the media business having started as a researcher at Harpo Productions. She most recently was the Interactive Director for The Journal News, a Gannett property in Suburban New York.

Dave Johnson is the author of Marble Shoot, (Hummingbird Press 1996) and the plays, Sister, Cousin, Aunt and Baptized To The Bone. He is the editor for Movin’ (Orchard Books 2000). Dave is a Visiting Faculty member of the MFA Creative Writing Program at The New School University and an Instructor at The Cooper Union School of the Art. He has taught at Yale and Columbia Universities. His work has recently appeared in Washington Square and is currently appearing in The Texas Review.

Dean Kostos’s collection Last Supper of the Senses was released this past September; he is also the author of the collection The Sentence that Ends with a Comma (which was taught at Duke University) and the chapbook Celestial Rust. He co-edited the anthology Mama’s Boy. His poems have appeared in Barrow Street, Boulevard, Chelsea, Cimarron Review, Oprah Winfrey’s web site Oxygen, The Paris Review (forthcoming), Rattapallax, Southwest Review, Western Humanities Review, and elsewhere; his translations from the Modern Greek have appeared in Talisman and Barrow Street. His reviews have appeared in American Book Review, Bay Windows, and elsewhere. “Box-Triptych,” his choreo-poem, was staged at La Mama. He has taught poetry writing at Pratt University, Gotham Writers’ Workshop, Teachers &Writers’ Workshop, Teachers &Writers Collaborative, and the Great Lakes Colleges Association. A member of PEN, American Center, he was also the recipient of a Yaddo fellowship.

Gary Lundgren served as director of student publications and director of the Arkansas High School Press Association during his nine years on the faculty of the University of Arkansas. During that time, while his staffs received several CSPA Gold Crown and ACP Pacemaker Awards, he received the CSPA Gold Key, NSPA Pioneer Award, JEA Medal of Merit and was also inducted into the Scholastic Journalism Hall of Fame. He published Yearbook Points & Picas magazine for 11 years. Lundgren, currently is a senior marketing manager for Jostens, manages the company’s educational offerings for yearbook staffs. His recent projects include editing the Jostens 1,2,3 Yearbook Journalism Curriculum, the Gotcha Covered Look Book and Jostens Adviser & Staff magazine. Lundgren teaches workshops throughout the country.

John Mattingly serves as adviser of Middletown High School’s Chestnut Burr in Frederick County, MD. In addition to teaching, Mattingly owns a graphic design company and works as a freelance photographer, writer and copyeditor. Mattingly teaches advising, design, photography, writing, leadership and motivation at yearbook workshops. Mattingly serves as the second vice president of the CSPAA.

Jeffery C. Mays has been a reporter for The Star-Ledger for seven years. He covers Newark City Hall located in New Jersey’s largest municipality. He came to the newspaper in 1997 after graduating from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. His work has appeared in Wired Magazine, the Journal of Commerce and SayShe.com.

Michael Riordan is an Assistant Professor at RIT’s School of Print Media where he teaches coursework relating to color management, print and publishing production workflows. Through his research at RIT, has worked closely with publishers, print service providers and creative agencies to help improve color quality and predictability throughout the production process. In addition to actively providing training and consulting on related topics and being a regular presenter at industry events such as GraphExpo, Michael has written several papers on related topics and served as co-editor for the Pocket Pal: A Graphic Arts Production Handbook. Michael holds an MS in Graphic Arts Systems from the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Laura Schaub is a national creative accounts manager for Jostens. Prior to joining the Jostens team, she served as executive director of the Oklahoma Interscholastic Press Association at the University of Oklahoma where she also taught courses in typography, design, desktop publishing and photography. In 1997, she was University of Oklahoma Journalism Professor of the Year. She is a professor emeritus at the University of Oklahoma. Previously, she taught journalism courses and advised student publications at Charles Page High School in Sand Springs, OK, for 22 years. Schaub is a past Oklahoma Journalism Teacher of the Year and former DJNF Distinguished Adviser. She was inducted into the National Scholastic Journalism Hall of Fame in 1991 and served as president of the CSPAA for two terms. She received the NSPA/JEA Pioneer Award in 2000. She served as contributing author to Journalism Today, a journalism text and workbook series published by the National Textbook Company. She also co-authored and edited Scholastic Yearbook Fundamentals published by the Columbia Scholastic Press Association and later served as images editor and contributing writer for CSPA’s Magazine Fundamentals. She chaired the CSPA Judging Standards and Practices Committee for over ten years. The CSPA has conferred all of its major personal awards on Schaub: the Gold Key, the Joseph M. Murphy Award for Outstanding Service and the Charles R. O’Malley Award for Excellence in Teaching Journalism. In 2002, the CSPAA conferred the James F. Paschal Award for service as a state scholastic press association director. She was also named one of 75 Legends in Texas Scholastic Journalism.

Helen F. Smith advises the Newtonite newspaper and Mirettes, the school’s French-language newspaper at Newton (MA) North High School. She edited CSPA’s Official Stylebook, its fifth edition of Springboard to Journalism and two editions of CSPA’s Scholastic Newspaper Fundamentals. She is on the board of New England Press Association and serves as the executive director of the New England Scholastic Press Association.

Edmund Sullivan serves as executive director of the Columbia Scholastic Press Association and also as executive director for professional prizes in the Graduate School of Journalism. A former high school newspaper editor, he recalls being forced to watch as his school’s principal burned an issue he had edited. He considers that episode as having “seared” the First Amendment into his consciousness. As a result, he has dedicated his working life to the cause of a free student press. Besides his work at Columbia, he served on the Student Press Law Center Board of Directors from 1983 to 2000. His numerous awards include the Laurence B. Johnson Award for Best Editorial Writing from the Educational Press Association of America, Distinguished Service Award from Community College Journalism Association, the Reid Montgomery Service Award from College Media Advisers, the NSPA Pioneer Award and the Gold Key from CSPA. He was inducted into the National Scholastic Journalism Hall of Fame in 1998.

Walt Swanston is Director of Diversity Management for National Public Radio (NPR) in Washington, DC. Her job is to shape diversity strategies in staff development and programming. She joined the NPR staff in March 2003. Walt has had more than two decades in print and broadcast journalism and more than 20 years in diversity focused work with the media. She came to NPR from the Radio and Television News Directors Foundation (RTNDF), where she directed the organization's diversity, educational and international programs. Walt has served as the executive director of UNITY: Journalists of Color, and spearheaded the UNITY '94 and UNITY '99 conventions. She has also served as executive director of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), directed diversity programs at the Newspaper Association of America Foundation and consulted for Knight-Ridder Inc. and other media companies. Walt's journalism career included posts as executive editor at WUSA-TV in Washington, D.C. and reporter/producer for WETA-TV in Washington, DC. She has reported for The National Journal, The National Observer, Washingtonian Magazine, The Washington Post, The Washington Star, the San Francisco Examiner, the San Francisco Sun-Reporter and KQED-TV in San Francisco.

John Tagliareni has advised Bear Facts, the student newspaper at Bergenfield (NJ) High School, for the past 34 years. Bear Facts has received the GSSPA’s Garden State Award, the NJPA’s Award for General Excellence, and the CSPA’s Gold Medalists with All-Columbian honors, as well as Silver Crowns. Bear Facts was featured on the Reading Rainbow program, televised nationally, as well as ABC-TV’s Nightline. Tagliareni has judged student publications for national critique services and contests. He is a former president of the GSSPA, which awarded him its Golden Quill Award for Distinguished Service. The DJNF selected him as a Distinguished Adviser. Tagliareni, who serves on the Student Press Rights Commission of JEA, is active in promoting student press rights. He is a recipient of the CSPA Gold Key and the OIPA’s Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2000, the CSPA honored him with the Jubilee Award and The New York Times and CSPA honored him with the Charles R. O’Malley Award for Excellence in Teaching. He also served as CSPAA Recording Secretary from 2002-2004.

Joseph B. Treaster is a reporter for The New York Times. Beginning as a correspondent in Vietnam, Treaster has covered wars, politics, diplomacy, disasters, business and every day life throughout the world. His assignments for The Times and national magazines have taken him to Asia, Africa, Australia, the Middle East, Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean and throughout the United States. Since the summer of 1996, he has been a financial news reporter for The Times, concentrating on the insurance industry. He has been heavily engaged in reporting on all aspects of hurricanes in the last few years and was the only reporter from a major newspaper in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina struck. To make the transition from foreign correspondence and general news, Treaster studied at the Columbia University Business School on a Knight-Bagehot Fellowship in 1995 and 1996. A graduate of the University of Miami and of Columbia University, he has received more than a dozen journalistic awards, including three from the Overseas Press Club of America for work in Africa and Latin America. Treaster has been a Poynter Fellow at Yale University and at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, FL. In recent years he has taught at Baruch College in New York and in China, South Korea, Jordan, Egypt, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates in an international journalism program of Georgia State University. Treaster's latest book, Hurricane Force: In The Path of America's Deadliest Storms,'' was published in June. He has written two others.

Violet Turner has taught middle school and high school English in Wantagh, NY schools for 21 years. She is an adjunct professor for Long Island University, teaches creative writing, is the co-adviser to Escapades, the WHS literary magazine, and has taught creative writing to inmates at Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, NY. Her extensive writing background includes copywriting for WLIR radio and Costich and McConnell Advertising, news writing and announcing for WLIM radio, public relations for the Stony Brook Community Fund and the Clinton County Mental Health Association, educational scriptwriting, and freelance writing for publications such as Newsday, Maximum Guitar, Screenwriters Magazine, Expecting Magazine, and the Long Island Voice. She was the 1992 first place recipient of the Phyllis Whitney Writing Award and has had her photography featured in Popular Photography.

Warren Watson is the director of J-Ideas, a national institute based at Ball State University that encourages excellence in high school journalism, and fosters First Amendment awareness and news literacy. J-Ideas is part of the Knight research team and houses the survey results at www.jideas.org. Watson, 56, is a lifelong journalist and has worked at newspapers large and small since 1973. He has been a news executive in Portland and Augusta, Maine, and in Peabody, Mass. From 1998 until 2004, Watson was vice president of the American Press Institute, the nation's oldest training institute for professional journalists. Watson was the 2003 president of the Society for News Design. He speaks and writes regularly on journalism topics.

C. Bruce Watterson, chair of CSPAA’s Committee on Judging Standards and Practices, serves as chief communications officer at Darlington School, Rome, GA. He teaches courses in journalism/communication on the college level and lectures to press groups and publication workshops. A past finalist for Dow Jones Newspaper Fund Teacher of the Year, he has received the CSPA Gold Key, the NSPA Pioneer Award, the JEA Medal of Merit, the SIPA’s Distinguished Adviser Award and the Kay Phillips Service Award from the North Carolina Scholastic Media Association. Watterson has been honored by College Media Advisers for his work with the collegiate press. He has been a national officer for CASE (Council for the Advancement and Support of Education). He has spoken frequently to press groups in 44 states and internationally as part of the Center for Independent Journalism Foundation.

Ray Westbrook is the newspaper and yearbook adviser at St. Mark’s School of Texas in Dallas. The ReMarker newspaper has garnered three consecutive Gold Crowns from CSPA; the Marksmen yearbook received a Gold Crown last year. Pacemaker and Gold Star distinctions have been awarded both publications in the past two years. From a student body of 320 Upper School students, over 100 students now participate in the journalism program. In 2007, the CSPA will honor him with its Gold Key.

Kathleen D. Zwiebel was the 1998 Dow Jones Newspaper Fund National High School Journalism Teacher of the Year. She advises five publications at Pottsville Area High School in Pottsville, PA. In the past the publications have received national and state honors from CSPA, NSPA and PSPA. A 1996 CSPA Gold Key recipient, Zwiebel also received the CSPA Diamond Jubilee Award, Charles R. O’Malley Award for Excellence in Teaching, NSPA Pioneer Award, JEA Medal of Merit and PSPA Teacher of the Year. She serves as past president of the Columbia Scholastic Press Advisers Association and chairs its Honors Committee.