JEA remembers 1999 Carl Towley Award recipient Kay D. Phillips Redding, who passed away Aug. 29, 2025

Longtime scholastic journalism teacher, adviser and advocate Kathleen (Kay) Douglass Phillips Redding, 86, died Aug. 29, 2025, at Senior Citizens Nursing Home in Henderson, North Carolina.

Phillips Redding taught high school journalism for 13 years and taught in the journalism department at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 1988 until her retirement in 2003. As a lifelong educator, she spent her last professional years as the first full-time director of the North Carolina Scholastic Media Association from 1994-2002. That association’s distinguished service award is named after her.

The Journalism Education Association recognized Phillips Redding with the 1999 Carl Towley Award, the highest honor from JEA, for outstanding personal achievement and service to scholastic journalism nationwide. She also was awarded the Linda S. Puntney Teacher Inspiration Award in 2005 for her positive attitude and willingness to share her knowledge, and the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001 for her many years of service to scholastic journalism.

C:JET editor Bradley Wilson, MJE, said Phillips, known for her unmatched Southern charm, wasn’t just another journalism adviser. She was literally adviser 0001 in the first electronic database of JEA members created in 1999.

Part of her story was the focus of the Freedom Forum’s book “Death by Cheeseburger: High School Journalism in the 1990s and Beyond.” That connection was described in more detail in an NCSMA Q&A as part of the organization’s 75th anniversary.

Dedicated to protecting the First Amendment, especially for high school age students, Kay advanced the cause across the country through her own organization NCSMA and others like the JEA, Columbia Scholastic Press Association and the Southern Interscholastic Press Association. She received The Golden Key Award, the highest CSPA award, for her outstanding devotion to the cause of school press and leadership in the field of education.

Link to the official obituary