2009 board of directors elections

REGION 3 / NORTH CENTRAL
Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin

Janet Levin
John Hersey High School, Arlington Heights, Ill.
jLevin@d214.org

Janet Levin, MJE, has been teaching journalism her entire 28 years in education. She has spent 24 of those years at John Hersey High School in Arlington Heights, Ill. as the adviser of The Correspondent newspaper. Although the newspaper has garnered national, state, and regional awards and its staff members are no strangers to top awards on all levels, it is the relationships among The Correspondent’s former and current members that Levin likes to brag about most.

Earning a BA in journalism from Indiana University and a master’s degree from Roosevelt University, Levin is a workshop addict who spends parts of her summers breathing in journalistic knowledge.

Levin is a frequent presenter at national conventions and regional conferences and regularly judges and critiques student work at a variety of competitions in the newspaper and literary magazine categories.

Statement of Goals:
If I am elected as the Region 3 director, I look forward to meeting and working with my region neighbors and helping the region’s scholastic journalism groups grow. I hope to help JEA membership numbers increase in the region, not only to keep JEA going strong but more importantly to help out the struggling advisers who need to be introduced to all the benefits that JEA has to offer.

I am concerned about the future of scholastic journalism with the retirement of so many veteran advisers, so I hope to introduce the new crop of advisers to all the organizations that offer help, inspiration and recognition for their publications. Through my many years as an adviser, I have learned that awards for the publication and individual students awards help build staff morale and keep administrators happy. Awards in the region’s many press organizations and JEA awards need to be explained to the new advisers, so their students can compete and hopefully earn respect in their own schools.

I eagerly anticipate working with fellow JEA members, if I am elected, on tackling the challenges that confront scholastic journalism and celebrating the gains and achievements we make together.

Gary Lindsay, MJE
Kennedy High School, Cedar Rapids, Iowa
GLindsay@cr.k12.ia.us

Gary Lindsay teaches language arts and journalism at Kennedy High School. He has advised the Torch newspaper since 1986, and formerly advised the yearbook and literary magazine. He has also taught summer journalism workshops for Jostens Publishing and for the University of Iowa student and adviser workshops.

Lindsay encourages his staffs to compete in state and national contests where they have earned numerous awards.

The Iowa State High School Press Association awarded Lindsay its Stratton Award in 2000 and its Rod Vahl Award as Adviser of the Year in 2006. For many years, Lindsay served on the IHSPA Executive Board and he was its president from 2003 – 2007.

Lindsay has earned CJE and MJE certification from JEA. He served several years as the JEA state director for Iowa and he has been regional director for the past two years.

Statement of Goals:
As regional director, Lindsay has attended state affiliate activities in Wisconsin and Iowa this past year, and hopes to attend several more. His goal is to increase adviser outreach in the region, and in pursuit of this goal, he has worked with IHSPA to establish the JEA Mentorship program in Iowa. Northern and western Iowa, southern Minnesota and North and South Dakota are relatively underserved by JEA and Lindsay has been working to establish programs to serve these regions.

Lindsay is a strong supporter of JEA’s Mentoring Program and is part of the JEA Professional Learning Community that was started last summer.

“I have enjoyed serving as North Central regional director,” Lindsay said. “It’s been wonderful meeting the state directors, and attending great local conferences like KEMPA’s Winter Adviser’s Seminar. I am thankful to have had this opportunity to serve JEA in this position and hope to be able to do so for another term.”

REGION 4 / SOUTH CENTRAL
Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas

Wayna Polk
Abilene High School, Abilene, Texas
WaynacPolk@yahoo.com

Involved with scholastic journalism since she was a sophomore in high school, Wayna C. Polk, CJE, has advised yearbook production at Abilene High School for 27 years and began teaching beginning journalism and advising the student newspaper, The Battery, five years ago. The Flashlight, the school’s yearbook, has continually won state, regional and national awards and her students have garnered individual honors as well. A teaching veteran of 30 years, she has been named the Max Haddick Journalism Teacher of the Year in Texas as well as receiving JEA’s Medal of Merit and NSPA’s Pioneer Award. Wayna has been named a Special Recognition Adviser and Distinguished Adviser in JEA’s Yearbook Adviser of the Year contest. She was named one of 75 Texas Legends in scholastic journalism in 2002 by ILPC during the 75th anniversary celebration of the state press group. She chairs JEA’s Scholarship Committee and is a member of the Awards Committee. She holds a B.A. in Journalism from Texas Tech University and a M. Ed. in English from Abilene Christian University.

Statement of Goals:
I am honored to represent the South Central Region of JEA as regional director. Our region boasts some of the finest scholastic journalism programs in the country and the advisers in our region continue to make outstanding educational contributions on the local, state and national levels.

Representing this region has allowed me to interact with these advisers and to better understand the different concerns we share about journalism education in our region and the positive role JEA can play in regards to our future in the classroom.

We face important future decisions regarding our organization and the survival of our classrooms and programs. With your support, I know our region will continue to strengthen the stature of JEA for all advisers. As JEA continues to emphasize the important role of educators, I am proud to support great teaching, strong advising and to be a part of the leadership that takes our organization and our scholastic journalism programs into the future.

Thank you for your support.