JEA announces new curriculum leaders
The Journalism Education Association has selected six new curriculum leaders to begin one-year terms May 1.
The leaders — selected from a competitive applicant pool to develop curriculum in law and ethics, news gathering, editing, multimedia broadcast, leadership and team building, and entrepreneurship — join four other returning curriculum leaders who were reappointed to their positions.
Newly appointed curriculum leaders are:
John Bowen, MJE — Law and Ethics
John Bowen is an adjunct professor in journalism sequence and assists in the development of online journalism educator master’s program at Kent State. At Kent he teaches Writing Across Platforms, Storytelling Across Platforms, and Ethics in the undergrad program. He teachers Ethics and Social Role and Responsibility in the grad program. He is former director of JEA’s Scholastic Press Rights Committee and has been a member of the SPLC Board of Directors and convener of the SPLC Advisory Council. He taught high school journalism and social studies and advised student media for 30 plus years.
Margie Raper, MJE — News Gathering
Margie M. Raper advises student publications and teaches journalism at Highland Park High School in Dallas. She is proud to share her passion for scholastic journalism with her students, see them grow as storytellers and celebrate their achievements. She serves as the president-elect of the Texas Association of Journalism Educators, part of the Gloria Shields workshop committee and as a local committee member for the JEA/NSPA Dallas 2017 convention. Before her teaching career, Margie was a broadcast reporter and videographer for CBS-affiliates in small markets in Texas.
Ava Butzu — Entrepreneurship
Ava Butzu has almost 20 years of experience advising yearbook. She has built two separate programs in two high schools in the same county but with vastly different demographics. She was a major contributor and writer of the marketing and entrepreneurship modules for her yearbook printing company’s 7-minute starters and their week-long module for classroom instruction. Ava is frequently asked to present her students’ marketing, branding and social media projects at workshops.
Rebecca Pollard, MJE — Leadership and Team Building
Rebecca Pollard advises high school student media at Heritage High School in Frisco, Texas. During her career of 17 years in scholastic journalism, she has advised yearbook, broadcast, newspaper, web and literary magazine. Her students have won state and national awards. She has served as the Journalist of the Year Committee Chair for JEA and teaches at publications workshops around the country.
Candace Bowen, MJE — Editing
Candace Perkins Bowen is an associate professor who directs the Center for Scholastic Journalism and the Ohio Scholastic Media Association at Kent State University. She is course manager and teaches the Honors sections of the largely freshman-level Writing Across Platforms and Teaching High School Journalism, a methods course required for all Integrated Language Arts majors. She also developed and directs the online master’s degree for journalism educators, teaching Opinion Writing each spring. Perkins Bowen served in several JEA board positions, including president from 1994-1996, and has received the association’s Carl Towley, Medal of Merit and Linda S. Puntney Teacher Inspiration awards.
Erinn Harris, MJE — Multimedia Broadcast
Erinn Harris, “yerd” for the past 24 years, advises Techniques yearbook, tjTODAY newsmagazine, tjTODAY Online and TJTV at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Virginia. Her staffs have earned CSPA Silver Crowns, NSPA Pacemakers, Gold Medalist and All-American ratings and many state and local awards. JEA named Harris a 2010 Rising Star, a 2014 Special Recognition Yearbook Adviser and a 2016 Distinguished Yearbook Adviser. She is also a 2016 CSPA Gold Key recipient. Harris serves on the board of the Virginia Association of Journalism Teachers and Advisers, acting first as associate director and now as treasurer.
These new curriculum leaders will work with the following veteran module leaders, each of whom has been reappointed for another one-year term: Brian Hayes, MJE (design), Tim Morley, CJE (photojournalism), Justin Raisner (web) and Elizabeth Levin, MJE (writing). Curriculum leaders can serve up to three consecutive one-year terms in their roles.
Leading the team is Educational Initiatives Director Megan Fromm, MJE, and curriculum coordinators Shari Adwers, MJE, and Abrianna Nelson, CJE.
Curriculum leaders produce original lessons for the JEA Curriculum Initiative and represent JEA as expert teachers at the summer Advisers Institute in Las Vegas. To read more about the initiative or to access the members-only repository of lessons, visit the curriculum site.