Past president Jack Kennedy, MJE, announced his resignation from the Journalism Education Association Board of Directors effective May 1, 2014.

President Mark Newton, MJE, accepted the resignation and named Candace Perkins Bowen, MJE, who served as JEA president from 1993-1997, to the position.

“There is no way around this, we are going to miss Jack Kennedy on the JEA board,” Newton said. “His wisdom, wit and unwavering commitment to scholastic journalism has been a driving force for 25-plus years. I’m sad he will not be on the board, but happy to know he’s still planning to continue his work in scholastic media.”

“It has been my honor (always) and pleasure (mostly) to be part of this organization’s leadership, and to be able to contribute some ideas has been something I could never have dreamed of long ago, when Dick Johns sort of forced me to drive down to St. Louis to the 1984 convention,” Kennedy said in a letter to the newly elected board of directors. “Mentors like Dick and Rod Vahl and Ben Van Zante and Jack Dvorak and Mary Arnold encouraged me, an obscure young adviser from the wilds of Iowa, to run for office, and I somehow was elected. I guess one win led to another, and to another. And suddenly it’s years later.”

Kennedy, who also serves as the executive director of the Colorado High School Press Association, said he is not disappearing from scholastic journalism. “I am hardly severing my ties with student media and with some of my favorite people on the planet: media advisers,” he said. “I hope to concentrate a bit more on my duties with the CHSPA, and have a multi-year project planned to connect student media more tightly to prospective English teachers through university education programs. I also have some work to do in educating Colorado legislators, and convincing department of education folks about the importance of student media.”

Kennedy also is the local chair of the 2015 JEA/NSPA spring convention in Denver.

“I would like to think that I leave my leadership post with JEA in a very strong position,” he said. “I am confident that the energetic, passionate, and progressive leadership provided by all of you will make JEA even more vital in improving American education.”

Perkins Bowen is an associate professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Kent State University in Ohio and the director of the Center for Scholastic Journalism.

“I’m pleased to be serving JEA on the board again,” Perkins Bowen said. “I hope I can combine my institutional memory with the kind of forward-thinking, member-focused attitude of the newly elected board members.”

“Having Candy once again join the JEA leadership team is so comforting,” Newton said. “She sees the future, understands the present and respects the past. Candy works hard, delivers and is so supportive.”

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