JEA Awards C. Dow Tate, 2023 H.L. Hall National Yearbook adviser of the Year, mugshot of Tate

Dec. 15, during a surprise presentation at a school assembly at Shawnee Mission East High School in Prairie Village, Kansas, JEA presented C. Dow Tate with the 2023 H.L. Hall National Yearbook Adviser of the Year award.

Last year’s recipient, Kristi Rathbun, MJE, adviser at Rock Canyon High School, was unable to deliver the award in person, but her announcement was shared via video broadcast while Principal Jason Peres and JEA Assistant Director Lindsay Porter, CJE, were on site to present a plaque and congratulations.

The H.L. Hall National Yearbook Adviser of the Year program is designed to honor outstanding advisers and their exemplary work from the previous year, as well as throughout their careers.

Seven other yearbook advisers were recognized.

Distinguished Yearbook Advisers:

  • Makena Busch, CJE, Mead High School, Spokane, Washington
  • Jim McCrossen, Blue Valley Northwest High School, Overland Park, Kansas
  • Barbara Tholen, MJE, Lawrence (Kansas) High School

Special Recognition Yearbook Advisers:

  • Jason Davis, CJE, Apache Junction (Arizona) High School and Cactus Canyon Junior High School
  • Glenn Krake, CJE, West Linn (Oregon) High School
  • Sharon Kubicek, Round Rock (Texas) High School
  • Christina Manolis, MJE, Oakville High School, St. Louis

A $500 award for the winner’s school, and $500 awards for distinguished yearbook advisers’ schools may be used to buy equipment for the yearbook classroom or to fund student scholarships to summer workshops. The H.L. Hall National Yearbook Adviser of the Year also will receive a personal $1,000 prize.

The program is underwritten by Balfour Yearbooks, Herff Jones Inc., Jostens Inc. and Walsworth Yearbooks.

2023 H.L. Hall National Yearbook Adviser of the Year


C. Dow Tate, 2023 H.L. Hall National Yearbook Adviser of the Year.

C. Dow Tate has advised yearbooks since 1992, with the last 22 years at Shawnee Mission East High School. In that time, the Hauberk yearbook has won 14 national Pacemakers and nine Gold Crowns.

“Tate has not only re-built the tradition of excellence enjoyed by the Hauberk, but has solidified the book’s reputation for fearless innovation,” Susan Massy, 1999 H.L. Hall Yearbook Adviser of the Year, said. “The thing I love most about this reputation is that it has been earned by his students. Tate is an adviser, not a hands-on member of the staff.”

Tate said that running a true student-run publication means students must be empowered to take ownership.

“I believe in the philosophy of Marvel Comics’ Stan Lee: ‘With great power comes great responsibility’,” Tate said. “But I also believe that high school is a place where learning should be encouraged, not stifled by censorship. The best learning experiences come through allowing students to make some mistakes. With that underlying philosophy in mind, I choose my editors carefully and empower them to create and lead.”

Before the school year started, Tate asked editors what their plan was for the 40-plus staff making the way to Dallas for the Gloria Shields NSPA Media Workshop, which he has directed for more than 20 years. He also asked the editors their plan for the opening two weeks of school.

“So from day one, I’m sitting in the back of the room while they make their announcements only to float between groups as editors begin training,” Tate said. “As I tell parents, the beauty is we have 10-15 teachers in the room. Not just one. The end result is that editors leave with the ability to think for themselves, to take the initiative and to lead.”

Tate said that students’ ability to work with others and to value each other in the process is the most critical lesson.

“I’ll remind editors that leadership isn’t just standing at the front of the room,” Tate said. “Leadership begins in the connections they make in the summer and continues in the daily assistance they provide to others to make sure they’re successful and included in the process.”

Former student Audrey Thomas said she is one of many who have has been touched by his influence over the years.

“The life lessons, memories, and solid journalism skills are all things I took into college and early adulthood,” Thomas said. “I can pick up a DSLR at any time, ask the hard questions, churn out a quick design in Photoshop and now show grace to the moody teenagers of the world because of him and his dedication to education.”

Pages from the Hauberk yearbook.

After conducting a parent survey 15 years ago for a graduate class, Tate realized many parents didn’t understand the value of yearbook and journalism.

“They didn’t understand what their children were doing in the room after school,” Tate said. “They didn’t see the application of skill sets in other careers. Since that time, newspapers have dissolved. Magazines have shut down. Journalists have been called ‘fake news,’ ‘dishonest’ and the ‘enemy of the people.’ Journalism has taken a beating. The value of free press and journalism isn’t something we can presume everyone embraces.”

After brainstorming with a parent, the Journalism Showcase was born. For the final, each staff member produces a board to showcase some of their work and explain some part of the creative process as well as an interactive piece to engage the guest.

“We invite parents for an evening event where they mill about learning about the value and process of the class,” Tate said. “The parents loved it. What became an annual event for us, grew to include every district high school four years ago. Now, more than 400 parents and students mill around the district’s two-story building marveling at the work widely regarded as some of the country’s best while learning about scholastic journalism. They see the creativity, thought and work ethic that goes into creating a publication.”

Many of his former students have pursued careers related to journalism. Each month, graduates Facetime into Tate’s classes to share lessons with the staff.

“I have a mantra: Make yourself marketable,” Tate said. “The idea that I’ve heard from so many professionals over the years is to learn a variety of skill sets to entice companies to hire you and make you valuable to them once you’re their employee. Students may be selected for a specific role once they come onto staff, but as the year progresses and their staff career advances, they are encouraged and then required to move outside their comfort zone to build additional skills.”

Tate uses frequent all-staff critiques where each student’s work is projected up on the front screen for feedback.

“The critiques work as a preview to being published as well as allow for positive peer pressure,” Tate said. “The long strands of feedback and ideas serve as ways to improve and reminders that there’s still much to be done. But the gasp that accompanies powerful photojournalism or a creative page design rewards the hours of labor young writers, designers and photographers put into the work.”

Former student Lilah Powlas said Tate takes opportunities within the yearbook setting to better students as individuals.

“I remember after a particularly harsh critique I was pretty upset [and] he sat me down and talked me through it,” Powlas said. “It was not just about what I could have done better in the work, but about how to take criticism – criticism as a whole, not just in yearbook. And my favorite piece of advice he’s given me is that ‘if it seems like there should be an easier way to do something, then there probably is.’ I find myself thinking of this every time I’m struggling with a new design assignment or life in general.”


Distinguished Yearbook Advisers

Makena Busch, CJE

Makena Busch, CJE, has advised the Pantera yearbook for nine years at Mead High School in Spokane, Washington. The publication has won four Pacemakers in the past five years and two CSPA Gold Crowns.

“There’s a famous quote from Apple that resonates with me when I think about my job. ‘There’s work and there’s your life’s work. The kind of work that has your fingerprints all over it. The kind of work that you’d never compromise on. That you’d sacrifice a weekend for.’ Yearbook is my life’s work,” Busch said.

Mike Simons, 2021 H.L. Hall Yearbook Adviser of the Year describes Busch as a kindred spirit and colleague.

“Makena’s program is ascendant, by any measure. … Pantera is a pacemaker and trendsetter in every sense of the word — comprehensive in its coverage and stunning in its contemporary design,” Simons said. “Books like Pantera and advisers like Makena set the bar extremely high for the rest of us, and my staff and I are glad to have the challenge of keeping up with the team at Mead. … It’s the kind of yearbook that wows my own staff and pushes them to look at their coverage, design and goals in new ways.”

Busch said teaching students how to photograph, write, design, investigate and report never gets old.

“My passion for what I teach means this job has never felt like a job,” Busch said. “ I’m also the proudest school mom you’ve ever seen when I watch an editor take the reins and teach their peers with confidence and enthusiasm. Nothing beats watching a student stand on their own and lead without being pushed to.”

Leslie Egan had two children on the Pantera yearbook staff and said Busch is a true leader because she inspires and motivates her students to produce the best work possible.

“Makena has a gift to teach and lead students at Mead, which gives the yearbook staff quite a

reputation; everyone wants to be a part of this elite group,” Egan said. “But most importantly Makena creates relationships with the students she works with. She goes above and beyond to let them know that they belong and are important. My kids have been greatly impacted by her love and attention and because of the experience they had with her, it prepared them to work hard in their future pursuits. Every student and school needs a teacher like Makena Busch.”

Busch’s students serve their school community beyond creating the yearbook by offering photography, video and design skills to make sports banners, posters, programs and hype videos. They’ve even branched out to photograph their city marathon and Bloomsday race.

“I believe a good yearbook program is the heart of a school’s community and should be woven into the fabric of every precious moment we share together during the school year,” Busch said. “It’s taken us a while but, I do believe my program has become that pulsing heart.”


Jim McCrossen

Jim McCrossen has taught journalism and advised yearbook for 33 years, with 31 of them at Blue Valley Northwest High School.

Julia Walker, CJE, and adviser at Olathe (Kansas) West High School, spent three years in Jim McCrossen’s journalism classes, eventually becoming editor in chief of the yearbook. She credits his influence as why she went on to pursue a journalism degree and a master’s in education and now works as a journalism adviser herself.

“As an adviser, Jim has continued to provide me with mentorship,” Walker said. “He cheers me and my students on at journalism competitions and is a constant sounding board for me as I navigate the world of advising. A consistent mantra for me as an adviser has been, ‘What would Mac do?’ When implementing a new class policy, when navigating staff drama, when coaching students through a tough ethical decision — I constantly find myself reflecting on how Jim would handle the situation.

“While Jim is one of the most talented teachers of photography and journalistic writing, I think the magic ingredient that boosts his staff to greatness is that he is an adviser who not only educates, but also inspires and empowers his students to reach new heights,” Walker said. “He is just as focused on teaching his students how to properly crop a photo or use AP style as he is with building leaders and nurturing staff culture.”

Former student Alea Beaman now works as a FOX Sports digital content specialist and credits what she learned from McCrossen.

“Regardless of whether I was going to save the world, be a CEO, pursue public policy, cover baseball from the sidelines, or be a creative director at a fashion magazine, I could still tell you about all the valuable things I learned from him and how they applied to my career, but more importantly my life,” Beaman said. “Getting emails from his current students asking for feedback on sports design, seeing Pacemaker finalists and awards with The Horizon and The Express attached to them, and getting asked to tell you how cool it was to have someone guide me to my dream job when I was 15 years old means way more than Emmy nominations.”

McCrossen said the best compliment he hears from graduates is how easy college is as a result of what they know and are able to do because of yearbook.

“They know how to problem solve; they know how to break up big projects into small chunks; they know how to approach their professors and they know how to plan ahead and make their deadlines,” McCrossen said. “I have found these realizations to be universal across all post-high school experiences and in all phases of former students’ lives.”

“I have long been at the stage where I get the children of former students, often hearing that their parents strongly encouraged participation in our programs because they learned more there than almost any other class. I think that’s about as good as it gets.”


Barbara Tholen, MJE

Barbara Tholen, MJE, began advising publications at Lawrence High School in 2010.

“I converged the yearbook and newspaper staffs so many years ago that no one remembers what it was like when we had separate staffs,” Tholen said. “In fact, they can’t quite wrap their minds around the idea of completely separate staffs. Converging our program into one staff began for practical reasons. I had a newspaper staff that was writing more stories than they could fit in their publications, and I had a yearbook staff cripled by anxiety when it came to interviews.

“The silly rivalries were counterproductive. … Rather than infighting, we have a deep sense of collaboration,” she said. “At its best, staffers grow new staffers to take on tougher projects and stories.”

Students can join staff after completing Tholen’s introductory journalism class or one of a few other prerequisites, including film, photography or graphic design.

“These days, everyone works on every publication. Technically, the editors in chief specialize to their publications — ensuring that everything is assigned and covered,” Tholen said. “But my yearbook EIC’s are some of my best breaking news reporters, able to cover breaking news like pros. And content that runs on our website might also make its way into our yearbook as a sidebar or story.”

Danielle Lotton-Barker is a parent of a former and current student of Tholen’s.

“When first-year college student Zora published her first story in the Mount Holyoke student newspaper, I immediately forwarded the link to Barb as I wanted her to see that her profound influence goes on,” Lotton-Barker said. “The same goes with the news that Zora’s first-year seminar professor has asked her to apply to be a writing tutor for other MHC students because she is such a strong writer and editor because of her background in high school journalism.”

Beyond journalism, former student Gary Schmidt said Tholen always makes it clear students could come to her with anything.

“I will never pretend she was some magical duct tape you could slap over any problem life threw at you and it would be fixed, but she was about as close as a human can get,” Schmidt said. “The advice and compassion she displays on a seemingly endless tank is why our program succeeds so much, why she is the best teacher I will ever have, and why she deserves this and any other award you can throw at her. Her willingness to put her life on the line for each and every student she meets is a quality that I will never stop appreciating.”

Tholen believes journalism is alive with real-world opportunities for learning.

“The world is my classroom,” Tholen said.

Her students have covered presidential visits, reported on political rallies, looked up public records, filed open records requests and interviewed members of the school board, city council, Kansas State Board of Education, Kansas Legislature and Congress.

“If professional reporters do it, my students have done it.”


Special Recognition Yearbook Advisers

Jason Davis, CJE

Jason Davis, CJE, has advised for 15 years and currently advises the yearbook programs at both Cactus Canyon Junior High and Apache Junction High School.

“There are very few, if any yearbook advisors, willing and crazy enough to take on two yearbook programs, yet if anyone were to do it, it would be Mr. Davis,” said Tiffany Hutcheson, editor-in-chief of the Prospector yearbook at Apache Junction High School. “Since I stepped foot in Mr. Davis’ classroom, his students were his main priority. There have never been points in my career where an idea has been smashed, only expanded on.”

Hutcheson was also editor-in-chief on Davis’s yearbook staff at Cactus Canyon Junior High, so she has known him as a teacher since seventh grade.

“I will never forget the memory of when I walked out of a Journalist of the Year session at a national convention with a million ideas in my head, ranging from a podcast to a law, and Mr. Davis’ first response to all of them was a clear yes,” Hutcheson said. “‘Yes,’ ‘Probably,’ and ‘Absolutely’ are all famous words around Mr. Davis’ classroom.”

Davis said he looks for kids who have a genuine interest in being part of the yearbook program.

“I can teach all the journalism skills and students will improve with practice, but I’ve found that the best part of the program is giving students a place to feel at home and successful in school.”


Glenn Krake, CJE

Glenn Krake, CJE, has advised yearbook for 18 years and has taught journalism since 2008 at West Linn High School in Oregon.

Former student Emily Rogers said Krake has a great eye for spotting potential and talent in people and helping them to reach their goals.

“Glenn was my teacher for English, and after turning in one of my first major assignments, he asked to speak with me after class,” Rogers said. “At first, I was nervous, like any kid would’ve been, but Glenn told me that I wrote like a journalist and he thought I should try News Writing for my elective class the following semester.”

Krake requires each student to create a WordPress portfolio of their work and models the importance of publishing by building a portfolio alongside them. Rogers said this portfolio was the most important high school assignment she ever worked on.

“Glenn understood that this assignment would help set up his students for success post-high school,” Rogers said. “I worked tirelessly on my portfolio in hopes that it would be enough to make it to the eyes of a judge. I wanted feedback, I wasn’t expecting anything to come of it. I got the phone call while in Glenn’s yearbook class that I won the Oregon High School Journalist of the Year award and I immediately looked at him with excitement and appreciation. In my head, I replayed the conversation we had that day after sophomore year English class, and I reflected on how far I’d come.”


Sharon Kubicek

Sharon Kubicek has been teaching journalism for 30 years, with the last 17 of them at her alma mater, Round Rock High School in Texas.

“I once had a student say that joining the yearbook staff is like joining a family — but with deadlines. I’ve also had a yearbook editor say that joining the yearbook staff is like getting a job,” Kubicek said. “They are both right.”

Former editor-in-chief Matt Guzman said Kubicek first helped him reach his goal of getting into journalism school at the University of Missouri, but her mentorship didn’t end there.

“She helped me learn AP style, design, lede writing and all sorts of other skills that I was going to need at a ‘fancy journalism school’,” Guzman said. “Safe to say, those paid off. After a year of behind-the-scenes learning on top of my yearbook work, I entered MU with a knowledge base as good as any of my honors college peers — ones who had spent years on newspaper staff learning writing and AP style. I thank Kub for that.”

“I found my place in the journalism school. I began with The Maneater — MU’s student-run publication — which later became weekly clips on the USA TODAY network at the Columbia Daily Tribune and now professional NBA and NFL coverage for Sports Illustrated. Kub has seen me grow from a young writer with big aspirations into a true sports journalist, and I have always seen her as the reason for that.”


Christina Manolis, MJE

Christina Manolis, MJE, has advised publications for 10 years, including the yearbook at Oakville High School in Missouri since 2021.

Manolis said her greatest enjoyment in high school yearbook journalism is letting students take ownership of their work.

“I want everyone on staff to enjoy their time and see the value in the work they are doing,” Manolis said. “That begins with listening to what isn’t working for them and what they need help with, and finding ways to solve these issues.”

Former editor-in-chief Layla Halilbasic said Manolis’ greatest strength as an educator is that she goes beyond listening.

“There are educators who listen to their students,” Halilbasic said. “Manolis hears her students. She wants to hear what they have to say. She hears what they say and yearns to know who they are deep down. She hears what kind of student they are, but also the turmoils and successes within their personal lives. She hears who they are as people.”

When Halilbasic received a full ride scholarship to college, she told Manolis first — even before her own parents.

“When I told her the good news, she reacted like I was her own daughter telling it to her,” Halilbasic said. “The excitement. The cheerfulness. The pure, genuine happiness exuded out of her; it was out of her control. She saw me as more than a student in that moment. She saw me as a person. She saw me like I was one of her own.”


Founded in 1924, JEA supports free and responsible scholastic journalism by providing resources and educational opportunities, promoting professionalism, encouraging and rewarding student excellence and teacher achievement, and an atmosphere which encompasses diversity yet builds unity. It is headquartered at Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas.

Louisa Avery, MJE, JEA awards chair

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