The board of directors voted to approve a slate of four exceptional finalists at its annual meeting in Minneapolis on Saturday, September 28th. Onsite interviews begin this week.
The finalists:
Ron Johnson is director of student media at Indiana University. He is past president of College Media Association, the Western Association of University Publications Managers and Kansas Associated Collegiate Press. Johnson taught and directed student media at Kansas State University and Fort Hays State University. He holds a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Kansas.
Diana Mitsu Klos is a media education and nonprofits consultant based in northern Virginia. As senior project director at the American Society of News Editors, she developed and secured grant funding for the High School Journalism Institute and the online hosting services hsj.org and my.hsj.org. Before her work at ASNE, she was staff writer, city editor and managing editor at daily newspapers in New Jersey, Connecticut and New York. She holds a bachelor’s degree in communications from the City College of New York.
Ira David Levy is the creator, executive producer and host of Pedal America, a national PBS and Create TV television series. He taught and advised student media at Wilbur Wright College in Chicago, and served on the board of directors of College Media Association. Levy began his journalism career in broadcasting at local television news stations in New York, and at CNN in Atlanta. He holds a master’s degree in writing from DePaul University.
Sara Quinn is on faculty at the Poynter Institute, specializing in multimedia innovation and news reading behaviors. She also directs Poynter’s College Fellowship. Quinn has conducted eyetracking research on print, online, and mobile news technologies, and leads workshops on multimedia storytelling and news reading. Before coming to Poynter, Quinn was a designer, art director and assistant managing editor for visuals at newspapers in Kansas and Florida. She holds a master’s degree in illustration from Syracuse University.
Disclosure: One of the finalists, Ms. Mitsu Klos, resigned from the NSPA board upon being named a finalist, and had recused herself from all matters related to the search at the point of her candidacy.
The National Scholastic Press Association is a 92-year-old non-profit educational association that provides journalism education services to students, teachers, media advisers and others throughout the United States. In addition to its original mission serving high school journalism, its Associated Collegiate Press division serves college, university and professional and technical school media. Student media in its headquarters state are organized under the Minnesota High School Press Association.