KEMPA Journalism

KEMPA Journalism

KEMPA Journalism

Administrator of the Year

The Board of Directors of the Kettle Moraine Press Association recognizes the importance of the assistance and encouragement that high school journalists receive from school administrators. Therefore, the KEMPA Board of Directors has instituted the Administrators of the Year award. The award is presented at the KEMPA annual meeting during the Fall Scholastic Journalism Conference.

Nominations for this award may be made by students, advisers and/or student publication staffs. A committee appointed by the KEMPA president makes the final decisions.

Use the KEMPA Administrator of the Year form to nominate an administrator who has been an advocate for high school journalism. For your convenience, you can also nominate someone using this Google form.

The nomination deadline is midnight on June 30, 2020.

The 2017 Administrator of the Year Award winner is Dee Andershock, of Antioch (IL) Community High School. She was recognized at the 2017 Fall Scholastic Journalism Conference on Oct. 13, 2017 at UW-Whitewater.

Andershock is the English department chairperson at Antioch Community High School in Illinois. Adviser of the Tom Tom magazine, Patrick Johnson, nominated her, saying she is “the epitome of what we all want and need in an administrator. She pushes herself to understand press rights and freedoms, including the New Voices movement in Illinois. She believes in what journalism stands for so much, and supports what the New Voices initiative means, that she made sure to provide other administrators with the foundational knowledge they need to support it as well.”

Andershock has provided the Antioch publication advisers and their students with professional development and growth opportunities. Johnson said she supports him in becoming a better person and teacher.

She has traveled with him to conferences with as many as 83 students, listened to their needs, budgeted for thousands of dollars worth of equipment for them, and still finds time for an interview, while supporting them with upper administration, and giving the students every opportunity  to be successful.

Her love for the student and the program is evident, perhaps deriving from her own time on the Tom Tom staff when she was in high school. Andershock wants what is best for the publication programs and for scholastic journalism in general; this is why she is the 2017 KEMPA administrator of the year.

2017 Dee Andershock, Antioch Community High School (IL)
2014 James Huggins, Appleton North High School (WI)
2013 Jeff Eben, J.I.Case High School (Kenosha, WI)
2012 Brett Bowers, Homestead High School (WI)
2011 Dr. Matt Gibson, Elmbrook School District (WI)
2010 Richard Kirchner, Belvidere North High High School (IL)
2009 Brian Kersten, Waunakee High School (WI)
2008 Nick Hughes, Wauwatosa East High School (WI)
2007 Donald LaBonte, Brookfield Central High School (WI) / Jerry Movrich, Stoughton High School (WI)
2006 Ken Dopke, Tremper High School (Kenosha, WI)
2004 Kimberly Zupec, Waukegan High School (IL)
2003 Craig Duncan, Milton High School (WI)
2002 Barb Dougal, Parker High School (Janesville, WI)
2001 Bill Stroud, Wauwatosa East High School (WI)
2000 Olin Harried, Stoughton High School (WI)
1999 Dr. Jon Platts, Milton Superintendent (WI)
1997 John Pyfer, Pearl City High School (IL)
1991 Tom Kemppainen, Milton High School (WI)
1990 Lowell Freedlund
1989 Gerald Malueg, Ozaukee High School (WI) / William Reisk, Parker High School (Janesville, WI)

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