Our Workshop Team

Tracy Anderson advises The Communicator magazine and website at Community High School in Ann Arbor. The programs have received Spartan awards from MIPA, Pacemakers from NSPA, Story of the Year from NSPA, Design of the Year from NSPA, and numerous other awards. Anderson was selected to participate in the Reynold’s Institute at the Cronkite School of Journalism in Phoenix. She is also the recipient of a Golden Pen Award. She can’t wait to work with MIPA journalists and help them develop websites that engage their readers. Her goal is to get her workshop participants ready for the new school year with a vibrant, relevant website and social media plan in place.

Pam Bunka is the retired adviser of the Fentonian yearbook and InPrint newspaper at Fenton High School. Both publications received numerous MIPA, CSPA and NSPA awards, which include Spartan, Crown and Pacemaker awards, during her time as adviser. She is a Golden Pen recipient and this past spring received the JEA Lifetime Achievement Award. Bunka has taught at every MIPA summer workshop at MSU. She’s the only one here who can claim that honor! The reason she keeps returning is her love for and belief in scholastic journalism. She hopes to instill in all of her students the same love for journalism and provide them with the knowledge and skills they will need to create a yearbook that will tell the story of their students, their school and their community.

Michael Caterina is a multimedia photojournalist for the South Bend Tribune photographing local news, high school and Notre Dame football and basketball. After graduating from Lansing Everett High School, Caterina received a degree in photographic technology from Lansing Community College. Michael attended MIPA conferences in high school and helped instruct in the past. He is very excited to be teaching for his seventh year!

Cody Harrell is a journalism and English teacher at East Lansing High School, where he advises the award-winning Ceniad yearbook and Portrait newspaper. He is a graduate of the Michigan State University School of Journalism and serves on the MIPA Executive Board.

Bobby Hawthorne has been involved with student publications since before the Beatles broke up. He attended UT-Austin, worked as a newspaper reporter, directed a big scholastic press association, and wrote “The Radical Write,” which is now in its fourth edition. His latest effort is an 80-page book on yearbook copy. He plays centerfield and first base in a geezer softball league.

Michael Kaufman serves as the program director for LCPS-TV, is a connected educator with PBS Student Reporting Labs and teaches Broadcast Journalism at L’Anse Creuse. In 2019, Kaufman received both the Wall Street Journal Courageous Leader Award and the DAFT Media Teacher of the Year. In 2015, his TV & Broadcast Media program received the Education Excellence 2020 award from the State of Michigan School Boards Association. He was Michigan Theatre Teacher of the Year in 2004, a finalist for Michigan Teacher of the Year in 2005 and is Apple Certified in Final Cut Pro Editing Software.

Ike Lea heads the Photographic Imaging Program at Lansing Community College, where he teaches digital photography and digital imaging courses. Lea worked for newspapers early in his career and continues to be actively involved in photography, working as a freelancer and shooting running events for RunMichigan.com.

This marks Julie Price’s 26th year at the workshop. She retired in 2020 as the newspaper and yearbook adviser at Haslett High School, where she taught for 25 years. She has been involved in MIPA since the beginning of her advising career and served as a trustee, vice president, president and newspaper contest chair. Price is proud that her journalism students have stayed true to the power of having a voice and the First Amendment. Prior to teaching, Price worked 15 years as a writer and editor at newspapers in Michigan and California. She has a journalism degree from MSU.

Jim Streisel, the 2013 Dow Jones News Fund National High School Journalism Teacher of the Year, is the adviser of the Carmel (Indiana) High School HiLite newspaper. Streisel has written two journalism textbooks, “High School Journalism: A Practical Guide” and “Scholastic Web Journalism: Connecting with Readers in a Digital World.” He earned a 2012 Pioneer Award from the NSPA and was named a 2012 DJNF Distinguished Adviser. He also was named the 2011 Carmel Clay Schools Teacher of the Year and the 2011 Indiana Journalism Adviser of the Year.

Jeremy Whiting is the general manager of Michigan State University’s student-run radio station, Impact 89FM. He is the former adviser of the broadcast, yearbook and online news programs at Ovid-Elsie High School. Jeremy started at the MIPA workshop as a high school student in the late ’90s and never really left. He has previously served as president of MIPA’s board of directors.

Jim Woehrle started working in a newspaper press room at the age of 15, and ever since he has had ink in his veins. He worked as a professional journalist at various newspapers around the Midwest for a dozen years, and has been a journalism teacher and newspaper adviser at Midland High School since 2000. He advises the Focus newspaper. In his spare time, his goals are to grill the perfect burger and travel the world, staring in slack-jawed wonder at dramatic mountain scenery and masterpieces of art.

Sara-Beth Badalamente advises the newspaper and yearbook publications at Huron High School in Ann Arbor. Badalamente, better known as “OC,” was named a winner of the American Society of News Editors’ First Amendment Challenge for innovative lesson plans on the First Amendment in 2015. She was named a JEA “Rising Star,” in 2011 and received the future journalism teacher scholarship in 2006.

Sara-Beth supervises the workshop’s curriculum, leads the response to various participant issues during the workshop and is our CFO (chief fun officer).

Jeremy Steele got his start from MIPA and now he coordinates MIPA’s conferences and contests throughout the year as the organization’s executive director. He is an academic specialist at the Michigan State University School of Journalism, where he teaches reporting and visual communication classes. Jeremy was named a 2020 Friend of Scholastic Journalism by the national Journalism Education Association. He’s sometimes joined by his trusty news hounds, Remington and Winston.

Jeremy manages the registration process for the workshop, including payments, and provides technology support to our instructors.

Kaitlin Edgerton, CJE, has advised Grosse Pointe South’s biweekly publication The Tower, and its companion website, The Tower Pulse, since 2016. She started her teaching career at Madison High School, where she advised the newspaper and yearbook. Edgerton attended Oakland University and Michigan State University, gaining degrees in English and journalism and a master’s in education. She recently concluded her two-year term as MIPA president. Edgerton frequently judges for state and national scholastic media contests and has been an instructor at the MIPA Summer Journalism Workshop. She received the JEA Rising Star Award in 2019 and the MIPA Golden Pen Award in 2022. While at South, Edgerton has advised countless students who have received accolades including multiple Spartan Awards, NSPA Pacemaker nominations and a CSPA Gold Crown.

During the workshop, Kaitlin supervises our student life team and supports the safety and well-being of workshop participants.