Our staff at the MIPA Summer Journalism Workshop includes nationally recognized scholastic journalism teachers and professional journalists from across the country. We keep our classes small so you’ll get all the individual help you need. You’ll learn the latest trends and innovations, plus get motivated and return home ready to make your student media the best it has ever been! Learn more about our team below.
INSTRUCTORS
Anderson
Tracy Anderson • Website Boost Camp
Tracy Anderson advises The Communicator magazine and website at Ann Arbor Community High School. The publications 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.
Bunka
Pam Bunka • Yearbook Editors
Pam Bunka teaches at Fenton High School. Her yearbook, the Fentonian, has earned numerous MIPA, CSPA and NSPA awards. The newspaper she advises, InPrint, has been recognized by those scholastic press organizations as well. She is a Golden Pen recipient. Bunka has taught at every MIPA/MSU workshop. She’s the only one here who can claim that honor!
Butzu
Ava Butzu • Taking Your Yearbook to the Edge
Ava Butzu teaches Yearbook/English at Grand Blanc High School in MI. Her yearbook staff produces a 386-page book with extensive coverage and design. Her staff has earned awards at multiple levels, including crowns from CSPA and top honors at the state level. Ms. Butzu’s interest in approaching yearbook as a complete journalism and entrepreneurship team-building experience has encouraged her students to pursue design, writing, journalism, photography and marketing degrees. She believes that there is no greater honor than to work with students who capture the moments and people at their school in meaningful and creative ways each year.
Cadena
Lydia Cadena • Advanced Yearbook Design
Lydia Cadena is ready to meet and work with a great group of enthusiastic journalists as they create designs for the best yearbooks ever. Cadena has advised the yearbook staff for 18 years and the newspaper staff for 14 at Novi High School and is excited to work with a new group of editors each year. She enjoys cooking, impromptu dance parties and, of course, being involved in MIPA. Cadena also knows no trip to MSU is complete without visiting the Dairy Store.
Campion
Alexis Campion • Yearbook Kickstart
As a former MIPA kid, Alexis Campion is excited to be back working with yearbook students at camp this summer. Alexis has been an adviser for five years and advises the yearbook and newspaper at Henry Ford II High School in Sterling Heights. In her spare time, she is completing a master’s degree in educational technology from Central Michigan University and finishing up home improvement jobs on the house she and her husband purchased in March.
Caterina
Michael Caterina • Shoot Like a Pro
Michael Caterina lives and works in southwest Indiana as the presentation editor at the Princeton Daily Clarion. After graduating from Lansing Everett High School, Caterina received a degree in photographic technology from Lansing Community College. He has won numerous awards at the college and professional levels. Michael attended MIPA conferences in high school and helped instruct in the past. He is very excited to be teaching for his third year!
Cyr
Elizabeth Cyr • InDesign for Newspaper
Elizabeth Cyr has found the secret to a happy life: helping young people unlock their potential. She has been doing so at Stockbridge High School for about two decades. Nothing makes her happier than helping students unleash their ideas through contemporary graphic design tools and strong journalism conventions. As a journalism adviser, she encourages staffs on Uncaged News, Uncaged Online and The Panther yearbook. Her staffs have won numerous awards at the state and national level including the MIPA Spartan, NSPA Pacemaker and CSPA Silver Crown. She was named the 2017 Golden Pen Adviser. Follow her @queenof207 for cool stuff.
Epps
Rick Epps • Design Like a Pro
Richard Epps is the visual journalism professor at Michigan State University’s School of Journalism, where he teaches publication design and information graphics for print and digital platforms. He is proficient in the Adobe Creative Suite, including InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator and Dreamweaver and also is a web designer skilled in HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript and D3 (Data Driven Documents.) He joined the MSU faculty in August 2016 after a 20-year career at The Detroit News, where he served as presentation editor. He lives in Farmington Hills, where he and his wife, Caryn, have four sons.
Flanagan
Jamie Flanagan • Entertainment Coverage
Jamie Flanagan is the adviser for the yearbook and the newspaper at Fraser High School. On the weekends he’s a DJ and can be heard on Detroit’s Hot AC station, 96.3 WDVD. He also produces and hosts a nationally syndicated talk radio show called Animal Talk. This is his eighth year at the workshop, and his fifth year teaching.
Gude
Karl Gude • Illustrator & Information Graphics
Karl Gude, Graphics Editor in Residence at Michigan State University, has spent more than 30 years visualizing information. Prior to coming to MSU, Gude created information graphics for various news organizations including Newsweek magazine and the Associated Press. His job was to visually explain a variety of topics for readers ranging from medical, technological and scientific breakthroughs to breaking news and business stories.
Hall
Cammie Hall • Writing & Packaging the News
Cammie Hall is an English and journalism teacher at H.H. Dow High School, where she advises the school newspaper, Update and Update online, and the yearbook, The Charger. Over the past seven years, her staffs have earned Spartans, a Pacemaker and a Silver Crown. In the little time her students allow her outside of the journalism room, she is a soccer mom who loves taking photos of her son and singing all of the “Frozen” songs with her daughter.
Hammitt
Christina Hammitt • Opinion Coverage
Christina Hammitt advises the award-winning Hawkeye at Bloomfield Hills High School. In her 21st year of teaching high school journalism and English, she continues to be a huge supporter of all MIPA does. She also spends time training and competing in triathlons.
Hawthorne
Bobby Hawthorne • The Bobby Hawthorne Experience
Bobby Hawthorne is an Austin writer, writing instructor and reporter and columnist for an education magazine you’ve never heard of. His columns deal mostly with himself and occasionally scholastic sports. He worked for the University Interscholastic League from 1977-2005. He is the author of The Radical Write and a couple of other small books, manuals and what-not. In 2006, he authored Longhorn Football: An Illustrated History. A year later, he produced the text for Home Field, a book of photos of Texas high school football stadiums. In 2009, he produced a 200-page history of the UIL for its centennial. He did it on time and only slightly over budget.
Hume
Dean Hume • News Editors
Dean Hume has been teaching journalism classes and advising publications for 35 years. A former reporter and columnist, Hume teaches journalism at Lakota East High School, where he advises the NSPA Hall of Fame news magazine Spark, which has earned Gold Crown, Gallup, Pacemaker and JEA Best of Show honors with its staff of more than 100 students. A Dow Jones News Fund Distinguished Adviser, NOSPA Hall of Fame Adviser, U.S. Department of Education Presidential Scholar Educator, and Texas JEA “Trailblazer” winner, Hume, who published a textbook for JEA, also serves an adjunct professor at Northern Kentucky University.
McNamee
Alex McNamee, SNO Technical Expert • Website Boost Camp
Alex McNamee brings all of the expertise of being School Newspapers Online’s Education and Training Specialist. Plucked from the press box, Alex was a preps sports reporter for daily newspapers in central Illinois, before joining SNO, and is a graduate of Eastern Illinois University.
Julie Price • Beyond the Basics
Price
This marks Julie Price’s 16th year at the workshop, and she’s taught at Haslett High School for 20 years. Price is proud that her journalism students have won numerous awards, including the Spartan. Prior to teaching, Price worked for 15 years as a writer and editor at newspapers in Michigan and California. She has a journalism degree from MSU.
Julia Sattherthwaite • Feature Coverage
Satterthwaite
Julia Sattherthwaite, CJE, advises El Estoque and elestoque.org at Monta Vista HS in Cupertinto, California. Prior to this year, she advised The Talon and rochestertalon.com in Rochester Hills, and served as Michigan’s JEA state director. She was awarded Michigan’s Advisor of the Year in 2014. Sattherthwaite serves as a Director at Large (West) for JEA.
Satterthwaite
Rod Sattherthwaite • Sports Coverage
Rod Sattherthwaite, MJE, co-advises The Campanile newspaper and thecampanile.org website at Palo Alto (Calif.) High School. Before moving to California last July, Sattherthwaite taught and advised in Illinois and Michigan and served on the MIPA board for 17 years. He was named MIPA’s Golden Pen winner in 2003 and a Dow Jones News Fund Distinguished Adviser in 2012. He currently serves on the board of JEA of Northern California, The JEA Certification Commission and The Student Press Law Center’s Advisory Council Steering Committee.
Sikkenga
C.E. Sikkenga • Taking Your Newspaper to the Edge
C.E. Sikkenga is taking a break from golfing, travelling Michigan’s back roads with his ancient beagle, Booker, and hanging out at record stores to spend his 15th summer on MIPA’s workshop staff. When not at MIPA, he’s spent the past 23 years teaching at Grand Haven High School where he’s advised the Bucs’ Blade newspaper since 2000.
Jim Streisel • The Upstart
Streisel
Jim Streisel, the 2013 Dow Jones News Fund National High School Journalism Teacher of the Year, is the adviser of the Carmel (Ind.) 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.
Whiting
Jeremy Whiting • Broadcast Boot Camp
Jeremy Whiting advises the broadcast, yearbook and online news programs at Ovid-Elsie High School, a small mid-Michigan school in the middle of a cornfield. He started coming to 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.
Woehrle
Jim Woehrle • InDesign for Newspaper
At 15, Jim Woehrle was hired in the press room of his local newspaper to stuff advertising inserts and stamp mailing labels onto copies of the paper. Since then, every job he has held has revolved around journalism. For several years he was a professional journalist, but for the last 16 years he has taught at Midland High School and advised the Focus newspaper. In his spare time, he likes to drag his wife and two kids around the world, hiking up mountains and staring slack-jawed at great works of art and literature.
Yeomans
Missi Yeomans • Writing Coach, The Bobby Hawthorne Experience
Missi Yeomans taught publications at Traverse City Central High School for 13 years. She is a Golden Pen recipient. She returns as an assistant to Bobby Hawthorne’s class for the tenth year. Summertime hobbies are writing, reading and water skiing.
ADMINISTRATORS
Sanders
Chad Sanders • Workshop Director
Chad Sanders still has his eye on the prize of a Grammy for the work of Mästhëäd, the disassembled band of journalism teachers he leads as frontman. Unfortunately, they never actually recorded an album. After giving up his childhood dream of being an Elvis impersonator, Sanders became MIPA’s workshop director. He also is the newspaper and graphic design teacher at Lansing Everett High School.
Badalamente
Sara-Beth Badalamente • Workshop Assistant Director
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.
Steele
Jeremy Steele • MIPA Director
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 on the MSU School of Journalism faculty, where he teaches reporting and visual communication classes. He’s sometimes joined by his trusty news hounds, Remington and Winston.
Ashman
Sarah Ashman • Student Life Director
Sarah teaches English and Journalism at Holt High School, where she advises the Ramparts newspaper. She is excited for another week at MSU surrounded by the best and most eager jerds on the planet. Campers, if you need anything – including a band-aid, a hug, a reminder of the curfew policy, or a witty remark – come find me.
Salk
Jayna Rumble • Office Director
Jayna Rumble has worked at the MIPA workshop since 2007. A MIPA kid to the core, she attended camp twice while in high school and then went on to major in journalism education at MSU. She is now the proud adviser of the Gladiator Yearbook and the Independent Newspaper at Troy High School. She enjoys reading, being outdoors, watching Netflix and trying to knit things.
