High School Journalism Institute

 

HSJI Summer Faculty/Staff

• Faculty Bios
• Counselor Bios
• Office Assistant
• Mac Lab Assistant

Faculty Bios

Alan Bates

Alan Bates teaches AP English, video announcements/broadcast journalism and coaches the debate team at Princeton High School in Cincinnati, Ohio. He earned his B.A. in political science from Miami University, Ohio, before getting an M.A. in journalism and English education from Ohio State University. He is the television news coordinator/instructor for two sessions this summer for HSJI.
 
 

 

Meredith Bledsoe

Meredith Bledsoe, CJE, has been teaching and advising for the past 11 years. She currently teaches journalism, photojournalism, darkroom photography and advises the Hamilton Southeastern High School Sceptre yearbook in Fishers, Ind. She graduated with a B.A. in journalism from Indiana University in 1997 and was the 1997 Arbutus editor-in-chief.

She stays busy by working on her 90-year-old bungalow in Broad Ripple (Indianapolis) and trying to prevent her 18-month-old Weimaraner from eating her entire house. On the side, she shoots weddings and portraits and cannot resist a purple flower.
    

Susie Coleman

Susie Coleman is an assistant principal/student activities director at Greenfield-Central High School. She taught yearbook, newspaper and journalism for 16 years before going to administration. She previously taught at Portage, Columbus North and West Monroe High School in West Monroe, La., for a year.
Coleman received her B.A. in journalism, English and education from Indiana University, and her M.S. in Secondary Education Administration from Purdue University-Calumet. This summer, she will serve as yearbook coordinator and yearbook section editor instructor.

"I am very excited about this summer,” she wrote. “My goal is for all yearbook students to leave IU with an almost complete plan for their book that they can take home and share with their staff. I also hope to help them learn to become stronger leaders on staff and in their school."

Coleman and her husband, Tracy, have one daughter, Ellei.

Mike Frazier

As publications adviser for 29 years at Hanover Central High School in Cedar Lake, Ind., Frazier’s yearbook staffs won 14 consecutive NSPA All-American yearbook awards, CSPA’s Silver and Gold Crowns, five NSPA’s Pacemaker and seven Pacemaker Finalist awards. They also won seven Indiana High School Press Association “Hoosier Star” awards for best yearbook in Indiana for schools under 1,100 students.

In 1999, he was honored with the Milken National Educator Award, just one year after he was selected for the Journalism Education Association’s “Distinguished Adviser of the Year” award. In 2001, he was honored with the IHSPA Ellen Sengenberger Award as Outstanding Adviser of the Year. Other professional activities include curriculum development for a journalism Web site, authoring a variety of scholastic articles and other special projects. He speaks at many regional, state and national workshops and conventions, and has served for 12 years on the IHSPA Board of Directors.
 

Pat Graff

Pat Graff has been a teacher and newspaper adviser at La Cueva High School in Albuquerque, N.M., since 1986 and a teacher for 32 years. She received her B.S. in education from Oklahoma State University and has put in more than 70 hours of post-graduate work at the University of New Mexico, Indiana University and the University of Denver. She is a National Board Certified Teacher in adolescent/young adult English language arts and a Master Journalism Educator. Graff will lead an HSJI session for beginning reporters this summer.

“I want to help students learn to be the best editors, leaders, writers and managers that they can be,” she said.

Ryan Gunterman

Ryan Gunterman teaches journalism and TV production while advising student publications at Bloomington High School North in Bloomington, Ind. (which is why he always looks so tired). He is a native of New Albany, Ind., and a 2002 graduate of Indiana University, where he served as beat writer, desk editor, editorial board member and editor in chief at the student newspaper.

His work has been published by Yahoo! Sports, NYTimes.com and the Bloomington Herald-Times, and maintained a sports blog for CourierJournal.com. Gunterman has been recognized as a Certified Journalism Educator and Rising Star by the Journalism Education Association and a Distinguished Adviser by the Dow Jones Newspaper Fund. He is also a past president of the Indiana High School Press Association. You will recognize him by his Cubs t-shirts, but please no jokes. It’s been a tough 100 years for his favorite team.
 

Diana Hadley

Diana Hadley is executive director of the Indiana High School Press Association, an organization that serves advisers and students with a variety of resources to help them with their high school publications.

Hadley taught Introduction to Peace Studies and Editing Principles at Franklin College again this year, and will teach Mass Media in the fall. She has been at Franklin for five years. She taught high school journalism and advised publications/broadcast for 33 years before she became part of the IHSPA staff.

Hadley has taught in some capacity at HSJI for over two decades, and she always looks forward to the opportunity to work with outstanding students from across the country as they give up precious summer time to make their publications the best they can be.

 

Nick Kapke

Nick Kapke, B.A.J. ‘03 at IU, studied photojournalism/visual communication and completed a second major in anthropology, focusing on linguistics and material culture of the Plains Indians. He currently works in the emergency room of a medical clinic in Breckenridge, Colo., while completing his WEMT (Wilderness Emergency Medical Technician) training.

In addition, he teaches photography short courses at Colorado Mountain College in Breckenridge. In addition to WEMT training and photography, Nick has also led trips in California and Colorado with at-risk youth focusing on alternative therapy models, outdoor education and substance abuse.

Jim Lang

Jim Lang just completed his 16th year of advising student publications, his 13th year as newspaper and yearbook adviser at Floyd Central High School in Floyds Knobs, Ind. Jim received his B.A. in journalism and English from Indiana University and his M.A. in secondary education from Indiana University Southeast, and is currently working on his administrative leadership license.

He is a former president of the Indiana High School Press Association and has worked in some capacity at HSJI for 19 summers. He was a co-recipient of the Ella Sengenberger Adviser of the Year award in 2006 and was a Dow Jones Newspaper Fund Distinguished Adviser in 2007. This summer, Lang wants his editors to understand their roles as leaders in their schools. 
 

Carmen Mann-Lynch

Carmen Mann-Lynch, MJE, taught high school and advised both the yearbook and newspaper for 13 years. She spent her first three years of teaching at F.J. Reitz High School in Evansville, Ind. She taught from 1998-2008 at Franklin Community High School (Franklin, Ind.) where she was Teacher of the Year for the school corporation in 2002.

Mann-Lynch started out on the high school yearbook staff when she was 14. She is now working on a master’s degree in school counseling, with the possibility of obtaining her mental health license. During the year, she works at Prestige Portraits’ Greenwood (Ind.) Studio, and substitutes as a teacher at Whiteland Community High School.

Mann-Lynch is a past president for the Indiana High School Press Association and a former regional director for the Journalism Education Association. She also served as the director of Crossroads, a Ball State University publication, and as the director of the IHSPA Sampler, the best of Indiana High School Press. Her students won many awards and Mann-Lynch says her biggest honor was meeting Ethel Kennedy in 2002 when her student was the high school print winner. Mann-Lynch continues to judge publications for various scholastic associations. 

Terry McCartin

Terry McCartin currently is retired and living in Mexico part of each year, but before that he taught English and journalism for 30 years at Silver Creek High School, where he was also the newspaper and yearbook sponsor. He also assists with special needs students in the Indianapolis school system at Howe High School.

McCartin received his B.A. from Bellarmine University in Louisville and his M.S. from Indiana University in Bloomington. This summer, he will teach yearbook staff members, section editors and the business/advertising lab.

McCartin says he wants to instill each staffer with a true enthusiasm for journalistic work. “Work doesn’t have to be a chore,” he says. “It can be fun.”

Janet McKinney

Now in her 40th year advising publications, Janet McKinney teaches journalism, photojournalism, newsmagazine, yearbook and literary magazine at Fishers High School. Also, she produces the sports program for the athletic department.

McKinney was hired in 2006 to establish the journalism program for the first year of the new high school. Starting with only six students on newsmagazine and yearbook, McKinney has increased the publications’ staff to nearly 50 students. This year, both the newsmagazine and yearbook earned medals at the Columbia Scholastic Press Association and students captured national awards at the National Scholastic Press Association/Journalism Education Association convention in St. Louis.

Prior to teaching at Fishers, McKinney was adviser at Ben Davis where her publication students won individual and publication state and national awards including Gold Medalist, All-American, Pacemaker and Silver Crown.

McKinney was named Ben Davis Teacher of the Year in both 1999 and 2005. McKinney has been keynote speaker at state conventions and a frequent speaker at national conventions. She teaches at journalism workshops each summer, but her favorite workshop is the one at HSJI. The member of the JEA commission for press rights received both her B.S. and M.S. in education from Indiana University.

Greg Mosley

Greg Mosley teaches English and journalism at Brown County High School and university level. He earned his B.S. in Education and M.A. in journalism from Indiana University. Currently, he is earning his doctorate in ministry from Trinity Theological Seminary. This summer, he will teach desktop design.

"I teach design because I want to see scholastic journalism presented in a professionally designed package that will attract readers to the quality material inside," he said.
 

Dan Niles

Entering his 35th year as a journalism educator on the secondary and collegiate levels. Dan Niles is a former Indiana Journalism Teacher of the Year, a past president of the Indiana High School Press Association and past president of the Indiana University School of Journalism Alumni Association.

A newspaper and yearbook judge of various national journalism contests and rating services, he is well-known as a workshop instructor and speaker at conferences. A 30+ years veteran of HSJI, he teaches Newspaper Advising and/or Management of Student Publications during the teacher workshops.
Majoring in journalism and English, Niles earned his B.S. in 1972 and M.S. in 1976, both from IU.

“I want to continue the Institute’s tradition of providing top notch instruction in an invigorating learning environment where individual needs are foremost,” Niles said.
 

Lori Overmyer

Lori Overmyer has been a newspaper and yearbook adviser and teacher at Wabash High School for 17 years. She has also been a freelance photographer and reporter.

She can now add publisher to that list of accomplishments. Overmyer and her business partner have published two books, Easy Low Carb Creations and Easy Low Carb Creations for Kids. She received her B.A. in journalism and English from Indiana University in Bloomington.

This summer is her first teaching photojournalism for HSJI.
 

Denise Roberts

Denise Roberts has been teaching journalism for 20 years with the last 15 at Greenwood Community High School, where she heads up the journalism program, including newspaper, yearbook and broadcast. She also teaches as an adjunct professor at IUPUI.

Roberts has a B.S. in English and journalism education as well as an M.S. in Administrative Leadership with her principal’s license. In 2000, she was named Indiana Journalism Teacher of the Year and was named a Lilly Endowment Creativity Fellow.