People and Places

[b]Krol is “Woman of the Year”

Debra Krol was named “Woman of the Year” in November by the Phoenix Indian Center. Krol has worked as a writer, reporter and editor for 10 years, working with the Fort McDowell Yavapai News, Arizona Capitol Times and Native Peoples Magazine. She is the communications manager of the Heard Museum and a member of the Jolon Salinan Tribe of Central California.

She was honored Nov. 19 during an awards banquet, part of the center’s Native American Recognition Days. Aside from her two-year involvement with SPJ, she is also a member of the Native American Journalists Association.

[b]Paulson departs USA Today for Newseum

USA Today Editor Ken Paulson left the paper Feb. 1 to take the positions of president and chief operating officer of the Newseum and Freedom Forum.

Although he helped start USA Today in 1982, Paulson left the paper shortly thereafter, eventually leading newsrooms in five states. In 1997, he became executive director of the Freedom Forum’s First Amendment Center, where he remained until 2004, when he returned to USA Today to become the paper’s sixth editor.

In 2007, Paulson was named a Fellow of the Society, SPJ’s highest honor to recognize contributions to the journalism profession.

[b]Pauley named to Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame

Veteran reporter and anchor Jane Pauley was recently named to the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame at DePauw University. The hall was started in 1966 by SPJ’s Indiana Pro Chapter.

Pauley began her broadcasting career at WISH in Indianapolis after graduating from Indiana University. After a brief time in Chicago, she moved to New York to co-host NBC’s “Today,” a position she held for 13 years. She left NBC in 2003 after 12 more years hosting “Dateline NBC,” during which time she won several Emmy Awards and the Edward R. Murrow Award.

Pauley joined SPJ in 1979 and was named a Fellow of the Society in 1994. The hall of fame induction ceremony will take place April 18 in Greencastle, Ind.

[b]Members of Arkansas chapter earn awards, get married

Katherine Shurlds, a board member of SPJ’s Northwest Arkansas Pro Chapter, was a recipient of the Heroes de Corazon (Heroes of the Heart) Award in October. The award is sponsored by the Hispanic Latino Associate Resource Group at Bentonville-based Wal-Mart. In 2002, Shurlds helped establish the UA Lemke Journalism Project, a six-week program that brings professional journalists and community speakers together with Latino and other high school students who study and write about multiculturalism. The project concludes with the students’ stories and photographs being published in a newspaper, The Multicultural News.

Chapter President Michelle Parks is a feature writer at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. She was named best local newspaper reporter in the annual “Best of Northwest Arkansas” Readers’ Poll published in the December issue of CitiScapes Metro Monthly magazine.

Scott Shackelford, a chapter board member, wed Elizabeth Moore Nov. 15 at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Tontitown, Ark. Shackelford is the editorial page editor of Northwest Arkansas Times.

[b]Endowed scholarship started as university honors member

An endowed scholarship for outstanding promise in sensitive and ethical journalism has been established in honor of longtime SPJ member Joe Hight at his alma mater, the University of Central Oklahoma. Hight, director of information and development for The Oklahoman, is a 1980 journalism grad of Central Oklahoma, a former editor of The Vista and past president of the university SPJ chapter. The Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma at the University of Washington endowed the scholarship to honor his service as the center’s first president and his work with the international program.

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