JEA Grants Lifetime Achievement Award to Three Advisers

Congratulations to Pam Bunka, Jack Denker and Lori Oglesbee-Petter! The Journalism Education Association (JEA) has named the three advisers as recipients of their 2021 Lifetime Achievement Award. This honor is given to “advisers who have contributed significantly to scholastic journalism throughout their careers,” according to the JEA website.

Lori Oglesbee-Petter

Oglesbee worked as a journalism adviser for 34 years, spending 19 years at McKinney High School in McKinney, Texas, and the final two years of her advising career at Prosper High School in Prosper, Texas. She is a frequent contributor to Walsworth Yearbooks workshops and Elite Weekends. In August of 2018, she was featured on an episode of the Yearbook Chat with Jim podcast.

Jack Denker

Denker has been the yearbook adviser at Walsworth Yearbooks school Fremont High School in Fremont, Nebraska, for the past 12 years. Before that, he spent 15 years at Nebraska City High School in Nebraska City, Nebraska. Additionally, Denker has served on the Nebraska High School Press Association executive board for three years.

Pam Bunka

Bunka was a yearbook adviser for 42 years before retiring from Fenton High School in Fenton, Michigan in 2019. Even after retiring, she continued to work with the Michigan Interscholastic Press Association.

The trio will be recognized April 10, during the Spring JEA/NSPA National High School Journalism Convention.