2015 MJEA Journalism Teacher of the Year
Dave Davis from Hillcrest High School has been named the Missouri Journalism Education Association’s Teacher of the Year award winner.
Davis is the only Broadcast Journalism teacher Hillcrest High School has ever had. He created “HTV Magazine” along with his students in the fall of 1989, and the program continues to cover teen issues and events each month. The show has earned 12 Broadcast Pacemakers, seven Robert F. Kennedy High School Journalism Awards, 25 national and regional high school Emmys, seven STN Excellence Awards, and dozens of JEA Write-Off honors. HTV is known for covering difficult topics, and for producing compelling special editions about social issues impacting young people. Davis is a 2015 JEA Distinguished Broadcast Adviser, and was named Springfield Public Schools Teacher of the Year in 2009. He helped found the Student Television Network in 1999, and currently co-directs the Academy of Scholastic Broadcasting (ASB), which has hosted one of the top national workshops for broadcast teachers since the summer of 2000.
He was nominated by Aaron Manfull at Francis Howell North High School. In his nominating letter, he wrote, “His work is nothing short of amazing. He is someone I and so many others look up to and I can’t give a higher recommendation for this honor than the one I give to Dave Davis. I think all journalism advisers who value their jobs want to grow up and have a program like the one Dave has built in Springfield. He is a great representative of scholastic broadcasting, scholastic journalism and would be a great representative of the MJEA Journalism Adviser of the Year.”
In a supporting letter, 2014 JEA National Broadcast Teacher of the Year Michael Hernandez said, “Dave has had an impact on thousands of broadcast journalism advisers and their students. It’s not uncommon to hear terminology and teaching techniques developed by Dave echoed by other broadcast advisers in their presentations and articles because they’re now ingrained into the journalism lexicon and have become generic terms.”
Davis lives in Springfield, MO about five miles from where he grew up, and is proud father of two daughters, Jenny and Lindsey, and married to a patient, wonderful wife, Martha, who continues to endure those late-night deadline-crunching sessions in the studio.
In addition to his recognition, the St. Louis Press Club, a proud MJEA partner, is providing a $1,000 award to Davis.
The Missouri Journalism Education Association is the largest state scholastic journalism organization formed to help protect and enhance scholastic journalism in Missouri. MJEA works to provide outreach and support to advisers and journalism programs across the state. MJEA supports free and responsible scholastic journalism by providing resources and educational opportunities, by promoting professionalism, by encouraging and rewarding student excellence and teacher achievement, and by fostering an atmosphere which encompasses diversity yet builds unity.
