Author: Allison Dodson

Teresa Scribner

Faculty Advisor

Teresa Scribner is an award-winning media teacher at Cleveland STEM High School in Seattle, Wash. Scribner teaches multimedia, graphic arts and is the adviser for Cleveland Publications, which oversees the production of the school’s yearbook, newspaper, news broadcast and website. Under her leadership, the program has won numerous awards for photography and design.

In 2016, Scribner was named Washington state’s Journalism Adviser of the Year and was a Dow Jones News Fund Special Recognition Adviser. She was one of 13 journalism teachers from around the country to receive the Journalism Education Association’s Rising Star Award. For the past year, she has been a voice in the community, speaking about the importance of diversity in journalism. She spends countless hours mentoring students of color in her school.

Before becoming a teacher, Scribner spent 12 years as a Visual Journalist for The Seattle Times and 6 years at newspapers in Texas and Arkansas.

Sue Muraida

SUE MURAIDA

Assistant Director

Sue Muraida is a best-selling author, speaker, and pursuer of abundant life. Over the past 30 years, she has worked as a medical photographer, photojournalist, leadership trainer, writer, and teacher. Sue has published three books, Change For a Penny, The Silent Sound of Darkness, and her memoir Going Back For Me, as well as co-authored the anthology Deserts To Mountaintops: Our Collective Journey To (Re)Claiming Our Voice. She is currently the program director for Humanities North Dakota.

Madison Gaines

Junior Faculty Advisor

Madison Gaines is a Creative Writing major and a Math minor in George Mason University’s Class of 2021. She attended WJMC as a correspondent in 2016, returned to WJMC in 2017 as an Intern, and is looking forward to attending WJMC as a JFA this year! Currently, Madi is a Mason Ambassador, a member of Mason’s Honors College Recruitment Team and the GMU Green Machine, and plays intramural soccer. As an Ambassador and an HCRT member, Madison spends a lot of time interacting with prospective students and giving tours of campus. After college, her goal is to become an author and an editor in a book publishing company, and then use her vast riches to turn an old hotel into a public library. Madi loves puns, mozzarella sticks, and spreadsheets, in that order.

Samantha Shaw

SAMANTHA SHAW

Faculty Advisor

Samantha earned her B.A. in English and comparative literature and M.A. in teaching from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she was named Student Teacher of the Year in 2022. Now, she teaches English and has started a journalism program at Carrboro High School. In 2023-24 she was recognized as the runner up Beginning Teacher of the Year for the state of North Carolina. Sam loves inviting students’ passions into a project based and equity focused classroom. It’s true: words have the power to change us — whether that’s a potent literary work or the unique power of the press. Her teaching has been inspired by her experiences at WJMC. She is a WJMC 2016 alumna, worked as an intern and a JFA; she’s ecstatic to be back for her third year as an FA! When she’s not in the classroom, Sam is managing social media or editing books for the author Katie Cross, listening to audiobooks, or going on hikes with her fiancé.

SAMANTHA SHAW

Faculty Advisor

Camden Layton

Advance Team Member

Camden Layton is a rising senior at George Mason University studying Public Administration. After first attending the conference in 2016, he then returned as a Conference Intern in 2017, and then again as a Junior Faculty Advisor in 2018. His favorite part about the conference is the friendships he has made and those he has been able to watch form. He is involved in many different things on campus, but when he is free you can normally find him in a Dunkin Donuts with his friends. Camden is super excited to be returning to the program again this summer!

Olivia Vermane

Junior Faculty Advisor

Olivia is beyond excited to return to her third year of WJMC, this time as a JFA! Coming from Long Island, New York, Liv is a Communication major with a concentration in journalism and a minor in religious studies right here at GMU. Aside from her work with the conference, Olivia is also part of the IV Estate student newspaper at GMU, as well as Cru Christian Fellowship on campus. She also works in the Office of Admissions as a Telecounselor and a member of the Welcome Team. Liv was one of five selected interns at last years conference, and her involvement with the program is one of the main reasons she chose to attend Mason. Liv cannot wait to share all that WJMC has to offer with her correspondents!

Dr. Robert Lichter

DR. ROBERT LICHTER

President, Center for Media and Public Affairs

Dr. Licther is a member of the Communications faculty as well as a consultant for Fox News Channel and Voter News Service. He is the President and founder of The Center for Media and Public Affairs. CMPA is a nonpartisan research and educational organization which conducts scientific studies of news and entertainment media. He has also authored two books, Prime Time and Watching America, as well as coauthored several books that examine the media’s coverage of government and election campaigns with Dr. Stephen Farnsworth.

Ann Klenk

ANN KLENK

Former Senior Producer, Hardball with Chris Matthews, MSNBC

Ann Klenk is a retired senior producer for MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews. Ms. Klenk started her career in Washington broadcast journalism in 1976 as a business reporter for WTOP radio and Channel 9. She moved to cable in the 1980s producing financial and political programming, including a nightly investigative magazine show. In 1991, Ms. Klenk was hired to start the CNBC’s first primetime bureau in Washington and created “Equal Time with Mary Matalin and Jane Wallace” and launched “Russert” and “McLaughlin” on the network.

Steve Klein

STEVE KLEIN

Professor Emeritus/Journalism, George Mason University

Mr. Klein specializes in a cross-platform journalism approach and provides workshops for high school programs through his “Journalism for the Rest of Us” initiative and as a Teacher Consultant for the Northern Virginia Writing Project. He has taught classes in Writing Across Media, News Writing and Reporting, Introduction to Journalism, Online Journalism, Sports Writing and Reporting and Political Journalism at George Mason University, American University, Cape Cod Community College and Michigan State University. Mr. Klein will also teach History of Journalism (From Gutenberg to Zuckerberg) at GMU and a Journalism Practicum and Feature Writing at Mary Washington University during fall 2014. Prior to coming to Mason, he served as Online Sports Editor of USA TODAY, and also worked at the Lansing State Journal, Tennis magazine, the Stamford (Conn.) Advocate, Enterprise Radio/The Sports Network, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Akron Beacon Journal, for the Cleveland Crusaders of the World Hockey Association, the South Bend Tribune, the Wisconsin (Madison) State Journal and the Milwaukee Journal.

Dr. T. Mills Kelly

DR. T. MILLS KELLY

Professor, Global Affairs Program, George Mason University

Dr. Kelly is currently a professor with the Global Affairs Program at George Mason University as well as an associate professor in the Department of History and Art History, and an associate director of the Center for History and New Media.

CHNM uses digital media and technology to preserve and present history online, transform scholarship across the humanities, and advance historical education and understanding. Each year CHNM’s many project websites receive over 16 million visitors, and over a million people rely on its digital tools to teach, learn, and conduct research.

Dr. Kelly is also a Georgetown University Research Fellow on the influence of digital media on student learning in history.