ABIGAIL VILLACRUSIS
Junior Faculty Advisor
Abby is a student at Virginia Wesleyan University double majoring in Communication and French. She enjoys competing in speech and debate and is on her school’s ethics bowl team. Additionally, she works in her school’s student activities office, assisting with planning and coordinating events. She attended WJMC in 2021 and can’t wait to come back!
MAGGIE ATTRIDGE
Junior Faculty Advisor
Maggie is a rising sophomore in the Media, Self and Society College Scholars program at the University of Maryland in College Park. She is double majoring in journalism and government/politics. At UMD, she is involved with the UMD Student Government Association and the Student Alumni Leadership Council. She is from Columbia, Maryland, and attended WJMC in 2017 as a correspondent. She can’t wait to return to share her experiences with the new correspondents!
MARK HILBURN
Faculty Advisor
Mark Hilburn is in his fourteenth year teaching journalism at Millard West High School in Omaha, Nebraska, where he advises the MWHS Wildcat News Broadcast, Catalyst Newspaper, Prowler Yearbook and Striv live-streaming. Mark is also an adjunct professor at the University of Nebraska Omaha where he teaches Media Writing while working on his doctoral degree in Educational Leadership. Currently, Mark is serving as President of the Nebraska High School Press Association, presents and judges at national JEA/NSPA and CSPA conventions and teaches journalism workshops across the country. He is a Master Journalism Educator, Mentor and serves on the Certification Committee through the Journalism Education Association. He holds Master’s degrees in Journalism and Mass Communication and Secondary Education: Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Nebraska. His publications have been Pacemaker, Gold Crown and All-American award winners, received 1st place in the NSPA Best of Show competition, won State Journalism Champions in 2017 and 2014 and State Runner-Up in 2018, 2016 and 2013. Mark advised the 2022, 2019, and 2018 Nebraska Journalists of the Year and received the Excellence in Broadcasting Award from the University of Nebraska Omaha in 2022, 2020 and 2018. Mark was named the 2015 Nebraska Distinguished Journalism Teacher of the Year, in 2019 was the first adviser to receive the Dr. Sherrie Wilson Outstanding Service Award for Journalism, and in 2020, received the Future Administrator Award and Scholarship from the Journalism Education Association. This is his fifth year with WJMC.
