Shurlds Named Arkansas Press Association’s Journalism Educator of the Year

Photo Submitted

Katherine Shurlds.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Katherine Shurlds, University of Arkansas journalism instructor and longtime director of the Lemke Journalism Project, will be honored as the Journalism Educator of the Year by the Arkansas Press Association. The award will be presented Friday, July 11, during the association’s 2014 SuperConvention in Hot Springs.

Shurlds and other members of the journalism department created the Lemke Journalism Project in 2002. The six-week program, with classes held on Saturday mornings, was designed to attract high school students who wanted to learn about journalism and multicultural issues in Northwest Arkansas. Students publish The Multicultural News at the end of the program. The newspaper is distributed with La Prensa Libre.

In 2011, the program celebrated its 10^th anniversary and received a $250,000 foundational grant from Tyson Foods Inc. that ensures the program will continue and be able to award scholarships. Northwest Arkansas Media is the program’s other major financial supporter.

In 2008, Shurlds received a Héroes de Corazón award for her work with the Lemke Journalism Project. The award, sponsored by the Hispanic Latino Associate Resource Group at Wal-Mart, recognized “the heroes among us that serve as an inspiration by their dedication to the Hispanic community, in their service, sacrifice, overcoming spirit, and visionary work.”

Shurlds specializes in media law and has taught at the Walter J. Lemke department of journalism since 1994, the year she completed a law degree at the U of A. Prior to that, she was editor of The Weekly Vista in Bella Vista worked as a reporter for the Morning News of Northwest Arkansas, the Northwest Arkansas Morning News, the Benton County Democrat, the Paragould Daily Press, the Maryville (Mo.) Daily Forum and the Memphis Commercial Appeal. She also worked as general manager of Fayetteville Open Channel, the city’s public access channel.

Shurlds earned many writing, photography and editing awards during her newspaper career. She was named a state sweepstakes winner in Missouri and in several Arkansas Press Women communication contests. She also won 13 national awards from the National Federation of Press Women. In 1978, she was named the APW “Woman of Achievement.”

Shurlds is a former president of the Professional Chapter of the Northwest Arkansas Society of Professional Journalists. Under her leadership, the chapter received an award for “Small Chapter of the Year” in 2006. The same year, SPJ’s contributions to the Lemke Journalism Project netted the chapter the Circle of Excellence Award from SPJ “in recognition of outstanding contributions and excellence in the area of diversity.”