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Welcome to the newest section of the NFPW Web site. On this page we'll post profiles of NPFW members, representing geographic and professional diversity.
Teri Ehresman
Cathy Koon
Tammy Whaley, South Carolina
Marsha Shuler, Louisiana
Up Close and Personal with
Teri Ehresman, Media Network Idaho
Why did you join NFPW?
I joined in 1976 – right after I graduated from college at the urging of one of the women in the newsroom at the Idaho Falls Post Register. I attended my first meeting with her and because of the friendships I made at the meetings have attended nearly every meeting since then. Some of the friends I made in Media Network Idaho are lifetime friends.
What is the best part of NFPW?
The friendships I have made over the years. People with common values working together to promote things we believe in such as the First Amendment. I also enjoy sharing experiences with other professionals.
What was your first job? What are you currently doing?
My first communications job was a summer intern for a daily newspaper in Idaho Falls. I covered all sorts of local stories and fell in love with a communications career. I spent three summers there as an intern during college.
Today I am responsible for nuclear-related communications efforts for the Idaho National Laboratory. My job is to make INL visible in the nuclear energy area so I put together displays, information sheets, and Web pages; arrange interviews; talk to the media; develop communications strategy; sponsor workshops and staff workshops arranged by others; and work to get key INL nuclear experts visible with the public and decision leaders. It is a challenging, but fun job. One week this summer I have 40 high school science teachers in Idaho Falls from 25 different states. They toured the INL and learned about nuclear energy.
Would you list some career highlights?
- Helping with the Idaho media coverage for the New Horizons space launch in Florida. INL provided the space battery for the launch to help the rocket go to Pluto and beyond.
- Covering President Jimmy Carter's visit to Jackson Hole while I was a beginning reporter at the Post Register.
- Receiving the "Top Performance Award" from Communications and Public Affairs in 1997 from my former employer Lockheed Martin. That year my father received the "Top Performance Award" from Human Resources, so we were honored together.
- Receiving a personal Thank You from Department of Energy Secretary Sam Bodman for my help in organizing international meetings for world energy leaders from Japan, China, Russia, and France. The meetings were to negotiate and sign agreements of cooperation in nuclear energy research. The first meeting was in Washington, D.C., and the second in Vienna, Austria. I'm helping with another meeting in Vienna in late September 2008 – right after the NFPW conference.
- A call from a New York Times writer on a Friday night wanting permission to run a story on nuclear energy research in the Sunday New York Times instead of running it Monday when we were having a press conference to announce the good news research findings. We had been pitching the story to him for a couple of weeks and was hoping for a small story and instead received a large story with photos and a million plus more readers because it appeared on a Sunday.
What are your hobbies?
I enjoy traveling, especially with my husband. We have a trip to Hawaii planned in December, and in January we hope to spend a couple of weeks exploring Brazil. We have a second home in Island Park (near West Yellowstone, Mont.) and we enjoy spending weekends there. I also enjoy relaxing with a good book and spending time in my flower gardens.
What are you reading?
Two books really – "Nova Scotia Memories," which was published by my former city editor and boss Nick Nichols. He will be on the panel at the NFPW conference in Idaho Falls. I am also reading "Lean Mean Thirteen" by Janet Evanovich.
Up Close and Personal with
Cathy Koon, Media Network Idaho
Why did you join NFPW?
I joined after Teri Ehresman took me as her guest to a meeting of Idaho Press Women in Coeur d'Alene back in 1978. I was immediately hooked on IPW (now Media Network Idaho) and NFPW membership was a side benefit. It wasn't until much later that I began to appreciate NFPW. IPW/MNI and NFPW have made a huge difference in my life for the good.
What is the best part of NFPW?
It would be impossible to pick out one thing. I love knowing that I have friends and colleagues across the country who understand and can commiserate about the ups and downs of my work, who I can call on at any time for help or advice.
What was your first job? What are you currently doing?
My first job was mowing lawns when I was 10. Then I moved up to cleaning houses. But my first newspaper job was for the Fremont County Chronicle-News, a weekly in my hometown of St. Anthony. I was a typesetter, but I made too many errors so they promoted me to the newsroom. I am now the economic development specialist for Fremont County, a job in which I daily use the skills I honed in my years as a reporter and editor, and as a public information specialist for the transportation department.
Would you list some career highlights?
One of the first would be covering the Teton Dam disaster in 1976. That was the first time I worked side by side with national media. I won my first Idaho Newspaper Association award for a feature story I did on a survivor of the flood, whose fishing companion drowned. I remember turning in my story and having my editor slap it down in front of me and ask, "Where's the lead?" I knew instantly what he meant. I was several paragraphs into the story when I realized I had put it together wrong. But that was in the days before computers, and I didn't want to start over. I knew he'd catch me on it and he did. Other career highlights were winning NFPW national awards, helping to start two newspapers, being nominated for a Pulitzer for team coverage of the fires of '88 in Yellowstone Park, and covering the first President Bush when he flew into West Yellowstone. I never got a glimpse of him, but my assignment was crowd reaction, so I guess it didn't really matter.
What are your hobbies?
Scrapbooking, crafting, my yard. Oh, and photography, crocheting and more scrapbooking.
What are you reading?
"The Small-Mart Revolution" by Michael H. Shuman. Then I'm going to start on "Marketing without Advertising and then Boomtown USA." Mostly I read Nora Roberts or Lisa Gardner.
Up Close and Personal with
Tammy Whaley, Media Women of South Carolina
By Cynthia Price, Virginia Press Women member
Why did you join NFPW?
I joined NFPW 10 years ago for the networking opportunities with other media professionals and for the training opportunities at the statewide and national level.
What is the best part of NFPW?
Membership in the NFPW is so rewarding on many different fronts. The relationships that I have formed have been immensely beneficial from a personal and professional standpoint. When I am faced with a new challenge at work, I know that help is usually just a phone call or e-mail away. The knowledge and experience of my fellow NFPW members is just amazing. These women have blazed so many trails!
P.S. The best part of the conference in Richmond, Va., was meeting author David Baldacci! I absolutely love his books and he is more handsome in person than on the back of his novels!
What was your first job? What are you currently doing?
I was hired right out of college by the Piedmont Area Girl Scout Council in Spartanburg, S.C., as a field executive. In that role I recruited, trained and supervised adult volunteers who served as troop leaders to the girls. My current job is as director of university communications as the University of South Carolina Upstate. I've been in this role for the past six years, and I manage the department that handles all marketing, media relations, advertising, publications, Web site, social media, photography, etc. for the university.
Would you list some career highlights?
This past fall, many politicians visited the USC Upstate campus. In just a few short weeks, I coordinated visits by former President Bill Clinton, Senator John McCain and Chelsea Clinton. Working with the Secret Service and the advance teams was a big eye-opener plus I got to see all the behind-the-scenes work of the political campaigns.
When the University underwent a name change in 2004, I served as the lead communications coordinator. I orchestrated a marketing strategy that included identifying all of the University's constituents and determining various means to communicate to each. My duties ranged from lobbying state legislatures to creating new logos to negotiating embargos with the regional newspapers to organizing a regional press conference to communicating concise, consistent messages to all the constituents for one year following the name change. This was all accomplished in a mere 90 days.
I worked with Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System from 1993 to 1999 where I held various roles in fundraising, volunteering, public relations, special events, and marketing. As volunteer coordinator and community relations coordinator for the Hospice program at SRHS, I increased the volunteer base from 40 to more than 200, created and managed three large annual fundraisers, and significantly elevated the presence of the organization in the community.
What are your hobbies?
I absolutely love to travel. My personal motto is "Have passport, will travel!" I also love reading and photography.
What are you reading?
I just finished the most wonderful book by Garth Stein entitled "The Art of Racing In The Rain." It is uplifting story of family, love, loyalty and hope told from the perspective of the family dog. The premise sounds hokey, I know, but I laughed, cried, and looked at my own dog in a different way.
Up Close and Personal with
Marsha Shuler, NFPW President
By Cynthia Price, Virginia Press Women member
Why did you join NFPW?
My boss was a member of Louisiana Press Women and the National Federation of Press Women. She encouraged me as a young reporter to join. I entered the state communications contest and won and got to go to a state conference. I met so many wonderful women from around the state in the communications field and decided to stay. Then I won a national award and went to my first national conference. Again I met a lot of wonderful women while engaging in professional development opportunities. The rest is history. That was 35 years ago and yes, I joined Press Women when I was in my mother's womb and I'm sticking to that story.
What is the best part of NFPW?
Its members
What was your first job? What are you currently doing?
I worked as an intern at The Shreveport Times during summer and holiday breaks as a college student. I did everything from working in the library, which was then called the morgue, to learning how to do research in the newspaper files (pre computers and Google), to doing obits (learning accuracy where it counts most) as well as reporting news (getting over being shy).
In my senior year I started working part-time at The Times then went to work full-time on graduation. My first job there was as an assistant to the Sunday Magazine editor writing features and helping with layout.
I loved political reporting so I next moved to the news side covering city hall and local politics which led to covering legislative sessions in Baton Rouge. I got a chance to move to Baton Rouge and work for The Advocate covering state government and politics all the time. I'm now the bureau's senior reporter. There's never a dull moment.
Would you list some career highlights?
Being honored for work I did in writing about the needs of the developmentally disabled.
Winning a regional UPI award for coverage of the first execution in Louisiana after the Supreme Court lifted the ban.
Fighting and winning getting my tape recorder back from a federal marshal who grabbed it from me because he said I was not supposed to be taping the speech of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. I refused to give it up like the Mississippi reporters.
Covering six governors of Louisiana.
Being elected president of the National Federation of Press Women.
What are your hobbies?
Traveling, playing bridge.
What are you reading?
I've got several going right now. "Word Histories and Mysteries," "The Unlikely Spy" by Daniel Silva, a World War II espionage tale and the new book by Scott McClellan on the Bush presidency. I try to read a little every day.
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