Communicator of Achievement - 2026

teri ehresman named NFPW’s national Communicator of Achievement 

Teri Ehresman of Island Park, Idaho, has received the 2026 Communicator of Achievement Award from the National Federation of Press Women (NFPW). This prestigious award has been given for 69 years.

The Communicator of Achievement award is the highest honor bestowed by NFPW upon those members who have distinguished themselves within and beyond their field. The recipient, chosen from nominees selected by state affiliates from around the country, is recognized for outstanding achievement in the communications field, as well as service to NFPW, the affiliate organization and the community.

Ehresman, a former NFPW president and a retired journalist and communications director with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory, received the award during a celebration at our annual conference, held Sept. 24-26, 2026, in Ellicott City, Md.

A native of Idaho Falls, Ehresman earned a bachelor’s degree in communications/journalism at Brigham Young University. From 1975 to 1990 she was a reporter and regional editor for the Idaho Falls Post Register, where she established three regional news bureaus to cover an 11-county area of Central and Eastern Idaho. She guided coverage of the Teton Dam collapse and flood of 1976 and in 1988 was part of a team nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for their coverage of Yellowstone National Park fires that nearly destroyed the historic Old Faithful Inn.

In 1990, Ehresman joined the Idaho National Laboratory, where she worked until her retirement in 2015. As communications director for President George Bush’s Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, she helped prepare protocols and communications for an International Atomic Energy Commission summit that ended in accords for cooperation on atomic energy issues. Ehresman also coordinated communications around the New Horizons and Mars Science Laboratory’s Curiosity rover launch. Her  work focused on topics including nuclear research, nuclear science-related programs, and nuclear science and technology education.

In retirement, Ehresman accepted a presidential appointment to an Idaho citizens advisory board related to energy sites. She became the first non-engineer/scientist elected to chair the Idaho Section of the American Nuclear Society. Ehresman also maintains numerous public information pages detailing issues affecting Yellowstone National Park and the Tetons, the Island Park and Fremont County communities, and NFPW.

A 50-year member of Media Network Idaho and NFPW, Ehresman served as NFPW president from 2013-2015, has advised several NFPW presidents, and was part of the leadership team for three national conferences in Idaho and Utah. She was national communications contest director for six years and is completing her fourth year as national high school contest director.

Runner-up in the Communicator of Achievement competition was Sherry Thompson of Omaha, Neb., a member of Nebraska Press Women and a communications consultant for nonprofit organizations including Saving Grace Food Rescue and The Women’s Fund of Omaha.

Other nominees for the 2026 NFPW Communicator Achievement, each put forward by their NFPW affiliate organization, were: Teresa Veazey, Kansas Professional Communicators; Carol A. Clark, New Mexico Press Women; Roxane Salonen, North Dakota Professional Communicators; and Sande Snead, Virginia Professional Communicators.

WHAT IS THE COMMUNICATOR OF ACHIEVEMENT AWARD?

This award, the highest honor bestowed by NFPW, is given to members who have distinguished themselves within and beyond their profession. Nominees presented by state affiliates are recognized for exceptional achievement in the communications field, service to NFPW and impact in the community.

Each year, the COA and runner-up are announced at the Communicator of Achievement Award Banquet during NFPW’s annual conference (we held a virtual event in 2020 and 2021). Nominees are recognized and honored at the banquet, as well as in NFPW’s publications.

Click here to see a list of the past winners.  

About Our COA DIRECTOR

Karen Stensrud of Fargo, N.D., our 2022 COA director, was named NFPW’s COA in 2010. Stensrud is vice president of brand and executive communications at Bell Bank, one of the nation’s largest family- and employee-owned banks. She started her career as a newspaper reporter, then established her own marketing communications business before joining Bell in 2003. In 2021, she was named Woman of the Year in Communications by the YWCA of Cass-Clay. Karen is serving her sixth NFPW president as an appointed board member and was a three-term president of the North Dakota affiliate. She is a two-time NFPW contest Sweepstakes winner and has twice been honored as North Dakota’s Communicator of Achievement.