BELOW EXCERPTED FROM:
http://www.spj.org/news.asp?ref=347
Gordon “Mac” McKerral is an associate professor and the news-editorial sequence coordinator in the School of Journalism & Broadcasting at Western Kentucky University and a past president of the Society of Professional Journalists. He is also a member of SPJ’s Sigma Delta Chi Foundation Board of Directors. Before teaching, he served as managing editor of the Panama City News Herald, a daily serving the Florida Panhandle from July 1998 until December 1999. From 1988-1998, McKerral served as an associate professor on the faculty of the Hall School of Journalism at Troy State University in Troy, Ala. He taught reporting, editing, newsroom management and mass communication law. McKerral has worked at daily newspapers as a feature writer in Illinois, a government and political writer in Panama City, a city editor in upstate New York and started a weekly newspaper in suburban Indianapolis in 1986, where he served as editor and general manager. He holds a bachelor’s degree in secondary education/history from Arizona State University and a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Illinois. McKerral graduated from Marian Catholic High School in Chicago Heights, Ill., in 1970.
While at Troy State, McKerral received the university’s highest honor, the Ingalls Award for Classroom Teaching Excellence. He also received the Society of Professional Journalists’ National First Amendment Award for his work with the Campus Courts Task Force, which focused on gaining public access to campus crime records and campus judiciary records related to hearings on crimes. In May 2003, the Florida Press Association honored McKerral with the Jon A. Roosenraad Award for writing in defense of the First Amendment. He also received the award in 2002.
Mass Media & Technology Hall, Room 222 /
Western Kentucky University /
Bowling Green, KY 42101 /
270/745-5882 /
mmckerral@spj.org /
mac.mckerral@wku.edu