Adviser Advice

Dean Bradshaw, CJE

Dean Bradshaw, CJE, has advised Statesman, the student newspaper and website of Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, Illinois, for the past nine years.  Having worked in student publications for nearly 20 years, his newspapers have been recognized at the local, state, and national levels.  He was named the 2020 Journalism Educator of the Year by the Youth Journalism International and received the 2021 Nancy R. Becker Award as Newspaper Adviser of the Year from the Kettle Moraine Press Association.

Landall "Kyle" Carter, CJE

Kyle Carter, CJE, is the business and journalism teacher at Richland R-1 School in Essex, Missouri. His photography work has been featured in: Sports Illustrated, USA Today, Time Magazine, The Oprah Winfrey Show, the National Enquirer, The Telegraph (London), Los Angeles Times, U.S. State Department publications, and on various companies’ Major and Minor League baseball cards as well as other national and international publications. Carter was a JEA national Rising Star Award recipient in 2016 and the MJEA Rising Star Award recipient in 2015. He continues his freelance photography work around his “day job” as a high school teacher. Carter also teaches photography on the side, some children through retired adults. He has two children: Kylee, 13, and Ryan, 11.

Kirsten Gilliland, CJE

Kirsten Gilliland is a four-year adviser/teacher of broadcasting, newspaper, yearbook, English 10 and photography at Northwest High School in Grand Island, Nebraska. Under her advisement, Viking Media is a three-peat Class B state champ in broadcast news; 10 entries won first-place finishes; and students earned third overall in 2022—best in school history. Gilliland serves on the executive board of the Nebraska High School Press Association and JEA Scholastic Press Rights Committee.

Beth Marshall, CJE

Beth Marshall, CJE, M.Ed., advises yearbook (Endeavor) and currently teaches sophomore English courses, and a dual credit course, Introduction to Mass Communications, at Richmond-Burton Community High School in Richmond, Illinois. She has been teaching and advising journalism for the last nine years, and she has taught English for more than 30 years. She is a Certified Journalism Educator, and she earned her Master’s in Media and Journalism, with a Journalism Education concentration through Kent State University in May 2020. Currently, Beth is the President of the Kettle Moraine Press Association, which works with scholastic journalism students and their teachers throughout Northern Illinois and Wisconsin. 

Alicia Merrifield, CJE

Alicia Merrifield is a YERD [yearbook nerd] through and through! She teaches at The Village School, a private PK2-12 grade school in Houston. There she advises The Viking Press (online news), The Viking Yearbook (middle school and high school) and photojournalism. She brought a yearbook club of 10 to the ever-growing Viking Media program that Village School has now. Alicia is the TAJE Private School Liaison, a member of the JEA Mentoring Committee and a JEA Critique Judge. 

April van Buren, MJE & NBCT

April van Buren is a Business & Media teacher at Madison East High School in Madison, Wisconsin. She is the adviser of Tower Tales yearbook, Tower TV monthly TV program, Tower Times online news site. April also serves on the KEMPA board of directors.

Mitch Ziegler, CJE

Mitch Ziegler is the retired adviser of The Pilot yearbook and The High Tide newspaper at Redondo Union High School in Redondo Beach, California. Mitch currently serves as the JEA California State Director.