Mark Witherspoon

Mark Witherspoon has been either a journalist or a journalism instructor for 45 years. In 33 years of teaching at three universities, he has advised student newspapers, general-interest magazines, literary magazines, yearbooks and video yearbooks, all of which have won numerous state and national awards.

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Witherspoon also has worked with College Media Advisers and the First Amendment Center to establish First Things First, a two-pronged program that teaches advisers how to become First Amendment advocates on their campuses and in their communities. The two prongs of this program are the First Amendment Center’s Freedom Sings! program, which went on a college campus tour, and the First Amendment Institute, which teaches college media advisers how to become First Amendment advocates on their campuses and in their communities.

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The publications he has advised have continually won national, state and regional awards, including ACP’s Pacemaker, CMA's Pinnacle Award, CSPA’s Gold Crown and SPJ’s Best Newspaper awards. In addition, he has won numerous accolades from state, regional and national organizations, including CMA’s Multi-Media Adviser of the Year Award, Columbia Scholastic Press Association’s Gold Key Award, Iowa Newspaper Association's Distinguished Service Award and Iowa College Media Association’s John Eighmey Award for Public Service. In 2010, he was inducted into CMA’s Hall of Fame.

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