Faculty and Staff
Teresa White
The director of HSJI is Teresa White, faculty at the Indiana University School of Journalism. She taught high school journalism and English for 23 years in Indiana, plus served as an HSJI faculty member for 21 summers. Her connection to the institute began in 1979, when she attended HSJI as a student journalist. Questions? Email White at terwhite@indiana.edu.
Linda Johnson
The administrative services coordinator of HSJI is Linda J. Johnson. Linda coordinates the registration process for the High School Journalism Institute summer program, as well as manages various administrative duties. Linda has been with the university since 1982 and with the institute since 1987. If you have any questions pertaining to registering for HSJI, send her an email at ljjohnso@indiana.edu.
Faculty Bios
Alan Bates
Alan Bates teaches AP English, video announcements/broadcast journalism and coaches the debate team at Princeton High School in Cincinnati, Ohio. He earned his B.A. in political science from Miami University, Ohio, before getting an M.A. in journalism and English education from Ohio State University. He is the television news coordinator/instructor for two sessions this summer for HSJI.
Haley Begay Jordan
Haley Jordan is a Sports Illustrated and FanNation reporter, video director and host residing in the Indianapolis area. She is a 2020 graduate of Indiana University with degrees in Sports Broadcast Journalism and Spanish. As a student, Jordan worked as an intern for the IU Newsroom, WISH-TV News and Sports, and also participated in IUSTV and Big Ten Student U. Upon graduation, Jordan moved to Rockford, IL to start her career as a local sports anchor covering local high school sports as well as the Cubs, White Sox, Brewers, Bears, Packers, etc. Jordan moved back to her home state to pursue a job with SI where she wears many hats and utilizes more than just reporter skills each day. Her favorite sport to cover is Indiana basketball or the NBA.Kristine Brown
Kristine Brown, MJE, teaches journalism and English and advises the newspaper and broadcast at Chantilly High School, Virginia. Previously, she was the publications adviser at Fishers High School. Brown received her B.A. in English from Bradley University, her transition to teaching certificate from Ball State University, her journalism teaching license from Indiana University and her M.A. in journalism from Ball State University.
Brown is a judge for the Columbia Scholastic Press Association, the National Scholastic Press Association and various state associations. She is also a past board member of the Indiana High School Press Association, and a member of the 2016 JEA national convention local committee. She has taught sessions at the JEA national convention, at IHSPA fall conventions and at Ball State’s J-Day.
Under Brown’s guidance, the CHS newspaper and broadcast programs have received recognitions for excellence, including the VHSL Trophy Class award, various NSPA and CSPA awards and the JEA First Amendment Press Freedom Award. The FHS newspaper and yearbook also won numerous Ball State J-Day awards, Quill & Scroll awards and IHSPA awards, including Hoosier Stars while Brown was adviser.
Claire Burke
Claire Burke, MJE, advises the Pinnacle yearbook at Carmel High School, where she also teaches journalism and English. Burke has served as a JEA State Director as well as a critique judge for NSPA and various state organizations. Her students have received recognition from NSPA, JEA and IHSPA. She loves seeing students create yearbook amazingness every year!
Susie Coleman
Susie Coleman is an assistant principal and student activities director at Greenfield-Central High School. She taught yearbook, newspaper and journalism for 16 years before going to administration. She previously taught at other Indiana high schools, including Portage and Columbus North, and she taught at West Monroe High School in West Monroe, Louisiana, for a year.
Coleman received her B.A. in journalism, English and education from Indiana University, and her M.S. in secondary education administration from Purdue University-Calumet. This summer, Coleman will work with students as well as advisers while at HSJI.
Olivia Ray DeWeese
Olivia Ray is an Emmy-award winning sports reporter and anchor located in Central Indiana.
From growing up in Evansville, to starting her professional career in Indiana, she is a Hoosier through-and-through. She has previously told athletes’ stories with WISH-TV News 8 in Indianapolis and WSBT 22 in South Bend. During her three years reporting in Indianapolis, she covered the Colts, Pacers, IndyCar, NCAA football and basketball. At WSBT, she covered Notre Dame’s college football playoff berth, their women’s basketball back-to-back national championship runs, and Irish hockey’s Frozen Four appearance.
Olivia graduated from Indiana University’s Ernie Pyle School of Journalism, where she started her television career by hosting segments for Indiana football and athletics as an undergraduate. She is currently an adjunct professor in the IU Media School.
Julie Elston
Julie Elston, a graduate of Indiana University, advises newspaper, and teaches journalism and honors English at Crown Point High School in Crown Point, Ind. An adviser for 30 years, she is the Indiana High School Press Association’s 2012 Adviser of the Year as well as Crown Point Education Association’s 2013 Crystal Bell teacher of the year.
Elston is a past-president of the Indiana High School Press Association. Inklings, the CPHS newspaper, has been recognized as a Hoosier Star, NSPA Pacemaker, CSPA Gold Crown, and a Quill and Scroll George H. Gallup publication and her students have been recognized as Indiana’s Journalist of the Year, runner up, and finalists.
Christina Faulkner
Christina Faulkner is a journalism teacher and adviser at New Albany High School where she advises both the newspaper and yearbook staffs. She is a 2004 graduate of Indiana University’s School of Journalism and has a Masters Degree in Educational Technology from Indiana State University. She has been teaching/advising for 18 years.Jeff Gabbard
Jeff Gabbard retired from Richmond High School in Richmond, Indiana in 2020 after 20 years of advising publications. He advised both yearbook and newspaper during his career as well as taught photography and journalism classes.
As a professional photographer for over 40 years, Gabbard has travelled throughout the United States on assignment for various magazines and sports photography companies and was selected as the photographer for 2 Babe Ruth World Series baseball tournaments. He also operated his own photography studio for 9 years while not teaching full time.
He was inducted into Ball State University’s Secondary Education Hall of Fame in 2015 for his contributions to high school journalism and was awarded a Lifetime Membership in the Indiana High School Press Association in 2020.
Sam Hanley
Sam Hanley is the English department chair and yearbook adviser at Southport High School in Indianapolis, where he has advised The Anchor for 15 years. He is a 2002 graduate of Indiana University, where he earned a B.S. in journalism and education. In 2009, Hanley completed a master’s degree in school administration from the University of Indianapolis.
The Anchor staff is the recipient of state and national awards, including IHSPA Hoosier Stars and NSPA Pacemaker finalists.
Hanley is the president of the Indiana High School Press Association board of directors and recently served on the local committee for the 2016 NSPA/JEA convention in Indianapolis. He has presented on yearbook design, theme development and sales at the IHSPA fall convention, NSPA national convention, Ball State’s J-Day and Josten’s workshops.
Jeremy Hogan
Jeremy Hogan began working as a freelancer for his hometown newspaper, the Porterville Recorder, in 1987 while still in high school. He covered a lot of high school sports, but also some big stories, such as the funeral of Cesar Chavez in 1993.
He later graduated from San Jose State University in 1997 with a journalism degree and shortly afterward began working as a visual journalist at the Herald-Times in Bloomington.
While working his way through college, before being hired by the HT, he worked as a photojournalism intern at the Modesto Bee, Indianapolis News, Kansas City Star, Palm Beach Post, and Ann Arbor News.
In 2019 the Herald-Times was sold to an investment company, and the photo staff of two was cut down to one. Hogan was laid off. However, what could have been a career-ending situation became an opportunity when he began covering the community for the online news site he founded: The Bloomingtonian.
The subscriber and advertising supported local news site, which is digital, had 181k users in the past 90 days, and covers a variety of local breaking news, and sometimes national news and politics.
Hogan traveled to Ukraine as an independent photojournalist in 2014 and began contributing video to Getty Images. He took the opportunity as a Getty contributor to build the video archive by covering the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, and political events in between. He has over 7,000 editorial video clips represented in the Getty video archive. Clips have been licensed for use on everything from Comedy Central, and the Bill Maher show to feature films such as, “Don’t Look up.”
Hogan believes photojournalism isn’t dead as some predicted, but the old business models no longer work, and the traditional markets for visual journalism have collapsed. But innovative visual journalists will find a way forward as they have already in an ever-changing marketplace.
Kathleen Johnston
Kathleen Johnston is the founding director of IU’s Michael I. Arnolt Center for Investigative Journalism. Johnston graduated from IU in 1982 with a degree in journalism and political science. Since then, she has worked at numerous national and local news organizations, from The Indianapolis News to CNN, the Birmingham Post-Herald to CBS. Johnston’s work spans a breadth of topics and media, but her primary focus is investigative reporting.
Mike Klopfenstein
Mike Klopfenstein teaches Journalism and English at Southport High School in Indianapolis. He’s the adviser of The Journal, Southport’s award-winning newsmagazine. Prior to his work at Southport, he taught at Carroll High School in Fort Wayne and at Bluffton High School. He coached high school baseball for 24 years.
Klopfenstein received his B.A. from Indiana University in 1992 and his master’s degree from the University of Indianapolis in 2009. He’s a past vice president of the Indiana High School Press Association’s board of directors. He was named the IHSPA’s Sengenberger Adviser of the Year in 2018 and Southport High School’s Teacher of the Year in 2014.
The Journal has been named an IHSPA Hoosier Star winner several times under Klopfenstein’s guidance. His students have won numerous awards at the state and national level. Two of his students have been named IHSPA Journalist of the Year.
Gerry Lanosga
Gerry Lanosga is an associate professor in the Media School at Indiana University, where he teaches and researches in the areas of journalism practice, media law and journalism history. His work has been published in journals including American Journalism, Journalism, Journalism Practice, and Journalism Studies. After earning his PhD in 2010, he taught for three years at Ball State University before joining the faculty at IU. Previously, he had a 20-year career as a print and broadcast journalist in Indiana, covering government, writing a weekly column, and producing investigative projects that won numerous national awards, including the George Foster Peabody award, Sigma Delta Chi’s national public service award and the Freedom of Information Medal from Investigative Reporters and Editors. A frequent speaker on freedom of information and democratic governance, Lanosga serves on the boards of several non-profit organizations working in that arena – the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting, the Indiana Coalition for Open Government and the Indiana Debate Commission.
Steve Layton
I have taught graphics and design courses at IU SOJ/MSCH since the Fall 2010 semester. Before teaching, I worked for almost 20 years in newspaper graphics departments, 16 of them at the Chicago Tribune, where I was Graphics Editor and later Senior Artist. I have won numerous awards for my graphics and design work, which I keep in a drawer somewhere, and in 2004 I was a small part of a large project on airline gridlock that was awarded that year’s Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Journalism. During my time at the Tribune, I took part in three major redesigns and witnessed firsthand and on a day-by-day basis the accelerating pace of change that continues to transform the world’s media companies. My classes in the Media School are skills-based and focused on graphic design, informational graphics and interactive media. I am a graduate of the University of Florida.
Kathleen Mills
Kathleen Mills received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Indiana University. She advises The Optimist at Bloomington High School South, where her students regularly win writing awards from Quill and Scroll. She is also a freelance writer who has been published in The New York Times, Mademoiselle and The Indianapolis Star.
Denise Roberts-Green
Denise Roberts-Green has advised yearbook, newspaper, web page, magazine and broadcast staffs for the past 32 years. She taught at IUPUI School of Journalism for several years and has taught at HSJI for 22 years.
Her forte has been launching and revitalizing scholastic journalism programs, including overcoming an inherited debt of $24,000 at Greenwood High School, where she has taught for the past 24 years.
Her students have earned Indiana Student Journalist of the Year and runner-up recognition, Hoosier Stars, Harvey Awards, Pacemakers and national convention Best of Show awards.
Meanwhile, she has earned her Master Journalism Educator from the Journalism Education Association and her master’s degree in educational leadership through IU. Although a licensed principal, this 2000 Indiana Journalism Teacher of the Year has opted to stay in the classroom doing what she loves: teaching.
Robert Scheer
Robert Scheer has been a staff photojournalist with The Indianapolis Star since 1998. His work has taken him to several countries including coverage of the Olympics, and the war in Iraq. Scheer has worked on staff investigations dealing with deaths inside Indiana’s county jail systems, and scandal involving USA Gymnastics and disgraced doctor Larry Nassar. Before moving to Indiana, he worked in Northern California, and graduated from Humboldt State University with a biology degree.
Grace Waltz
Grace Waltz teaches secondary English language arts at GEO International High School in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Her goal as an educator is to help students tell their stories through whatever media suits them. She worked as a video producer after receiving her degree from Indiana University’s Media School in 2016. Her experience with documentary-style video production spans from solo, run-and-gun shoots to international, multi-person crew productions.
Mike Wells
Mike Wells joined ESPN in August 2013 as the Indianapolis Colts’ NFL Nation reporter. Also appears on ESPN’s SportsCenter and NFL Live, and is a fill-in on ESPN Radio. Contributes to ESPN’s golf and NBA coverage on a as-needed basis.
Prior to joining ESPN, covered the Indiana Pacers for the Indianapolis Star and the Minnesota Vikings and Timberwolves for the St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press. Started my career working for The Associated Press in Seattle.
Counselor Bios
Carli Cottee
I’m Carli Cottee and I am now a senior here at Indiana University. I study media advertising with a minor in marketing. I work as a Media School Ambassador as well as your HSJI counselor. I look forward to meeting you all!Phia Foley
Phia Foley is a rising Junior at Indiana University Bloomington. She is studying Journalism with a Public Relations concentration and a Spanish minor.
She is a chair for the Student Athletic Board here at IU and enjoys cheering on the Hoosiers and being a part of the Public Relations, Alumni Relations, and Women’s Basketball committees. She is also a member of the Hoosier Hype Crew. In her free time, she likes hanging out with her twin sister and their cats, Frankie and Piper.
Sydney Greggs
Sydney Greggs is a junior at Indiana University Bloomington. She is studying film and has recently been accepted into the new film BFA program. Sydney is also minoring in English.
Sydney participates in IUSTV entertainment and works on shows such as Not Too Late, Behind the Curtain, and The Bloomington Breakfast Club. In her free time, she loves watching bad movies with friends and writing scripts.
Alex Hardgrave
Alex Hardgrave is excited to be back again as a counselor for HSJI. She’s a 2022 graduate of the journalism and English programs at Indiana University. During her time at IU, she has been a Media School Ambassador and member of the Indiana Daily Student staff.
Cooper Hudson
Cooper Hudson is a third-year student at Indiana University Bloomington. He is majoring in Media with a concentration in Media Technologies, Games & Culture, and a specialization in Screenwriting. He is also minoring in History.
In his free time, Cooper enjoys writing. He has self-published three books and is in the midst of editing a script for a short film. He also enjoys collecting vinyl records and CDs, watching movies, and spending time with family and friends.
Alexis Lindenmayer
Alexis Lindenmayer is a junior at Indiana University Bloomington. She is studying journalism with a concertation in news reporting and editing and a concentration in secondary education.
Alexis is an Ernie Pyle Scholar at Indiana University. She is currently arts editor for the Indiana Daily Student. In the fall, she will take on the role of managing editor. She is also a part of IUSTV entertainment and works on The Bloomington Breakfast Club. In her free time, she enjoys reading, trying new coffee shops and visiting record stores.
Lab/Office Assistants
Abigail Chovan
Abigail Chovan is a junior at Indiana University majoring in Digital Production and minoring in Marketing and French. She is specializing in scriptwriting and producing. During her time at IU she has participated in the Student Cinema Guild, WIUX, and Independent Council for Women. She is currently working as a Digital Media intern for E.D.M Unlimited.
Piper Nesbit
Piper Nesbit is a recent graduate from Indiana University and received a degree in Secondary English and Journalism Education. She is an HSJI alum and is looking forward to returning as a lab assistant this summer. Piper completed her student teaching experience at Southport High School, where she assisted with the yearbook and newspaper programs. Most recently, she taught overseas in Dublin for 10 weeks. In her free time, Piper loves reading, listening to podcasts, going for walks, and spending time with friends and family.Gillian Paxton
Gillian Paxton received her bachelor’s degree in journalism from Indiana University in 2021 and her secondary teaching license through the IU School of Education’s Transition to Teaching Program in 2022, during which she student-taught the journalism classes at North Central High School in Indianapolis. She also works as a graphic designer and staff writer for the Environmental Resilience Institute. This coming Fall she will return to the Media School to pursue a master’s degree in journalism, with a research focus on journalism education.
In her free time, Gillian loves listening to music, knitting, and playing video games.
Katy Szpak
Katy Szpak is a third-year student at Indiana University studying journalism. She is specializing in Graphic Communication. Katy is currently working as a graphic design assistant for the Media School and will serve as Creative Director for the Indiana Daily Student this summer.
Katy has previously worked in Graphic Designer roles for Society for News Design as well as the Ball State men’s basketball team. When she’s not designing, she might be practicing her American Sign Language skills or playing her trumpet.
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