Speaker Bios

Allison Frost is the senior producer and occasional host of Oregon Public Broadcasting’s daily talk show “Think Out Loud.” Before OPB, she served as executive director of community radio station KFCF in Fresno, California, anchored “All Things Considered” at Cap Radio in Sacramento, and taught English as a second language. Allison holds a masters in journalism and communication from the University of Oregon.

Amanda Carlton started her newspaper career in sales and never stopped saying yes to new challenges. She’s worked as a sales rep, ad director, graphic designer, and eventually Director of Operations—learning every corner of the newsroom along the way. Now a social studies and journalism teacher, she brings real-world grit, creativity, and deadline energy to her students.

Amy Jack is the journalism adviser for The Quiver Yearbook, and Arrow News Magazine at Sherwood High School. She loves coffee, scrolling Tik-Tok, and unicorns.

Andrew DeVigal leads the Agora Journalism Center at the University of Oregon and teaches journalism at the SOJC. He works with students and communities across Oregon to show how journalism can build trust, strengthen community ties, and make civic life healthier.

Beth Zilk, CJE, has been advising yearbook for 17 years at Mountain View High School. Their yearbooks have won multiple awards through CSPA and NSPA and have been featured in Yearbook Discoveries and Folio Magazines. She has been on the OJEA board for seven years and is a JEA Mentor.

Dr. Danny Pimentel is Director of the Oregon Reality Lab and Assistant Professor of Immersive Media Psychology.

Elliot Njus is a managing editor at The Oregonian/OregonLive and director of the High School Journalism Institute. He got his start in journalism at The Mustanger, the student newspaper at his high school in Michigan.

Emily Anne Tkaczibson is the Director of Operations with PBS News Student Reporting Labs. Originally from Pennsylvania, Emily started her nonprofit career in Southern California at South Coast Repertory and Center Theatre Group. She came to public media as a fundraiser at PBS SoCal back in 2018 and joined SRL as a grant officer in 2020. She spends her off-hours reading, writing, playing tabletop RPGs, and fulfilling her self-imposed role as family “cruise director.” She lives with her husband and their two lively little daughters in the Portland, OR Metro.

Genie Westfall has over 25 years of experience with yearbooks, first as an adviser and then as a sales representative for Varsity Yearbooks. She loves helping schools with all aspects of yearbook production from theme development, to celebration parties. She particularly likes re-designing and re-imagining page content and design, as well as writing copy that’s engaging and captions that tell it all!

Glenn Krake is the OJEA State Director and Akshay Shah is a sophomore, Index Editor at West Linn High School. They are excited to present the foundation for a student media board, similar to those in Florida, Ohio, and Colorado. Krake is publication adviser at West Linn High School. Follow his journalism-related public instagram @gkrake. As a bonus for following him, you might get exposed to his alter-ego, DJ Krakenn who drops beats on Spotify and Apple Music.

Glenn Krake, CJE and JD McIntire, advise West Linn High School and Sandy High School student publications (respectively). They are also active members of the Oregon Journalism Education Association. More importantly, they both root for the best baseball organization, the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Julia Silverman and Nik Streng are Oregonian reporters who also mentor high school journalists through The Oregonian’s Youth Voices program. Come talk to them about their specialties, education and sports, or about how you can get started writing for The Oregonian while still in high school. Silverman is the education reporter for The Oregonian. She has also worked at The Associated Press, Portland Monthly and Oregon Public Broadcasting.

Kate McGuire is a 6th year yearbook adviser with experience teaching at Springfield HS and LASA in Austin, TX. She has worked as a magazine designer, in social media marketing and graphic design. She has 3 cats, 1 dog and a newborn baby boy and loves quilting.

Margot Kalmanson and June Baeck are senior Editors-in-Chief of Grant Magazine at Grant High School, and have reported for the publication for three years.

Michelle Balmeo, MJE, is in her 20th year advising student media, and she currently advises The Whirlwind news staff and The Pedigree yearbook staff at West Albany High School in Albany, Oregon. She has served as a JEA curriculum leader and mentor, Outreach Academy instructor, Partner Project lead, and a contributor to the JEA Digital Media Committee’s blog, in addition to contributing to the textbook Journalism: Publishing Across Media. Balmeo has been recognized as a California and Oregon Journalism Teacher of the Year, an NSPA Pioneer and a Dow Jones News Fund Distinguished Adviser.

Pat Albright is a former reporter and photographer who worked for two Oregon dailies before becoming advisor of the South Eugene AXE and then the SENTINEL of Springfield High. He has also served as editor of daily programs for the 1980, 2008 and 2012 US Olympic Track and Field Olympic Trials. He is also former chair of the Board of Directors for Lane Community College.

Patricia Turley has 32 years of teaching, 1 year of defending a book-banning effort, 25 years of advising, 6 years of co-chairing the JEA Write-offs, retirement, 5 years of JEA new adviser mentoring, 3 years of working with 4th graders to produce the Territorial Tattler, apprehension about the state of journalism, but hope about this essential-to-community skill.

Rachel Nelson has been a Jostens representative since 2015. She partners with advisers and students to strengthen coverage, streamline production, and deliver meaningful books on time. As she puts it, “Great yearbooks don’t happen by accident. They happen when planning, people, and momentum line up. My job is to guide that alignment.”

Raphael Pond is a licensed educator who works with Jostens Yearbooks to help schools create, market, and distribute meaningful stories in their communities. He is a published author with a degree in Professional Writing, and he is currently working towards his CJE.

Tom Henderson has been a Northwest reporter and editor for 46 years. He has won more than 100 awards for his work and taught journalism at the high school and college levels. He is a past president of the Oregon and Idaho chapters of the Society of Professional Journalists.

Troy Wayrynen is best known for his award-winning community photojournalism beginning in 1987. During that time Troy has covered and documented stories connected to the community he has served ranging from the personal triumph of a breast cancer survivor, relief efforts of a local carpenter working in Albania for refugees of the Kosovo War, to women of Peru who are being empowered and taught by a local business owner how to go about owning their own farms and produce organic coffee to help other women around the world. Troy is also known for his passion for sports photography, which has led to coverage of national sports events, such as the Rose Bowl, NFC National Championships games and coverage of six Olympic games. Wanting to explore new opportunities Troy accepted a position as an educator in 2015 at Heritage High School where he is teaching students the craft of digital arts. Troy currently lives in Vancouver, Washington with his wife of 34 years and two beautiful children.

Having both garnered professional experience in high school, Ty Tilden and Vinny White are active in their college publications. Tilden is the print managing editor for FLUX, the SOJC’s flagship magazine. White is an arts and culture writer for The Daily Emerald and producer of Willamette Week’s Sounds of Rose City video series.