NLP Honors its 2022 News Literacy Change-Makers

Educator of the Year Award named for NLP founder Alan Miller

WASHINGTON, D.C., June 6, 2022 — In recognition of their outstanding achievements during another challenging school year, the News Literacy Project (NLP) today named the recipients of its 2022 educator, journalist and student of the year awards.

These honorees are news literacy change-makers who have distinguished themselves in their commitment to news literacy in their classrooms, in their professions and in their daily lives.

This year the awards have a deeper meaning for NLP, as the organization’s board has named the Educator of the Year Award in honor of NLP founder and CEO Alan C. Miller. This designation comes as Miller prepares to step down as CEO and transition to a new role within the organization. As of July 1, NLP President and COO Charles (Chuck) Salter will lead the organization.

NLP’s other two awards are named for its late board members, the distinguished journalists John S. Carroll and Gwen Ifill.

“I am greatly honored and deeply grateful to be recognized in this way,” Miller said. “I appreciate this connection to the outstanding educators that we honor each year and find it particularly meaningful to have my name included alongside John and Gwen, for whom I had such admiration and affection.”

Alan C. Miller Educator of the Year

Jamie Gregory, a librarian and journalism teacher at Christ Church Episcopal School in Greenville, South Carolina, is the news literacy subject matter expert for her school. Gregory has made news literacy lessons an essential part of her journalism classes and also has worked with colleagues from all disciplines to help them integrate the subject into their lessons in relevant and meaningful ways.

“I feel the news literacy education I’ve provided for my students has been transformative for them,” said Gregory, who has been an educator for 17 years. “Students are able to have more complex and in-depth conversations about the types of news they are consuming.

“Being named the educator of the year was a big surprise,” she added. “I see myself as a regular teacher who is just trying to meet the needs of her students. I’m so humbled and grateful for the honor.”

Hear Gregory speak about the importance of news literacy education in this video.

John S. Carroll Journalist of the Year

Pierre Thomas is chief Justice correspondent for ABC News and has been an active participant in NLP’s work from its founding. He was one of NLP’s first volunteer journalism fellows and participated in the in-person classroom program and initial digital unit, a precursor to the Checkology® virtual classroom. He has been featured at various NLP events and serves as a charter member of NLP’s National Leadership Council.

“To be named the News Literacy Project’s John S. Carroll Journalist of the Year means the world to me,” Thomas said. “I’m humbled by it. The organization, I believe, is helping to make journalism and our democracy healthier. In this day and age where disinformation and misinformation are rampant in ways we haven’t seen, perhaps ever, I can’t think of something more important than what the News Literacy Project stands for and what it’s trying to do.”

Thomas shares his journalist’s perspective on the critical importance of news literacy in this video.

Gwen Ifill Student of the Year

Alysa Baltimore, a junior at Station Camp High School in Gallatin, Tennessee, said winning the award already has had an impact on her. “I feel like this has helped me grow, and it has solidified my idea for what I want to be in the future.” Becoming more news-literate allowed her to more thoroughly research an issue that matters deeply to her: mass incarceration. And while doing so, Baltimore discovered that she wants to make a difference by becoming a defense attorney. “On the surface, Checkology may be viewed as simple lessons on finding quality articles, but it ultimately led me to developing a passion for equality, equity and justice,” she said.

Baltimore is a serious and thoughtful student, said her AP English teacher Stephanie Jones, who nominated her for the award. “She is an intelligent young woman who is passionate about many issues, especially those concerning race. I have no doubt that Gwen Ifill would be proud of Alysa Baltimore as a recipient of the student award given in her name,” Jones said.

Baltimore speaks about her aspirations in this video.

NLP will honor these News Literacy Change-Makers in a virtual event open to all Thursday at 7 p.m. ET. To join, register here.

To learn about past winners please visit our dedicated landing page, Celebrating 2022 News Literacy Change-Makers.

About Alan C. Miller

Alan C. Miller is the founder and CEO of the News Literacy Project, the largest provider of news literacy education in the country. He was a reporter with the Los Angeles Times for 21 years, spending 19 of them in the paper’s Washington bureau before leaving in 2008 to establish NLP. He previously worked at The Times Union in Albany, New York, and The Record in Hackensack, New Jersey. Miller won more than a dozen national reporting honors, including the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting. In 2020, Miller was named a Washingtonian of the Year by Washingtonian magazine. In 2021, he won the AARP Purpose Prize.

About John S. Carroll

Named for one of the most revered newspaper editors of his generation, the John S. Carroll Journalist of the Year Award is given annually to journalists who have contributed significantly to NLP and its mission. The honorees, who receive $500 and a glass plaque with an etched photo of Carroll, are selected by a committee of NLP board members and staff. During an acclaimed journalism career spanning four decades, Carroll was the editor of three major U.S. newspapers — the Lexington (Kentucky) Herald-Leader, The Baltimore Sun and the Los Angeles Times. He was a founding member of NLP’s board and served as its chair for four years until shortly before his death in 2015.

 About Gwen Ifill

 The Gwen Ifill Student of the Year Award honors the trailblazing journalist — and longtime NLP supporter and board member — who died in 2016. It is presented to female students of color who represent the values Ifill brought to journalism. A highly respected, award-winning journalist, Ifill was the first Black woman to host a national political talk show on television as moderator of Washington Week, and she was a member (with Judy Woodruff) of the first female co-anchor team of a national news broadcast, on PBS NewsHour.

 About the News Literacy Project

The News Literacy Project, the nation’s leading provider of news literacy products, is a nonpartisan education nonprofit that provides programs and resources for educators and the public to teach, learn and share the abilities needed to be smart, active consumers of news and information and equal and engaged participants in a democracy.