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A Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial writer and a new conference format for Hays highlight the KSPA Fall Conference schedule for 2010.

Salina native and University of Kansas graduate Colleen McCain Nelson will deliver keynote addresses at the first two conferences, set for Monday, Sept. 20 at KU in Lawrence, and for Tuesday, Sept. 21 at Kansas State University in Manhattan.

As a member of The Dallas Morning News editorial board, McCain Nelson and two colleagues earned a 2010 Pulitzer Prize for a series of editorials spotlighting the economic and social disparities between two distinct areas of Dallas. She also writes columns and other opinion pieces for the News.

In Lawrence and Manhattan, McCain Nelson will deliver 9 a.m. keynote addresses on editorial leadership and will follow those with 50-minute breakout sessions on the importance of thoroughly researched opinion pieces.

You can find a list of the sessions at the KU Conference by going to this page.

Hays conference offers workshops

For the Wednesday, Sept. 22 conference at Fort Hays State University, KSPA board members have organized a conference that will include several features:

• A keynote address by Linda Puntney, the former executive director for the Journalism Education Association and director of Student Publications at KSU;
• Three-hour hands-on immersion workshops for experienced students in photography, theme and design, and writing;
• Ninety-minute hands-on instruction workshops for inexperienced students in the same three areas;
• Traditional 50-minute breakout sessions on a variety of topics; and
• A concluding 50-minute discussion of the Kansas Student Publications Act and its impact on your program.

Membership and Registration

This letter includes more details about registration, including registration forms forms for all three conferences, and a separate registration form for the Hays workshops.

This website will continue to update other sessions and conference details as they are confirmed in the weeks leading to the conferences.

If you aren’t a KSPA member, you may join now by clicking on the “Join the KSPA” link on the right side of every page on this website.

If you’re curious about the value of your membership, please read this story or click on the “2010-2011 KSPA Calendar of Activities” link, also on the right side of every page.

McCain Nelson’s bio

From The Dallas Morning News

Colleen is a member of the editorial board at The Dallas Morning News. This year, she and two of her colleagues were awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing for their work deploring the stark social and economic disparities between Dallas’ better-off northern half and distressed southern half. While Colleen is eager to share her opinion on almost any subject, she writes most frequently about City Hall, politics and environmental issues. In addition to writing staff editorials, Colleen writes occasional columns and opinion essays. And she appears each week on the “Inside Texas Politics” television program in Dallas.

Before joining the editorial page in 2006, Colleen spent six years as a political reporter for the Morning News. She covered the presidential campaign in 2004, criss-crossing the country as she traveled with John Kerry and George W. Bush. She spent nearly three years covering Dallas City Hall and wrote about state politics as well. Previously, Colleen worked as a reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and she wrote about the Kansas Legislature at the Wichita Eagle. A graduate of the University of Kansas, Colleen is crazed about KU basketball. She and her husband – also a Jayhawk and a journalist – are raising a dog named Phog and are perpetually training for their next marathon.