Distinguished Service Award 2007:
Pam Stallsmith and Cynthia Price
     Stallsmith and Price were honored at VPW's Spring 2008 conference for their remarkable work in co-chairing the National Federation of Press Women Conference held in Richmond in September 2007. They lobbied to host the conference in Richmond to coincide with America's 400th Anniversary in Jamestown, and it is a monumental achievement just to be selected to host this prestigious conference. The two women were put together an incredible professional program that included best-selling novelists David Baldacci and Adriana Trigiani, dignitaries including Mayor Doug Wilder and Gov. Tim Kaine, and representatives of the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, the Martin Agency, Dominion and many more. Additionally, they garnered numerous sponsorships to help pay for the event.
    The Distinguished Service Award is not given every year. It is reserved for members who go far above and beyond the scope of their responsibilities. Stallsmith and Price have done this on numerous occasions, but never more so than in 2007. The award is richly deserved.

Communicator of Achievement 2007:
Mary Jane King
     Mary Jane King is director of institutional advancement and development and associate professor at Piedmont Virginia Community College in Charlottesville, Va., overseeing development, public and alumni relations, and all marketing and branding activities. She began her career there in 1988.
    A former president of Virginia Press Women and former secretary of the National Federation of Press Women, she is president of the College Communicators Association of Virginia and the District of Columbia. She has taught college journalism in both Harrisonburg and Charlottesville and has won numerous journalism awards. She has also compiled a long list of community volunteer work and leadership.
    She previously worked for Sprigg Lane Investment Corp. in Charlottesville, Eastern Mennonite College (now University) in Harrisonburg, Va., and the Daily News-Record, Harrisonburg. She holds degrees from Eastern Mennonite and Ohio University.
    She and her husband, David Garrison, an artist and musician, live in Keswick and have a grown daughter, Margaret.

Communicator of Achievement 2006:
Margaret L. Mock
     A VPW member since 1991, Margaret Mock retired after nearly 20 years in university relations at the University of Mary Washington. Mock has served VPW as treasurer and northern district director. She also is a charter member of the College Communicators Association of Virginia and the District of Columbia and of the Fredericksburg Public Relations Society. Giving retirement a new twist, Margaret still works part-time for UMW as special projects coordinator for its 2007–2008 centennial.

Newsmaker of the Year 2006:
Poet Nikki Giovanni
     Nikki Giovanni, a University Distinguished Professor at Virginia Tech, is an acclaimed poet, essayist and activist. Her 24-plus books include Racism 101, Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea, Grand Fathers, and Grand Mothers. With illustrations by Bryan Collier, her latest publication, Rosa, is a children’s book on the life of Rosa Parks, heroine of the civil rights movement. Among many honors, including three NAACP Image Awards, Giovanni has received a Grammy nomination for a CD of her poetry. She is proud of being “a black American, a daughter, a mother, a professor of English,” as she says on her web site, www.nikki-giovanni.com.

Agnes Cooke Scholarship Recipients

Tierney McAfee and Alyssa Walden, 2007
When the Foundation's mutual fund does well and/or when we receive donations to the fund, we are able to award two scholarships. This was the case in 2007.
   Tierney McAfee, 22, a University of Mary Washington rising senior from Doylestown, Penn., completed a 2006 internship at the Free Lance-Star and a summer internship at the Philadelphia Weekly. She was a staff writer for UMW's weekly paper the Bullet and served as features editor this year. Her academic record keeps her on the Dean's List.
   Alyssa Walden, a journalism major at Ferrum College, is 2007 editor-in-chief of the Iron Blade, the Ferrum College newspaper, and was the 2005-2006 sports editor. Her honors include Dean's List each semester, the Roy Stanley Miller Journalism Award from WDBJ News Channel 7 and the Richmond Times-Dispatch. She and her sister are first-generation college students.

Alexis A. Hatfield, 2006
    Alexis Hatfield, 20, is a junior majoring in communications with a minor in Spanish at Virginia Tech. As with all the applicants, Hatfield is on the Dean's List. She has been building her resume by working with ESPN radio in Blacksburg, the NBA-TV as a sports reporter in Roanoke for the Dazzle Development League, a sports writer for the Virginia Tech newspaper the Collegiate Times, as well as hosting a student television show. Because of family budgetary strains, Hatfield is on her own financing her junior and senior years. This is the first time the Agnes Cooke Scholarship has been awarded to a broadcast student.