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Melinda is the metro columnist for The Kansas City Star. She was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 2022, for "persuasive columns demanding justice for alleged victims of a retired Kansas City, Kansas, police detective accused of being a sexual predator." In September of 2022, former KCKPD detective Roger Golubski was arrested and has since been charged with conspiracy, kidnapping, aggravated sexual abuse and civil rights violations. Melinda was also a Pulitzer finalist for commentary in 2021, for editorial writing in 2020 and for commentary in 2019.  ..read more

Vickie Walton-James is Managing Editor/News for NPR. Vickie is responsible for overseeing the daily news gathering of all NPR desks, shows and platforms, such as npr.org. Before taking on this role last year, Vickie was Chief National Editor for NPR News for eight years. She supervised a desk of about 50 reporters, editors and producers based in Washington, D.C., and in 19 bureaus around the country.  ..read more

Patricia E. (Weems) Gaston joined the University of Kansas after a long, stellar career at The Washington Post, where she was an editor who worked on several desks including National, Foreign and Editorial. Before going to the Post in 1997, Gaston worked at the Dallas Morning News, where she was an assistant foreign editor and was co-editor of the 1994 international reporting Pulitzer Prize-winning series on violence against women. But it was the Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle where Gaston began her work in journalism in 1981 ..read more

Colleen McCain Nelson is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who is the executive editor of The Sacramento Bee and the California regional editor for McClatchy. While her career has taken her everywhere from Washington, D.C., to California and several points in between, her passion for journalism took root in Kansas ..read more

Jeannie Kygar Eblen was a boundlessly curious, multi-faceted writer and editor with an eloquent allegiance for quality journalism in small communities. Shortly after her death in 2021 at age 77, Jeannie Eblen was lauded by colleagues as a talented journalist who won national awards for her work but never lost her deep connection to her rural roots ..read more

Jean, who enters the Kansas Newspaper Hall of Fame at the same time as her parents, Tom and Christine Buchanan, got her start in journalism working at their weekly newspaper, The Washington County News, in north central Kansas. Her parents were talented journalists and active in the profession.  Jean swore on many occasions that she would never pursue a newspaper career, saying: “Why would anyone want to work that hard for so little money?” But her love of writing and news made journalism the perfect profession for her ..read more

Tom and his wife Christine won many state and national awards while editing and publishing the weekly Washington County News in north central Kansas. They bought the Bucklin Banner in 1956, operating it until 1959. They bought the Washington County News that year, and operated it until 1981, making it one of the better weekly newspapers in the state.  ..read more

After graduating from Kansas State University in 1976 with a double major in English and journalism, I worked at Kansas newspapers for almost a decade. I tell K-State students my Kansas education and experience prepared me for a career that led me to The New York Times ..read more

Judy Lundstrom Thomas is a long-time investigative reporter who arrived at The Kansas City Star in 1995 after seven years at The Wichita Eagle. Her areas of focus include domestic terrorism and holding those in power accountable ..read more