The awards ceremony capped a three-day gathering that provided professional development opportunities for communications professionals with Southern Baptist entities, universities and churches. The awards competition is named in honor of W.C. Fields, chief public relations officer for the SBC Executive Committee from 1959-87.
Topping the list of award winners were recipients of seven grand prizes:
-- The Arthur S. Davenport Award for public relations and development, named after the first full-time public relations director for the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma. This year's winner of the Davenport Award was Barbara Denman, director of communications for the Florida Baptist Convention, for an article titled "Hope Rises from Haiti's Ruins."
-- The Diane Reasoner Award for interactive communications named for the 20-year veteran communicator at Georgia Baptist Convention who died at age 57 in 2007 in an automobile accident. This year's winners of the Reasoner Award were Justin Garcia, Robby Followell and Alecia Porch of Mississippi College for the publication "Beacon Magazine Online."
-- The M.E. Dodd Memorial Award for radio, television, film and video, named in memory of the pastor of First Baptist Church in Shreveport, La., who was a pioneer in radio ministry. This year's winner of the Dodd Award was K Brown, director of photography for the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina, for his project titled "Clean Water for Bihar, India."
-- The Fon H. Scofield Award for photography, named after the pioneer Southern Baptist photojournalist with the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina and Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board (now International Mission Board). This year's winner of the Scofield Award was Robert Rogers, director of photography for Baylor University, for his project titled "Out Into the World."
-- The Frank Burkhalter Award for newswriting, named in honor of the Southern Baptist Convention's first publicity director for the Cooperative Program and longtime professor of journalism at Baylor University. This year's winner of the Frank Burkhalter Award was Dianna L. Cagle, editorial assistant at North Carolina's Biblical Recorder newsjournal, for her article titled "Closing Churches."
-- The Leonard Holloway Award for feature writing, named in honor of the public relations director for the Baptist General Convention of Texas in the early 1950s who later served as president of the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor and the University of Corpus Christi. This year's winner of the Leonard Holloway Award was Tim Ellsworth, director of news and media relations for Union University, for his article titled "A Broken Vessel Restored."
-- The Albert McClellan Award for print media and design, named in memory of the 32-year veteran communicator with the SBC Executive Committee. This year's winner of the Albert McClellan Award was the staff of the International Mission Board's "Commission Stories" tabloid publication.
The complete list of winners, including 115 other winners in the seven categories of competition, is available at www.baptistcommunicators.org/awards/2011.pdf.
Compiled by Baptist Press assistant editor and senior writer Mark Kelly.
Copyright (c) 2011 Southern Baptist Convention, Baptist Press www.BPNews.net
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