Communicator of Achievement Award
The annual Communicator of Achievement Award is the highest honor DPA bestows on its members. First and foremost, the COA Award is given for a lifetime of achievement in the communications profession. And second, it recognizes exemplary service to the community and to humanity as well as to the profession, especially to Delaware Press Association and the National Federation of Press Women.
The DPA COA competes annually in the NFPW COA contest for the honor of being chosen the National Communicator of Achievement. DPA members have done well:
Past National Winners
- Billie Travalini, DPA’s 2018 COA, received NFPW’s highest honor when named the NFPW National Communicator of Achievement at the national conference in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Read the press release on Billie and her accomplishments.
- At the 2011, conference in Council Bluffs, Iowa, Beth Miller, of Wilmington, DPA president from 2006 – 2008, received the NFPW National COA honor. Click here to see a video of the interview with Beth on having won one of NFPW’s highest awards.
- DPA’s 2002 COA Kay Wood Bailey of Wyoming, Del., was named National COA at the NFPW Communications Conference in Bismarck, N.D., in September 2002.
National Runners-up
- John Watson received the National Runner-up award in 2014.
- Rita K. Farrell was named the National Runner-up in 2004.
Allison Taylor Levine, Founder and CEO of the Local Journalism Initiative and Publisher of Spotlight Delaware
DPA COMMUNICATOR OF ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
The annual Communicator of Achievement Award is the highest honor DPA bestows on its members. First and foremost, the COA Award is given for a lifetime of achievement in the communications profession. And second, it recognizes exemplary service to the community and to humanity as well as to the profession, especially to Delaware Press Association and the National Federation of Press Women.
The award is presented at the annual DPA Holiday Luncheon, held on the first or second Saturday of December. Charter member Gloria Galloway, former executive editor of two newspapers in New Hampshire, was named the first-ever DPA Communicator of Achievement. NFPW president Ruth Anna, of Colorado, presented the 1996 COA award to Gloria for a distinguished 50-year career in journalism.
Past DPA Communicator of Achievement Award Winners
- Roxane E. A. Ferguson, 2020-2021 COA
- Billie E. Travalini, 2018 COA
- Kim R. Burdick, 2017 COA
- Mark A. Fowser, 2016 COA
- Tracey L. Bryant, 2015 COA
- John E. Watson, 2014 COA
- Maria Hess, 2013 COA
- Chris Carl, 2012 COA
- Beth Miller, 2011 COA
- Theresa Gawlas Medoff, 2010 COA
- Ralph J. Begleiter, 2009 COA
- Barbara C. Roewe, 2008 COA
- Katherine S. Ward, 2007 COA
- Karen Galanaugh, 2006 COA
- Lynn Troy Maniscalco, 2005 COA
- Rita Katz Farrell, 2004 COA
- Lise Monty, 2003 COA
- Kay Wood Bailey, 2002 COA
- Allan R. Loudell, 2001 COA
- Mary Louise Ponsell, 1999 –2000 COA
- Marion K. Rechsteiner, 1998 COA
- Sally Rinard, 1997 COA
- Gloria O. Galloway, 1996 COA
NFPW COMMUNICATOR OF ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Delaware Press Association’s COA competes in the annual NFPW COA contest for the honor of being chosen the National Communicator of Achievement. DPA’s 2002 COA Kay Wood Bailey, of Wyoming, Delaware, was chosen for the top national honor at the NFPW Communications Conference in Bismarck, North Dakota, in September 2002. Beth Miller, of Wilmington, received this same national honor at the NFPW Communications Conference in Council Bluffs, Iowa, in September 2011. And Billie Travalini, of Wilmington, was named the NFPW COA at the national conference in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in September 2018.
