Ellen Austin

Ellen Austin, MJE, was the 2012 Dow Jones News Fund National High School Journalism Teacher of the Year. She holds a Gold Key from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association for service to journalism education and is a National Scholastic Press Association Pioneer, an honor given to individuals who make substantial contributions to high school publications and journalism programs outside of their primary employment. She completed her bachelor’s degree at the University of Illinois and earned a master’s degree in English education from the University of Minnesota. Austin retired from full time teaching in 2022 after a 25-year career as a teacher and journalism adviser, primarily in Silicon Valley. In 2023, she received Journalism Education Association's Lifetime Achievement award. She is a co-author of Journalism: Publishing Across Media (Goodheart-Willcox, 2nd edition, 2021) and currently teaches journalism to master's students at Kent State University. She is the founder of Birch Avenue Creative.