Cheryl Pell
Inducted 2007
Executive Director, Michigan Interscholastic Press Association
As executive director of the Michigan Interscholastic Press Association, Cheryl McCarty Pell heads one of the top statewide, high school journalism programs in the nation. Friends and colleagues across the nation say she is a tireless promoter of journalism at all academic and professional levels.
“If there is a pipeline from high school classrooms into professional newsrooms, it must have the name Cheryl Pell painted on the side of it,” says Joe Grimm, recruiting and development editor for the Detroit Free Press
Since 1987, Pell has run MIPA with its more than 200 member schools throughout the state. Through conferences, workshops and week-long summer programs for students and teachers, MIPA trains students and teachers in the skills they need to strive for excellence in their student publications, which now include yearbooks, newspapers, Web and video journalism/broadcasts. Pell is the dynamo who makes it happen.
Students come first, according to Pell, a nationally recognized and respected educator and scholastic journalism leader. She has garnered local and national awards for the excellence of her work.
Pell teaches graphics and design classes at MSU and numerous one-day “Quick Courses,” through the Society for News Design for state and national media professionals. In addition she supervises journalism education students and interns.
“It is a testament to her greatness, then, that in spite of her humility, she is esteemed throughout Michigan and across the nation . . .as a tireless advocate for student press rights, a consummate educator and among the most dedicated and innovative scholastic press organization directors,” writes Randy Yeip, MIPA alumnus, now graphics editor at the Wall Street Journal.