BEA2026

The annual BEA Board Awards Ceremony recognizes some of the best faculty and graduate student work in research, as well as our scholarship winners and the very best leadership and service to BEA. Join us at the ceremony to honor this year’s distinguished award recipients.

Host: Jennifer Meadows, Chico State University

Our 2026 Awardees include:
Distinguished Education Service Award Recipient: Rebecca Ann Lind, University of Illinois at Chicago
Lifetime Achievement in Scholarship: Shuhua Zhou, City University of Hong Kong
Lifetime Achievement in Creative Scholarship: Steve Anderson & John Woody, James Madison University

Outgoing Board Members & Editors:
Immediate Past President: Glenda Balas, University of North Texas – Dallas
Secretary/Treasurer: Kathleen Ryan, University of Colorado Boulder
District 3: Sara Magee Loyola University Maryland
District 7: Brian L. Shelton, Harper College

Festival of Media Arts Committee Chair: Heather Dunn, Arizona State University
Publications Committee Chair: Joe Blaney, Illinois State University
Research Committee Chair: Michel Haigh, Texas State University
Research Symposium Chair: Seungahn Nah, University of Florida

Kenneth Harwood Dissertation Award Recipient: Grace M. Provenzano, Arizona State University
Innovation in Teaching Award: Milton Santiago, Syracuse University
Library of American of American Broadcasting Foundation’s Broadcast Historian Award:  
Lauren Bratslavsky, Illinois State University and Elizabeth Peterson, University of Oregon; The Archivability of Television: Essays on Preservation and Perseverance 
The Leibner Cooper Grant for Creative Productions on the History of Media:  Danielle Beverly, University of Texas at Arlington; Eyes on the Prize Reclaimed 
Book Award: Margaret Peacock, University of Alabama; Frequencies of Deceit: How Global Propaganda Wars Shaped the Middle East
Textbook Award:  Chris Easterly, Regent University; Writing, Making, and Distributing Your Short Film: How the Short Film Can Advance Your Craft and Career

2026 BEA Research Grant Recipients:
Judy Watts, University of Kansas; Persuaded or Dissuaded from Entertainment? Exploring Media Storytelling Techniques and Audience Characteristics 
Nan Zheng & Chengqu Guo, James Madison University; Creator Logic and User Trust: Understanding News Engagement on Short-Video Platforms 
Lauren Smith, Rowan University; Gendered Aesthetics as Causal Agents: Visual Excitement and Cognitive Effects in Olympic Broadcasts 
Gregory Pitts, Middle Tennessee State University & Madeleine Liselblad, California State University, Long Beach; News slanting: The Federal Communications Commission versus George A. Richards’s Goodwill Stations, Inc.

2026-2027 BEA Scholarship Recipients & AERho class of 2025 will also be recognized.

Steve Anderson & John Woody are the first recipients of the BEA Lifetime Achievement in Scholarship Award. In this session, we'll have a conversation with John about his career progression alongside the rise of technological innovations that have defined modern storytelling. We will discuss key moments in the growth of the field while offering some insights he has gleaned about academia and BEA over the course of his long and successful career.

During the ceremony, recipients will be recognized with a specialized screening of their winning project and a cash award of $1,000 from the Diana King Memorial Endowment.

The 2026 Best of Festival winners were selected from a pool of over 2,250 entries, representing over 300 colleges and universities in the following competitions: audio, documentary, film & video, interactive multimedia, news, scriptwriting, sports and two-year colleges.

2026 Best of Festival Winners

Audio Competition - Faculty
The Traveling Radio Show Goes to the CSU!; Jeff Jacoby, San Francisco State University (Long-Form Production Category)

Audio Competition - Student 
Deliver U.S.; Krystal Guerra, Texas Christian University (Narrative Audio Category)

Documentary Competition - Faculty 
Chicken Ghetto; Sangsun Choi & Paul Lee, Kennesaw State University (Short-Form Category)

Documentary Competition - Student 
Hunter; Jack Hanning, Carter Moore, Nick Reed & Rylie West, University of Tennessee (Documentary Feature Category)

Film & Video Competition - Faculty
Kid Super Pilot; Christian Washington, Huntington University Arizona (Narrative Video Category)

Film & Video Competition - Student
Southern Apocrypha; Eli Murray, Ethan Hickey, Jordan Moore & Amy Csaki, Middle Tennessee State University (Narrative – Mini Narrative Category)
Komets Blackout Night Promo; Bryce Garrett, Huntington University (Promotional Category)

Interactive Multimedia Competition - Faculty
Eyes of Freedom Immersive; Pat Clark, University of Colorado Boulder (Interactive Reality Category)

Interactive Multimedia Competition – Student
As Tough As Ice; Murphy McFarlane, Syracuse University (Multimedia Storytelling Category)

News Competition - Faculty
From Denver to Mecca: A CNN producer’s personal pilgrimage to Islam’s holiest site; Kareem El Damanhoury, Muhammad Darwish, Angelica Pursley & Matog Saleh, University of Denver (Television Feature News Reporting Category)

News Competition - Student
40 Feet In the Air; Boone Kilpatrick, Syracuse University (Radio Reporting Category)

The New Florida Follies; Alex Land, University of Florida (Television Reporting Category)

Centre County Report: April 4, 2025; Allie Wenskoski, Sarah Schultz, Francie Ebert, Hannah Neurohr, Owen Gelber &
Denys Khrulov, Penn State University (Television Newscast Category)

Scriptwriting Competition - Faculty
All These Lonesome Graveyards; Nathan Patton, Missouri State University (Original Television Series Pilot Category)  
Scriptwriting Competition - Student Bandit; Cooper Johnson, Missouri State University (Original Television Series Pilot Category)

Sports Competition - Faculty
Authentic ACC: Syracuse Spring Football; Jordan Kligerman, Austin Beehner, Mike Lang & Richard Wiesmann, Syracuse University (Long Form Sports Video Category)

Sports Competition - Student
Ball State Sports Link: My Black Is; Nate Locker & Amadou Diallo, Ball State University (Promotional Video/Tease/PSA Category)

Student Two-Year Colleges Competition
25 Years of Harper Radio; Zoe Meshenberg, Harper College (Non-Narrative Audio Category)

Graduate Student Competition
Piloting the Past into the Future; Rio Harper, Dian Ling, Nicole Cummings & Nathan Olszewski, Syracuse University (Documentary)

Join Richard Crudo, ASC and take a look at current tools and workflows used in documentary and nonfiction production, including camera, audio, editing, and post-production technologies used in professional and educational settings.

Back by popular demand, it's time for Closing Cocktails!  And we are heading back to the Westgate Hotel & Casino!  Meet us at ZEN (right in front of Benihana) for a drink to celebrate BEA2026.