Past Central Ohio Chapter Awards Recipients

First Amendment Award

This award recognizes significant contributions to First Amendment rights of freedom of expression. Individuals and organizations both inside and outside of journalism are eligible.

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• 2026 – The Columbus Dispatch, for its legal efforts pertaining to Marsy’s Law
• 2025 – Isabel Cleary, NBC4
• 2024 – USA Today Network Ohio
• 2023 – Max Filby, Mike Wagner, and Jennifer Smola Shaffer, The Columbus Dispatch
• 2022 – Members of the Ohio Legislative Correspondents Association
• 2021 – The Lantern, specifically staff members Sarah Szilagy, Maeve Walsh, and Max Garrison
• 2020 – No ceremony due to Covid-19
• 2019 – The Columbus Dispatch
• 2018 – The 10 Investigates Team at WBNS-TV Channel 10
• 2017 – Ohio Auditor of State Dave Yost
• 2016 – Lucas Sullivan, Columbus Dispatch
• 2015 – Dan Trevas, Ohio State Bar Association
• 2014 – Otterbein University students Anna Schiffbauer and Gena DiMattio
• 2013 – Bill Bush and Jennifer Smith Richards, Columbus Dispatch
• 2012 – Dan Gearino, Columbus Dispatch
• 2011 – Evan Millward, Ohio University
• 2010 – Randy Ludlow, Columbus Dispatch
• 2009 – Geoff Dutton and Mike Wagner, Columbus Dispatch
• 2008 – Jill Riepenhoff and Jennifer Smith Richards, Columbus Dispatch
• 2007 – Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann
• 2006 – Fred Gittes, Gittes & Schulte
• 2005 – State Rep. Scott Oelslager, R, Canton
• 2004 – Dennis Leone, former superintendent of Chillicothe Schools
• 2003 – Martin Rozenman, Suburban News Publications
• 2002 – Catherine Candisky and Darrel Rowland, Columbus Dispatch
• 2001 – Staff of the Ohio State University Lantern
• 2000 – Thomas A. Schwartz, OSU journalism professor
• 1999 – Cliff Wiltshire, Suburban News Publications
• 1998 – Verne Edwards, Delaware Gazette
• 1997 – Frank Deaner, Ohio Newspaper Association
• 1996 – Martin Yant, Ohio Observer magazine
• 1995 – Staff of the Ohio University Post
• 1994 – The Columbus Dispatch and Editor Bob Smith
• 1993 – Not presented
• 1992 – Alan D. Miller, Columbus Dispatch
• 1991 – The Fairfield County Leader
• 1990 – Luke Feck, former Dispatch editor
• 1989 – Andrew Douglas, Ohio Supreme Court Justice
• 1986 – Sam Perdue, Columbus Citizen-Journal city editor and columnist
• 1983 – Judge John W. McCormac of the Franklin County Court of Appeals
• Other winners: The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer (year unknown)

Lifetime Achievement Award

Once overseen by SPJ National and now given out by the Chapter, this award honors individuals who have demonstrated a lifetime contribution to the profession of journalism.

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• 2026 – Ann B. Walker, for her trailblazing career in journalism (posthumous); Kent Cahlander, Gongwer News Service; Jim Provance, The Toledo Blade
• 2025 – Mark Williams, The Columbus Dispatch; Don DeParro, Columbus Business First; Angela Pace, WBNS-10TV; Lee Leonard, The Columbus Dispatch
• 2024 – Emily Foster, Columbus Monthly; Clay Hall, ABC6; Mary Yost, The Columbus Dispatch
• 2023 – Ann Fisher, WOSU News; Ray Paprocki, Dispatch Magazines, Tino Ramos, 10TV; Lu Ann Stoia, ABC6; Andrew Welsh-Huggins, Associated Press
• 2022 – Alan Miller, John Futty & Darrel Rowland, The Columbus Dispatch
• 2021 – Joe McKnight, Associated Press; Ray Stein & Randy Ludlow, The Columbus Dispatch; Duane St. Clair, CityScene; Paul Kostyu, retired journalism professor at Ohio Wesleyan University
• 2020 – No ceremony due to Covid-19
• 2019 – Chris Bradley, WBNS-10 (posthumous); Richard W. Carson, Barbara James; Gary Kiefer, Mary Beth Lane and Tim May, The Columbus Dispatch; Eric Lyttle, Columbus Monthly

Distinguished Service Award

This award recognizes a member of the chapter who has demonstrated professional excellence and dedication to the Society in the eyes of the Board of Directors.

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• 2026 – No award given
• 2025 – Eleanor Kennedy, The Columbus Dispatch, and Hayleigh Colombo, Columbus Business First, for their past service as chapter presidents
• 2024 – Susan Post, Columbus Underground, for her service as chapter treasurer
• 2023 – No award given
• 2021 – Garth Bishop, for his service as chapter president
• 2020 – No ceremony due to Covid-19
• 2019 – Doug Buchanan, past chapter president and editor in chief of Columbus Business First; Joe Meyer, past chapter president, owner of Meyer Media and former editor of ThisWeek Community News and Suburban News Publications; and Kevin Z. Smith, former chapter president and director of the Kiplinger Program in Public Affairs Journalism at Ohio University
• 2018 – Bruce Cadwallader, past chapter president, community outreach director at Franklin County Children’s Services and former courts reporter at The Columbus Dispatch
• 2017 – Doug Buchanan, managing editor/digital for Columbus Business First
• 2016 – Doug Buchanan, managing editor/digital for Columbus Business First
• 2015 – Kevin Z. Smith, Kiplinger Program in Public Affairs Journalism
• 2014 – Beth Gianforcaro and Philip Rudell, past chapter presidents
• 2013 – Eric Lyttle, Columbus Dispatch, past president
• 2012 – Julanne Hohbach, Columbus C.E.O., past president, and Sarah Mills-Bacha, SMB Communications, past president and longtime board member
• 2011 – Joe Meyer, Suburban News Publications, and Katy Waters, Columbus Business First, past presidents
• 2010 – Robin Hepler, past chapter president, and Jennifer Monnin, past chapter president
• 2009 – F. Michael Lorz, past chapter president
• 2008 – Brian R. Ball, past chapter president, and David W. Richter, past chapter board member
• 2007 – Jennifer Davis and Kirk Richards, past chapter board members
• 2006 – Martin L. Rozenman, past chapter board member
• 2005 – Bruce Cadwallader, past chapter president and national Legal Defense Fund chairman
• 2004 – Gary Kiefer and Chuck Nelson, The Columbus Dispatch, past chapter presidents
• 2003 – Rose Hume, OSU chapter adviser and past chapter president
• 2002 – Katie Foley, past chapter president, and Paul Kostyu, board member
• 2001 – Joe McKnight and Sarah Mills Bacha, past chapter presidents
• 2000 – Jeff Botti, past chapter board member
• 1999 – Phil Rudell, past chapter president
• 1998 – Marilyn Greenwald, chapter board member and OU chapter adviser
• 1997 – Jim Toms, publisher of Suburban News Publications and past board member
• 1996 – Pat Schmucki, past chapter president
• 1995 – Beth Gianforcaro, past chapter president
• 1994 – Mary Beth Lane, past chapter president
• 1993 – Norman Dohn, Ohio University journalism professor and a chapter founder
• 1992 – Ralph Izard, director of Ohio University’s Scripps School of Journalism
• 1991 – Dr. Walter Bunge, director of the Ohio State University School of Journalism
• 1990 – Thomas A. Schwartz, past chapter president and OSU journalism professor
• 1989 – Carl L. Ebright, former assistant to the executive editor at The Columbus Dispatch
• 1988 – Wayne V. Harsha, a founding member of the chapter, and Pat Schmucki, past chapter president
• 1986 – Tim Puet, Associated Press and chapter board member
• 1982 – David Lore, past chapter president and national convention chairman
• 1980 – Ernest Cady, retired book editor at The Columbus Dispatch and first president of the chapter
• 1978 – Arthur W. Myers, assistant manager at Battelle Memorial Institute
• 1977 – Jim Hunkler, director of public relations for Battelle and past chapter president
• 1974 – Macy M. ”Boots” Carothers, longtime editor of the Ohio American Legion newspaper
• Other winners: Noreen Johnson, the first woman to serve as a director and chapter officer

Appreciation Award

This award is presented to an individual or organization that has made a notable contribution to journalism in Central Ohio.

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• 2026 – Eric Lyttle, longtime veteran journalist and friend of the Chapter (posthumous); USA Today Network, for its series on vicious dog attacks; Colleen Marshall, NBC4; Garth Bishop,  former Chapter president and outgoing treasurer
• 2025 – Mike Wagner, The Columbus Dispatch; Robin Smith, Columbus Business First; the Columbus Metropolitan Library
• 2024 – Randy Malloy, WWCD; ThisWeek Community News; Linda Deitch, The Columbus Dispatch; Mark Ferenchik, The Columbus Dispatch; Diana Hill-Kinney, The Columbus Dispatch
• 2023 – Andy Chow, formerly of The Statehouse News Bureau; Theodore Decker, formerly of The Columbus Dispatch
• 2022 – Columbus Alive staff, including Andy Downing and Joel Oliphint; and Julie Fulton, former librarian and researcher for The Columbus Dispatch
• 2021 – Jim Siegel, late reporter for The Columbus Dispatch; Ohio Department of Health for Covid-19 dashboard; Joe Blundo, The Columbus Dispatch columnist; and Doug Haddix, longtime Columbus journalist
• 2020 – No ceremony due to Covid-19
• 2019 – Eugene C. “Gene” D’Angelo, former general manager, WBNS-10TV; and Dennis Hetzel, former executive director, Ohio News Media Association
• 2018 – Todd Jones, former sports reporter/columnist, The Columbus Dispatch
• 2017 – Dominic Cappa, editor in chief of Columbus Business First from 1999-2017, and Carol Ann Lease, retired city editor of The Columbus Dispatch
• 2016 – Ben Marrison, editor of The Columbus Dispatch from 1999-2015
• 2015 – John Long, co-founder and executive director, Main Street Press Museum
• 2014 – David Marburger, Open Records and Open Meetings attorney for Baker Hostetler
• 2013 – Tom Griesdorn, WBNS-10TV, and Bill Cohen, Ohio Public Radio and Television
• 2012 – Sharon West, Ohio State University
• 2011 – Frank Deaner, Ohio Newspaper Association, past board member
• 2010 – Jim Toms, former publisher at Suburban News Publications
• 2009 – Kirk Arnott, Columbus Dispatch, and Dom Cappa, Business First
• 2008 – Danny Russell, former editor of The Other Paper
• 2007 – Joe McKnight, Associated Press (retired) and past chapter president
• 2006 – Robert Ruth, The Columbus Dispatch
• 2005 – Anne Maher, Suburban News Publications
• 2004 – Lee Leonard, The Columbus Dispatch
• 2003 – Dave Richter, retired OSU journalism professor and SPJ board member
• 2002 – Michael F. Curtin, president and associate publisher of The Columbus Dispatch
• 2001 – Bruce Cadwallader, national convention chairman
• 2000 – Mike Mahoney and American Electric Power
• 1999 – Don Lambert, Ohio University journalism professor
• 1998 – Ralph Izard, retired director of the Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University
• 1997 – Jerry Revish, WBNS-TV news anchor
• 1996 – Bob Smith, retired editor of The Columbus Dispatch
• 1995 – Joe Meyer, Suburban News Publications
• 1994 – Mary McGarey, longtime chapter and board member
• 1993 – Jim Underwood, former Plain Dealer bureau chief
• 1992 – Bill Cohen, Ohio Public Radio/Television
• 1991 – Martin Yant, The Columbus Dispatch
• 1990 – Thomas M. Forsythe, publisher of Suburban News Publications
• 1988 – Dick Otte, Dispatch managing editor
• 1986 – John J. Clarke, Ohio State University journalism professor
• 1979 – C. William O’Neill, chief justice of the Ohio Supreme Court
• Other winners: Benson Wolman of the American Civil Liberties Union

Brick Wall Award

This dubious distinction is presented to individuals or organizations that did the most to block citizen access to public records or otherwise violated the spirit of the First Amendment during the past year.

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• 2026 – The Ohio State University, for its handling of questions and events surrounding Richard Strauss, Les Wexner and the departure and replacement of former president Ted Carter.
• 2025 – The Ohio Legislature, for its 2024 enactment of a lame duck law enabling police agencies to dramatically increase the cost of obtaining video public records.
• 2024 – The Columbus Police Department, for using the amendment to the Ohio Constitution known as Marsy’s Law, which aims to enhance victims’ rights, to deny public records requests related to officer-involved incidents.
• 2023 – Ohio National Guard Adjutant General John C. Harris Jr., the Ohio State Highway Patrol, the East Palestine Police Department and the Columbiana County Sheriff’s Office for detaining and arresting a reporter at a press conference.
• 2022 – The Ohio Redistricting Commission,  for violating the spirit of the First Amendment for many attempts to flout the public’s right to know about the legislative and congressional map-making process.
• 2021 – FirstEnergy Corp., for its role at the center of a $61 million bribery scheme that has ensnared several prominent Ohio politicians.
• 2020 – No ceremony due to COVID-19
• 2019 – The Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow (ECOT), for inflation of enrollment data and overcharging the state for taxpayer money.
• 2018 – The Columbus Board of Education, for its secrecy in conducting a search for a new superintendent in 2017-18, abandoned when decisions made in closed meetings in violation of Ohio Open Meetings law came to light in spring 2018.
• 2017 – The Ohio State University, for its obstruction and delays in responding to public records requests, as reported by The Columbus Dispatch; U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and U.S. Rep. Pat Tiberi, R-Genoa Township, each for avoiding attendance at local public meetings during the proposed repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, in early 2017.
• 2016 – The faculty of Ohio Wesleyan University, who voted 48-21 on April 18, 2016, to ban journalists from covering their faculty meetings. The meetings long were open and covered by local media and the student press at OWU.
• 2015 – Ohio Rep. Jim Buchy, R-Greenville, primary sponsor of House Bill 663, called “Ohio’s Secret Execution Bill.”
• 2014 – Columbus City Schools, for its attempt to shield the press and public from its data-scrubbing scandal and its use of “policy governance” to keep staff and board members from speaking freely to the press and public.
• 2013 – JobsOhio, which has been a challenge for reporters and a target for critics who feel it’s the black hole of state government, with state money going toward it without public knowledge or real transparency.
• 2012 – No award
• 2011 – No award
• 2010 – Ohio University, which failed to open meetings of its Budget Planning Council — which recommends how to spend tax and tuition dollars — despite an ongoing campaign by The Post, the campus’ independent student newspaper.
• 2009 – Olentangy Local Schools Board of Education
• 2008 – Ohio Department of Education
• 2007 – Ohio Supreme Court Justices Paul Pfeifer, Judith Ann Lanzinger, Terrence O’Donnell, Evelyn Lundberg Stratton and Alice Robie Resnick
• 2006 – The Ohio Supreme Court, for a series of decisions that weakened Ohio’s Open Records law. Particularly onerous was the court’s decision to recognize “executive privilege” for the Ohio governor’s office in Dann v. Taft. This exception is not in the state’s Open Records statutes or the Ohio Constitution. In other record-shielding decisions, the court has blocked newspaper access to photographs of police officers and to the home addresses of state employees — both longstanding public documents.
• 2005 – Sen. Larry Mumper, R-Marion, for sponsoring the “Academic Bill of Rights” to limit what professors can say in the classroom; Jacqueline Piar, superintendent of Northridge Local Schools, for dismissing the high school principal, sending public records out of the county to shield them from view and asking the Licking County sheriff to drop a criminal investigation.
• 2004 – Ohio Consumers’ Counsel Robert S. Tongren, for destroying a $579,000 consultants’ report to hide it from public scrutiny.
• 2003 – Village of New Rome, for refusing to provide documents showing how money was spent or how some officials came to occupy their offices.
• 2002 – The Ohio Historical Society, for refusing to follow Ohio laws regarding open meetings or public records, even though it received 75 percent of its annual funding from taxpayers, and keeping executive salaries secret.
• 2001 – Judge Thomas E. Louden of Delaware County Juvenile Court, who was sued by The Columbus Dispatch when he improperly closed a detention hearing and posted deputy sheriffs at the doors of the Delaware County Courthouse to keep the media out of the building.

Ohio Journalism Historic Site Award

The award is presented by the Central Ohio Chapter and the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism to a location in the state of Ohio that has special historical significance to journalism.

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• 2026 – The Lima News, founded as the Daily Democratic Times in 1884.
• 2025 – WLW, founded by radio pioneer Powel Crosley Jr., began broadcasting in 1922 as one of the country’s earliest licensed stations.
• 2024 –
• 2023 – Ohio University E.W. Scripps School of Journalism, which traces its roots back to the first journalism classes at Ohio University starting in 1923 in the English Department.
• 2022
• 2021 – The Call & Post, Ohio’s Black news leader, a newspaper started in Cleveland in 1916 by inventor Garrett Morgan and that merged with the Cleveland Post in 1929.
• 2020 – No ceremony due to Covid-19
• 2019 – Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum at Ohio State University, the Library and Museum is the largest repository of newspaper cartoons, comic strips and comic books in the world.