Each year at our annual Homecoming Breakfast, WKU Student Publications honors two alumni who have served their careers with distinction — the College Heights Herald Award for Outstanding Contributions to Journalism and the Talisman Award for Outstanding Contributions in Communications.
We’ve been giving the Herald and Talisman awards for many years — and, in some years, several. In 2012, we started giving one Talisman and one Herald award each year.
The inaugural Friend of Student Publications Award was given in 2023. It goes to an individual who was not on one of our staffs as a student but who has made invaluable contributions to benefit our students and operations.
Here are the winners through the years:
Herald Award
- Frances Richards
- Kelly Thompson
- Larry Stone
- Bill Strode
- Bert Borrone
- Bill ‘Whitey’ Sanders
- L.L. Valentine
- David B. Whitaker
- Margaret Ann Gentry
- Raymond C. Hornback
- Charley Robertson
- Ron Stuart
- Robert Adams
- Vernon Stone
- Tom Patterson
- George Wedding
- Martin Plessinger
- Don Collins
- John Lucas
- Al Cross
- Judy Koch Ecker
- Al Stilley
- JoAnn Thompson
- Virginia Wood Davis
- Tom Caudill
- Mary Anne Wood Thompson
- Thomas A. George
- Michael Morse
- Joseph Glowacki
- Paul Schuhmann
- David Sutherland
- Judy Wildman Hughes
- Neil Budde
- Tommy Newton
- Jackie Bretz
- Jim Gensheimer
- Tom Eblen
- David Frank
- Robert Pope
- Jerry Potter
- Fran Nelson Salyers
- Tom Yunt
- Lynn Hoppes
- Nikita Stewart
- Chuck Clark
- Steve Thomas
- Chuck Stinnett
- Jamie Sizemore
- Mary C. Meehan
- David Stephenson
- Greg Bilbrey
- Stephanie M. Bateman
- Alan Judd
- Terri Likens
- Kristina Goetz
- Scott Applewhite
- Susan Wessling Mattingly
- Amy Taylor Carter
- Craig Dezern
- Ryan Craig – 2012
- Jan Diehm – 2013
- Rick Loomis – 2014
- John Stamper – 2015
- Jerry Brewer – 2016
- Chris Poore – 2017
- Ronnie Ellis – 2018
- Michael Collins – 2019
- Mike Collins (posthumous) – 2020
- Michael Casagrande – 2021
- Ashleé Clark – 2022
- Monica Dias – 2023
Talisman Award
- Lisa Cornwell
- Debra Gibson
- Margo Grace
- Kristen Tucker
- Vickie Bagwell
- Donna Stinnett
- Dwain Harris
- Debi Wade Jordan
- Bob Skipper
- Tim Broekema
- Ellen Humphries Brisendine
- Linda Dono
- Sandy Smith
- Kim Kolarik
- Epha Riche – 2012
- Stephanie Gladney Queen – 2013
- J. Michael Moore – 2014
- Cheryl Edwards Martin – 2015
- Carla and Chad Carlton – 2016
- Brad Hughes – 2017
- Shawntaye Hopkins – 2018
- Kim Parson – 2019
- Pandemic; no award – 2020
- Carol Smith Kirves – 2021
- Chris Poynter – 2022
- Julie Roberts – 2023
Friend of Student Publications Award
- Julie A. Harris Hinson – 2023
- Jon Fleischaker and Kim Greene – 2024