Class 29 – News and features

G. Stuart Smith is an assistant professor of journalism and mass media studies at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y. In his 30 years as a broadcast journalist, he has won awards for investigative and feature reporting as well as photography. His documentaries, "A Bridge to Cuba" and "Heritage or Hate?" are being distributed nationally through American Public Television.

Class 30 - Programs

Dennis A. Harp, a native Texan, holds a bachelor's degree in commercial art from Texas State University as well as a master's in broadcasting and a doctorate in educational technology, both from Texas A&M Commerce. A college instructor since 1966, Harp is currently a professor of electronic media and communications and associate dean of faculty in the College of Mass Communications at Texas Tech University. His teaching interests include media production and new media technology.

Harp is past president of the Texas Educational Television Association; served in various appointed capacities in the International Television Association and Texas Association of Broadcast Educators; served a four-year appointed term on the public media panel, Texas Commission on the Arts, and was on the board of the National Cowboy Symposium & Celebration for 19 years. He is a media production consultant to educational, public and business organizations.

Harp has received six innovative teaching awards, including Teacher of the Year from the student Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow chapter, Texas Tech University.

Harp has produced corporate and instructional video presentations, multimedia presentations, and conference research papers at a variety of national professional and academic association meetings over the past four decades. He has written chapters on television lighting and talent appearance for college textbooks and reference books. Additionally, Harp has contributed historical broadcast and cable programming entries for four encyclopedia titles.

Class 31 – Spot Production

Ron Frank is a video producer in the television unit for the department of communications at Kansas State University. He has been producing videos at K-State for 32 years, the last 20 of which have been with K-State Research & Extension.

Frank received his bachelor's degree in speech from Fort Hays State University in 1972 and a master's degree in communications from Kansas State University in 1979.

The K-State television unit currently produces video programs on miniDV using Final Cut Pro, then can either author on DVD using DVD Studio Pro, or make VHS copies. The programs Frank has been involved with range from production agriculture to nutrition education.

Class 32 – Promotional productions

Joe Camoriano is a videographer/producer for the city of Kansas City, Missouri. Previously, he worked as the broadcast director for communications at the University of California, Irvine. Before that, he was a national reporter for the syndicated agricultural program "AgDay Television." He has been a producer, director, video editor and videographer for the University of Missouri-Columbia and Kansas State University. He has also worked as a national reporter/anchor on Direct TV for Channel Earth in Chicago. Camoriano has won numerous awards for his work in television production and television news, including an Oscar for Agriculture in 2001.

Class 33 – Non-credit educational video production

Ed Dodd is currently Director of television, radio and photography for the Louisiana State University Office of Public Affairs. He oversees the production of all types of projects, from broadcast to multimedia. With a master's degree in educational media, Dodd has 30 years' experience in producing, directing, shooting, and editing, and has won over 150 national, regional, and local awards for his work. Prior to his position at LSU, he was a freelance video and film producer, working on a variety of commercial, industrial and documentary projects.

Outstanding Professional Skill Award Judge for Electronic Media: Video Category

Marc Bakst has been an award-winning video producer/director for over 20 years. His background includes both commercial and nonbroadcast mediums. Bakst holds master's degrees in broadcasting and educational media from Kent State University. He has also served as an instructor in broadcast communication at Illinois Central College and Ohio Northern University. For the last 17 years, Bakst has been the video producer/director at Lorain County Community College. He and his wife are owners of M&M Communications, which produces corporate programs for northeast Ohio. Bakst serves as a board member with Cleveland's Media Communications Association-International (MCA-I) and is also active on their national board of directors. He has been asked to serve on dozens of judging panels and has also served as co-chair of MCA-I's national video awards competition.

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