Wanda Garner Cash

Last updated

Wanda Garner Cash (born December 21, 1949, in Laredo, Texas) is an author and the event director of the Texas Arts & Crafts Fair at the Hill Country Arts Foundation in Ingram, Texas. Cash retired in 2016 as associate director of the School of Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin. During her long journalism career, Cash was an advocate for open government, speaker, commentator, expert witness and media adviser on open government issues to former Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott. Her most recent book is "Pancho Villa's Saddle at the Cadillac Bar." [1]

Contents

Early life

Cash was born December 21, 1949, in Laredo, Texas. She attended Ursuline Academy for 11 years and graduated from J. W. Nixon High School in 1967. Cash is known by her nickname, "Fluffy." [2] [3]

She worked for the Joske's of Texas department store chain as coordinator of radio and television advertising. Cash received a Bachelor of Science in Journalism in 1971 from UT-Austin and attended the UT Graduate School of Education where she was certified as a secondary reading specialist in 1975. She married Richard M. Cash in 1975. They have two sons, Austin Garner Cash and Cooper McNeece Cash.

Career

After returning to college for a graduate degree, she taught high school journalism for seven years at Burbank High School in San Antonio, Texas.

After a being a reporter, editor, publisher and newspaper owner, in 2006 she became a clinical professor and the first Fellow to the S. Griffin Singer Professorship at the University of Texas at Austin. Cash studied under Singer at UT in the late 60s. [2]

At UT, she was associate director of the School of Journalism [4] and previously served as the chairman of the executive committee of Texas Student Media. [5] In 2012, and was named to the Texas Intercollegiate Press Hall of Fame. [6]

Cash taught reporting at the undergraduate and graduate levels. With co-authors George Sylvie, Dave Garlock and Diana Dawson, she wrote a new textbook for J315 classes that was used for the first time in the fall 2009 semester. She retired in August 2016. [7]

She has served as past president of the Texas Press Association and Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas and Texas Associated Press Managing Editors. The Baytown Sun noted her "passionate commitment to journalistic standards" and that she had been a "mentoring editor" for a number of journalists at the paper. [3] That work included her 2005 leadership of a media coalition that eventually culminated in the 2009 passage of the Free Flow of Information Act, the Texas shield law. [8]

In September 2016, The Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas gave Cash with the James Madison Award, honoring those who have demonstrated outstanding commitment to upholding the principles of the First Amendment and open government. [9] In April 2006, the Texas Associated Press Managing Editors association honored Cash with the Jack Douglas Award for outstanding service to journalism. [10]

At the state level, Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Tom Phillips in 2004 named her to the Texas Judicial Advisory Council's Committee on Public Access to Court Records. During her tenure as TPA president, Cash contributed chapters and edited The News in Texas, an anthology of essays commemorating the 125th anniversary of the press association's founding. [11] She is at work on an oral history of retired and active Texas newspaper leaders. [12]

At the national level, she served on the Freedom of Information Committee of the American Society of News Editors and was a delegate in an ASNE study mission to Cuba in October 2002. Within the industry, Cash is past president of the Texas Press Association, Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas and Texas Associated Press Managing Editors, Cash has devoted her career to mentoring young journalists and advocating for open government and public access. She has been a TPA member since 1982 and on the board of directors since 1998, working primarily with the Legislative Advisory Committee, with members from both TPA and the Texas Daily Newspaper Association. Through this group and various other media affiliations, she has been a long-time advocate of open government, testifying at the Legislature, organizing FOI education efforts, lobbying for public access and resisting attempts to limit the public's right to know. That work included her leadership of a media coalition in 2005 to push for a Texas shield law.

As a past president of the FOI Foundation, Cash traveled to Mexico in 1998, meeting with newspaper editors hoping to draft that country's first freedom of information laws. She remains on the FOIFT board where she is part of the Light of Day project, which aims to develop greater emphasis on open government reporting in journalism programs at Texas colleges and universities.

Civic involvement

Cash served two terms as president of the Texas State Arts and Crafts Fair and the Hill Country Arts Foundation. In 1992, Gov. Ann Richards appointed her to the board of the Lower Colorado River Authority. In other civic areas, Cash has served two terms as president of the Hill Country Arts Foundation. In 2010, she coordinated the relocation of the Stonehenge II visual art installation from its location on FM 1340 near Hunt, Texas to the HCAF grounds on Texas State Highway 39 in Ingram.

Footnote references

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of Texas at Austin</span> Public university in Austin, Texas, US

The University of Texas at Austin is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 52,384 students as of Fall 2022, it is also the largest institution in the system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Molly Ivins</span> American newspaper columnist

Mary Tyler "Molly" Ivins was an American newspaper columnist, author, and political commentator, known for her humorous and insightful writing, which often used satire and wit to critique political figures and policies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Dealey</span> American journalist

George Bannerman Dealey was a Dallas, Texas, businessman. Dealey was the long-time publisher of The Dallas Morning News and owner of the A. H. Belo Corporation. A plaza in Dallas is named in his honor and became instantly world-famous when it was the site of the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963.

<i>The Chronicle of Higher Education</i> Newspaper

The Chronicle of Higher Education is a newspaper and website that presents news, information, and jobs for college and university faculty and student affairs professionals, including staff members and administrators. A subscription is required to read some articles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karen Elliott House</span> American journalist

Karen Elliott House is an American journalist and former managing editor at The Wall Street Journal and its parent company Dow Jones. She served as President of Dow Jones International and then publisher of the Wall Street Journal before her retirement in the spring of 2006. Her awards include a Pulitzer Prize.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rebecca MacKinnon</span> American activist and journalist

Rebecca MacKinnon is an author, researcher, Internet freedom advocate, and co-founder of the citizen media network Global Voices. She is notable as a former CNN journalist who headed the CNN bureaus in Beijing and later in Tokyo. She is on the board of directors of the Committee to Protect Journalists, a founding board member of the Global Network Initiative the founding director of the Ranking Digital Rights project at the New America Foundation's Open Technology Institute, and is the Vice President for Global Advocacy at the Wikimedia Foundation.

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, also known as the Knight Foundation, is an American non-profit foundation that provides grants for journalism, communities, and the arts.

The Missouri School of Journalism housed under University of Missouri in Columbia is one of the oldest formal journalism schools in the world. The school provides academic education and practical training in all areas of journalism and strategic communication for undergraduate and graduate students across several media platforms including television and radio broadcasting, newspapers, magazines, photography, and new media. The school also supports an advertising and public relations curriculum.

<i>The Daily Texan</i> Student-run newspaper in Austin, Texas

The Daily Texan is the student newspaper of the University of Texas at Austin. It is one of the largest college newspapers in the United States, with a daily circulation of roughly 12,000 during the fall and spring semesters, and it is among the oldest student newspapers in the South.

Wanda Coleman was an American poet. She was known as "the L.A. Blueswoman" and "the unofficial poet laureate of Los Angeles".

Richard A. Oppel is an American newspaper, magazine and digital editor living in Austin, Texas. He was interim editor-in-chief of Texas Monthly, an Austin-based publication with a statewide readership of 2.4 million. The magazine covers the Texas scene, from politics, the environment, industry and education to music, the arts, travel, restaurants, museums and cultural events. While Oppel was editor of The Charlotte Observer (1978–1993), the newspaper earned three Pulitzer Prizes, sharing one for editorial cartoons with The Atlanta Constitution.

Gwen Lister is a Namibian journalist, publisher, anti-apartheid and press freedom activist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moody College of Communication</span> American college at the University of Texas at Austin

The Moody College of Communication is the communication college at The University of Texas at Austin. The college is home to top-ranked programs in advertising and public relations, communication studies, communication and leadership, speech, language and hearing sciences, journalism, and radio-television-film. The Moody College is nationally recognized for its faculty members, research and student media. It offers seven undergraduate degrees, including those in Journalism, Advertising, and Radio-Television-Film, and 17 graduate programs. The Moody College of Communication operates out of the Jesse H. Jones Communication Complex and the Dealey Center for New Media, which opened in November 2012.

Latino USA is a nationally syndicated public radio program and podcast produced by The Futuro Media Group and distributed nationwide by the Public Radio Exchange (PRX), after 27 years of being distributed by NPR. The program is anchored by Maria Hinojosa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Women in journalism</span>

Women in journalism are individuals who participate in journalism. As journalism became a profession, women were restricted by custom from access to journalism occupations, and faced significant discrimination within the profession. Nevertheless, women operated as editors, reporters, sports analysts and journalists even before the 1890s in some countries as far back as the 18th-century.

James William Tankard Jr., communication scholar, author of The Statistical Pioneers and coauthor of Communication Theories: Origins, Methods, Uses.

George Albert McElroy was an American journalist. Born in Houston, Texas, he served in the United States Armed Forces before pursuing a career in journalism. Among many "firsts" achieved by McElroy, he became the first African American to earn a master's degree in journalism from the School of Journalism at the University of Missouri.

María Teresa Ronderos is a Colombian journalist best known for her work on the magazine, "Semana".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cori Zarek</span> U.S. official

Corinna "Cori" Zarek is an American lawyer, public interest technologist and adjunct professor of media law.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sandra Mims Rowe</span> American journalist

Sandra Mims Rowe is an American journalist. She is the former editor of The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, Virginia, and of The Oregonian, in Portland, Oregon. She was one of the few women editors of metro newspapers in the 1980s, and was the first woman editor at The Virginian-Pilot and The Oregonian. She was the second female president of the American Society of News Editors, a decade after Kay Fanning, the editor of The Christian Science Monitor, was the first.

References

  1. "Pancho Villa's Saddle at the Cadillac Bar" tamupress.com
  2. 1 2
  3. 1 2
  4. School of Journalism Faculty utexas.edu
  5. University of Texas TSM Board Roster
  6. "Texas Intercollegiate Press Association honors University of Texas at Austin College of Communication alumni, leaders | Moody College of Communication". Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved May 1, 2015.
  7. Dancing journalism professor leaves to the beat of the music after 10 yearsdailytexanonline.com May 6, 2016 Archived December 1, 2018, at the Wayback Machine
  8. "The Statesman" . Retrieved March 10, 2024.
  9. "News veteran, journalism educator Wanda Cash to receive James Madison Award". Freedom of Information Foundation Texas. August 15, 2016. Retrieved March 10, 2024.
  10. "Texas APME awards excellence in journalism". Plainview Herald. April 8, 2006. Retrieved March 10, 2024.
  11. The News in Texas Essays in Honor of the 125th Anniversary of the Texas Press Association Edited by Wanda Garner Cash and ed Sterling. October 6, 2005.
  12. 1 2 "Texas Newspaper Oral History". Archived from the original on April 11, 2010. Retrieved May 5, 2010.
  13. BoardHill Country Arts Foundation Archived August 25, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
  14. "Texas register". Archived from the original on July 20, 2011. Retrieved September 1, 2010.
  15. Cash, Wanda Garner (January 26, 2010). "Guest Column: The 2010 Agenda: Open Government". The Texas Tribune. Retrieved March 10, 2024.
  16. The Impact of Social Media on Open Government texasbar.com [ dead link ]
  17. Expert profilesutexas.edu Archived October 19, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
  18. 1 2 Boardtexasobserver.org Archived September 25, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
  19. "Statesman". Archived from the original on July 6, 2011. Retrieved August 27, 2010.
  20. "UT press". Archived from the original on August 20, 2008. Retrieved August 27, 2010.
  21. Rosterutexas.edu Archived June 4, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
  22. New buildingutexas.edu Archived June 12, 2010, at the Wayback Machine