Keekley

YOUNG COUPLE TOGETHER, AND DECADES LATER THEY STILL “LIVE AN NSPA LIFE.”

IN 1998, NSPA BRINGS

NSPA AND ACP BRING PEOPLE together, sometimes forever.

No one knows better than Tom Keekley and Lori (Harris) Keekley. Both have worked for NSPA but not at the same time.

Tom joined the staff in 1991 shortly after graduation from University of Wisconsin-Stout. A design and packaging major, he followed up on a lead from a friend who saw the ad in the Eau Claire, Wisconsin, newspaper. A quick phone call, and he was set for an interview in the NSPA offices five hours away.

“I drove there in a T-shirt and jeans but changed clothes in the parking lot,” he said. “ Dressed in my suit and tie, I walked into the NSPA office and was directed to then executive director Tom Rolnicki’s office on the fifth floor.

“The story goes that the staff rolled their eyes and dubbed me the Eager Beaver as soon as I left the staff office. The suit and tie just didn’t fit in with their casual, relaxed dress style.”

After the interview, Keekley made another trip to the parking lot for a quick change of clothes and then back on the road for another five hours. Keekley said he was nervous and anxious, but Rolnicki must have been anxious too because he called to offer the job before Keekley got home.

“I picked up the message from my answering machine and called him back. He asked me to join the staff with a question ‘Do you think there is room in the office for two Toms?’”

During his nearly seven years as NSPA print communication manager, Keekley handled the design for the group. From advertising, brochures and fliers to Trends, a monthly magazine. Any organizational branding was Keekley’s work.

During a brainstorming session, staff members suggested putting together a collection of the best of the high school publications they saw and The Best of the High School Press was born.

“It was a good project that survives today,” Keekley said. “It takes a lot of work to gather the images, but it is worth the effort because schools all over the country can see some of the best student work in the nation.”

In 2022, the 27th volume was published. Another project carrying Keekley’s stamp was ACP’s Best of the Midwest convention.

“We knew not every school could afford to go to the larger national conventions, and we wanted to do something to support schools near us, so we developed the Best of the Midwest.” Keekley said.

Creating programs to support student media was a lot of the attraction of the NSPA job, but equally important were the relationships formed with other staff members.

“We were a super close group,” Keekley said. “I loved working there and those people I worked with are definitely an extension of my friend group. I’m lifelong friends with Jim (Bernard), Annie, (Christman) Brian (Jones), Marc (Wood), Donn (Poll) and so many of them.

“We had a lot of fun, but we worked hard because we each had our own things to do. It was a great experience and gave me a good work ethic.”

Tom Keekley left NSPA in 1997 to join the design firm launched by former NSPA/ACP staff member Donn Poll. So NSPA led him to his second job.

Soon after Tom Keekley left NSPA/ ACP, Lori Harris joined the staff in 1998.

Lori had been teaching at Portage High School (Indiana) for three years. She hadn’t really applied for the job and was surprised when Rolnicki contacted her, she said.

“Tom (Rolnicki) left me a message on my home phone saying to check my email. I drove back to school, because that was where my email access was, and saw the offer. He said he had asked around about a good person for the position and people had mentioned me,” she said.

“I ended up accepting the job and moving to Minneapolis.”

As director of contests and critiques, she said one of the best aspects of her job was seeing publications improve.

“It’s like watching a transformation of the publication. I loved seeing how the newspapers improved from the first issue of the school year to the end,” she said. “It was also great to see new publications work their way into the top group by applying what they learned in the critique process.”

Pacemaker judging was another highlight, she said.

“I learned so much from listening to the judges evaluate the publications. They were selecting the best of the best, and it was fascinating.”

In late October 1998, when Tom Keekley was invited to return to an NSPA happy hour. He met the new kid in the office.

The next day Tom emailed Lori, and they set up their first date. It was Oct. 31,

LORI and they attended his friend’s Halloween party. Lori said the conversations and their relationship continued to evolve.

KEEKLEY was contest and critique director from 19982000 and returned to NSPA in 2022 as associate director for Quill & Scroll.

Fast forward to winter and a ski trip resulting in a serious leg injury for Lori. Recuperating for the next three months meant Lori and Tom spent even more time together. So much so that on a road trip to meet her parents at the Indianapolis 500, they planned their wedding in the car.

“By the time we got there, the wedding was pretty much all planned,” Lori said. Lori left NSPA in 2000 because she missed the classroom, she said. Eighteen months later, she accepted a position teaching journalism at St. Louis Park High School, in the Twin Cities.

“It was great to be back with students, but working at NSPA gave me a clear perspective of the importance of student media,” Lori said. “I appreciated how passionate the organization has always been to support the students. My teaching benefits from my NSPA experience because I transfer things I have seen in the office to my own students. I learned from workshops and conventions and I call on those ideas to keep the publications from becoming stagnant.”

Their son Harris was born in 2004, and Alex was born in 2007. Harris worked on the newspaper staff his mom advised at St. Louis Park before his graduation in 2022.

“To this day, we still attend conventions, judge and laugh about NSPA stuff,” Tom said. “We’re still in the circle and part of the ecosystem.

So much so that in summer 2022, when the Quill and Scroll honor society merged with NSPA, Lori was hired as the NSPA associate director for Quill & Scroll.

Tom noted just how much their lives were connected through NSPA.

“We met because of NSPA, our best friends have NSPA connections, we’re better at our jobs today because of what NSPA taught us,” he said.

“We’ve lived an NSPA life.” n

FRIENDS & FAMILY

Beaming with pride, Lori Keekley was named the 2016 National High School Journalism Teacher of the Year at the Indianapolis convention. To mark the occasion, she poses with long-time friend Logan Aimone, former NSPA/ ACP executive director and adviser at the University of Chicago Laboratory High School. Tom Keekley, her husband and former NSPA/ACP communications manager, captures the image.