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Communicator of Achievement

2008 Winner

As a child, she loved to read about intrepid gal reporter “Brenda Starr” in the comic pages. In high school, she authored a weekly gossip column, “Jabbers by Judi.” As an adult, she’s covered events ranging from county commission meetings to a coup in Russia. With stellar professional credentials and an outstanding record of service to her community and Press Women, Judi Buehrer has been selected as Colorado Press Women’s 2008 Communicator of Achievement.

“We are fortunate — and the journalism profession is fortunate — to have Judi Buehrer,” says Gay Porter DeNileon, CPW president and former work colleague. “Judi is the epitome of what a reporter should be: tenacious, curious, accurate and empathetic. She’s also a strong supporter of Press Women and a delight to know.”

Few journalists have had such a varied career. Judi wore a traditional abaya to work in Saudi Arabia, interviewed Americans imprisoned in Thailand for drug-smuggling, covered “tree rustling” in Colorado and heard the name “Osama Bin Laden” in an embassy briefing long before most Americans did.

The “writing bug” bit Judi early. Judi Lee loved her first journalism course at Omaha North High School and joined the newspaper and the yearbook staffs. She majored in journalism at the University of Nebraska (and became a die-hard Cornhuskers fan in the process). She worked part-time for the daily Lincoln Journal during her senior year.

Recognizing her burgeoning talents, the editors wisely hired her after graduation in 1963. While covering county government and court cases, she wrote about the Nebraska Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the state’s century-old anti-miscegenation law.

“At the time, I don’t think I even knew what miscegenation meant!” Judi recalls, laughing.

From there, her career has taken her around the globe. Here are some highlights: After marrying Wayne Buehrer in December 1963, the couple moved to the Washington, D.C., area. Wayne worked for the U.S. Geological Survey. Judi worked for a daily newspaper until son David arrived in 1965, when she took up full-time motherhood.

Back in Colorado, son Chris was born in 1968. Judi began freelancing. Then came her first international adventure in 1970: USGS needed Wayne in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Although the Buehrers’ home in the Middle East had neither phone nor television, Judi freelanced, turning out a piece about Coloradans living in Saudi Arabia for The Denver Post. Daughter Heidi was born in Ethiopia, where the hospital was better.

Returning to Colorado with her family in 1972, Judi wrote for suburban papers in Jefferson County – and drove car pools, led Scout troops and volunteered for the PTA. In 1980, the family headed south to Albuquerque. There, Judi first joined Press Women and worked for weekly papers and later freelanced. Her most memorable piece for The Albuquerque Journal’s Sunday magazine was about a young girl mauled by a pitbull.

Judi continued to freelance when the family moved Denver in 1985; she wrote about the annual migration of sand hill cranes and Nebraska Cornhusker fans, among other topics. In 1987, she began a full-time job with the American Water Works Association, where she became expert correspondent in water issues ranging from treatment to drought.

Then 1991 brought another international move: Wayne, now a member of the U.S. diplomatic corps, was assigned to Moscow. Judi watched the tanks roll into Red Square when hard-line Communists attempted a coup and she wrote a story that The Denver Post ran on the front page. The coup failed, the Soviet Union collapsed and Judi began working at an English language weekly that became the daily Moscow Times.

After Russia, the Buehrers went in 1993 to Bangkok, Thailand, where Judi took a welcome break from daily deadlines. But writing in Thailand wasn’t all travel stories and features: Judi also wrote about Americans imprisoned for being “drug mules.”

The couple returned to Saudi Arabia in 1996. Judi doubted she’d work since women were so segregated in Saudi society, but she developed a successful freelance business. Still, she took care to wear conservative clothing and had Wayne drive her to interviews.

Returning to Colorado in 1999, Judi went back to AWWA in 2000. She retired in 2005, and cared for her mother, who suffered from Alzheimer’s, until her mother’s death last year. Since joining New Mexico Press Women in 1980, Judi has given freely of her time and enthusiasm. In NMPW, she served as secretary and treasurer. In CPW, Judi was ExPRESSions editor, secretary, second vice president and program chair. In 2005, she was elected CPW president and agreed to extend her two-year term by a third year when CPW was chosen to host the 2006 NFPW convention.

Looking back on her career, Judi says she is reminded of the old saying, “Things are seldom what they seem.”

“I’ve learned that when you’re going to report stories about people in another culture or a setting different from ours, it’s important to understand the political and historical context and as much about the culture as you can,” she says. For example, it’s easy to say Saudi women should be allowed to drive, but when you understand the culture, you realize this involves setting up an entire parallel system of driver’s education and traffic courts that are staffed only by women since the two sexes are strictly segregated.

Judi is pleased to be CPW’s Communicator of Achievement. “This is a huge honor that humbles me beyond words,” she says.

— Sandy Graham

2007 Winner

Marilyn Saltzman, APR, worked for Jeffco Public Schools, the largest school district in Colorado, for 20 years. Her job included media relations, crisis communications, internal and external public relations and publications.

Her publications and programs received numerous state and national awards. She managed media and internal relations during the Columbine crisis and is currently consulting on communications with the Platte Canyon School District in Bailey, Colorado, where a student was killed by an intruder on Sept. 27, 2006.

Marilyn works as a senior consultant for Schoolhouse Communications, a Denver firm that specializes in helping education clients communicate more effectively about the need for school improvement and systemwide change.

Marilyn is former president of Colorado Press Women and the Colorado Chapter, National School Public Relations Association. She is the co-author of three books, the nationally award-winning Building School Communities, Strategies for Leaders, (with B.J. Meadows, Ph.D.), Dave Sanders, Columbine Teacher, Coach, Hero (with Linda Lou Sanders) and Maybe Tomorrow: A Hidden Child of the Holocaust (with Eric Cahn).

Marilyn served as editor for The Golden Transcript and a stringer for The Denver Post. She taught English and Spanish in New York City Public Schools.

Community activities:
President, Denver Metropolitan Affiliate, Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation
Secretary, Mountain Water and Sanitation District Board
Conference co-chair, 2006, National Federation of Press Women
2006 Chair, Good News Coalition
Volunteer, Serving Kids from the Inside Out
Volunteer, Congregation Beth Evergreen

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Communicator of Achievement

2006 Winner

Colorado Press Women has selected Fort Collins journalist Joyce Davis as the 2006 Communicator of Achievement.

Davis, assistant city editor at The Coloradoan, exemplifies outstanding professional achievement, as witnessed by her collection of award-winning stories in contests sponsored by CPW, the National Federation of Press Women, Society of Professional Journalists and the Colorado Press Association.

Davis has worked her way up in newspaper business over the past 25 years, starting as a stringer at the Longmont Times-Call in 1979 and rising to assistant city editor then the entertainment and magazine editor before moving to Fort Collins in 2005, where she was hired as assistant city editor at The Coloradoan.

A 2005 nominee for manager of the year at the 220-employee Coloradoan, Davis also was named the February 2006 Employee of the Month, recognizing her outstanding work and inspiring attitude.

The award-winning writer won CPW’s sweepstakes honor every year from 1998 to 2004 and several NFPW awards over the years. She placed first and second in column writing in SPJ’s 2003 and 2004 contests and has won top awards for columns and spot news reporting from the CPA.

In addition to her professional accomplishments, Davis has been an active volunteer in Northern Colorado, inviting homeless men to Thanksgiving dinners in her home and serving on the advisory board at the Life Center, where she helped organize activities for Alzheimer’s residents.

Davis has served on the Skyline community task force to address issues facing Hispanic students and volunteered with El Comite, helping bridge the gap between city officials, police and the Hispanic community after the shooting of two young Hispanic men by two police officers.

A vocalist, Davis has supported and performed at the Festival on Main Street and helped raise funds for the YMCA Kids Camp, organ transplant patients, a child suffering from obsessive compulsive disorder who needed surgery, and friends with life-threatening diseases. When a young man from Longmont was killed in Iraq, Davis got on the phone and elicited cash and in-kind donations from several businesses and organizations to provide hotel rooms, cars and deliveries of free food for four days for the soldier’s six out-of-town family members who arrived for the funeral.

An asset to Colorado Press Women over the years, Davis has served as communications contest chair for seven years. Her attention to detail is apparent in her professional and volunteer activities, as witnessed in the extra time she takes to review contest entries and assist members in submitting their entries.

CPW recognized Davis’s exceptional contributions during the awards luncheon at the CPW May 6 Spring Conference. Davis is CPW’s nominee for the NFPW Communicator of Achievement Award, to be presented Saturday, Sept. 9, at the NFPW national conference in Denver. CPW is hosting the 2006 conference, Rendezvous in the Rockies, Sept. 7-9, at the Adams Mark Hotel.

Winners through the Years

* Also named National Communicator of Achievement