Awards

The Media School Distinguished Alumni Award - 2018

About Diana Hadley

Diana Hadley's career has been one of educating and advocating a new generation of journalists. She initially earned bachelor's degree from Purdue in 1971 and began work at Mooresville High School, where she taught English, speech and journalism for more than 30 years. Despite having no journalism experience, she was assigned to advise the school's newspaper and teach a journalism course.

By her own report, through teaching and advising, Hadley acquired an admiration for journalism, which inspired her to pursue a master's degree in journalism from Indiana University. It took eight years to complete. Then IU Dean, Richard Gray and adviser, Mary Benedict, helped to schedule afternoon and summer courses which enabled Hadley to complete her degree. This experience helped to forge a strong loyalty to IU and the High School Journalism Institute which she continued to nurture the remainder of her career.

Hadley spent ten years advising Mooresville's television news outlet, twenty-three years advising the school's yearbook staff, and all thirty-three years advising its newspaper staff. After the school received a gift of broadcast equipment, she developed a broadcast class in which students produced the school's morning and afternoon announcements.

She received the Indiana High School Press Association's Ella Sengenberger Adviser of the Year award in 1986. Ten years later, she was named Distinguished Adviser of the Year by the Dow Jones News Fund. In 2000, she was a finalist for the Indiana Department of Education's Teacher of the Year award.

In 2004, after retiring from Mooresville High School, Hadley accepted a part-time job at Franklin College as assistant director of IHSPA and part-time instructor in Franklin's journalism school. She then became director of IHSPA - a role she filled for 13 years.

In her retirement, she continued to collaborate with high school journalism advisors through her travels to the corners of Indiana. She was always willing to share her expertise as they slogged through administrative hassles, issues pertinent to freedom of the press, and other concerns which typically plague high school journalism advisors.

Hadley also started a First Amendment Day at the Statehouse each March, offering an opportunity to up to 400 high school students to observe the legislative process. Hadley also coordinated the evaluation of hundreds of newspapers and yearbooks to create an annual statewide awards program. She also taught at IU's High School Journalism Institute for more than three decades of summers.

Hadley's honors include recognition from: the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame; the Indiana State Teachers Association; the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication; the Indiana Department of Education; the Independent Colleges of Indiana; and the Woman's Press Club of Indiana/National Federation of Press Women. In 2017, she was named, Sagamore of the Wabash.