By the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture
LITTLE ROCK — Two University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture staffers, one retired and one current, earned seven awards at the 2024 Arkansas Press Women communications contest.
Fred Miller, who retired as science editor for the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station in July 2023, won four awards, including a first place for his final project, a three-story series on bee research. The experiment station is the research arm of the Division of Agriculture.
Fred Miller, left, and Mary Hightower, right, were among the winners in this year's APW Communications Contest. (U of A System Division of Agriculture file photos)
“Having just retired, I wanted to go out on a high note so I entered the bee series because bees are a reliably popular topic,” . “People like bees as long as they’re not ‘bee-ing’ stung.”
Mary Hightower, chief communications officer, won three awards, including a first place for feature writing for a retirement tribute to Miller.
“It’s tough to write profiles about people you know, but it was a great joy to win for a story about a highly talented and respected friend and colleague, Fred Miller,” Hightower said.
Arkansas Press Women announced the winners of its annual Professional Communications Contest at an awards luncheon May 18 at The Villa Marre in Little Rock. Work produced in a variety of communications fields during 2023 was eligible to compete.
There were 310 entries from around the state including communicators from newspaper, radio and academia sectors.
There were 66 first-place winners in the Arkansas contest. They are eligible to advance to the National Federation of Press Women competition. Winners will be announced at the group’s annual conference, June 20-22, in St. Louis.
For the third consecutive year in the Arkansas contest, Dwain Hebda of Little Rock, president of Ya!Mule Wordsmiths, Inc., won the Sweepstakes Award. The award is based on a point system that factors in entry ranking and the degree of competition in a category.
Award details
Fred Miller, science editor, University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, won:
Honorable Mention in Writing > Specialty Articles > Science or Technology for “Research uses nanotechnology to boost dietary value of 3D printed foods.”
Honorable Mention in Photography > Single Photograph > News or feature photo for “Environmental Portrait – Scott Lafontaine.”
Second Place in Writing > Specialty Articles > Science or Technology for “Arkansas to Lead $5 Million Grant-established Center to Advance Robotics in Poultry Processing.”
First Place in Information for the Media > News or Feature Releases – Multiple Releases for the series on bee research.
The stories in the series included “Researchers trace ancestry of Arkansas honeybees to original ‘colonists’,” “Molecular survey of parasite threats helps Arkansas beekeepers protect their colonies,” and “Entomologists study how colors attract wild bees to improve surveys, other research.”
Mary Hightower, chief communications officer, University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture:
Honorable Mention in Writing > Specialty Articles > Agriculture for “Bald Knob restaurant shortcakes herald start of strawberry season.”
Second Place in Writing > Specialty Articles > Agriculture for “Picture is brighter for off-the-track thoroughbreds.”
First Place in Writing > Feature Story > Online publication for “After 25 years of letting the ‘geeky side come out,’ science editor Fred Miller retires.”
Arkansas Press Women, APW, is an association of professional communicators in journalism, public information, business, education and government. To learn more about APW, visit https://arkansaspresswomen.org/.
To learn more about Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website: https://aaes.uada.edu. Follow on X at @ArkAgResearch. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit https://uada.edu/. Follow us on TX at @AgInArk. To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.uada.edu.