Barbara Tholen

Journalism is the throughline of Barbara Tholen’s life, beginning with the job of photographer on her high school yearbook staff. Her journey has taken her from professional newsrooms to a high school newsroom and now to the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications.

In addition to teaching writing classes, Tholen is executive director of the Kansas Scholastic Press Association. In that role, she supports high school journalists and their teachers across the Sunflower State, putting on conferences for students, training for teachers and contests. She also helps high school students see future opportunities as director of the Jayhawk Media Workshop.

For 15 years, she advised journalism students at Lawrence High School. During that time, her students were nominated for the National Scholastic Press Association’s prestigious Pacemaker Award nine times, winning three times. Her students were also finalists for the Courage in Student Journalism Award from the Student Press Law Center in 2024 and won the Courage in Student Journalism Award from the Kansas Scholastic Press Association in 2025. Three of her students were named Kansas Student Journalist of the Year.

Before her teaching career, she worked 10 years as a newspaper reporter, going from The Kansas City Star to The Topeka Capital-Journal. Her reporting mostly focused on education but also spanned crime, courts, local government and the Kansas Legislature.