Fashion instructor & Trib editor snags first place award

My friends over at the Columbia Daily Tribune have extra reason to celebrate this week. The newspaper’s team of news, feature and sports writers, and the amazing photography staff, swept their division in the 2012 Missouri Associated Press Media Editors Awards.

Congrats to all, but, I’m going to be completely honest here. I really only care about one of those awards.

Caroline Dohack, the lifestyles editor who puts the “Pulse” in your Sunday Tribune, earned a 1^st Place Award for a feature she wrote that had the whole town in tears last summer.

The piece was about Erin Enderle, a 32-year-old who tracked down a long-lost college crush only to find out he was dealing with cancer. I’ll let you read it for yourself, but I warn you, grab a tissue….or a box of tissues.

When she’s not writing tear-jerking, award-winning feature stories, Caroline—you guessed it—doubles as an adjunct in our School of Fashion & Design, where she teaches fashion journalism and fashion communication and fashion communication capstone research. And who better to teach young women studying fashion journalism and fashion communication than an award-winning fashion journalist?

Caroline has strong ties to Stephens. Her mom, Sarah Spradling Dohack-Young, attended Stephens before meeting Caroline’s father, who was an apparently irresistible because she left Stephens to marry him.

And Caroline’s grandmother, Mary Lou Spradling, worked in the food and nutrition department at Stephens before retiring in 1979.

So she might be a former colleague at the Tribune, but Caroline is definitely a Stephens woman. Kudos, Caroline!

And, actually, congratulations all around. This is the second time this week someone associated with our fashion program has snagged a prestigious award after Melinda Thiedig was notified her design won second in a national contest. So kudos to Stephens’ School of Fashion & Design and Dean Monica McMurry, as well!