An award-winning photojournalist and professor has returned to his alma mater to join the West Virginia University faculty as the Visiting Shott Chair of Journalism.

Bill Kuykendall, a 1966 alumnus, brings a wealth of photojournalism and multimedia experience to the Perley Isaac Reed School of Journalism for the spring semester. He was chair of the renowned photojournalism sequence at the University of Missouri School of Journalism, where he directed the annual Pictures of the Year contest, co-directed the Missouri Photo Workshop and taught photojournalism and newspaper management courses.

After leaving the University of Missouri, Kuykendall served as Libra Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies and director of new media at the University of Maine from 2000-04. He is currently on sabbatical from the University of Maine, where he serves as senior lecturer in new media and cooperating professor of communication and journalism.

While at WVU , Kuykendall is helping the School of Journalism enhance its visual journalism program, develop collaborative partnerships with professional media outlets and build community and civic journalism projects.

Whether Im working with people who are seeking to be professional media makers or folks who are already playing around with media and need to learn how to do that in a responsible way, I have the opportunity to do both now in this current job assignment,Kuykendall said.

As the Shott Chair, Kuykendall is teaching courses in photojournalism and working with Assistant Professor and Interim Associate Dean John Temple on theWest Virginia Uncoveredmultimedia project.

The project, which is funded by grants from the McCormick Foundation and WVU Faculty Senate, is a student-centered effort aimed at helping small, rural newspapers throughout the state and region create multimedia content for Web sites.

Kuykendalls role in the project is to lead workshops to train newspaper reporters and staff how to produce and edit visual stories for the Internet and enhance their Web presence.

In just a short time, Bill has demonstrated tremendous energy and enthusiasm for our programs and projects,said Maryanne Reed, dean of the School of Journalism.He is already bringing new ideas to our visual journalism program and helping us build bridges to the professional community.

Kuykendall, a native of Romney, began his journalism career as a photographer at WVU s student newspaper, The Daily Athenaeum, and later served as photo director of The Seattle Times, a freelance photographer, consultant, magazine editor and print and multimedia designer. He is a recipient of the Newspaper Picture Editor of the Year and Robin F. Garland Teacher of the Year awards from the National Press Photographers Association and the Gold Quill Award from the International Association of Business Communicators.

He holds a Master of Arts degree in mass communications from the University of Minnesota and a Bachelor of Science degree in zoology from WVU .

The Shott Chair of Journalism was established in 1984 by the Hugh I. Shott Jr. Foundation in honor of the Shott familys more than 100-year history of leadership in West Virginias news media. The chair is a faculty position in journalismprint, broadcast or new mediadesigned to enhance the quality of journalism education in the state.