By Dave Porreca, IJEA website editor and social media director
Dave Porreca, CJE, is web/media specialist for Elmwood Park Community Unit School District 401, located in the Near West Chicago suburbs. He also serves as website manager, social media director and newsletter editor for the Illinois Journalism Education Association. He taught journalism at the University of Illinois Laboratory High School in Urbana from 1995 to 2010. He advised the print and online versions of Uni High’s award-winning student newspaper, the Gargoyle, a nine-time NSPA Pacemaker finalist. In 2009 his students won the IHSA state journalism championship. He earned a master’s degree from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and a juris doctor degree from the Loyola University Chicago School of Law. He served as IJEA president from 2001 to 2004.
