Conventions

INBA names 2025 scholarship recipients

2 weeks ago

The 2025 INBA Scholarship recipients are (top row from left) Olivia Bennett, Simone Garber, (bottom row from left) Lina Gebhardt, Lauren Leisure and Matt Williamson.

The Illinois News Broadcasters Association is proud to announce its 2025 college scholarship recipients. The students will receive their awards on Saturday, April 26, during the INBA Spring Convention in Bloomington.

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The five winners were selected by a panel of INBA members who evaluated 23 scholarship applications.

The INBA has been supporting college students pursuing degrees in broadcast journalism since 1963. During that time, including the $11,000 in awards being handed out this year, the INBA has awarded 218 scholarships worth about $213,000.

Here are this year’s winners:

OLIVIA BENNETT of Charleston is a sophomore at Eastern Illinois University majoring in broadcast journalism. Olivia is working this semester as a producer, anchor and investigative reporter for TruBlu Crime Streaming. She helps to design and run a show that does long-form “48 Hours”-style pieces on crimes throughout the nation. She also has been a Gray Television fellow for WOIO-TV in Cleveland and a reporter for the PBS station on the EIU campus. With this year’s award, Olivia is now a two-time INBA scholarship winner.

Olivia will be taking home the Ed Brown Scholarship, named after the late Southern Illinois University Carbondale professor who served as the INBA’s executive secretary from 1968 to 1983.

SIMONE GARBER of Chicago is a junior journalism and history major at Northwestern University. She has worked as a reporter and anchor for the Northwestern News Network, a politics reporter for Medill News Service and a reporting intern for WJFW Newswatch 12 in Rhinelander, Wisconsin.

Simone has been awarded the INBA Mary McAndrew Scholarship, named after the longtime journalist who spent 18 years with NBC News and also worked for the Associated Press and United Press International in New York and WBBM radio, WGCI radio and USA Today in Chicago.

LINA GEBHARDT of Lombard is a journalism major planning to graduate this summer from DePaul University. She has worked as a reporter and anchor for “Good Day DePaul,” the multimedia editor for The DePaulia, a news intern at NewsNation and a graduate assistant.

Lina is the winner of the INBA Don Brown Scholarship. Don is the namesake for the INBA’s first-ever scholarship, given in 1963. He worked for radio stations in Iowa and taught at the Universities of Iowa, Illinois, and Arizona State and was instrumental in forming the INBA in 1955.

LAUREN LEISURE of Bourbonnais is an Illinois State University journalism major who plans to graduate later this year. At ISU, Lauren works for TV-10, where she is a multimedia journalist, weather anchor and fill-in news anchor. She is also the news and sports operations director at WZND, the student radio station. Lauren has interned at WCIA-TV, WGLT radio at ISU and WFAV radio in Bourbonnais.

Lauren is being awarded the INBA Bill Miller Scholarship. Miller worked in radio for 25 years in Springfield before serving another 20 years as director of the Public Affairs Reporting program at Sangamon State University. He is a charter member of the INBA.

MATT WILLIAMSON of Le Roy is a junior at Eastern Illinois University, majoring in television and video production. He has worked at WEIU News Watch, a student-led broadcast, as an anchor, reporter, photographer, writer and producer.

Matt is the recipient of the INBA Fred “Fritz” Sorenson Scholarship. Sorenson was a longtime reporter and anchor for WKRS radio in Waukegan and WCIA-TV in Champaign.

In addition to their scholarship awards, each of the five winners is receiving an all-expenses-paid trip to the Spring Convention.

Four other students were named finalists for scholarship awards and were offered free tickets to the Spring Convention. The finalists were Gil Cano, Elizabeth Ippolito and Rachael Deerfield, all of Illinois State University, and Cameron Maine, a former ISU student who is now a graduate student in the Public Affairs Reporting program at the University of Illinois Springfield.

The Scholarship Selection Committee included:

Devin Brooks, reporter/anchor, WQAD-TV, Quad Cities, a multi-time INBA scholarship winner himself and INBA board member.
Ryan Burrow, news director, WGN Radio, Chicago
Rachel Lippmann, justice reporter, St. Louis Public Radio, and INBA president
Emily Manley, former Missouri capitol bureau reporter for Nexstar and current INBA vice president

The INBA Scholarship program is supported through the INBA Foundation, which would welcome your help to continue supporting college broadcasting students. If you’re interested in making a gift to support that effort, make an online donation now.

Alexis McAdams

Fox News National Correspondent

INBA played a huge part in preparing me for my broadcasting career. The INBA conventions connect students with on-air talent and news directors who give feedback on now to improve your work. Through relationships I made at those conventions, I was able to obtain my first on air reporting job.

Bob Roberts

Retired, WBBM-AM, Chicago

INBA is as much about friendship and as it is about achieving common goals. It provides two things individual newsrooms cannot: in-service training, and the ability to speak out on issues affecting the profession. But most of all, it brings newspeople together.

Andrew Tanielian

Freelance Video Journalist

INBA taught me how to network in a meaningful way. The scholarship process taught me how to endure a hard job interview and thrive.

Nora Baldner

Professor; Quincy University

The support INBA gives to student journalists is vitally important as we all discover how technology is changing news dissemination, INBA monitors and actively encourages truth, transparency and accountability from students and their universities.

Molly Jirasek

News Nation, WGN America Chicago

One of my top goals in my career was to get to Chicago. Thanks to INBA I met Margaret Larkin. She remembered our great conversations about Chicago and first alerted me to a job opening in the city I might be interested in. Lo and behold, I got that job! INBA helped me reach my dream.

Mike Miletich

Broadcast journalist, Springfield

Joining the INBA was one of my best life decisions. I met some of the best broadcast journalists while I was still a college student. Plus, I ended up getting a job through the connections I made!

Jennifer Fuller

Associate Director for News and Public Affairs, WSIU

INBA is not only a great networking tool, it also provides advocacy and support for journalists in an ever-changing world.

Aaron Eades

Producer at Spectrum News 13, Orlando, FL; Former Morning Anchor at WCIA-TV, Champaign

As a student, it's often difficult to picture what working in the real world will be like. For me, the INBA bridged that gap by giving me the chance to talk to professionals who used to be in the same shoes I'm in now.

Jeff Bossert

Morning Edition Host; WVTF, Roanoke, Virginia

When I was working in radio for the first time, I had no idea whether I could truly handle the demands. But INBA made me curious and want to improve. Even now, when I’ve maybe worked a lot of hours or planned some stories that didn’t come together for one reason or another, what I learn from an INBA conference gets me re-invigorated about the business.

Michelle Eccles McLaughlin

Public Relations Account Manager; Horace Mann Insurance

INBA is an organization that really caters to continuing education for professionals. It offers a relatively inexpensive way to learn new things, reinforce best practices and network.

Brian O'Keefe

News Director (Retired), WDCB radio, Glen Ellyn

One of the greatest benefits for me has been getting to see and know other parts of the state. I’m not from Illinois and traveling to spring and fall conventions over the years has transformed dots on a map to memories of places that enhance my story telling process.

Ryan Denham

Digital Content Director, WGLT (Normal)

I recently attended my first INBA conference—and it won’t be my last. The combination of professional and student journalists learning together is electric. Everyone learns from each other and walks away with new friends (and LinkedIn connections). I know I did.