Coleen Campbell

And the very first recipient of the newly minted CCNA President's Quill is Coleen Campbell publisher of the Taber Times, Vauxhall Advance, Bow Island Commentator, Sunny South News and the Westwind Weekly News , presented by Paul MacNeill, CCNA President.

The President's Quill is a newly created honour to recognize, on a go forward basis, distinguished service of departing members of the Canadian Community Newspapers Association Board of Directors.

Coleen Campbell of Taber, Alberta is the first Quill recipient. From 1995-2010 Coleen represented AWNA on the national level including serving as President, Chairman of the Board and CCNA Representative on the first Joint Management Committee with the Canadian Newspaper Association. In addition she served as chairman of numerous committees including Better Newspaper Competition and Community Media Canada.

In presenting the citation, CCNA President Paul MacNeill said Coleen’s tenure was marked with intelligence, understanding, and professionalism.

“She represented the voice of Alberta very strongly, but consistently displayed a very important skill for CCNA board members to have and that is to understand the nuances of the others regions. There are differences in how Atlantic, Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia think about things. Coleen was able to understand those differences. Because of that CCNA is a stronger organization.

“When the board created this honour, I knew the first Quill must be presented in Alberta to Coleen Campbell because I can think of no other person more deserving. She is the role model on what it takes to be an effective member of the CCNA board of directors."