Mark Murray fulfilled his parents' desires for him, not by following his Dad's, Grandfather's and Uncle's footsteps and becoming a Presbyterian minister, but by graduating and getting a real, paying job. For the past 24 years he has worked for the Arlington Independent School District, meaning he's been able to stay with one employer five times longer than Bradley Wilson ever has.

Since the 80's, Mark has served as President and now Executive Director of the Association of Texas Photography Instructors. He also co-manages the Photo Imaging Education Association, an organization of primary, secondary and college teachers from nine countries that sponsors the largest scholastic photography contest in the world (in terms of prize value.)

He teaches workshops at conferences nationwide, including the Journalism Education Association and the National Scholastic Press Association national conventions. He spends his summers teaching in workshops from South Carolina to Austin to Manhattan (Kansas), Minneapolis, California and Austria, and wondering how he can handle another week of rooming with Jake.

Murray has received the CSPA Gold Key, the NSPA Pioneer Award, the JEA Medal of Merit and the ATPI Star of Texas award. Murray has also been named a TAJE Trailblazer and one of 75 Texas Legends of Scholastic Journalism. He is also an Adobe Education Leader.

When he's not polishing his awards, he spends a great deal of time traveling, including trips to Southeast Asia, India and Sri Lanka, Scotland and Ireland, and around Europe. As if wrecking a motorcycle in the mountains of northern Thailand wasn't a cool enough story, he is proud to list as one of his accomplishments the ability to drive a manual transmission van without breaking the "clitch." Look him up on Facebook.


Convergence guru. Technology addict. Photography nerd. Retired semi-professional fat man dancer.

All are titles bestowed upon Jake Palenske. When he's pretending to work, Jake calls himself the President and CEO of NCompass Media, a Dallas-based converged media company. For this workshop, he'll head up video and convergence instruction, and he'll also serve as your tour guide / driver / host / German-speaker. His family owns the convent you'll be staying in and the Gasthaus you'll eat most of your meals in, and he's been traveling to Austria and Europe regularly for almost 20 years. Jake is an expert on all aspects of Austrian food (which means nothing other than he has eaten everything he could lay his hands on during his trips there.)

Jake co-directed the 2006 JEA Austria workshop with Linda Puntney, and was also co-director of the 2007 ATPI/TAJE European Exposure workshop. He's been an instructor and speaker at scholastic journalism conventions and workshops across the nation, including the Columbia Scholastic Press Association fall, spring and summer conferences and workshops, the Carolina Journalism Institute, the Association of Texas Photography Instructors summer workshop, the Flint Hills Publications Workshop at Kansas State University, the North Carolina Scholastic Media Institute at UNC Chapel Hill, and the summer high school program at The Poynter Institute.

His numerous awards and accomplishments include Best Buy Reward Zone member, Dickey's Barbecue Frequent Diner cardholder, and the Hair Club for Men "Just give up and shave it all off already" award. He keeps asking to babysit Mark's awards for a day, but Mark has yet to agree.

In his spare time, Jake likes to sleep, do laundry, run up Mark's text-messaging bill and practice his high-performance driving skills. Look him up on Facebook.