Melissa Isaacson: Keynote at May 2007 Awards Banquet
Date: May 19, 2007
Timetable: 11:00 a.m. registration, 12 noon luncheon, 12:45 p.m. keynote
speaker followed by awards to high school journalism contest winners and IWPA
communications contest winners.
Cost: $35 IWPA members, $45 others
Location: Union League Club, 65 W. Jackson, Chicago, IL
Reservations: by May 16, 2007; IWPA hotline phone 312/458-9151 or e-mail
iwpa@comcast.net
Special meals: vegetarian and special dietary requests will be honored
with notice in reservations
Dress: business casual
Melissa Isaacson is an award winning sports writer with the Chicago Tribune, author of a bestselling book, AND our keynote speaker for the IWPA Awards Luncheon on May 19, 2007. Nationally acclaimed for her inspired writing style, her peers in broadcast, publishing, and print media consider her among the best writers in national media today- and her readers agree. She is the author of the best selling book Transition Game, An Inside Look at the Chicago Bulls and is celebrating her 17th year with the Chicago Tribune. Ms. Isaacson has written exclusively for the Chicago Tribune as sports feature writer and columnist for the last five years. She has covered the Bulls, the Bears, the Summer Olympics in Sydney 2000, Winter Olympics in Turin, 06 and a dozen Wimbledon and U.S. Opens. Isaacson reported the White Sox World Series Championship and the Bears Super Bowl runs.
Melissa was raised in suburban Lincolnwood and graduated from Niles West High School in 1979 where she was a member of the 1979 Illinois State Girls Championship Team. She attended the University of Iowa and served as asst. sports editor of the university’s Daily Iowan, graduating with a B.A. in journalism in 1983.
Her professional career began at a paper called TODAY, a Gannett paper in Florida. She then wrote for USA Today in Washington and the Orlando Sentinel before landing her staff position at the Chicago Tribune.
Isaacson’s writing has earned countless awards, taking home the coveted “Outstanding Professional Performance Award for 2006” from the Chicago Tribune’s prestigious Beck Awards. Home is in Northbrook with her husband, Rick and two children, Amanda, 11, and Alec, 9.
Join Ms. Isaacson and IWPA in the celebration of our contest winners, awards, and the dynamic presence of writing in our lives!