Special Events

AJHA Awards Luncheon| Local Journalist Reception |Donna Allen Roundtable Luncheon| Gala Dinner

Sidney Kobre Award Luncheon ♦ Thursday, Oct. 3
Included with registration 

Attendees enjoy a plated, table service lunch as AJHA honors the winners of the Sidney Kobre Award for Lifetime Achievement in Journalism History and the National Award for Excellence in Teaching.

AJHA's highest honor, the Kobre Award recognizes individuals with an exemplary record of sustained achievement in journalism history through teaching, research, professional activities, or other contributions to the field of journalism history. Visit the Awards page for more information about this year's honoree.

Local Journalist Award Reception ♦ Thursday, Oct. 3
Included with registration

AJHA annually bestows its Outstanding Local Journalist Award for Substantial Contribution to the Public Interest to a journalist local to the convention city whose work has had a positive impact on the community. The recipient serves as a featured speaker at the Thursday evening reception. Reception attendees enjoy hot and cold hors d'oeuvres and a cash bar at this event.

This year there are two honorees, a print and a broadcast journalist. 

Rod Doss is the editor and publisher of the New Pittsburgh Courier, a Black press with ties to Pittsburgh since 1910 when it first started telling the untold stories of African Americans in Western Pennsylvania and beyond. 

A Pittsburgh native and a graduate of the Pittsburgh Technical Institute, Doss joined the Courier staff in 1967, when he was hired as a sales representative and was mentored by John H. Sengstacke, the legendary owner of the Chicago Defender and founder of the National Newspaper Publishers Association, who also owned the Courier at the time. 

Doss was named editor and publisher of the Courier in 1997, after the death of Sengstacke. The publication continues to produce hard-hitting stories about issues surrounding the African American community in Pittsburgh. The newspaper publishes weekly, in addition to its online publication. Doss credits the newspaper’s longevity and success—as well as his own— to the many talented men and women he has worked with over the years at the Courier.

Doss has received the Press Club of Western Pennsylvania’s Service to Journalism Award, the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity’s Man of the Year Award, and the Duquesne Light African American Leadership Award. In 2007, Doss and the newspaper’s archives committee traveled to Washington, D.C. to petition federal funding to restore and digitize over 750,000 images spanning nearly a century of African American history in the Courier’s collection—funding the committee received in 2008. 

In 2018, Doss received the Publisher Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Newspaper Publishers Association. In 2021, Doss was presented with the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Bill Hillgrove has been “the voice” of Pittsburgh sports teams for more than 50 years. A lifetime resident of the Steel City, Hillgrove earned a degree in journalism from Duquesne University, launching his career as an announcer for the Duquesne Dukes basketball team while still a student.

Throughout the 1960s, Hillgrove worked in various roles on radio and television. In 1969, he was hired by the University of Pittsburgh as a gameday announcer for Pitt Panthers basketball, and by 1974, was also the play-by-play announcer for Pitt Panthers football—positions he still holds, 55 and 50 years later. Hillgrove served as sports director and anchor for WTAE-TV news beginning in 1978. For 30 years, Hillgrove was the play-by-play man for the Pittsburgh Steelers, broadcasting hundreds of games and four Super Bowls between 1994 and 2024. His retirement was covered by The Athletic for the New York Times.

Hillgrove’s interests aren’t limited to sports. For 10 years, he hosted a jazz show on The Pittsburgh Jazz Channel WZUM 101.1 FM.

Among his many accolades, Hillgrove has been inducted into the Western Pennsylvania Chapter of the Sports Hall of Fame, the East Boros Chapter of the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame, the Pittsburgh Central Catholic Hall of Fame and, as of September 2024, the Pitt Athletics Hall of Fame, with his longtime Pitt basketball broadcast partner, Dick Groat. Also in 2024, he received the Lindsey Nelson Award for outstanding college football broadcasting from the Knoxville Quarterback Club.

Hillgrove was named Vector’s Man of the Year in Communications and received the Lifetime Achievement Award for the March of Dimes’ Achievements in Radio Awards (A.I.R.) He received the Pittsburgh Radio and Television Club’s Outstanding Achievement Award and the Chris Schenkel Award for meritorious service to college football from the National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame. Hillgrove received the 2020 Lifetime Achievement Award from Dapper Dan Charities and the second annual Woody Durham Award as “The Voice of College Sports” from the National Sports Media Association.

Hillgrove’s contributions to the community have been recognized with the Arnold Palmer Spirit of Hope Award from the Adelphoi Foundation. Hillgrove is a member of the Board of Directors of the Primary Health Network Foundation and Santa’s Kids, a 501C3 that brings toys and clothing to needy children. He is also the president of the National Museum of Broadcasting.

Donna Allen Roundtable Luncheon ♦ Friday, Oct. 4
Additional charge

The annual Donna Allen Luncheon celebrates contributions of women to the field of journalism. American Journalism Historians Association invites a woman journalist local to the convention city as its honored guest and featured speaker for the luncheon.

This year, AJHA is pleased to feature Paula Reed Ward, a proud Pittsburgh native and a reporter covering courts for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

When she is not busy at her day job, she is a married mother of two who also serves as an adjunct professor teaching courses in journalism at Duquesne University, is the faculty advisor to the University’s award-winning student newspaper, the Duquesne Duke, and was a Founding Fellow for the University’s Institute for Ethics and Integrity in Journalism and Media.

A graduate of Indiana University of Pennsylvania, she also holds a master’s degree in criminal justice.

Ward previously worked for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, where she was a member of the reporting team that won a Pulitzer Prize for breaking news reporting in 2019 while covering the Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Squirrel Hill. At the time, the Pulitzer committee praised the team for their “immersive, compassionate coverage of the massacre ... that captured the anguish and resilience of a community thrust into grief.”

Prior to returning to Pittsburgh, Ward worked as an award-winning cops and courts reporter at the Savannah (GA) Morning News and the Pottsville (PA) Republican and Evening Herald. She is also the author of the true crime book, Death by Cyanide: The Murder of Dr. Autumn Klein.

In her spare time, Ward coaches her sons’ soccer team, plays ultimate frisbee, and runs. (She still thinks her greatest accomplishment was completing the full Pittsburgh Marathon in 2013).

Gala Dinner ♦ Saturday, Oct. 5 ♦ Talia
Additional Charge

The closing event for the annual AJHA convention enables attendees to gather as a group in a social setting - and we are taking over an entire restaurant this year. The Gala will be hosted by Talia, 611 William Penn Place, just across the street from the conference hotel. 

Talia offers a contemporary twist on rustic Italian Cuisine with an elevated yet casual vibe. The AJHA will have the entire restaurant space, which includes an open kitchen that invites guests to take in the sights, sounds and aromas of Italian cooking, as well as an inviting bar that offers specialty Negroni on tap as well as staff created cocktails and fresh crafted Italian sodas.  The wine list represents all 20 regions of Italy. 

For more information, go to: https://www.taliapgh.com/home-talia