NATCHITOCHES – Northwestern State University’s Department of New Media, Journalism and Communication Arts will recognize three alumni as Distinguished Communications Professionals during a luncheon and program Friday, April 4.
This year’s honorees are the late famed sportswriter Jerry Byrd, news anchor and reporter Lane Luckie and media strategist Valsin Marmillion.
The lunch will be in the NSU Student Union Ballroom and is open to the public. Doors open at 11 a.m. The program will begin at 11:30 a.m. Tickets are $25 and are available at https://nmjca-award-ceremony.eventbrite.com.
Created in 2021, the Distinguished Communications Professional award is presented biennially and recognizes individuals with successful careers in and/or significant contributions to the fields of journalism, photojournalism, communications, news editorial, public relations, political strategy, media production, web content production and new media as it emerges, as well as individuals who have made significant contributions to the Department.
One of the most decorated sports writers in Louisiana, Byrd devoted more than 50 years to journalism. As an undergraduate at NSU, he was sports editor and then editor of the school’s newspaper, The Current Sauce. After graduating in May 1957, he went to work at 6 a.m. the following day at the Shreveport Journal and was sports editor of that paper from 1970 until the Journal closed in 1991. He then served as sports editor at the Minden Press Herald before writing for the Bossier Press Tribune from 1993-2012. He also authored two books, “Jerry Byrd’s Football Country” and “Louisiana Sports Legends,” which covered the achievements of the first 145 members of the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame.
Byrd earned numerous accolades during his long career. In 1992 he became the first person to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Louisiana Track & Field Coaches Association. He is the only sportswriter to be selected “Mr. Basketball” by the Louisiana Basketball Coaches Association. In 1996 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Louisiana Sports Writers Association. In 2001 he became only the second sportswriter to be inducted in the Louisiana High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame. In 2005 he received the Contribution to Amateur Football award from the S.M. McNaughton Chapter of the National Football Foundation and was recognized with a Distinguished Service Award at as NSU’s N Club Hall of Fame. In 2006 he received the Nth Degree from Northwestern State University for lifetime achievement. In 2012 he was inducted into the Ark-La-Tex Sports Museum of Champions. Byrd passed away in 2016.
Luckie anchors “Good Morning East Texas” each weekday on ABC affiliate KLTV in Tyler, Texas. He previously served as evening anchor and executive producer at KTRE-TV in Lufkin, Texas, and as a reporter at KTAL-TV in Shreveport. A native of Lake Charles and a 2008 graduate of Northwestern State, Luckie is a two-time recipient of a Regional Emmy from the Lone Star Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. His work has been recognized by the Associated Press, Texas Association of Broadcasters, Broadcast Education Association and the Southeast Journalism Conference.
In 2017, he was selected by the RTDNF as a RIAS Berlin Commission fellow, participating in a trans-Atlantic exchange program for American and German broadcasters. The following year, he traveled to China to report on trade tensions between the world’s largest economies as a fellow of the East-West Center. He returned to Germany to cover the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 2019 and to cover the 2021 federal parliament elections.
Luckie serves on the board of directors of the NSU Alumni Association and was elected to terms as president and treasurer. He was also honored as NSU’s ‘Distinguished Young Alumnus of the Year’ in 2017. Luckie volunteers with several nonprofit boards, including the ‘Remembering Columbia’ NASA Museum in Hemphill, Texas.
Marmillion is a native of Houma and 1972 graduate of Northwestern. He is former managing director of America’s WETLAND Foundation, former president and CEO of Marmillion and Company and adjunct instructor at the University of Florida’s College of Journalism and Communications where he teaches a master’s course on global activism and social change communication. Recognized as a top campaign strategist for political and cause-related campaigns, his client base has included the National Conference of State Legislatures, National Association of Counties, U.S. Conference of Mayors, J. Paul Getty Trust, National Endowment for the Arts, American Psychological Association, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, American Anthropological Association and UCLA, among others. To his credit are a variety of award-wining national campaigns for prestigious environmental, health, governmental, educational, societal and arts clients.
With early public service as chief of staff for Congressman John B. Breaux, Marmillion went on with service on boards including the Climate Change Advisory Committee of Monroe County, Florida; the ACLU of Southern California, TreePeople of Los Angeles, the working group on Soil Carbon Storage Standards at Rice University. He is a founding member of the Louisiana Youth Seminar. In 2022, he was among the individuals honored at the Louisiana Legends Awards Gala that recognizes the best and brightest of Louisiana’s sons and daughters who distinguished themselves and brought honor to the state. He is a 2004 inductee into the Long Purple Line, NSU’s Alumni Hall of Distinction.
For more information on the Distinguished Communications Professionals Awards Luncheon, contact Dr. Jie “Jessica” Zhang, head of the Department of New Media, Journalism and Communication Arts, at zhangj@nsula.edu or (318) 357-6166. Information on NSU’s Department of New Media, Journalism and Communication Arts is available at https://www.nsula.edu/newmedia/.
