AWC 2006 Annual Professional Conference, September 14-16, 2006 Kansas City, MO
The Heart of It All
Tonda Rush
Tonda Rush
President, American PressWorks
Director of Public Policy, National Newspaper Association
Panelist, Freedom of Information/Ethics Panel
Former Kansas Citian Tonda Rush, a past CEO of the National Newspaper Association and associate general counsel of the American Newspaper Publishers Association, is a lawyer and public affairs specialist with commitment to grassroots involvement.
Rush is an attorney and consultant in Arlington, Va., with a background in newspaper law. Practicing with the law firm of King & Ballow, Nashville, Tenn., in an of-counsel capacity, she represents newspaper clients in matters involving postal affairs, public policy, business regulation and issues generally affecting small media. She is a lecturer and writer on issues affecting the First Amendment and the law and business of communications.
Rush was president and chief executive officer of the National Newspaper Association from 1992 to 1997 and associate general counsel/vice president of industry relations for the American Newspaper Publishers Association, now the Newspaper Association of America.
Rush began her career managing a small newspaper in Kansas and working as a reporter and editor in that region. She has been involved in First Amendment and open access matters on behalf of the press since her days as director of the Freedom of Information Center of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press in the early 1980s.
She teaches as adjunct faculty at the American University School of Communications, Washington, D.C., and the College of Journalism of the University of Maryland, College Park, Md., and serves on the advisory boards of the William Allen White Foundation and the Casey Center for Journalism on Children and Families. Rush is a graduate of the University of Kansas School of Law and the William Allen White School of Journalism. She is a published writer and frequent lecturer on media law, the economics of journalism and the importance of colloquy in developing community.
She is a secret admirer of civic journalism and wishes it had been encouraged when she was a reporter. Rush is licensed to practice law in Virginia, the District of Columbia and Kansas, three federal Courts of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court.