Elizabeth “Beth” Dugan has been selected 2015 Communicator of Achievement by the Illinois Woman’s Press Association.

This prestigious award is the highest honor given by the IWPA to members who have distinguished themselves within and beyond their profession.

Each year an award recipient, chosen from nominees selected by state affiliates is nationally recognized for exceptional achievement in the communications field, service to National Federation of Press Women and to the community. The COA Award winner and the runner-up are announced at the Communicator of Achievement Award Banquet scheduled during NFPW’s annual conference and awards banquet.

Beth Dugan, Membership Chair of the Illinois Woman’s Press Association and the 2015 COA.

Beth Dugan is a graduate of the University of Iowa and studied writing at the prestigious Fiction Writing graduate program at Columbia College, Chicago. She has been a freelance writer for more than a decade and has written for TimeOut Chicago, The Pampered Chef, NewCity Chicago, APICS, Think Glink, UR Chicago, and Venus Zine.She was the head writer at The Spectrem Group, managing editor of Baby & Kids magazine, Fancy Food and Culinary Products magazine, Chef magazine, and Giftware News magazine. Her fiction has been published in Reservoir.com, Ducts.org, and her non-fiction at Salon.com, Open Salon blog, Chicago Collection magazine, The Banana King, Centerstage and the EDGE Chicago Network. She had performed her work at 2nd Story and RUI: Reading Under the Influence.

She is currently the Content Creation Expert for Signal, the global leader and cross-channel marketing technology. She joined the IWPA in 2011 and served as Program Chair for one year before transitioning to Membership Chair. This coming May, Beth will take her third oath of office, becoming IWPA’s Professional Contest Chair. In addition to her official duties, Beth was the lynchpin in securing IWPA an affordable vendor for its all-new website, has organized a number of IWPA events (and offered to host a few), served as a high school contest judge and is an all-around amazing woman.She was the 2013 Silver Feather winner and in 2014 won a 1st Place Award at the NFPW conference for her theater reviews, along with multiple awards at the state level. Beth is also a member of the Society for Technical Communication and the Chicago Women in Publishing.

The IWPA is honored to have such a model communicator represent them at the National Federation of Press Women competition at the national conference in Alaska this September.