David Ragsdale
David A. Ragsdale (UGA B.S.Ed. ’01, M.Ed. ’03, Ed.S. '09), CJE, has advised student publications since 2001 at Clarke Central H.S. in Athens, Ga., where his duties include advising the ODYSSEY Media Group and Iliad literary-art magazine. His staffs have received top honors in critiques and competitions across the country. Additionally, he serves as Co-Chair of the English department at CCHS, coordinates student internships with the University of Georgia, serves as the Gifted Coordinator and teaches English at the Title I school. Ragsdale received the Crystal Apple Award, an honor given to University of Georgia alumni in K-12 education who have made a significant impact on student, school or school district performance in 2007. He was named an ASNE Reynolds High School Journalism Fellow in 2014, an Elizabeth Dickey Distinguished Service Award recipient by the Southern Interscholastic Press Association in 2015, named a Columbia Scholastic Press Association Distinguished Adviser in 2019 and the National Journalism Teacher of the Year in 2022. He served on UGA’s College of Education’s Alumni Board for several years, and currently serves on the National Council of Teachers of English’ REALM committee, as the Journalism Education Association’s State Director for Georgia, and as the Southern Interscholastic Press Association’s Vice Chair and on the Georgia Scholastic Press Association Advisory Board. Ragsdale was the GSPA Adviser of the Year in 2007 and 2020. Ragsdale advocates a stance of student inquiry in his work and seeks to provide a safe place for students to not only succeed but to also fail. He seeks to empower students to recognize the implicit and explicit import of their words and to engage them in masterful storytelling. He spends summers either teaching at the Georgia Governor's Honors Program for the state's top gifted and talented students or at journalism workshops across the country.