Board of Directors

Hillary DeVoss taught high school journalism for 15 years in Nebraska and Michigan. A JEA Rising Star recipient, she has presented at numerous regional and national journalism conferences, focusing on equity and advocacy. Having earned an education policy degree in 2023, DeVoss hopes to help the Cathy Kuhlmeier Foundation make a positive impact in the scholastic journalism community. She currently resides with her husband and cats in Grosse Pointe Woods, Michigan.

Cathy Kuhlmeier was the student at the center of the landmark 1988 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier after suing her school district for violating her First Amendment rights. Since then, she has traveled the country advocating for student press freedom. She currently lives with her three dogs in Warrenton, Missouri, where she works as a claims adjuster.

Eric Cowan is a former student journalist and the son of Cathy Kuhlmeier, the organization’s founder and namesake. Cowan works as a senior actuarial assistant and resides in the St. Louis metropolitan area.

Haley Cross is the daughter of Cathy Kuhlmeier, our organization’s founder and namesake. She resides with her husband in St. Louis, Mo.

Ellen Austin retired in 2022 after 25 years of teaching and advising journalism. During that span, she was the DJNF National High School Journalism Teacher of the Year, a Columbia Scholastic Press Association Gold Key recipient, and a National Scholastic Press Association Pioneer. Austin currently teaches journalism to master’s students at Kent State University.

Candace Bowen advised student media in Illinois and Virginia before moving to Ohio and joining the faculty at Kent State University in 1995, where she taught both journalism and education majors. A former president of the Journalism Education Association and board member of the Student Press Law Center, she received the DJNF National High School Journalism Teacher of the Year award, JEA’s Carl Towley and Lifetime Achievement Awards, the CSPA Gold Key and NSPA Pioneer Award. She retired in 2003 as an emeritus professor and now writes for various publications.

Dr. Steven Brown is a retired professor who founded the John Tinker Foundation, a free speech advocacy group, as well as the Brown-Ullstrup Performing Arts Foundation. A U.S. Army veteran, Brown is currently an elected school board member in Salem, Wisconsin, where he resides with his champion border collies.

Sandra Davidson earned her Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Connecticut-Storrs and her J.D. from the University of Missouri-Columbia, graduating Order of the Coif. A Curators’ Distinguished Teaching Professor at the Missouri School of Journalism, she retired in 2019 after teaching media law there for 30 years and sometimes at the School of Law. She also served as the attorney for the Columbia Missourian, the community newspaper produced at the School of Journalism.

Mike Hiestand is an attorney and Senior Legal Counsel for the Student Press Law Center, a nonprofit that provides free media law help to student journalists. He has written and lectured extensively on legal issues affecting the student media and was the primary author of the SPLC’s book, Law of the Student Press, 3d ed. and co-author of its subsequent editions. Hiestand currently lives with his family in the Heart of Cascadia, near Bellingham, Washington.

John Tinker was the lead plaintiff in the landmark 1969 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Tinker v. Des Moines. With their parents’ help, John, his sister Mary Beth, and their friend Christopher Eckhardt successfully brought a suit against the Des Moines, Iowa, Public School District, for violating their First Amendment Rights to freedom of speech. Tinker currently lives with his family in a retired public primary school building, where they operate a community radio station, KPIP 94.7 FM, in Fayette, Missouri.

Dave earned undergraduate degrees in Political Science and Biblical Studies at Abilene Christian University before earning his law degree and a Master’s in Theology at Vanderbilt University in 2004. Dave and his wife Jenifer founded the Freedom Center of Missouri, a nonprofit, nonpartisan law firm devoted to the protection of individual liberty and transparent, accountable, constitutionally-limited government. He lives with his wife and three children in Mexico, Mo.

Ben Wilson is an attorney and legal fellow in the First Amendment Clinic at Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. In addition to bylining multiple publications about the freedom of speech and of the press, Wilson co-founded MO Free Speech, which seeks to educate residents of Missouri about the fundamental value of freedom of speech and its history in the state.