2017 BEA Distinguished Education Service Award (DESA) Presented to Joe Misiewicz, BEA Past President
Washington, D.C. – Joe Misiewicz, BEA Past President, has been named the 2017 Broadcast Education Association’s Distinguished Education Service Award (DESA) winner.
Joe Misiewicz came to Ball State University in 1990 as chair and professor in the Department of Telecommunication, and retired with emeritus status in 2012. While serving as chair, he also was General Manager for WIPB-TV and WBST-FM for three years. Joe has held similar positions at Bradley, Central Michigan, and Morehead State in Kentucky as well as Central Missouri State and Eastern Michigan. He has taught courses in Austria, Germany, Taiwan, and Brazil.
Joe served a one-year term as President of BEA, in addition, he was editor of BEA’s national journal Feedback for ten years. He was also AERho president for two years. Joe was a Poynter Institute and Gannett Fellow, a Disney and IRTS Fellow, the executive director for Indiana’s 16 Public Radio-TV stations, Ball State’s Teacher of the Year and voted Faculty of the Year in the Telecommunication’s department five times. He served ten years on the Indiana Broadcasters board and three years on the University of Michigan’s Alumni Board, his alma mater, and two three-year terms on the Eastern Michigan alumni board. He was named Distinguished Alumni of the Year at Eastern Michigan in 2002. He was elected vice president and then President for the Indiana Broadcast Pioneers. A scholarship has been endowed in his name, “Dr. Joe” Scholarship, at Ball State University for TCOM students who demonstrate excellence in leadership; to date ten scholarships have been awarded.
Following his retirement from teaching Joe accepted a three-year contract as fulltime President and CEO for the Indiana Broadcasters Association, and served as lobbyist for IBA at the Indiana statehouse. He became an adjunct faculty member at Taylor University in spring 2016 and continues teaching there. He also taught a class fall 2016 at Ivy Tech Community College. His teaching extends outside the classroom as a docent and visitor service assistant at the Minnetrista Cultural Center in Muncie. He is currently rated 3.5 in the Super Senior division of tennis playing in three leagues weekly year round. He is the President elect for the Muncie Symphony Orchestra (June 2017) and is sought-out for speaking engagements, the most recent as “Razzo” the clown to the Muncie Rotary Club.
He’s married to Kerri Misiewicz, also employed at Ball State. They have three sons; David and Nic living in Troy, Michigan and the youngest, Brett, in Muncie. He’s also a grandfather to Ava, daughter to Nic and Dana.
The DESA is awarded to an individual who has made a significant and lasting contribution to the American system of electronic media education. The award will be presented to Misiewicz at BEA’s 2017 annual convention ceremony in Las Vegas on Sunday, April 23, 2017. For a list of previous recipients and information on the DESA visit BEA’s website.
