2010 Broadcast Education Association Distinguished Education
Service Award (DESA) Presented to Ms. Louisa A. Nielsen
Washington, D.C. – Ms. Louisa A. Nielsen, has been named the 2010 Broadcast Education Association’s Distinguished Service to Education Award (DESA) winner.
Ms. Nielsen was the first, full time, Executive Director of the Broadcast Education Association at the National Association of Broadcasters, in Washington, D.C from 1987-2006. In that position, she reorganized BEA from an all volunteer operated organization to a legally incorporated and professionally operated higher education association.
Prior to her position at BEA, in 1986, Ms. Nielsen was worked as liaison with INTELSAT for the George Washington University managing INTELSAT Project SHARE , Satellites for Health and Rural Education, to South America and Africa. She was a Visiting Assistant Professor at George Washington University from l983-85 in the Radio & Television Department. In l982, Ms. Nielsen was Director of Cable Television Program Services for the National Captioning Institute. From l980-82, Ms. Nielsen was a Program Officer at the National Endowment for the Humanities, in Media Program. From 1976-1980, she initiated the area of Educational Services at the National Public Radio headquarters, Washington, DC. Ms. Nielsen served as a full time faculty member at Howard University, School of Communications, from 1976-1977, on the planning team to build the PBS affiliate station, now WHUT-TV. Ms. Nielsen earned a B.A from The College of Notre Dame of Maryland in l972, and a M.A in Media: Policy, Planning and Administration from Antioch University, Baltimore in l975.
The DESA is awarded to an individual who has made a significant and lasting contribution to the American system of electronic media education by virtue of a singular achievement or continuing service on behalf of electronic media education. The award will be presented to Ms. Nielsen at BEA’s 2010 annual convention ceremony in Las Vegas on Thursday, April 15th.
The Broadcast Education Association is the professional association for professors, industry professionals and graduate students interested in teaching and research related to electronic media and multimedia enterprises. There are currently more than 1,500 individual and institutional members world wide. Visit www.beaweb.org for more information.
