About
your instructor: Janna Casstevens Lewis
Éwith apologies ahead of time for run-on sentencesÉ
Janna Lewis served the last
18 years in mass communications, predominantly in television (both broadcast
news and corporate educational TV). Newspaper, book publishing and hospital
public relations also round out her career in the media. A member of the
National Press Photographers Association, she earned two Telly awards and four
Videographer Excellence awards for her work in continuing educational
television for the banking industry.
Ms. LewisÕ work primarily
revolved around television production. This involved planning, scriptwriting,
casting on-air talent, editing and thinking fast on her feet. She also hosted
continuing educational TV programs for law-enforcement, firefighters and
emergency medical service providers, nurses, doctors, bankers, accountants,
private security and industrial employees. Her work in broadcast news centered
on producing the 6:00 p.m. news, reporting, occasionally acting as the
assignments editor in the newsroom, editing video on ¾ inch tape, Beta
and eventually digital video on the non-linear Avid editing system. Currently, she is a staff writer for The Fort Hood Sentinel newspaper, one of the top military newspapers in the nation.
Ms. Lewis got her Bachelor
of Arts degree in Communications from Austin College in Sherman, Texas. Her
Master of Arts degree in Journalism comes from the University of Texas at
Tyler, where she actually took two courses from her father, the late Dr.
Kenneth Casstevens. In 1993, she taught Broadcast Voice and Diction at Tyler
Junior College and had the pleasure of passing her own students on to her
father in the Journalism program at UT-Tyler in the following semesters.
Prior to attending Austin
College and after her senior year in high school, Ms. Lewis spent a year in
Germany as an exchange student. She traveled throughout Europe, including into
what was then East Germany. She also learned to speak German well enough to
eventually take intermediate and advanced German classes in college.
Ms. LewisÕ life also
includes being the performing company director for 150 street theatre actors at
a seasonal festival in Waxahachie, Texas every spring. When sheÕs not doing
that, she shares her life with her twin daughters, Katie and Lisa, two cats,
two dogs and a golf course in Salado, Texas. In her spare time, she likes to
read, cook, sew, hit golf balls off her back porch and try to keep a clean
house.
Janna Lewis may be contacted
on her cell phone at (903) 316-7726 or in e mail at jkcasstevens@hotmail.com.
