They also took home 7 awards of distinction
Posted: July 23, 2026
Earlier this summer, the Hawaiʻi State Teachers Association’s Communications team was recognized with 13 awards at the State Education Association Communicators (SEAComm) conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
They earned the national awards for their work on the union’s email newsletter and social media feeds, photography, videography, and news and opinion stories.
The SEAComm awards program annually recognizes outstanding work from graphic designers, public relations specialists, editors, photographers, digital media specialists, writers, webmasters, and media planners employed by state affiliates of the National Education Association (NEA).
The team takes home 6 awards of excellence
Judges from across the country evaluated HSTA’s award entries against the work of communications teams from other states with 20,000 or fewer educator members. Awards were also issued to states with more members.
HSTA’s email newsletter, Member Matters, took home the first-place award for best electronic newsletter.
The HSTA communications team also took home an award of excellence for producing the video for this year’s online Institute Day General Session. Watch it here.
A photograph of Liko Martin, HSTA’s Institute Day keynote speaker, won first place for best portrait photo, while HSTA’s Convention Walkthrough video snagged the top prize for the internal long-form video category. You can watch it here.
The department’s writing earned first-place awards for best news story, “Free school meals measure passes at the Legislature,” and best opinion/editorial for “HSTA identifies key solutions to Hawaiʻi teacher retention.”
Team wins awards of distinction for social media, videos, news stories
The Communications team earned awards of distinction for best social media strategy and use for its Facebook and Instagram pages.
They also took home the following other awards of distinction:
Video feature story
“Hawaiian immersion resource teacher wins 2025 STACY Award for Teaching Excellence”
Video: Internal short form
“Island educators, students march in Honolulu Pride Parade”
Video: News story
“10+ Maui teachers detained, questioned in erroneous federal immigration raid”
“Kealakehe El teachers speak out about longtime plumbing leaks, problems at the school”
Writing: News story
“Hirono tells HSTA leaders ʻWe have to stand up for public educationʻ”
“Maui teacherʻs proposal lifting up public schoolʻs role in disaster recovery is approved at NEA RA”
HSTA’s communications team is made up of Keoki Kerr, HSTA’s communications director (pictured middle), Chris Schubert, its media specialist (pictured left) and Jill Meinecke, the union’s communications specialist (pictured right).