The Midwest Broadcast Journalists Association honored Dan Shelley with the Mitchell V. Charnley Award at the Eric Severeid Awards banquet on Saturday, April 11.

Dan is a graduate of Missouri State University and was named its Outstanding Alumnus of the Year in 2018. He was news director at KTTS AM/FM in Springfield, Missouri, and later news director at WTMJ-AM in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was inducted into the Milwaukee Press Club Hall of Fame in 2019.

He was director of digital media and executive producer at WCBS-TV in New York before becoming senior vice president at Interative One, part of Radio One (now Urban One). He went on to become senior vice president of digital content strategy for iHeartMedia.

Dan, who was a board member of the Northwest Broadcast News Association (now MBJA), has been a longtime member of RTDNA and was a regional director for the Upper Midwest before being elected chair of its board of directors and later serving as secretary/treasurer of its foundation.

In 2017, he was named executive director of RTNDA and assumed the title of president and CEO in 2022. He retired at the end of 2025.

Dan has been a steadfast and vocal defender of journalists throughout his career, providing leadership and inspiration to our profession, urging us to fight back against attacks on our work with “more and better journalism.”

MJBA is proud to recognize his lifetime of achievement and service to journalism.