If Jonathon Gregg ’08 looks familiar, you may recognize him from his on-air work at KCRG-TV9 in Cedar Rapids or the stations he’s worked at since. The multimedia journalist has covered local news in Iowa, Wisconsin, and Kentucky during his decorated career — and he has a few new awards to put on the mantle.

For the second straight year, Gregg was named the Solo Video Journalist General of the Year by the National Press Photographer’s Association, an honor reflecting the past year’s body of work.

One piece of that body netted him an additional editing award, 2023 Serious Feature — Solo Video Photojournalist, also from NPPA. The focus of the winning package was the ongoing recovery in Mayfield and Dawson Springs, Ky., from a tornado on Dec. 10, 2021. The storm killed 57 people as it traveled 165 miles over nearly three hours that night.

“Western Kentucky is not unlike Iowa, not unlike the area around Waverly,” Gregg said. “A similar size community, 10,000 or so, and the EF4 tornado passed directly through the center of town, cutting diagonally across the city around 9:30 in the evening.”

Gregg, the lead multimedia journalist for Spectrum News 1, and his colleagues headed to Mayfield, about 3.5 hours from their homebase in Louisville, to document the devastation and share the need for assistance with the rest of the state.

“I was there for, I think, seven or eight or nine days staying in a roadside motel and then going out each day to understand the scope of the damage — and also more importantly, understand how the people were doing, how the people were affected, and what they needed.”

Gregg headed back to Mayfield in June 2022, six months after the storm, to check up on residents and the often-fraught rebuilding process. The four-minute video story that resulted won him the editing award and contributed toward the journalist of the year honor.

Gregg had plenty of relevant experience to draw on in Kentucky. In his first year out of college, he covered the EF5 tornado that ripped through Parkersburg, Iowa, and historic flooding along the Cedar River.

“A journalist will often say to themselves, ‘I’ve seen this before, unfortunately, but fortunately it has better equipped me to cover it and to be a thoughtful journalist,’” Gregg said. “I still think about how Iowans were affected during that time.”

He also credits his Wartburg education for his success.

“The encouragement and emphasis that our professors had on students having internships with television stations pushed me to a different level, where I was going out of my comfort zone to better equip myself for being a TV journalist,” Gregg said. He also noted the support and mentorship from Cliff Brockman ’75, now professor emeritus in journalism, and Paul Yeager ’98, a producer, director, and host for Iowa PBS.

“Being a journalist, in many ways, is about looking out for vulnerable people,” Gregg said. “And to receive some of these accolades in terms of the coverage that I do, it reinforces the idea that I’m working with a purpose. I am immensely grateful for the opportunity to continue to tell stories for Kentucky.”