RTDNA announces new scholarship in memory of Dr. Marsha Della Giustina

RTDNA is pleased to announce the foundation of the Dr. Marsha Della Giustina Scholarship, which will be awarded for the first time in 2025. The scholarship, open to any undergraduate or graduate student pursuing degrees in broadcast or multimedia journalism at any college or university in the U.S., awards one student $2,000 and an invitation to the annual RTDNA conference.

Dr. Marsha Della Giustina tirelessly spent more than a half century in broadcast journalism, beginning her career as New England’s first female news producer at Boston’s ABC affiliate WCVB-TV, before being recruited to help launch one of the nation’s first undergraduate broadcast journalism programs at Emerson College in Boston. During her years at Emerson, which spanned four decades from 1977 until her retirement in 2021, Dr. Della Giustina, who passed away in June 2023, became a mentor to thousands of reporters and producers.

As a longtime member of RTDNA, she launched one of the largest regional journalism conferences in the nation, sponsored annually by RTNDA (later RTDNA), The Associated Press and Emerson College.  Under her guidance and mentorship, both in and out of the classroom, Marsha’s students were often recognized with awards from the AP, the Society of Professional Journalists and the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. In keeping with Marsha’s 50+ years of educating and mentoring journalists, her legacy lives on through the Dr. Marsha Della Giustina Scholarship.

"Marsha was a force, not only in my life, but in the lives of thousands," said WCVB-TV News Anchor Maria Stephanos, a former student. “Marsha never stopped trying to make her students the best we could be."

Find more information about the Dr. Marsha Della Giustina Scholarship here.