Barry Locher enjoyed a 30 year career at The State Journal-Register in Springfield, Illinois, before leaving the newspaper at the end of 2007 following its sale to GateHouse Media. He joined the public relations staff of Memorial Health System in September, 2008. Locher began his career in 1974 as an intern in the photography department, and served in a variety of capacities including staff photographer, photography editor, assistant managing editor/graphics, deputy managing editor and managing editor prior to being appointed the senior news executive in 1999. He played a key role in the development of one of the country's most respected photojournalistic newspapers, chosen in 2005 by Photo District News as one of the 13 best newspapers in America for photojournalists to work. He was the supervising picture editor for "The Youngest Victims," a series on violence to children in Chicago which was awarded a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for Coverage of the Disadvantaged in 1994. In 2004, he directed the newspaper's four-day series, "Beardstown: Reflection of a changing America," on immigration in a small, central Illinois community. The project was awarded the Freedom Forum/ASNE Award for Outstanding Writing on Diversity and was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting. Locher is a former Illinois Press Photographers Association Photographer of the Year, as well as NPPA Region 5 Photographer of the Year. He was inducted into the Lincoln League of Journalists by the Illinois Associated Press Editors Association in 2008. He is a 1977 graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism.