Congratulations to Wagner College adjunct journalism professor and Wagnerian newspaper adviser Claire Regan ’80, who won two of this year’s top three awards for spot news presentation from the New York State Associated Press Association. Regan is associate managing editor of the Staten Island Advance. The awards were presented for two of the front pages Regan designed for the Advance in the week after Hurricane Sandy hit last fall.

Regan’s first-place award is for the Advance front page published on Tuesday, Oct. 30.

Her headline, “It feels like the end of the world,” conveyed how she and many Islanders felt as the city shut down and the dangerous storm arrived.

The page was assembled the evening of Oct. 29 as the storm strengthened outside the Advance building in Grasmere — and across the Island.

The front page she designed for the Thursday, Nov. 1 edition of the Advance captured third place for spot news presentation.

The page combines a powerful photo of two women grieving near a temporary morgue in Midland Beach with the banner headline, “14 dead so far: Homes ravaged, lives ruined.”

The scope of the damage was just becoming clear as the page was assembled, Regan recalled. The headline was challenging to write because the number of fatalities was changing almost hourly; Staten Island’s total would eventually reach 24.

Over a gallery of photos and summary text, she added a secondary headline that asked: “After Hurricane Sandy, will life on Staten Island ever be the same?”

“That question came to mind as I saw the devastation in so many neighborhoods,” added Regan, a lifelong Staten Islander.

Inside that Nov. 1 edition, 12 pages of staff reporting and photography documented the devastation.

A graduate of Wagner College where she teaches journalism and advises the student newspaper, the Wagnerian, Regan has worked at the Advance as feature writer, general assignment reporter, features editor, entertainment editor, news editor and design editor.

She has studied visual journalism and journalism ethics at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies in St. Petersburg, Fla.

Her editing and design work has been recognized by the Society of Professional Journalists, the New York Press Club and the Society for News Design.