BATON ROUGE - Four people were inducted into the Manship Hall of Fame Thursday night during the 48th annual Hall of Fame gala. 

The gala was hosted Thursday night and welcomed four new inductees into the hall of fame, including the previous dean of the Manship School of Mass Communication, Martin Johnson, who passed away in 2020. 

Alongside Johnson, Gil LeBreton, Abram McGull, and Wendy McMahon were also inducted. 

Below are the inductees' biographies from the Manship website:

Martin Johnson, Ph.D., started his career in journalism by serving as editor-in-chief of the Reveille and earning a bachelor’s degree from the Manship School in 1991. He went on to earn a master’s and doctorate in political science from Rice University before becoming department chair and professor at University of California, Riverside, and eventually returning to the Manship School as the Kevin P. Reilly, Sr. Chair in Political Communication. He was named the School's third dean in July 2018 and served until his passing in September 2020. 

Gil LeBreton’s sportswriting career spanned more than five decades, beginning with the Times-Picayune in his hometown of New Orleans and continuing for 37 years as an award-winning sports columnist with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Over the years, LeBreton covered 26 Super Bowls, 16 Olympic Games, 16 NCAA Basketball Final Fours, soccer's World Cup, the Masters, the Tour de France, the NBA Finals, hockey's Stanley Cup Finals and the Wimbledon tennis championships.

Abram “Abe” McGull has distinguished himself as a public affairs officer in the United States Navy, a news photographer at WBRZ-TV in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and as an elected official in Missouri. McGull is the founder of the McGull Law Firm that focuses upon personal injury claims and criminal defense. Prior to establishing his private practice in law, McGull was an Assistant United States Attorney with the United States Department of Justice and a Commander in the United States Navy for 21 years. In civilian life, McGull used his communication skills to become the first Black mayor of Pleasant Valley, Missouri. He later ran for public office in Springfield, Missouri, and was elected twice to the city council, where he currently serves.

A highly accomplished media executive with a record of driving audience growth and business success across all broadcast, digital and streaming platforms, Wendy McMahon is president and chief executive officer of CBS News and Stations and CBS Media Ventures (CMV). She assumed this newly created and expanded role that includes singular oversight of CBS News and Stations, as well as leadership of CBS' domestic syndication business, in August 2023. McMahon leads all of CBS News' broadcast and streaming operations, 27 local television stations, 14 local news streaming channels and CMV's top-rated first-run syndication programming, as well as its content licensing to television stations and the division's national advertising sales business.