June 1, 2018
Rebecca Noble ('17) won first place nationally in the Society of Professional Journalists’ Mark of Excellence competition for large school feature photography, for her Arizona Daily Wildcat "Mutton Busted" images from the 2017 Fiesta de los Vaqueros. Rebecca is now a photographer for the Cody Enterprise in Wyoming. See her work at www.codyenterprise.com and all the winners here.
Kendal Blust ('16 M.A.) captured five first-place awards at the Arizona Press Club awards. Overall, those with UA J-school ties took 15 first-place awards, including recent grads Caitlin Schmidt ('14) and Mikayla Mace ('17 M.A.) of the Arizona Daily Star and two Arizona Daily Wildcat staffers, including J.D. Molinary. Read our story about all the winners.
Bethany Barnes ('13 M.A.), was named national education reporter of the year today by the Education Writers Association for her work at The Oregonian and series, "Benefit of the Doubt," which revealed how Portland Public Schools failed to act on reports of sexual misconduct. The report caused the district and union to review their policies. Bethany has been gracious with her time, speaking to students here in April and via Skype last fall. Click here for more details.
Camila Wesbrooks, a journalism major and UA women's tennis player, was named all Pac-12 academic honorable mention. Read more here.
Nearly 40 J-school students attained summer internships or apprenticeships, including Alex Eschelman at Fox Sports Arizona, Jamie Maese at MSNBC's "The Last Word," nine at Tucson television stations and seven at the Arizona Daily Star. Click here to see the full list of students.
Maritza Cruz ('18), wearing her UA T-shirt, and the Summer 2018 class of the Chips Quinn Scholars Program gathered in Nashville. She met Nashville Freedom Rider Ernest "Rip" Patton Jr. and attended orientation and multimedia training. Cruz is interning at the Bay Area News Group in San Jose as part of the program. Click here to see all the UA J-school's past Chips Quinn interns.
Gloria Knott ('18) accepted a full-time reporting job with the Arizona Daily Star. "I'll be doing a lot of digital and social media stuff, and writing some breaking news and cops stories, in addition to in-depth and long-form stories," she says. Gloria was a features apprentice and freelancer for the Star for the past year. Read her work here.
Saul Bookman ('18 M.A., '17 B.A.) is moving to Phoenix to be the new social and digital media content manager for FOX Sports Arizona. "I am so humbled by the support those close to me have given to make this happen!" the Arizona Daily Wildcat alum wrote on Facebook. Watch his master's project, "Sound, Mind and Body: The Gerald Brown Story."
Kendal Blust, a 2016 master's graduate, accepted a reporting job with KJZZ Phoenix public radio at a new bureau in Hermosillo, Sonora. Blust has been an award-winning reporter for the Nogales International for the last two years. Jonathan Clark, NI managing editor, praises Kendal and her work in a May 29 column, "Another reporting star moves on."
Murphy Woodhouse, a former J-school student, has left the Arizona Daily Star for a reporting job with KJZZ Phoenix public radio at its new bureau in Hermosillo, Sonora. He'll focus on Arizona's business relationship with Sonora. Woodhouse covered the county and transportation for the Star.
Gabby Goduco ('18), a member of the UA Pomline for four years, has made the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders training camp for the 2018-19 season. Goduco interned at KOLD-TV while as a student.
Caitlin Schmidt ('14), a reporter at the Arizona Daily Star, has been accepted into a mentoring program run by the Association for Women in Sports Media. Click here for more details.
Brett Fera ('05), director of UA Student Media, and former director Mark Woodhams organized an Arizona Daily Wildcat reunion in the Washington, D.C., area, hosted by Paul Allvin ('93) and Christine Verges Gacharná ('97). Among the other attendees: Lindsey Frazier Fera ('06), Patrick Klein, Eun Kim ('92), Saul Loeb ('04), Paula Johnston Kelso ('91), Carol Crane Burton, Kevin Klaus, Jay Parker, H Darr Beiser ('76), Margo Warren ('76), Corbett Daly, Eliza Tebo Berkon, Tim McDonnell, Michelle Weinberg ('07), Nancy Cleeland ('77), Robert Walker ('57), Michael Klein, Dana Crudo and Kellie Mejdrich ('12). Fera hopes to have future reunions in other locales, such as Phoenix, Southern California and the Bay Area. Click here to see the D.C. reunion photos.
Brittny Mejia ('14), a reporter at the Los Angeles Times, saw her story on Matthew Whitaker gain national attention: "While out for a jog, she discovered a baby buried alive. Twenty years later, they reunite." Whitaker plans to study journalism at UA.
Susan Carroll ('99), an investigative reporter at the Houston Chronicle, and her colleagues covered the aftermath of the Santa Fe, Texas, school shooting in "A blast. Then chaos."
Fayana Richards ('08) received her Ph.D. in Anthropology from Michigan State this year after studying aging, caregiving and kinship in Detroit, and is a post-doctoral research associate for UMass-Amherst's Center for Community Health Equity Research.
Sam Brace ('06) is the director of product education for Simpleview in Tucson (simpleviewinc.com).
Alexis Blue ('05) has been an assistant director of media relations and communications at the University of Arizona since 2014.
Cindy Laughlin ('97 M.A.) is senior marketing coordinator with the EPS Group Inc. in Mesa after earlier marketing stints at Stantec in Tucson and RS Engineering.
Bryan Rosenbaum ('01) is a web developer and design specialist at Madden Media and is ready to celebrate his 11th anniversary at the Tucson firm after earlier work as an Arizona Daily Star sports designer and copy editor.
Rachael Myer Curley ('01) is account director at DRA Collective in Phoenix.
May 11, 2018
Jessica Suriano, Erik Kolsrud, Jordan Williams and Emily Ellis took top honors at the 52nd annual Just Desserts student awards ceremony May 10 at the Arizona Historical Society. Suriano, a senior, received the Philip Mangelsdorf Award for Outstanding Newsperson of the Year; Kolsrud captured the Sherman R. Miller Award for Outstanding Senior; Williams received the Brewster P. Campbell Award for Outstanding Junior; and Ellis was named Outstanding Graduate Student. Click here to read about all the winners. Click here to see the 2018 Just Desserts program, including the 78 spring 2018 grads and 15 summer 2018 grads. And click here to watch the Facebook Live video of the ceremony, and look at the first photo gallery and second gallery.
Daniel Young-Miller won the spring 2018 Drew Gyorke Memorial Fund Photo Contest for his image of a skateboarder. Aly Cantor took second place with a photo of a student taking a nap, and Alexandra Pere finished third with an image of a dog. The photos and nine others from Prof. Kim Newton's 203 class are hanging in the hallway in front of his office (Marshall 327). Click here to see all 12 photos, including those by Matthew Crisara, Holly Halstead, Sasha Hartzell, Nathan Martinez, RJ Mosqueda, Zoe Roberts, Marissa Ryan, Caleb Villegas and Briannon Wilfong.
Bria Fonteno and Carmen Valencia co-anchored the spring 2018 "Arizona Cat's Eye," produced by the broadcast class taught by Profs. Rogelio Garcia and Celeste González de Bustamante. Other students contributing were Jessy Prettyman (executive producer); Valencia (producer); Robby Leaño (graphics producer); Leonard Moody and Leaño (show editors); Paige Helfinstine, Sabrina Jandro, Sarah Workman and Noemi Salazar (promotions); and Haley Cohn, Maria Arey, Valencia, Helfinstine, Jandro and Workman (social media). On May 2, the class critiqued the 30-minute episode, which features stories on the border. Click here to watch the show, which was taped at Arizona Public Media's studio.
Ciara Encinas, a May graduate, accepted a job as a morning reporter for KYMA-TV in Yuma. She starts this month. "Here is the post my mom has been waiting for since I was a third-grader," she wrote on Facebook. Ciara interned at KVOA-TV in Tucson, CBS News in Washington, D.C., and at KOLD-TV/Tucson News Now, and worked for the Arizona Daily Wildcat's UATV 3.
Andrew Paxton, a senior, will start as an assistant editor and reporter at the Green Valley News/Sahuarita Sun in May. "After more than five years of chasing stories, performing some alchemy, working with student reporters and learning everything I can fit in my head, I'm taking the next step to where I want to be," he said on Facebook. Paxton, an editor at the Arizona Daily Wildcat, will join senior David Joseph Del Grande, who also took a job at the News/Sun. Both are Pima College transfers.
Natalia Navarro defended her master's project, “Why America? A Citizenship Podcast" (Segment 1 and Segment 2) on May 2 in Marshall 341. Committee members were Celeste González de Bustamante (chair), Sarah Gassen (Arizona Daily Star) and Nancy Sharkey. Navarro was in the Accelerated Master's Program.
Saul Bookman defended his master's project, "Sound, Mind and Body: The Gerald Brown Story," on May 1 in Marshall 340. Committee members were Jeannine Relly (chair), Paola Boivin (ASU) and Rogelio Garcia. Bookman, an editor at the Arizona Daily Wildcat, was in the Accelerated Master's Program. He showed his film on Brown, an Arizona School for the Deaf & Blind basketball coach, who received a donor kidney from a player's mom.
Emily Ellis defended her master's thesis, "Diseased Coverage: Foreign Media Framing of the 2009 Swine Flu Epidemic in Mexico," on April 27 in Marshall 341. Profs. Celeste González de Bustamante (chair), Linda Lumsden and Susan E. Swanberg were her committee members. Ellis, a dual M.A. student in journalism and Latin American Studies, will start as a border reporter for Herald/Review Media in Sierra Vista.
Alyssa Schlitzer Hill defended her master's thesis, "The Spread of Top Misinformation Articles on Twitter from 2017 to 2018: Social Bot Influence and Misinformation Trends," on May 1 in Marshall 344. Committee members were Jeannine Relly (chair), Mary Feeney (UA Libraries), Mike McKisson and Carol Schwalbe. Hill is moving to the Denver area and plans to work in web design.
Courtney Talak, a May graduate, was the editor and designer of the spring 2018 El Independiente, titled "Equality. The Status of Women in Arizona." Other staffers were Nick Smallwood (photo editor), Andrew Koleski (copy editor) and reporters Gloria Knott, Isaac Rounseville, Allison Suarez, Jessica Suriano, Talak and Lauren Whetzel. The El Inde adviser was Terry Wimmer.
Jasmine Ann Demers, a master's student, was named editor-in-chief of the Arizona Daily Wildcat for the summer and fall 2018. Demers had been the Arts & Life editor at the Wildcat. Read her bio.
Four former and current UA Journalism and/or Arizona Daily Wildcat journalists took home awards at the Society of Professional Journalists Region 11 conference April 27-28 in Los Angeles. J.D. Molinary was a finalist in general news reporting on his UA presidential search story; Rebecca Noble ('17) won in feature photography for her Tucson Rodeo photos; Sean Furrier ('17) won in online sports reporting for his Sean Miller era story; and Jorge Encinas ('16, M.A.) won for in-depth reporting for his El Independiente/ASN story on "Immigrant possessions disappear during deportation."
Pascal Albright, Andrew Paxton, Ava Garcia and Dalal Radwan attended the Society of Professional Journalists conference in the Los Angeles area April 27-28, and got to meet AP court reporter Linda Deutsch.
Maritza Cruz, an apprentice reporter at the Arizona Daily Star, focused on Tucson’s past in a story about downtown’s La Placita as the center is torn down to build new apartments. Her editor told her that “even a copy editor” complimented the story, which her editor said was rare. Cruz also wrote a story about a Flam Chen block party, a story about a “Hippie Family Values" documentary film by a UA professor, and a story about the Jefferson Starship band.
Andrew Koleski, an apprentice copy editor at the Arizona Daily Star, increased his stories edited per shift. Some of his favorite recent headlines: “In Texas, Rio Grande Valley offers preview of Trump’s border visit” and “15 Palestinian protesters killed by Israeli troops at Gaza border” and “First lady looks for distraction at Palm Beach after affair talk.”
Elena Gonzalez, an apprentice reporter at the Arizona Daily Star, wrote about a man who’s making snack bars out of meat, wrote a story on poke restaurants, and a story on new homeowners making repairs. She also worked with the staff that produces the weekly podcast, “The Point Being,” featuring Star editorial/opinions staff.
Leah Gilchrist, an apprentice reporter at the Arizona Daily Star, wrote about the troubled Fiji fraternity returning to campus, and also had a story on how the Tucson Police Department is using data analysis to respond to the public more.
Tirion Morris, an apprentice reporter at the Arizona Daily Star, saw one of her enterprise stories along with a breaking news story the same week. She wrote a story about a company that rents apartments to felons and people who’ve been evicted, people who typically have a hard time finding housing. She
also worked on the courts beat also, where she developed a story about a man convicted of selling recycled government property on eBay.
Steven Spooner, an apprentice photographer at the Arizona Daily Star, saw some his photos published on a conference on drought and climate change in the desert, and more than a half dozen photos of the March for Our Lives published, including here and here and here. He also had a gallery on Irish dance and another on the dance.
Kathleen Kunz, an apprentice arts reporter for the Arizona Daily Star, wrote about the Youth Philharmonia.
Allison Suarez, an apprentice reporter for the Arizona Daily Star, had two stories published: one on the Border Action Alliance running tours on the border to counter misconceptions, and the other on common healing desert plants.
The semester's final Tombstone Epitaph on May 5 focused on a celebration of the film, "Tombstone," shot 25 years ago in the town and starring Val Kilmer, by Elise McClain and Katie Caldwell. Other stories include: Bisbee's historic preservation (Jamie Verwys), bars/eateries off the beaten path (Savannah Shippen), female farmers (Amanda Stadek), St. David house painter's artwork (Nick Smallwood and Deanna Sherman), Czech performer (David Joseph Del Grande), black baseball (Miranda Rodriguez) and Arizona wine (Carly Oseran and Reed Wallace).
Three J-school alums from Arizona Public Media — Lorraine Rivera ('04), Sandra Westdahl ('12) and Andrea Kelly ('05) — won Regional Edward R. Murrow Awards and are eligible for the national competition (read story). In all, AZPM received seven awards in Region 3, which includes TV and radio stations in Wyoming, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico.
Pam White is the new chair of the school's Journalism Advisory Council. Pam is a former Emmy-winning reporter/producer extraordinaire with Arizona Public Media. She replaces Frank O. Sotomayor ('66), who will stay on as vice-chair. Click here to read more about the council.
Frank O. Sotomayor ('66), an inaugural member of the school's Hall of Fame, has returned to his roots as a sports stringer for the Arizona Daily Star, covering UA track and field for Sports Editor Ryan Finley ('02). Click here to follow Sotomayor's stories on Twitter.
Sara Hammond, a 1977 J-school grad, is retiring from Arizona Public Media as a science reporter and producer, and stepping down as vice-chair and member of the school's Journalism Advisory Council. Hammond, a former Arizona Daily Star reporter, excelled as a journalist and as a communications specialist at Raytheon, the UA Mars Mission and Arizona Cancer Center. Click here to read a 2017 Cursor story on her.
Tom Collins ('98), former editor of the Arizona Daily Wildcat, is in need of a kidney donor. Collins, a 2005 UA Law grad and former Tucson Citizen reporter, is executive director of the Arizona Citizens Clean Election Commission. Click here for more details.
Paul M. Ingram, a former J-school master's student and a TucsonSentinel.com reporter/photographer, is one of seven U.S. journalists to be recognized in the Institute for Nonprofit News' Impact Prize photo contest for his 2017 image of a teen sprinting from the Nogales border wall.
Justin Sayers ('14) has a new assignment at the Louisville Courier Journal on the sports desk, where he'll be focused on breaking/trending news — and, as he joked on Facebook, "leading the local coverage of (UA quarterback) Khalil Tate's Heisman run." Sayers had been the paper's Southern Indiana communities reporter.
Kendal Blust ('16 M.A.) of the Nogales International covered the acquittal of a Border Patrol officer accused of killing a Mexican teen in 2012. Perla Trevizo, Curt Prendergast ('11 master's grad) and Mamta Popat of the Arizona Daily Star also reported on the acquittal of a Border Patrol officer accused of killing a Mexican teen in 2012. Federal prosecutors are considering a retrial.
Hannah Gaber ('16 M.A.) reflected on helping the Arizona Republic win the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting in a story on our website and UANews. She produced the podcasts, contributed video and audio, and organized images for “The Wall: Unknown stories, Unintended consequences,” a 2017 project by a team of journalists from the Republic and USA Today Network.
April 20, 2018
March 30, 2018
Students in Prof. Carol Schwalbe's fall 2017 science journalism class published their 40-page ZooView magazine, which focuses on Tucson’s Reid Park Zoo and efforts globally to preserve animals from extinction. The students included editors Marissa Heffernan, Carly Oseran and Nick Smallwood; photographer Kacey Seeloff; and staffers Chris Blach, Tim Dabrowski, Sophie Daws, Clare DeCelles, Alyssa Hill, Hannah Hindley, Elizabeth Kinney, Nina Kolodij, Shanshan Niu, Tony Perkins, Naomi Pier, Chris Stidley, Spencer Streips and Ysabella Zammit. Read the issue here.
Arizona Sonora News posted new content on its website on March 30, including a story by Katie Caldwell and Ava Garcia on how a new bill could affect the San Pedro River. Others were stories on Arizona preparing for more wildfires (Michaela Webb); helping women recover from breast cancer (Sara Harelson); the emerging trend of pop-up shops (Marissa Einck); UA quarterback Khalil Tate unfazed by Heisman talk (Zach Smith); and a Legislative roundup: Juveniles, militias, dark money (Erik Kolsrud).
In the March 23 Tombstone Epitaph, students had stories on a Confederate flag parade (by Elise McClain), a domestic violence shelter (Maritza Cruz), free book boxes (Deanna Sherman and Nick Smallwood), the 1858 Dragoon Springs massacre (Jordan Treece), a Bisbee pop-up art gallery (Jamie Verwys) haunted tourism (Miranda Rodriguez) and cooking with prickly pear (Carly Oseran). Click here to read the issue.
The Blue Guitar magazine, which is published by the Arizona Consortium for the Arts, accepted essays by seven science and environmental journalism students: Jessica Blackburn, Zoe Martin Cowan, Laura Fuchs, Diego Huerta, Kellie Sheehan, Nick Smallwood and Chris Stidley. The essays will appear in the spring 2018 issue.
Steven Spooner, a photo apprentice at the Arizona Daily Star, contributed to a March 30 gallery with Mike Christy ('11) on the March for Our Lives protest. Spooner covered his first Tucson Rodeo and had a number of photos, including this one, run in a gallery. He also had a gallery of his work published on a high school basketball game.
Andrew Koleski, a copy-editing apprentice at the Arizona Daily Star, wrote headlines from the death of Billy Graham to the arrest of high school students for school violence threats, and from charter schools to Vice President Biden. A few of his headlines: "Northwest hospital among first in AZ to use pill-sized pacemaker," and "Passenger: Unlicensed teen driver made wrong turn onto NSA campus," and "Korean handshake highlights opening ceremony at Olympics."
Elena Gonzalez, a features apprentice at the Arizona Daily Star, jumped on the poke bowl trend in restaurants, with a story Feb. 27 that was a beginner’s guide to poke; the coverage included two photos that she shot. Her story lede: "A taste of Hawaii has caught a wave in the desert."
Maritza Cruz was a busy Arizona Daily Star apprentice for the rodeo parade, reporting two stories, including one about an 82-year-old veteran who’s been waving to the crowd for 21 rodeo parades.
Kathleen Kunz, an Arizona Daily Star apprentice, had multiple stories published, one about how doing art can shape lives; a preview of the Wa:k Pow Wow; and the another about Oscar Wilde’s “Salome."
UA's trip to the NCAA tournament didn't last long, but J-students Courtney Rice, Alec White, Saul Bookman and Simon Asher made the trip to Boise, Idaho, for the Arizona Daily Wildcat, UATV and KAMP Student Radio. The four, plus Nate Airulla, Robby Leaño and Leonard Moody traveled the week before to Las Vegas for the Pac-12 men's basketball tournament. Justin Spears ('17) also covered both tournaments for the Arizona Daily Star and chatted with Anthony Gimino ('90), Mike Luke ('09) and Ben White on 1290-AM's pregame show in Las Vegas.
Oregonian reporter Bethany Barnes ('13 master's) won the national Brechner Freedom of Information Award for her efforts that allowed readers to learn about a school district cover-up from records that officials fought to keep secret. Click here to read about her award. She will speak about her investigation April 11 at 3:15 p.m. in Prof. Maggy Zanger's class in Room 342.
Caitlin Schmidt ('14) of the Arizona Daily Star and former J-school student Dylan Smith of the Tucson Sentinel won Sledgehammer awards, given annually by the Arizona Press Club to journalists who "relentlessly hunt for the truth." Schmidt, a two-time winner, exposed how UA put female students at risk because athletes went unchecked. Smith found a hidden provision in a bill that would have exempted the Border Patrol from Freedom of Information laws.
Associated Press video journalist Sam McNeil ('14 master's) is taking a long-term assignment for AP in Beijing after being based in Jordan.
Glenn Cook ('92) has been named executive editor and vice president for news at the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Cook, an Arizona Daily Wildcat alum who started his career at the Arizona Daily Star, has worked at the Review-Journal for 21 years and won awards as an editorial and column writer. Click here to read the Review-Journal story.
Leighton Ginn ('92) is a media specialist at The River at Rancho Mirage near Palm Springs, California, and a freelance sports and entertainment journalist who previously worked at The Desert Sun, Arizona Daily Star and Arizona Daily Wildcat.
Bethany Conway ('11 M.A.) is an assistant professor of persuasion and political communication at Cal Poly, in San Luis Obispo, California.
Dan Kohler ('12) is a senior client manager for Amazon Marketplace, working with Quiverr in optimization and strategy for consumer brands, in Carlsbad, California.
Sean Fitzpatrick ('91), one of the founders of the Arizona Daily Star's website, is the new digital director for Wick Communications, which publishes newspapers in Arizona and nine other states.
Ashley Grove ('14) is a social media marketing production assistant for Beyond Indigo Pets, a company that focuses on veterinary marketing services.
Stephanie Corns ('02), a former Arizona Daily Wildcat managing editor, is director of corporate reputation at Charles Schwab, in San Francisco.
Anne Simmons ('05) is the public access television manager for the Bay Area Video Coalition in the San Francisco Bay Area.
William Murray ('80) is deputy spokesman for the International Monetary Fund in Washington, where he has been since 1998 after previous work as a Dow Jones Co. correspondent and bureau chief.
Jennifer Fitzenberger Zeagler ('99) is manager of online communications for UNS Energy/Tucson Electric Power after previous work as UA external communications director and a Fresno Bee reporter.
March 9, 2018
Students in Susan Knight's "Inside the Beltway: Press, Politics and Power in D.C." class visited Washington with her over spring break, meeting journalists and government officials, including UA alums. The students were Madeline Dunlap, Lizzie Quinlan, Rocky Baier, Michelle Jaquette, Bennett Adamson, Jane Garza, Jack O’Sullivan, Marissa Ryan and Nick Meyers. December grad Danyelle Khmara also attended. Grads Kellie Mejdrich (CQ Roll Call), Jenny Hijazi (PBS News Hour), Mary Brandenberger (DEA media affairs) and H Darr Beiser (retired USA Today photographer), and Washington Post reporter Jack Gillum talked to students. Colleen Bagnall with the College of SBS also hosted a reception for students and alums at the Watergate Hotel with J-school grads Paul Allvin (USO), Nancy Cleeland (OSHA, Dept. of Labor), Christine Gacharna (Essay Palooza), Francesco Peganini (U.S. Aid), Paula Kelso (Washington Post), Saul Loeb (Agence France-Presse), Michele Stevenson (retired Time magazine), Margo Warren (National Institutes of Health), Pat Zapor (Catholic Legal Immigration Network) and Beiser. Intercept reporter Jim Risen also attended.
Feb. 23, 2018
Dominika Heusinkveld, a dual master's candidate in journalism and environmental science, saw her story, “B-36 played critical role in start of nuclear age,” published as a full-page spread on the front of the Home & Life section of the Feb. 18 Arizona Daily Star. She wrote the story in Prof. Nancy Sharkey's feature writing class.
The semester's first Epitaph hit the streets Feb. 16 with front-page stories on Tombstone's business slowdown (Kayla Belcher), the fight for Martha McSally's U.S. House seat (David Del Grande) and the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women movement (Jessica Suriano). Del Grande and Courtney Talak are editors/designers this semester. Read the edition and go to arizonasonoranewsservice.com for more stories.
Maritza Cruz, an apprentice at the Arizona Daily Star, wrote a story, "Long-together Tucson couples give tips on making love last," in honor of Valentine's Day. The couples included Prof. Emeritus Jim Johnson, with his wife, Marilyn.
Leah Gilchrist, an apprentice at the Arizona Daily Star, published a story, "UA police hiring students to serve as community service officers" on Feb. 21.
Elena Gonzalez, an apprentice at the Arizona Daily Star, wrote a story, "New mobile bike repair venture brings shop services to Tucsonans' front doors," on Feb. 8.
Kathleen Kunz, an apprentice at the Arizona Daily Star, wrote a story, "UA Dance concert an international affair," on Feb. 13.
Brandon Dawkins, a J-school senior, said he will transfer after graduating in May to play quarterback at another school (see Star story). Brandon co-anchored our "Arizona Cat's Eye" show last fall with Page Jones and joined other students in interviewing alumna Savannah Guthrie of NBC's "Today Show" last spring.
Michelle Floyd ('17) and Zack Rosenblatt ('13) covered the NBA All-Star Game in Los Angeles . Michelle, a former UA softball pitcher, helped with production for the NBA. She's also a production associate for the Pac-12 Network and Fox Sports, and does work for UA Athletics Creative Services. Zack, a former Arizona Daily Star reporter and Arizona Daily Wildcat alum, wrote about Joel Embiid and the Philadelphia Sixers for NJ.com. Read his work.
Laurann Robinson ('10) is a reporter, traffic anchor and fill-in news anchor at KETV in Omaha, Nebraska, after previous work at other Nebraska cities and San Diego.
Morgan (Rost) Matchett ('04) is development director at The Drawing Studio Inc. after previous work for Tucson’s Child and Family Resources, the Humane Society and Tucson Citizen.
Eddie North-Hager ('94) is director of media relations and social media at USC, where he has been since 2006 after previous reporting positions in the L.A. area and the Tucson Citizen.
Kelly Hultgren ('13) has been working for four years in New York City as a reporter, project manager and podcast producer for Jean Chatzky, financial editor of NBC’s Today Show.
Mark Armao ('15) is a reporter at the San Diego Daily Transcript, which covers real estate, development and construction.
Morgan Toone ('13) is a marketing consultant at KVOA-TV in Tucson.
IN MEMORIAM
Minnette "Toby" Burges, a 1972 alumna and 1983 University of Arizona Law grad, died on Feb. 10. Burges, a former Arizona Daily Wildcat editor, was hired by Stars and Stripes out of college after an internship there before becoming one of Tucson's top employment discrimination lawyers. As a J-student, she won a top-20 Hearst award in editorial writing. A public memorial will be March 10 at 1 ART Gallery, 1 East Broadway, from 4-8 p.m. Click here to read her paid obit.
Feb. 9, 2018
Jordan Glenn ('17) placed among the top 20 nationally in the Hearst Multimedia Features Competition. His documentary and story, "Out of the Gates," finished 13th and appeared on Arizona Sonora News. Glenn, now with KOLD TV (see note below), joins Danyelle Khmara, Maritza Cruz, Annie Dickman ('15) and the school's bordering110.com project as recent UA Hearst winners.
Leah Gilchrist, an Arizona Daily Star apprentice, had her first story published for the newspaper on Jan. 27, “Public has variety of ways to gather news, reports, crime stats from local police agencies.”
Elena Gonzalez, a Star apprentice, had a quick-turnaround deadline on her story on Feb. 2, “Tucson teens put constructions skills to the test in regional competition.”
Tirion Morris, a Star apprentice, saw her first story published in the Star on Feb. 2: “Ex-employee sentenced to prison for embezzling $500k from Tucson auto dealership.”
Apprentice Kathleen Kunz’s preview about vintage baseball ran on Feb. 6, “Watch some good ol’ fashioned baseball in Tucson this weekend.”
Steven Spooner, a photo apprentice at the Star, had a couple of his photos featured in a gallery on the “super blue blood moon.” He also had one of his photos featured online with a story on former UA basketball player Eugene Edgerson being sworn in as a police officer.
Maritza Cruz, an apprentice at the Star, saw her first story published for the paper on Feb. 8, "Drag show to keep Welcome Diner open after hours."
Andrew Koleski, a copy desk apprentice, wrote a headline, “Air Force continues A-10 wing upgrade; ‘good news’ for D-M.” Professors Susan Knight and Sarah Gassen, along with all of the apprentices, were happy to see Andrew included Don Carson’s middle initial in the following headline: “Donald W. Carson, former UA journalism professor and department head, dies at 85.” Carson was a stickler for middle initials.
Katelyn Caldwell and Julia Leon and are working for KVOA-TV as digital content producers and finishing up the last semester of their senior years.
Jordan Glenn ('17) accepted a job as a digital content producer at Tucson News Now (KOLD 13 and FOX 11) after earlier work at the White Mountain Independent.
Kendra Paige Hall ('15) will start in late March as a reporter for KVOA TV, where she started out, after earlier work at ABC 7 television in Amarillo, Texas.
Hank Stephenson, an alum and the K-12 education reporter for the Arizona Daily Star, talked about public records on Jan. 31 with Prof. Jeannine Relly's research methods master's class. Check out Stephenson's work for the Star, including his story about the TUSD blacklist.
Rebecca Noble ('17) is doing good work as a photographer for the Cody Enterprise in Wyoming. She had to don skis to shoot a recent assignment, a Nordic trail event. See the paper's website at codyenterprise.com.
Sam McNeil ('14), a master's grad and multimedia journalist for The Associated Press, did a story and video, "Mars on Earth: Simulation tests in remote desert of Oman," that got good play and was featured on A11 of the Arizona Daily Star on Feb. 9.
Zack Rosenblatt ('13), settling into his new job at NJ.com, wrote a story about Super Bowl MVP and UA Wildcats alum Nick Foles, and covered the Philadelphia Eagles' winning parade. Rosenblatt, a former Arizona Daily Star sports reporter, is covering the Philadelphia 76ers. Read his work at tinyurl.com/y9svtyf6.
Hope Miller ('13) joined the NBC affiliate, KSBY 6, in San Luis Obispo, California, as a content producer after work as a copy editor at the Alaska Dispatch News and a web producer for KTVA in Anchorage.
Nicholas Smith ('06) is working in Vienna, Austria, as support staff in strategic planning and economic services for the OPEC Fund for International Development. A former freelance journalist and managing editor for GlacierHub.org, he earned his master's in journalism from Columbia in 2014.
Kristina Dunham ('04) marked her sixth anniversary at the Santa Fe New Mexican, where she is copy chief and a page designer. She works with another alum, Brian Barker, who is deputy managing editor.
Norman Peckham ('95) is an educational technology trainer at Mesa Public Schools, and the former Tucson Citizen reporter received his master's from Boise State a few years ago.
Jackie Kent ('14) is as a reporter and multimedia journalist at KRQE News (CBS) in Albuquerque after earlier stints for the NBC affiliate in Lincoln, Nebraska, and KOLD-TV in Tucson.
Michael Lafleur ('00) is an assistant district attorney at Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office in the Boston area, and the former Tucson Citizen reporter recently got married.
John D'Anna ('83), an editor at the Arizona Republic and member of the school's Advisory Council, explained why access to public records are important to professional and student journalists as well as to the public in a video for azcentral.com.
Michael Hernandez ('17) is a multimedia reporter for KRWG Public Media at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces (see his work at krwg.org).
Mariana Dale ('14) and Matthew Casey ('13) are senior field correspondents at KJZZ Radio in Phoenix, which is also a National Public Radio affiliate (see their work at kjzz.org).
Jan. 19, 2018
Erik Kolsrud, the school's Bolles Fellow covering the Legislature this spring, filed two stories Jan. 19 for the Arizona Sonora News Service— one on Gov. Ducey's opioid plan and a Legislative roundup.
Danyelle Khmara wrote the cover story, "Death Sentence," for the Jan. 18-24 Tucson Weekly, on a young man killed in Pima County Jail last year.
The Arizona Daily Wildcat's coverage of new UA football coach Kevin Sumlin include stories from Eddie Celaya (contract), Saul Bookman (African-American coaches) and Alec White (news conference). Bookman and White also did an exclusive interview video with Sumlin (Part 1 and Part 2).
Kristina Bui ('13), a Guild organizer and copy editor at The Los Angeles Times, helped lead the way as journalists voted 248-44 to unionize. “This was a long time coming, and we're all thrilled that this has finally happened. ... The newsroom is demanding a seat at the bargaining table," Bui said in an L.A. Times' story on Jan. 19.
Julianne Stanford ('17) is reporting on military affairs for The Kitsap Sun in Bremerton, Washington. Click here to read her recent stories.
Jen Duffy ('07), a former Arizona Daily Star reporter, is director of communications for Experience Scottsdale after work at MGM in Las Vegas and Loews Hotels.
Kostas Kalaitzidis ('95, M.A.), a former Tucson Citizen reporter, marked his five-year anniversary as a public information officer for the Los Angeles County Office of Education.
Berenice Rosales ('07), a former Star reporter, is a consular officer for the Consulate General of Mexico, based in Nogales, Arizona.
Jan. 12, 2018
Danyelle Khmara finished in the top 20 nationally in the Hearst Feature Writing Competition. Her story, "Home is a Tenacious Heart," tied for 16th and was published in the Tucson Weekly, where she works full-time now. There were 154 entries received from 82 schools.
Emmalee Mauldin received another internship with NASA, this time with the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, doing social media and news releases for the Hubble Telescope Program. She spent the last six months in Houston, where she worked for NASA's Johnson Space Center and weathered Hurricane Harvey after losing most of her belongings in the flooding.
Robby Leaño and Ireland Stevenson covered the UA football team's loss to Purdue in the Foster Farms Bowl in Santa Clara, California, for the Arizona Daily Wildcat. They were joined by Arizona Daily Star sports reporter Justin Spears ('17).
Issac Andrews, Ellen Ranta and Louis Vitiritti graduated with journalism degrees in December, joining a dozen other winter grads: C.J. D'Innocente, Betsy Kaplan, Deborah Lee, Clarisse Markarian, Leah Merrall, Monica Milberg, Briana Otanez, Noah Saunders, Monique Stewart, Gabriella Vukelic, Kylie Warren and Jules Zappone.
Caitlin Schmidt ('14) of the Arizona Daily Star was selected as a Justice Reporting Fellow for the Feb. 15-16 John Jay/Harry Frank Guggenheim Symposium on Crime in America in New York City. Check out Schmidt's latest reporting on the Rich Rodriguez firing here and here.
The UA J-school will have quite a contingent of alums covering the Winter Olympics for NBC in South Korea, next month. Scott Karpen ('09) will help produce the alpine skiing events and work with announcer Dan Hicks ('84), while Savannah Guthrie ('93) is scheduled to co-host the "Today Show" from PyeongChang. Karpen also will help produce the Winter Paralympics.
Brandon Mejia ('17) is a news and public affairs reporter at Arizona Public Media.
Hannah Palaniuk ('17) will be a news producer at the ABC affiliate in Honolulu (KITV) after two years at Tucson's KVOA-TV.
Gary Crooks ('82), former opinion page editor of the Spokesman-Review, is communication director for Democrat Lisa Brown's congressional campaign in Eastern Washington.
