Journalism Advisory Council

Formed in the mid-1990s, the Journalism Advisory Council helps the school achieve our mission to prepare students to face the complex challenges confronting journalists in the 21st century.

Council members advise the school's director and faculty. They also volunteer their services in fundraising, planning and community outreach for the school.

“In 1994, a strong network of journalism alumni and supporters mobilized to save the program from threatened closure,” said Frank Sotomayor, former chair of the council. “Donations to the school are vital for it to continue to grow. Many of our alums' careers were jump-started by journalism training."

Council members, many whom are graduates of the University of Arizona School of Journalism, are available to talk to classes and mentor students.

Meet the Journalism Advisory Council members

Michael A. Chihak ('71, Chair): Chihak retired after 45 years as a newsman. He worked for the Tucson Citizen as a reporter, desk editor and editor/publisher; The Salinas Californian as executive editor and publisher; USA Today as assistant national editor; The Associated Press as a correspondent; and Arizona Public Media as news director. He has chaired the School of Journalism Advisory Council since 2022.

 

 

Paul Allvin ('93): VP for strategic communications and marketing at George Mason University.

Joe Altman ('99): Tax professional in Tempe for RSM US LLP, a global accounting and consulting firm. Worked for The Associated Press in Detroit, New York and Phoenix as an editor and reporter.

 

Jo Marie Barkley ('86): Retired from the University of Arizona after 34 years as a member of its public affairs and marketing teams.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jim Calle (’85): Jim is a federal labor and employment lawyer who represents law enforcement. He is a 1985 UA journalism graduate who worked as a news photographer and reporter and who taught classes at the School as an adjunct instructor. He also lived and worked in the Republic of Moldova helping the country shed its Soviet-era laws and practices.

 

 

 

Valerie Cavazos ('91 Radio/TV): Emmy-nominated investigative reporter with more than 20 years of television news experience. 

Hipolito Corella ('90): Senior editor at the Arizona Daily Star, where he has worked since 1991.

Mariana Dale ('14): Reporter for KPCC, the National Public Radio station in Los Angeles, covering early childhood. Previously reported for KJZZ in Phoenix, where she shared a national Edward R. Murrow Award for coverage of teacher strike.

 

John D’Anna ('83): D’Anna is the Managing Editor of The Press Democrat in Santa Rosa, Calif. Before moving to wine country, he spent 27 years in a variety of senior reporting and editing roles at The Arizona Republic in Phoenix, where he was responsible for the print presentation of the paper’s project on the border wall, which won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting. He was also a key member of the Republic teams that were Pulitzer finalists for breaking news for the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson and the deaths 19 wildland firefighters in the Yarnell Hill Fire. A 1983 graduate of the UA School of Journalism, he also holds an MBA from Benedictine University and served as an adjunct faculty member at the Cronkite School for 15 years.  He is also a 5th degree black belt and three-time world Taekwondo champion.

 

 

Scott Harelson (‘84, Radio/TV): Former media relations manager at Salt River Project in Phoenix.

Kimberly Kayler, CPSM ('94): Kayler is president of AOE, a full-service public relations and communications agency with more than 75 employees. She has unique expertise in crisis communications and her firm has won many national awards. She is also an adjunct professor at the University of Wisconsin in their MBA program.

 

 

 

 

Chris Kline: As President and CEO of the Arizona Media Association and Arizona Local News Foundation, Kline leads all shared services and advocacy for a coalition of more than 350 radio, TV, print and online brands with a focus on future-proofing local media and its critical role in community connection. Chris previously led the Arizona Broadcasters Association and before that spent 15 years working in Arizona local media at radio, TV and print operations, plus at CNN in Washington, D.C.

 

 

 

Pila Martinez (’96): Senior director for strategic communications, University of Arizona; former reporter for Arizona Daily Star, Associated Press.

Nate Olivarez-Giles ('08): Editor and writer for Apple in Los Angeles, California. At Apple he's worked on the Singal and Webby winning podcast Time to Walk, as well as being a member of the teams that built and launched the Mindfulness app on Vision Pro and the App Store Today tab. Before that, he was assistant technology news editor at The Wall Street Journal, a podcast host and producer at TWiT.tv, a staff writer at WIRED, and a staff writer/videographer at the Los Angeles Times. He's also a fiction writer, designer, illustrator, and web developer.

David Bodney: Senior counsel at Ballard Spahr law firm, serving as a litigator focusing on media and constitutional law. He founded the firm's Media and Entertainment Law Group.

Nicole Santa Cruz ('09): Reporter for ProPublica, based in Phoenix, covering issues of inequality in the Southwest. Former reporter at the Los Angeles Times, where she wrote the Homicide Report blog. Received Daily Wildcat Young Alumni Award in 2011.

Mark Woodhams: Woodhams is well- known to hundreds of journalism alumni after serving as director of Arizona Student Media and adviser to the Daily Wildcat for 23 years. He is a lifetime member of the College Media Association and twice served as president of the Association of University Student Media Managers. In 2022 he was presented with a lifetime achievement award from the Associated Collegiate Press. A newspaperman earlier in his career, he once owned a weekly paper in Connecticut.

 

 

Honorary members

• Chyrl Hill Lander ('76): Former vice chair of the council, journalist at Arizona Daily Star, TUSD spokesperson and UA journalism adjunct instructor. 
• Bobbie Jo Buel ('79): Former editor of the Arizona Daily Star.
• Patty Weiss Gelenberg (’71): Former KVOA 4 anchor in Tucson.
• Bruce Itule (’69): Longtime journalist and journalism professor; UA professor emeritus of journalism.
• Gerald Sass: Former executive vice president of the Freedom Forum.
• Arlene Scadron (’75): Former journalism head and student newspaper adviser at Pima College.
• Frank Sotomayor (’66): Former editor and Pulitzer Prize winner at Los Angeles Times; former associate director for Institute for the Justice and Journalism at USC.