Alumni News & Announcements
Alumni News
In a move that made headlines in Chicago, Steve Edwards ’08, has been named deputy director, programming at the University of Chicago's Institute of Politics, a new non-partisian academic program led by David Axelrod. Inspired by his experience as a Knight-Wallace Fellow, Edwards told "Chicago Tonight" WTTW, that one piece of the new program is to develop a visiting fellowship. A voice of Chicago Public Media, Steve most recently hosted "The Afternoon Shift" on WBEZ.
Janet Kolodzy ’91, published "Practicing Convergence Journalism". It is her second book. Kolodzy is an associate professor of journalism at Emerson College in Boston. Janet was a reporter at The Arkansas Democrat; a reporter and editor at The Plain Dealer in Cleveland, Ohio; and a writer and senior producer at CNN and CNN International in Atlanta. Kolodzy's academic research has focused on the use of modern technology in producing journalism for a multimedia environment.
Molly Ball ’10, joined The Atlantic as a staff writer covering national politics. Previously, she was a reporter for Politico.
Bora Bayraktar ’05, was named Euronews' correspondent in Istanbul. Previously, he was a reporter with Asia Television.
John Cary ’09, was named deputy editor at The Cambridge News. Previously, he was editor of the BBC's 5live Drive.
Debbie Caldwell ’94, was named deputy editor at CNBC.com in charge of all non-breaking news. Previously, she was executive editor at Wetpaint.com.
Lynette Clemetson ’10, joined NPR News to lead StateImpact, a collaboration between NPR and station groups in eight states that reports on state government actions and their impact on citizens and communities. Previously, she was director of content strategy at Pew Center on the States.
Scott Elliott ’05, joined The Indianapolis Star as education reform reporter. Previously, he was an education reporter at The Dayton Daily News.
Gady Epstein ’07, joined The Economist as China correspondent based in Beijing. Previously, he was Beijing bureau chief for Forbes.
Ron French ’03, joined the Center for Michigan's Bridge magazine as senior writer. Previously, he was a projects reporter for The Detroit News.
Craig Gilbert ’10, arranged and was one of the questioners at the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel's editorial board chat with Herman Cain, whose painful struggle to answer a simple foreign policy question about Libya was a big part of his undoing as a Republican presidential contender. Gilbert is the Journal-Sentinel's Washington bureau chief.
Alfred Hermida ’05, published his first book, "Participatory Journalism: Guarding Open Gates at Online Newspapers," which he co-authored. He's also been granted tenure and promoted to associate professor at the University of British Columbia.
Amber Hunt ’11, was named Associated Press' news editor for North and South Dakota. Previously, she was a reporter for The Detroit Free Press.
Baris Kuyucu ’07, joined Al Jazeera Turkey as head of sports. Previously, he was sports news editor and anchor, CNN Turkey (Istanbul).
Mary Losure ’04 published her first children's book, "The Fairy Ring, or Elsie and Frances Fool the World," a narrative nonfiction through Candlewick Press.
Peggy Lowe ’09, was named Public Insight Network analyst for Harvest Public Media, an NPR project focused on food and agribusiness and based in Kansas City, Missouri. Previously, she was a multimedia producer and writer at The Orange County Register.
Kevin Lowther (right), Herb Frazier (left)
Kevin Lowther ’77, and Herb Frazier ’93, participated on the same panel during a conference, "Rebuilding Sierra Leone: Changing Institutions and Culture," at the University of South Carolina. Both have written books exploring the historical links between South Carolina and Sierra Leone through the slave trade. Frazier's is "Behind God's Back"; Lowther's is "The African American Odyssey of John Kizell."
Alec MacGillis ’11, joined The New Republic as senior editor. Previously, he was national staff reporter for The Washington Post.
Jonathan Martin ’09, teamed with fellow reporter Ken Armstrong of The Seattle Times to win first place in enterprise reporting in the C.B. Blethen Memorial Awards for Distinguished Newspaper Reporting, for "The Other Side of Mercy," a narrative series based on the fatal shootings of four Lakewood police offiers in 2009.
Maryn McKenna ’99, won the 2011 Science in Soceity Award for her book "Superbug: The Fatal Menace of MRSA," an investigation of the global epidemic of drug-resistant staph, published by Free Press/Simon & Schuster. She freelances, blogs for Wired and writes a column for Scientific American.
Ted Mellnik ’11, joined the graphics department at The Washington Post. Previously, Mellnik was database editor at The Charlotte Observer.
Nick Perry ’11, joined the Associated Press as a reporter covering New Zealand, the South Pacific and Antarctica. Previously, he was higher education reporter for The Seattle Times.
Melissa Preddy ’05, was named communications director at the University of Michigan's Taubman Medical Research Institute.
Harry Siegl ’11, was named metro columnist at The Village Voice. Previously he was a contributing editor at Politico.
Laura Tillman ’11S, won a Planned Parenthood Maggie Award in the daily/weekly print reporting category for her article "Crossing the line" in The Nation.
Sharon Walsh ’90, was named editor of the new Pittsburgh-based online regional investigative reporting initiative, PublicSource.org. Previously, she was enterprise editor for The Lexington Herald-Leader.
Fara Warner ’06, joined Newsweek Daily Beast as the editorial director of international special editions, overseeing editorial operations for the company's foreign-language editions. She is based in New York City.
Ken Winter ’79, was inducted into the Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame in Lansing. He is the former publisher of The Petoskey News-Review and current political science and journalism professor at North Central Michigan College in Petoskey, MI.
Ipek Yezdani ’08, was named news desk editor of The Hurriyet Daily News, an English-language newspaper in Turkey.
