Our Great Geniuses
Cynthia Barnett
Cynthia Barnett ’05 received the gold medal for nonfiction in the Florida Book Awards for “Mirage: Florida and the Vanishing Water of the Eastern U.S.” Barnett is a staff writer for Florida Trend magazine.
Jason Beaubien ’07 has been named National Public Radio’s Mexico City correspondent, covering Mexico, Cuba, the Caribbean and Central America. Previously, Beaubien was NPR’s Midwest correspondent out of Kansas City.
Alden Bourne ’05, formerly a producer for “60 Minutes,” has been named director of programming for One Day University, which presents the best college professors, teaching their greatest courses, at locations in major East Coast cities.
Jamie Butters ’06 headed up a Detroit Free Press team that won a 2008 National Headliners Award for “A New U.S. Auto Industry.” The special section, which examined the end of the UAW strike against General Motors, took second place for Writing & Reporting Spot News in the daily newspapers and news syndicates category and also won a Society of Business Editors and Writers award for breaking news coverage.
Scott Elliott ’05 won a Best of Cox 2008 award for his blog, “Get on the Bus.” Elliott is an education reporter for the Dayton Daily News.
Faye Flam ’05 has authored a book, “The Score,” which she describes as “an evolutionary history of the sexes,” due out in June. Flam is a science writer for the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Vindu Goel ’06 has left his post as a business columnist at the San Jose Mercury News to join The New York Times in the newly-created position of deputy technology editor. Goel will be helping the Times expand its technology coverage, especially online.
Deborah Howlett ’01 made the transition from journalism to politics in March, accepting the position of director of communications for New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine. Howlett was previously a staff writer for New Jersey’s The Star-Ledger.
Seiichi Kanise
Seiichi Kanise ’88 has been named Dean of the School of Global Japanese Studies at Meiji University in Tokyo. Kanise currently anchors two television shows covering business and has published books on world politics, China and private asset management.
Mark McDonald ’97 joined the International Herald Tribune in Hong Kong as an editor. McDonald previously spent two years as the Howard Marsh Professor of Journalism at the University of Michigan.
Marzio Mian
Marzio Mian ’02 has been named deputy editor in chief of Io Donna, the weekly magazine of the leading Italian newspaper, Corriere della Sera. Prior to the promotion, Mian was the magazine’s special correspondent at large.
Nancy Nall ’04 shook up the White House office of public liaison by uncovering plagiarism by its director, Tim Goeglein. Nall revealed on her blog (www.nancynall. com) that parts of a column Goeglein wrote for the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel were taken from a Dartmouth College publication. Further investigation revealed a pattern of plagiarism by Goeglein, who ultimately admitted responsibility and resigned from his position.
Tetsu Okazaki ’07 is moving to Australia to serve as correspondent and bureau chief of the The Yomiuri Shimbun’s Sydney Bureau. Prior to his appointment, Okazaki was a staff writer for the paper in Tokyo.
Mike Oneal ’04 and Livingston Award winner Evan Osnos were part of a Chicago Tribune team that won a Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting for the series “Hidden Hazards.” The series, about the federal government’s failure to regulate manufacturers of many children’s products, also won second place in the 2008 National Headliners Awards in the public service category and a 2007 George Polk Award for Consumer Reporting.
James Rupert ’00 has joined Bloomberg News as their South Asia political correspondent. Prior to the shift, Rupert was a deputy foreign editor and correspondent for Newsday, most recently opening the magazine’s bureau in Islamabad, Pakistan.
Ellen Soeteber
Ellen Soeteber ’87 spent the spring 2008 semester as the second annual Edith Kinney Gaylord visiting professor in journalism ethics at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communications. Soeteber taught two classes in journalism ethics and diversity.
Send your doings with a high resolution photo to Birgit Rieck at brieck@umich.edu
