Julie was awarded the Josephine Zimmerman Pioneer in Journalism Award from the Utah Society of Professional Journalists for her inclusivity coverage of community members with special needs over the course of several years.
The Josephine Zimmerman Award is presented by the SPJ to journalists who have broken ground in journalism for a particular group or in a particular area.
She also received the Utah High School Activities Association’s award for Distinguished Media of the Year
On April 1, 2025, David Jakubiak was elected to a four-year term on the board of the Linda Sokol Francis Brookfield Public Library in Brookfield, IL. David is a Senior Vice President at the Chicago public releations firm Aileron Communications and lives in Brookfield.
David Plazas joined the staff of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on May 5 as deputy managing editor, opinion, serving as an editorial board member. He is leading the esteemed publication’s opinion and engagement efforts, including editorial writing, editing opinion submissions, and conducting community conversations on topical issues.
Plazas previously worked at Gannett Co. for 25 years, most recently as opinion and engagement director for The Tennessean and the USA TODAY Network Tennessee. He led the publication’s Civility Tennessee campaign, coordinated the Black and Latino Tennessee Voices initiatives, wrote nationally award-winning editorials, and moderated multiple federal, state, and local candidate political forums. He started his career as a reporter at The News-Press in Fort Myers, Florida shortly after completing his MSJ at Medill. He rose the ranks, including serving as Spanish-language community editor, community conversations editor and digital engagement editor.
James was selected as a 2025-2026 Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. He will be among 24 journalists spending the academic year at Harvard where he plans to study documentary theatre and how the stage can be a medium for investigative journalism and storytelling. James is also the host and reporter of the new investigative podcast Heat Listed, from Wondery and Vespucci Group. The series follows a Chicago family’s journey out of the cycle of violence and a police initiative — ripped from the pages of science fiction — that sets out to stop gun violence and help break such cycles.
Chris Sweeney (MSJ08)
“The Feather Detective: Mystery, Mayhem, and the Magnificent Life of Roxie Laybourne” tells the fascinating and remarkable true story of the world’s first forensic ornithologist— Roxie Laybourne, who helped solve murders, investigate airplane crashes, and break up international poaching rings using nothing more than a microscope and a few fragments of feathers. Award-winning journalist Chris Sweeney takes readers deep within the vaunted backrooms of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History to tell the story of this burgeoning science and the enigmatic woman who pioneered it.
Once divorced, once widowed, and sometimes surly, Roxie shattered stereotypes and pushed boundaries. Her story is one of persistence and grit, obsession and ingenuity. Drawing on reams of archival material, court documents, and exclusive interviews, Sweeney delivers a moving and amusing portrait of a woman who overcame cultural and scientific obstacles at every turn, forever changing our understanding of birds—and the feathers they leave behind. NPR selected it as one of its most anticipated books of summer, while Publishers Weekly described it as entrancing.
Dave Schechter (MSJ78)
“A Life of the Party” is a work of historical fiction about a Jewish woman who devoted four-plus decades of her life (1920s-50s) to the struggles of working men and women, as a member of the Communist Party. Amy Schechter’s adventures took her twice to Russia and across the United States, from strife in coal fields and textile mills, to docks and shipyards. Her name appeared in newspaper headlines during a textile strike in North Carolina and she chronicled labor issues for Communist Party and other sympathetic publications.
An FBI informant labeled Amy “a regular ten-minute egg” (as in hard-boiled). The New York Times called her “one of the most ardent among the New York radicals.” A Jewish columnist wrote that she was “one of the few genuinely idealistic Communists; she lives up to her ideals in her private life, sharing what she has with others less fortunate.”
Brian Pinkerton (MSJ90)
Everyone loves Alison, the new remote employee at a major energy company. She’s a rising star in the virtual workspace, displaying incredible intelligence and efficiency with digital technology. But Linda, her manager, has growing suspicions that Alison is not the person she claims to be. As Linda probes Alison’s background, Alison fights back through cyber-attacks, ravaging Linda’s work, her family and her safety. Linda must uncover the truth to save herself and discovers Alison’s past history is a lie – in fact, she has none. Is it possible Alison isn’t human at all?
The Perfect Stranger is a science-fiction thriller based on today’s headlines about artificial intelligence, cyberattacks and deepfakes.
Booklist, the magazine of the American Library Association, called The Perfect Stranger “terrifyingly realistic… a fast-paced, near-future, AI-horror nightmare that will chill readers to the core.”
To create a compelling and authentic backdrop, Pinkerton leveraged his experiences in corporate America witnessing the evolution of the virtual workplace and influence of artificial intelligence.
Cindy Handler (BSJ79)
When Prussian soldier Fritz Oppenheimer left the WWI battlefield with two Iron Crosses, he could never have imagined that the pinnacle of his military career would come 27 years later – as U.S. General Eisenhower’s legal aide at the Nazi surrender in Berlin, taking top Nazi leaders into captivity and interrogating Wilhelm Keitel, head of the Wehrmacht.
At a time when authoritarian movements worldwide once again threaten to gain traction, “A German Jew’s Triumph: Fritz Oppenheimer and the Denazification of Germany” is an untold David-and-Goliath story that reminds us how even in the darkest times, one individual’s efforts can help change the course of history and forge a more hopeful future.
Andrea Bartz (BSJ08, MSJ08)
When Abby sets foot on Isla Colel, she isn’t sure what—if anything—she’ll find. She only knows that she needs to see the place where her fiancée, Eszter, died to try and make sense of the tragic accident.
The island is nothing like Abby expected: Though it was once a bustling tourist hub, a hurricane has left it a shell of its former self. There, Abby befriends an alluring group of expats, but her sense of unease surges when one of them says he knows the truth about Eszter’s final days. Before he can tell her more, though, he vanishes from the island. Hours turn to days with no sign of him, and the others are chillingly cavalier about his disappearance.
As her quest for the truth unearths dark secrets, shady pasts, and a web of lies, Abby grows more determined than ever to find out what happened to the love of her life. And the deeper she gets in the close-knit expat community, the more she suspects that one of them is Eszter’s killer—and will do anything to keep the truth buried. But will Abby discover who it is before she becomes the island’s next victim?
Nolan Zavoral (MSJ69)
In “A Season on the Mat (Dan Gable and the Pursuit of Perfection),” the author takes the reader through the last season that the legendary Gable coached the University of Iowa wrestling team. One of the most successful coaches of any sport in NCAA history, Gable battled physical pain and emotional trauma en route to the climax of his remarkable career.