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Books

We Once Were Gazelles

Michael Chacko Daniels (MSJ68)

In this coming of age novel set in 1950s Bombay, Michael Chacko Daniels explores both an India that was cosmopolitan, and the slow rise in exclusionary politics in the country, through the life of a Malayali Syrian Christian boy growing up at that time.

Jug Suraiya, author and former associate editor of the Times of India, writes in the Foreword: “Michael Chacko Daniels has been compared favorably with transcultural writers . . . In narrating the stories of Paul Paulose, his two sisters, and their parents in flashback and flash-forward sequences, he not only vividly evokes the sights, sounds, and smells of a long-ago Bombay, but does so in an idiom which owes as much to the Maximum City of the past as to his Kerala heritage and his American influences.

The result is a compelling amalgam of humor, social satire, nostalgia, and verbal legerdemain of no little virtuosity, with many passages lending themselves to being read aloud in the best oral tradition of storytelling. The illustrations, by Rukmini Chakravarty, imbue the work with the visual immediacy of a graphic novel. In all, the book in its nimble elegance resembles the gazelles of its title. You’ll enjoy reading it as much as the author has obviously enjoyed writing it.”

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Medill Alums Win 2021 Pulitzer Prizes, Individual and Teams

Michael Paul Williams (MSJ81), a veteran journalist and longtime columnist for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, has won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize in Commentary.

The Pulitzer board honored Williams for his “penetrating and historically insightful columns that led Richmond, a former capital of the Confederacy, through the painful and complicated process of dismantling the city’s monuments to white supremacy.”

Williams has been at the Richmond Times-Dispatch for nearly 39 years and has been a columnist for the paper since 1992.

Read more: https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/michael-paul-williams-richmond-va-times-dispatch

Abbie VanSickle head shot.
Abbie VanSickle

Three Medill graduates, Abbie VanSickle (BSJ04) and Katie Park (BSJ12) from the Marshall Project and Dana Brozost-Kelleher (MSJ19) from the Invisible Institute, Chicago, were on the winning teams for National Reporting, along with the staff of AL.com, Birmingham and the IndyStar, Indianapolis. The National Reporting Pulitzer was awarded for a year-long series: “Mauled: When Police Dogs Are Weapons.” The investigation focused on K-9 units and the damage that police dogs inflict on Americans, including innocent citizens and police officers, prompted numerous statewide reforms.

“I’m so grateful to everyone who shared their experiences with us,” VanSickle said. “This work wouldn’t be possible without our sources. I’m so fortunate to be part of such a great collaboration across newsrooms. It gives me a lot of hope in the future of our profession.”

Katie Park head shot.
Katie Park

“The injuries and terror faced by victims of police dog attacks are truly horrifying — it was crucial to us to convey the seriousness of these attacks while being sensitive to the trauma people have undergone,” Park said. “I’m so proud to work at an organization that not only prioritizes in-depth reporting but also recognizes the immense value of visual and data-driven storytelling. It’s an honor to work alongside such talented and thoughtful journalists.”

Read more about the series. https://www.themarshallproject.org/2021/06/11/the-marshall-project-wins-the-pulitzer-prize

https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/staffs-marshall-project-alcom-birmingham-indystar-indianapolis-and-invisible-institute

Finally, numerous Medill MSJ 2020 alumni were on the winning team for Public Service at the New York Times (Maura Turcotte, Alison Saldanha, Sarah Cahalan and Brandon Dupre, Matt Craig, Alison Saldanha, Brandon Dupré, Sarah Cahalan and Maura Turcotte continue to work with us on the data project. Maddie Burakoff, Jake Holland, Alex Schwartz, Andrea Michelson and Samone Blair, Mitch Smith).

The public service Pulitzer was awarded for courageous, prescient and sweeping coverage of the coronavirus pandemic that exposed racial and economic inequities, government failures in the U.S. and beyond, and filled a data vacuum that helped local governments, healthcare providers, businesses and individuals to be better prepared and protected.

Read more: https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/new-york-times-6

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1980s Featured Legacies Featured Legacies Home Legacies

Judy Lyn Holland (MSJ87)

Judy Lyn Holland, 61, of Washington, D.C. passed away on April 19, 2021.

She was born Aug. 7, 1959, in Orange Heights, VT, the daughter of Harry and Barbara Holland of Hanover, NH and Vero Beach, FL. Judy was born in the family station wagon en route to the hospital, portending a life in constant motion. From a very young age, Judy adored books and kept a flashlight under the bed covers to read at night. She also displayed an early aptitude for performance and enlisted neighborhood children to put on shows in the family garage with a blanket as stage curtains. She later became an accomplished figure skater and continued to perform in college and as an adult.

She attended Hanover High School and graduated in 1977. Her first summer job was as a cashier at Dan & Whit’s General Store on the same block in Norwich, VT where she grew up. She continued her education at Middlebury College, where she graduated with a BA in 1981. From there, Judy taught English at a boarding school in Germany and studied Italian in Florence, becoming fluent in both languages. She worked as a paralegal in a New York City law firm before earning her master’s degree in Journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL.

During her 30-year journalism career, Judy was a newspaper reporter at the Valley News Dispatch in Tarentum, Pa. and the Tampa Tribune in Florida before moving to Washington, DC to become a Capitol Hill correspondent for States News Service. She spent 13 years covering the US Senate and as national bureau editor at Hearst Newspapers, the storied newspaper chain that includes the Houston and San Francisco Chronicles and the Boston Globe. She won the Hearst Eagle Award, the chain’s highest honor. Judy was elected president of the National Press Club Foundation and was a member of the Capitol Speakers Club. She also appeared as a political commentator on cable TV news. Her stories appeared in dozens of publications.

She also was the founder and editor of parentinsider.com, an online magazine about parenting teens and wrote the book and podcast series HappiNest: Finding Fulfillment When Your Kids Leave Home.

Judy met her husband John K. Starr, an orthopedic surgeon, in 1982, when he was a medical student. They were together for nearly 40 years, married since 1990. Her true pride and joy were her beloved children, whom she taught determination, poise and empathy.

Judy is survived by her husband John, children Lindsay, 27, Maddie, 24, and Jack, 22, her parents; sister Mary Anne Holland, brothers Michael (Heidi); Joe (Becky); and Jim (Analea); sister-in-law Patricia Starr; nieces Jeannie, Greta, Hazel, Lizzie and Juniper; nephews Michael, Timothy, Hunter, Jake and Anders; maternal uncle, Don Johnston (Mary Margaret) and paternal uncle, Clark Holland.

Published in Valley News on May 2, 2021.

https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/vnews/obituary.aspx?n=judy-lyn-holland&pid=198511455&fhid=2167

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2010s Class Notes Featured Class Notes

Cate Jensen (IMC18)

Cate was recently promoted to Director of Integrated Marketing overseeing all Beauty, Wellness and Luxury partnerships at Vice Media Group (which includes VICE, ViceTV, Refinery29, i-D, Garage, Pulse Films and Virtue Worldwide). Her experiences also includes being a Lead Strategist at Byte New York, a digital innovation agency, where she worked on accounts such as UGG, Johnson & Johnson and Ariana Grande.

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2000s Class Notes Featured Class Notes

James Edwards (MSJ08)

James Edwards hosted and reported the investigative podcast series Un(re)solved. Produced by FRONTLINE PBS, the series examines the U.S. government’s efforts to investigate dozens of cold case murders that date back to the civil rights era. Un(re)solved made its world premiere at the 2021 Tribeca Festival as a Narrative Nonfiction Official Selection in the Festival’s Competition Program.

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1990s Class Notes Featured Class Notes

Ed Sealover (BSJ95)

Ed Sealover, a senior reporter at the Denver Business Journal, was honored recently as Colorado Journalist of the Year by the Colorado Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. He won the award for his coverage of the devastating effect of the coronavirus pandemic on the state’s business community, which included more than 500 stories written in 2020 on the suffering of businesses, the public policies that impacted them and the way that many were changing in order to survive. SPJ Colorado described his “commanding deep sourcing, fast turnaround and a near-encyclopedic knowledge of Colorado business” in the news release announcing the honor. He also received three first-place awards in the four-state competition in the categories of business news, business enterprise reporting and political news. Sealover lives in Wheat Ridge, Colorado with his wife, Denise Jobin Sealover (BSJ ’95) and their children, Lincoln and Jane.

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2000s Class Notes Featured Class Notes

Eve Chen (MSJ04)

Eve Chen is thrilled to join USA TODAY as a Consumer Travel reporter. She previously worked closely with USA TODAY, covering the nation’s top stories as a senior producer with Gannett’s Video Production Center. Eve serves as co-chair of Gannett’s Asian American employee resource group, Asian American Forward. She is honored to be part of AAJA’s Executive Leadership Program 2021 cohort.

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2010s Class Notes Featured Class Notes

Debbie Kao (IMC12)

With more than eight years brand marketing experience in FMCG industry in Taiwan, developing marketing strategy and driving business growth for several well-known brands, Debbie is joining Nike Shanghai as Senior Brand Manager. After graduating from IMC program, Debbie still keeps reminding herself to use consumer centric, and data driven focus to communicate with consumers, to keep building successful brands that resonate with consumers.

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2010s Class Notes Featured Class Notes

Andrew Theen (MSJ11)

Andrew Theen is the new podcasts editor at The Oregonian/OregonLive. Theen will oversee podcast creation and production at the largest news organization in Oregon. Theen started his career in public radio, where he was a reporter and producer for Oregon Public Broadcasting. After completing his MSJ, Theen begin working as a staff reporter at The Oregonian. He’s covered Portland City Hall, environmental issues, transportation and higher education at the paper since joining the staff in 2012. Theen created and launched The Oregonian’s first podcast — Beat Check with The Oregonian – in 2019 and will now oversee all podcasts at the paper. He lives in Portland with his wife and two daughters.

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2010s Class Notes

Will Mendelson (MSJ12)

Will Mendelson has joined Micron Technology in its Global Communications & Marketing Team, as Operations Tools & Training Lead, after spending almost a decade as a journalist at Us Weekly, Esquire and the Chicago Tribune.