Bill Healy (MSJ ’09), Dana Brozost-Kelleher (MSJ ’19) and Alison Flowers (MSJ ’09) were all part of a team Pulitzer Prize for Audio Reporting and a Peabody Award win last week for the podcast “You Didn’t See Nothin” by the Invisible Institute and USG Audio. The podcast also won the International Documentary Award for Best Audio Documentary, an Ellie Award, Lisagor Awards, among other honors.
Kari Neumeyer (MSJ ’01) produced FISH WAR, a documentary film that premiered at the 2024 Seattle International Film Festival. The film highlights the violent struggle faced by Indigenous nations to exercise their treaty-protected rights to harvest salmon in the Pacific Northwest. The battle led to a Supreme Court decision that continues to protect treaty rights and the environment. For more: fishwarmovie.com
Lisa’s MeatingPod podcast, covering the meat and the alt-meat industries, in April 2024 took home its third Jesse H. Neal Award in four years for “Best Podcast” in its category — this, for a production only four years old! Chris Scott is the podcast’s producer, and Lisa is its editor in chief. The Neals program is managed by the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA).
Sean Collins Walsh was part of a team of reporters at The Philadelphia Inquirer who won the Toner Prize for Excellence in Local Political Reporting for coverage of the 2023 mayoral election in Philadelphia.
More info: https://newhouse.syracuse.edu/centers/robin-toner-program-in-political-reporting/toner-prizes/
Yvette Walker was named VP Editorial Page Editor at the Kansas City Star to lead an award-winning team in 2023. She left academia, where she previously was assistant dean at the Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Oklahoma.
Coming back to the news industry, this time in the Opinion section, was unexpected but welcomed, she said. It is the second stint at The Star, working in features and news in the early 2000s.
“It really just feels like coming home,” she told The Star. “People like to hear what we’re thinking,” she said. “… We are helping people make decisions about their daily lives through the information that we’re imparting online and in the paper. Opinion does that, too, but in a way that the audience can really understand what we’re thinking and how we’re thinking about it. So that’s a little different, but really so enticing to me.”
The comedy film, “Queenpins,” co-written and co-directed by Gita Pullapilly will stream on NETFLIX globally starting January 18. The film stars Kristen Bell, Vince Vaughn, Paul Walter Hauser, and Kirby Howell-Baptiste. It’s inspired by the true story of two women who counterfeited coupons and made $40 million off the scam.
The film originally sold to Paramount Plus and Showtime in 2001 for a record sale and was recently acquired by Netflix for worldwide rights. Queenpins topped #1 on Netflix in the UK and Ireland.
Pullapilly is currently prepping her next film starring Jeremy Renner.
Michelle Edgar has built a career at the intersection of social impact, entertainment, sports, fashion, and culture. As a connector and founder, she has worked closely with talent, management, brands, and business leaders to ideate, strategize and build impactful marketing campaigns. As a strategic marketing executive with an emphasis on driving value for IP, talent and brands, Michelle has launched talent-focused global campaigns on behalf of both brands and agencies.
In December, she joined the Compton Unified School District as the senior director of business partnerships and schools bringing programs, resources and funding to the district across entertainment, arts, sports, technology and STEM. Last fall, she joined the Santa Monica Arts Commission as living a life of service and helping shape community across a city landscape is a priority along with creating opportunities for all ages and stages and walks of life. This month January, she will be an adjunct professor at Northwestern Law teaching a Sports Law course on Endorsements, Name Image, and Likeness for college athletes. She additionally is a SBJ correspondent.
Leslie Krohn was named Executive Vice President and Chief Brand and Communications Officer at The Joint Commission Enterprise, a global driver of quality improvement and patient safety in healthcare, in Oakbrook Terrace, IL. She was previously Chief Communications Officer at Argonne National Laboratory in Lemont, IL.
Alf Siewers (now Father Paul), MSJ ’82, was ordained to the priesthood in August 2023, in the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia. He also continues to be Associate Professor of English Literary Studies at Bucknell University in Lewisburg PA, where he lives with his family. He formerly was Urban Affairs Writer at the Chicago Sun-Times.
Sandcastles, an independently produced podcast by Adriana Cargill won 4 Signal awards.
Limited Series- Gold for Best Documentary podcast
Limited Series- Silver Best Indie Podcast
Limited Series- Bronze for Best Sustainability & Environment Podcast
Craft- Gold Best Trailer
Sandcastles is a podcast about home, how we create it, and why we fight so hard for it. The first season is The Point Dume Bombers, about a group of childhood friends who came together to protect their home from the Woolsey Fire. When emergency first responders were overwhelmed by LA county’s most destructive fire, these surfers stepped up to defend their home turf in Point Dume, Malibu. Their devotion to home drove them to show up for their community in ways no one expected- not even them. In the days and years that followed what this unlikely band of surfers pioneered could have global consequences.