Alice Foeller’s TEDx Talk was chosen as a TED Editor’s Pick in 2025, and she published a book this summer. Alice’s book, The Art of Compassion: Supporting Friends Through Dark Times, is a handbook for being helpful to someone who is grieving. Grief research is artful woven into Alice’s personal narrative of losing her husband to suicide in 2023.
Sharon Yoo won a National Edward R. Murrow Award for KING 5 in Seattle. Sharon will travel to New York City next week to accept the award at the 2025 National Edward R. Murrow Awards Gala. The honor is for her 30-minute documentary, “The Buffalo Hunt,” in the category of Excellence in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Large Market Television.
In the documentary, Sharon and a photojournalist follow the Kalispel Indian Tribe as members prepare for Indigenous People’s Day through their annual buffalo hunt. The tradition honors their ancestors, culture and is a vehicle to help heal wounds from the past.
Lisa Parker is the new director of the Center for Journalism Integrity & Excellence at DePaul University, where she teaches Advanced Reporting. Lisa joined DePaul after a career as a consumer investigative reporter, most recently for 27 years at NBC Chicago. In a major serendipity, this year Lisa taught alongside her favorite former Medill instructor Rick Brown!
Matthew Murray has joined Cozen O’Connor Public Strategies as a principal in Chicago, in its strategic communications practice, where he will help lead the firm’s expanding suite of communications offerings. Murray is an award-winning reporter and longtime communications strategist for Fortune 500 companies, nonprofits, and federal officials, where he has served as an executive speechwriter and editor, and has led AI initiatives across content, thought leadership, and social media functions.
Renee Cordes, deputy editor at Mainebiz, won three Gold Awards from the Alliance of Area Business Publishers in the 2025 Editorial Excellence Awards. Her first-place finishes were for Best Feature Single Story, Best Explanatory Journalism and Best Beat Reporting, Economics and Finance. Mainebiz, part of New England Business Media, is based in Portland, Maine. Renee, who spent most of her professional career in Europe, joined Mainebiz in 2017 as a senior writer and was promoted to deputy editor in early 2025.
Carrie A. Liberante was named Vice President of Communications and Strategic Initiatives at Thriving Mind South Florida. She previously served as Senior Director of Communications for the organization. Before joining Thriving Mind, Liberante worked in communications at medical schools in Florida and as a health writer and city editor at newspapers in the Northeast.
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.
Ian Douglass was a member of the creative team that received a 2025 Webby Award for “Leroy Smith: Michael Jordan’s Myth,” which was the winner in the Sports Video & Film category.
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.