Category: Class Notes

Michelle Edgar (BSJ05)

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.

1990s Class Notes Featured Class Notes

Leslie Krohn (MSJ93)

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.

1990s Class Notes

Fr Paul Siewers (MSJ92)

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.

2010s Featured Class Notes

Adriana Cargill (MSJ15)

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.

1990s Class Notes Featured Class Notes

Katie Derbes (MSJ99)

WWL-TV Evening Anchor & Investigative Reporter Katie Moore was honored with a crystal pillar at the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences national News & Documentary Awards in September 2023 in the Outstanding Regional Report: Investigative Reporting category. Moore’s national honor was for a series of investigative reports she did on the horrific conditions more than 800 nursing home residents endured during Hurricane Ida and the business dealings of the nursing homes’ owner. Moore has received 8 regional Emmy Awards throughout her TV News career.

2000s Class Notes

Lauren Dunn (MSJ01)

Lauren was recently named Executive Editor of the Health & Medical Unit at NBC News, leading a team of producers, reporters and editors who produce medical news across all of the network’s broadcast and digital platforms.

2000s Class Notes Featured Class Notes

Michelle McGovern (BSJ04, MSJ04, LAW08)

Post author By Belinda Clarke
Post date October 10, 2023
No Comments on Michelle McGovern (BSJ04, MSJ04, LAW08)

Michelle McGovern with Medill alum colleagues.

Rebecca Bowman, Vivek Shankar and Michelle McGovern – all Medill graduates – met in Seoul, where Rebecca and Vivek live, while Michelle was vacationing with her family. Vivek works at The NY Times Asia desk, Rebecca is a freelance writer and editor and Michelle is the General Counsel of a health tech company.

1990s Class Notes Featured Class Notes

Benoit Denizet-Lewis (BSJ97)

Post author By Belinda Clarke
Post date October 10, 2023
No Comments on Benoit Denizet-Lewis (BSJ97)

Benoit Denizet-Lewis, an associate professor at Emerson College and a longtime writer with The New York Times Magazine, received a Public Scholar Award from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The award will allow Denizet-Lewis to take a one-year leave from Emerson to complete his fourth book, “We Don’t Know You Anymore,” about transformation and identity change in turbulent times. The book will be published by William Morrow in the USA and Penguin Press in the UK.

2000s Class Notes

Will Sullivan (MSJ04)

Will Sullivan (MSJ04) joined The White House as a Digital Service Expert within Executive Office of the President, contributing his expertise to the U.S. Digital Service. The U.S. Digital Service is an innovative agency committed to transforming government services through technology and design. By bringing top-tier digital talent into the public sector, the USDS works tirelessly to improve the delivery of essential services to the American people.

1990s Class Notes Featured Class Notes

Brett Kurland (BSJ98)

Brett Kurland photo in newsroom control room. — 20211015 - Brett Kurland - Phoenix Released: Image fully released. Model release on file in Media Relations & Strategic Communications. Brett Kurland is a professor of practice at ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, and the director of its Strategic Initiatives and Sports Programs. His focus is journalism, multimedia and sports journalism. He teaches sports writing classes as well as co-leading Cronkite’s Multimedia Sports Reporting, which helps students cover spring training and Cactus League training for media partners. Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU News

Brett Kurland was named an assistant dean at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism & Mass Communication in December 2021.

As assistant dean, Kurland oversees the school’s 11 capstone professional immersion programs, Cronkite’s signature faculty-led, student-powered experiences in which students learn by doing. These hands-on experiences include daily news and sports operations, a strategic communications agency, a content creation studio, and an innovation and entrepreneurship lab. Kurland also leads training and onboarding for faculty associates, helping them learn everything from school policies to best practices in teaching.

He also helps lead the Cronkite School’s bachelor’s and master’s degree programs in sports journalism, including oversight and management of sports journalism curriculum, course design, hiring, training, and supervising faculty, and managing student award submissions.

Kurland, a professor of practice at Cronkite since 2014, is the lead instructor for Multimedia Journalism Skills, a foundational, intensive first-semester class for all Cronkite graduate students pursuing master’s degrees in mass communication, master’s degrees in investigative journalism and master’s degrees in sports journalism in which students learn how to write, capture and produce photo, video, audio, social, and web content.

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