Category: 1980s

Jane E. Wilcox, professional genealogist with her company Forget-Me-Not Ancestry in Albany, NY, recently finished writing her first book, New York State Archives Guide: For Family Historians, Biographers, and Historical Researchers, published by the New York Genealogical & Biographical Society. This robust reference book has more than 500 pages of carefully curated information for researchers, including an introduction and comprehensive overview of NYSA’s holdings; a spotlight section; 21 detailed chapters; 2 appendices; and an index. Ms. Wilcox serves on the New York State Archives Advisory Committee and the NYG&B’s Family History Advisory Committee. Specializing in colonial and early national New York and area research, she speaks at national and regional genealogy conferences and institutes and local societies.

Amy Wilen-Buckman received the Philadelphia Public Relations Association’s 2024 PRoActive Community Service Award. The award is given to a PR professional who dedicates their time to support the betterment of their community and serves as an exemplary model of selfless service. Buckman is the Director of School and Community Relations for the Lower Merion School District.

Leigh Ann Winick was named Lead Medical Producer for CBS Network News. She was previously medical producer for CBS Mornings. Earlier this year, Winick was awarded Best Television report from the American Association for Cancer Research.

Susanni Douville is retiring from the U.S. District Court for the District of Maine on July 31, 2024, after 26 years as a career law clerk to three successive U.S. Magistrate Judges. After obtaining her M.S.J. from Medill in 1980, she worked as a copy editor at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, The Washington Post, and the Hartford Courant before switching career gears and obtaining her J.D. from Yale Law School in 1990. She looks forward to decompressing, spending more time with family and friends, including her husband, John R. Hull, Jr., and daughters Kate and Christie Hull, and being able to savor sunrises (with coffee) and sunsets (with wine) at home in Harpswell, Maine, instead of commuting on I-295.

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).

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.”

Neil Foote has jumped from the classroom to the administration of the University of North Texas New College, which is expanding its footprint with a brand new standalone campus in Frisco, Texas, one of the nation’s fastest-growing community colleges located just north of Dallas. He has worked as Associate Dean, Research, External Affairs, and Community Engagement. He now leads the internal and external marketing outreach as well as builds partnerships with local businesses and organizations to create more enriching, project-based, experiential research and learning. He was also elected as Board Chair of Forefront Living, a Dallas-based organization that provides active independent and assisted living, long-term care, Alzheimer’s and memory care, skilled nursing and rehabilitation therapies, hospice, and palliative care.

Kevin Reece is a 51-time Regional Emmy winner, currently at WFAA-TV in Dallas, where he recently received repeat Emmys for Reporter, Writer, and Video Journalist. Choosing to pick up a camera again late in his career, he has received the Lone Star Emmy for Video Journalist every year since 2015. And most of the credit goes to that sweltering camera-toting summer with Medill in D.C.