Mariel Turner has recently started a new position at Shondaland.com, Shonda Rhimes’ digital media website in partnership with Hearst. In her new role as Senior Culture Editor, Mariel will oversee all culture and entertainment coverage on the site, including reporting, writing, and editing film and TV features and stories. She will also host and manage Shondaland’s IGTV Pop Culture series.
A couple of weeks after getting married in San Francisco on Oct. 2, 2021, Christine started a new role at The Points Guy, a Red Ventures brand. In her new position as coordinating editor, Christine mentors writers, editors and freelancers, helping them better organize their travel stories, hone their unique perspectives as travelers, craft well-rounded story pitches and more.
A Wall Street Journal reporting team with Medill alumni Deepa Seetharaman (BSJ08) and Emily Glazer (BSJ10) won a 2021 George Polk Award for Business Reporting for their series “Facebook Files.”
Long Island University gave further insight into the selection:
“Reporter Jeff Horwitz and the staff of the Wall Street Journal have won the Business Reporting award for “Facebook Files,” an explosive series documenting how Facebook (now Meta) ignored internal findings that company practices promoted anger, divisiveness and extremism; protected drug cartels, human traffickers and dictators; and endangered teenage girls susceptible to body-image concerns, anxiety and depression. Files Horwitz obtained from a whistleblower demonstrated that top executives rejected fixes they feared might reduce profitability or create political friction.”
Jenna Bourne won the 2021 Suncoast Regional Emmy Award for Reporter – Talent – Investigative. Jenna is an investigative reporter at 10 Tampa Bay, a TEGNA station and CBS-affiliate. She hosts “What’s Brewing?” — an investigative YouTube series geared toward a Gen-Z audience.
Benjamin Oreskes was named print journalist of the year by the Los Angeles Press Club for his on-the-ground reporting of homelessness issues during the coronavirus pandemic. The competition’s judges lauded Oreskes for his “keen eyes for detail, excellent research and writing, and an empathy for the homeless and those who help, including firefighters, EMTs and a judge.”
Ben is a general assignment reporter in the California section. Previously, he wrote the Essential California newsletter. Before coming to The Times in February 2017, Oreskes covered foreign policy at Politico in Washington, D.C.
I’m working on my first feature documentary and we’re running a fundraising campaign right now for post-production: sound/color engineering, archival film licensing, festival applications, and more.
What We Carry tells the intimate story of one family while humanizing one of the most divisive issues of our time: immigration. After escaping violence in Honduras and joining the migrant caravan, a young couple and their son are taken in by a synagogue in Seattle, Washington, and their story becomes linked to the Jewish people’s long legacy of defending the right to refuge.
The film centers the stories of Mirna, Magdiel, and Joshua as they seek asylum. But we uplift not just their identities and day-to-day experiences of being immigrants, but also the daily joys and tribulations – and even the mundane moments – of parenthood, marriage, and setting up life in a new place – things that many of us, immigrants or not, experience ourselves.
Please check out the campaign at whatwecarrydoc.com. Thanks very much!
After starting her career (post-IMC) as the Director of Strategy for Canada’s most awarded technology agency, Parisa Durrani is now the President of BASMA Beauty. BASMA Beauty launched this spring and their first product – The Foundation Stick – has been dubbed a “game-changer” by Beyonce’s makeup artist. It has also been featured in NYLON Magazine, Byrdie, Refiner29 and Bustle.
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.
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.
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.