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.
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.
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.
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.
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.