Category: Featured Class Notes

Kesha Boyce Williams has joined the University of South Carolina Upstate as the new vice chancellor for marketing and strategic communications. In her new role, she provides strategic leadership to the USC Upstate marketing and communications team and foster a spirit of collaboration.

Before this position, Williams served for nine years as the public information director for Clemson University, where she developed and implemented strategies for marketing, communications, and social media content.

Laura Washington (BSJ78, MSJ80) is starting a new job at the Chicago Tribune after 20 years at the Chicago Sun-Times. Her weekly column, featuring her reporting on race, politics and urban issues, will appear in the Tribune’s opinion section starting June 6.

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.

Mike Smith has been appointed to the board of governors of the National Press Club in Washington. He is also a member of the society of environmental journalists. Mike’s environmental reporting for Coastal Point newspaper has been honored by the MARYLAND, Delaware and Washington, DC (MDDC) Press Association.

Richard Eisenberg will receive the PSS Impact Award for Leadership in Positive Aging on May 12, 2022 for his work inspiring people 50 and older to live with passion and purpose. He was Managing Editor of Next Avenue, the PBS site for people 50+, and editor of its Money and Work channels before “unretiring” in January 2022. The former president of the Medill Club of New York, Eisenberg now writes The View From Unretirement column for MarketWatch and is the 2022 Digital Media Strategies Director for the NYU Summer Publishing Institute.

Kristin Thorne was recently promoted to Investigative Reporter at the nation’s #1 local news station – WABC-TV Channel 7 Eyewitness News in New York. She is the creator, writer, producer and reporter of a new True crime series called “Missing.” In it, she investigates the disappearances of people from New York City. The show will premiere on Hulu this year and is already available on Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Android TV and at ABC7NY.com.

Bridget Haggerty (IMC95) has been named vice president of advancement at Carthage College in Kenosha, WI.

Since joining Carthage in 2016, Bridget has elevated and helped launch various campus initiatives. She has reinvigorated the President’s Leadership Council, evolved Carthage’s donor recognition programs into a Leaders in Philanthropy program valuing committed donors at every level, and developed significant donor engagement programs including the 75 Years of Black Excellence and pre-health programs. Thanks to her efforts, Carthage established the Wiggan-Kinniebrew Black Alumni Network, which has yielded over $1 million in donations for equity and inclusion initiatives in three years.

In addition, Bridget’s efforts have brought several new members to the Board of Trustees. She has been a vital partner in recruiting alumni and parents in support of the College and has developed strong, collaborative relationships with faculty and staff across campus.

Bridget lives in the Third Ward in Milwaukee, WI.

Deborah D. Douglas (BSJ89) is co-editor in chief of The Emancipator, which launched on April 25, 2022. The multimedia newsroom is dedicated to reframing the national conversation on race and presenting potential solutions toward an antiracist future. Douglas and co-editor in chief Amber Payne will build on the tradition of nineteenth-century antislavery newspapers to hasten racial justice in the twenty-first century.

Learn more at www.theemancipator.org.

Photo credit: Ven Sherrod.

Kathleen Lopez (BSJ03) has been promoted to Partner at Weaver Schlenger LLP, a women-owned business immigration law firm based in San Francisco. Weaver Schlenger is excited to recognize Lopez’s extensive legal expertise, success in client management and contributions to the firm. Lopez brings her previous experience as a journalist to discern pertinent facts, tell compelling stories and advocate on behalf of her clients.