Category: Class Notes

Gerald Jordan is retiring from the journalism faculty at the University of Arkansas after 27 years there, closing his career with Journalism Educator of the Year honors presented on June 25, 2022, by the Arkansas Press Association.

Prior to joining the Arkansas faculty Jordan worked 12 years (and afterward, 15 summers) at the Philadelphia Inquirer, first as a reporter and later as an editor. Jordan was on the editorial board of the Boston Globe from October 1978 until April 1979. When he graduated from Medill in 1971 he worked as a sports reporter and later editorial writer, then returned to write a TV/radio column for The Kansas City Star. He also was a Nieman Fellow in 1981-82.

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.