The Poynter Alumni Connection

I want to help Poynter’s alumni stay in touch with us and with each other. Did you receive an honor, award, fellowship? Are you on the move? Send me a note with your name, the details (including the name of the job/place you’re leaving and the job/place you’re headed next if that’s the news), and the year(s) you participated in a Poynter seminar. We’ll publish the information in our “Alumni in the News” section. If you set up a personal page and include a mug shot, we may even feature you on the homepage.

UPDATES

April 29, 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
 
EDITOR’S NOTE: Ashanti Alvarez, director of public communications at the School of Communication, Information and Library Studies, may be contacted 732-932-7500, ext. 8012, or ashanti@rutgers.edu.
 
 
KAMIN FUND PROVIDES DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY
TO TRAIN JOURNALISTS OF THE FUTURE AT RUTGERS
 
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. – Students taking classes in the Department of Journalism and Media Studies at Rutgers University’s School of Communication, Information and Library Studies will train to be journalists of the future with the help of $23,000 donated by one of the school’s alumni and longtime supporters.
The Kamin Fund has provided the funding to the Department of Journalism and Media Studies through Arthur Z. Kamin of Fair Haven, a graduate of the Rutgers College Class of 1954. Kamin was the president and editor of the former Daily and Sunday Register in Shrewsbury that began publication as the weekly Red Bank Register. He is an independent journalist.
The gift funds were used to purchase a digital video camera, digital voice recorder, two digital book readers, microphones for podcasting, a mini digital video player, an iPhone with service plan, a MacBook laptop computer, Wii and Wii Fit gaming consoles as well as more than 35 DVDs to stock a library of important documentary and journalism films for the students and faculty in the department.
“I started my career in the days of the typewriter and the Linotype, and I am pleased to be able to provide this support to Rutgers students,” said Kamin, who was editor-in-chief of The Daily Targum during his time at Rutgers. “I have a great deal of optimism for the future of our profession. I know that Rutgers’ journalism and media studies department and its distinguished
faculty are deeply committed to training the next generation of journalists.” Kamin entered professional journalism as a reporter at the Register after serving as an Army Signal Corps officer at Fort Monmouth.
In 1990, Blair Douglass Kamin and Brooke Kamin Rapaport established, with initial donations, the Kamin Fund through the Rutgers University Foundation in honor of their parents, Arthur and Virginia Palew Kamin, a Douglass College graduate.
Blair Kamin, a graduate of Amherst and Yale, is an author, Pulitzer Prize winner, and architecture critic at the Chicago Tribune. Brooke Rapaport, a graduate of Amherst and Rutgers, is an author, guest curator at the Jewish Museum in New York City, and a contributing editor to Sculpture magazine.
With the equipment, Rutgers students majoring in journalism and media studies will be able to engage in mobile reporting and produce multimedia packages for the World Wide Web. They will also be able to test new ways of receiving and consuming news and information. In 2008-09, there were about 450 students majoring in journalism and media studies.
“This generous and timely donation will help us teach our students vital skills in the digital media age. We are very grateful to Art Kamin for his continuing support for the Department,” said John V. Pavlik, chair of the Department of Journalism and Media Studies and a recognized expert in the field of digital journalism. “The funds will be key to ensuring that, in the near future, as many people as possible have the information they need to be active and informed participants in this democracy.”
The new purchases will also move the school further along in its video game initiative. Gaming is an area of growing societal influence and increased scholarly research and study; at Rutgers, the focus is on the economic, business, social, cultural and policy aspects of entertainment software and the online video game business.
“Video games are being used for commercial and political advertising and to reach people through the Web,” said Steven A. Miller, coordinator of undergraduate studies in the Department of Journalism and Media Studies. “They have been around long enough that they have become a permanent part of American and global culture. As conduits of information, video games are an important part of the ‘new media’ phenomenon.”
Students and faculty will now have access to an extensive library of notable movie titles, including “Reporters at War,” “Shattered Glass,” “Merchants of Cool” and “The Persuaders.”
These films will help clarify and illuminate subject matter in several conceptual courses in the undergraduate major.
“Our students learn time-tested reportorial skills in our foundation print and broadcast courses. From the inverted pyramid to ethical behavior, our faculty and staff cover the broad scope of information necessary for our students to succeed in this dynamic and demanding profession,” Miller said. “Students are trained to go to great depth to unearth the truth. Through writing and videotape, radio and blog, our majors are able to convey stories that will inform and educate now and in the future.”
Kamin majored in journalism at Rutgers, and has taught journalism courses as an adjunct instructor at Rutgers, Monmouth University and Brookdale Community College. Kamin is a former president of the New Jersey Press Association and is a retired member of the American Society of Newspaper Editors. He has served as a chairman of the Rutgers University Board of Trustees, and is a recipient of the Loyal Son of Rutgers award and the Class of 1931 Cup award.
The Kamin Fund has provided financial support to other areas of scholarly pursuit at Rutgers such as art history, architecture, women’s studies, urban policy and planning and the visual arts program at the Mason Gross School of the Arts.

August 18, 2005:

Heidi Bell Gease was covering Indian affairs for the Rapid City Journal when she came to Poynter in 2001 for a seminar on covering race. In 2003, she moved over to the cops and court beat, then went part-time when her son arrived. She and her husband now have two kids (Tate, who will be 2 in September, and Tia, who will be 1 in November), and she is working part-time, covering federal court and general assignment stories.

May 19, 2005:

Rafael Olmeda — general assignment reporter at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and a graduate of Reporting on Race Relations 2003 — was elected vice president/print of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists last summer (2004). Olmeda is now an adjunct professor teaching Writing Strategies for Reaching a Mass Audience at Florida International University.

Oct. 28, 2004:

Kelly Brewing from Reporting on Race Relations in 2002, is now at the Baltimore Sun covering demographics. She had been at the Orlando Sentinel.

Tom Brislin writes from Hawaii that he has a new role and title. He’s now Professor and Associate Chair at the Academy for Creative Media. Tom has attended several seminars at Poynter, especially in Ethics.

Joyce Dehli, 2002 Ethics Fellow, was named editorial training manager for Lee Enterprises. Joyce was managing editor of the Wisconsin State Journal.

Demetria Kalodimos is an Ethics grad and visiting faculty member from Power Reporting and Anchors as Newsroom Leaders. She is writing, reporting, shooting, and editing documentaries for her own genuine human productions. The latest, Pre-Madonna, sold out the Nashville Film Festival twice and was awarded for excellence by the Berkeley Film and Video Festival.

Corinne Milligan from Producing Newscasts in ’99, accepted a job as a morning show EP at WVEC-TV, the ABC station in Norfolk, Virginia. She’s very excited about this opportunity.

Sept. 22, 2004:

Ross Becker attended our 1989 Power Reporting Seminar. His passion for broadcast continues with his new position of anchor/managing editor for a staff of young people in Las Vegas at KTNV-TV.

Ron Coddington, senior designer at USAToday.com and visiting faculty for Information Graphics 2004 published his first book, “Faces of the Civil War: An Album of Union Soldiers and Their Stories.” It was released by Johns Hopkins University Press.

John Cutter has moved from his position as editor of the Lake County section of the Orlando Sentinel to working as an assistant city editor in the main newsroom. He’s supervising the “criminal justice” team, which is cops and courts to the rest of the world. John graduated from Poynter’s Leadership Skill Building Seminar in 2004.

Leslie Fulbright (Untold Stories 2003) is moving a bit south, from the Seattle Times to a new position at the San Francisco Chronicle.

Dean Gould writes from Australia that he’s happy in his new job. He’s Associate Editor of the Editorial Department at Gold Coast Publications Pty Ltd. Dean came to us for the Leadership Academy Seminar.

Roland Martin, Poynter alum from the College Editors Leadership & Ethics Program in the early ’90s is now executive editor of the Chicago Defender.

Meg Murphy is now a visiting lecturer for one year at Mount Holyoke College in western Mass. She’ll be teaching one course in journalism and freelancing. Meg was part of the 2003 Poynter Winning Writing seminar and left her job at the Eagle-Tribune in Lawrence, Mass.

Melissa Preas, a ’99 Newsroom Management participant, is happy in her new position at News Director at WNCT-TV in Greenville, N.C.

Virgil Tipton continues to keep in touch with Poynter since leaving the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He’s currently with NewsEngin Inc. Virgil fondly remembers his experience as a participant in the Leadership Development Program for News Executives in 1999.

Bonnie (Harris) Tormey was a graduate of our elementary and high school programs and just became the state editor of The Des Moines Register.

Angela Townsend, a member of the Government Beat 2004 seminar, made the switch from city hall to rejoining the education team at The Plain Dealer in Cleveland.

July 12, 2004:

Ann-Marie Adams, formerly of the Hartford Courant, is the 2004 Independent Press Association George Washington Williams Reporter. She’s currently writing a book on school desegregation. Anne-Marie attended both the 2001 “Reporting & Writing the Untold Stories” seminar and the 2002 “Newspaper Reporting, Writing & Editing” seminar.

Vin Alabiso is retiring from AP. In his current role as vice president and director of global business development/photos, Vin has forged significant new partnerships with photo agencies around the world and has set the stage for AP’s growth in the global marketing and sales of photos. Thanks for your many contributions!

Roberta Baskin, a true Poynter friend, has been selected to be a duPont juror for the next three years! She says that it’s the next best thing to winning awards!

Eric Deggans has big news! After seven years as TV/media critic at the St. Petersburg Times, he’ll be moving onto a news responsibility – joining the editorial board of the St. Petersburg Times. He’ll be helping write the unsigned editorials on the paper’s op-ed page. He’s also jockeying for a weekly column in the Sunday Perspective Op-Ed section. Eric has attended several seminars, including “Ethics Fellows” 2003 and “Covering Race Relations” in 1997.

Fernanda da Escóssia came to the “Reporting on Race Relations” seminar in 2003 while working at Jolha de S.Paulo newspaper. She now reports that she’s moved to O GLOBO newspaper, the second national newspaper, based in Rio de Janeiro. Congratulations!

Terri Fleming works for a non-profit organization, the Downtown Fond du Lac Partnership, in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. She’s really enjoying her work. Terri graduated as a 2001 “Ethics Fellow”and was then the Editor/Vice President of The Gazette in Colorado Springs.

Angie Kucharski has been promoted from News Director to Vice President of News/Station Manager at KCNC-TV, the CBS O&O in Denver. Angie is a frequent visiting faculty member in our “Producing Newscasts” seminars.

Wanda Lloyd, executive director of Vanderbilt University’s Diversity Institute, has been named executive editor of the Montgomery Advertiser in Alabama. She will be the first black editor of that newspaper in a state capital where much civil rights history took place. Wanda has been to Poynter for ASNE judging and other events.

Mark O’Keefe was named the editor of Religion News Service, effective September 2004. He spent the past four years as a national correspondent covering values and philanthropy for Newhouse News Service. Mark attended Poynter’s 2004 “Values & Ethics in the News” Seminar.

Jennifer O’Malley has switched jobs since she attended the 2004 “Newspaper Reporting, Writing & Editing: A Coaching Approach” seminar. She came as assistant city editor at the Indianapolis Star and is now the news editor for the Associated Press in Indiana. She has a new team to work her coaching magic on!

Leianne Pereira is excited about her job. She’s a General Assignment Reporter at CFTO, a Toronto affiliate station, part of CTV, which is a major television network in Canada. Leianne appreciates everything she learned in the 2003 “TV Power Reporting for Reporters & Photojournalists” Seminar.

Ricardo Pimentel has moved to the Midwest! Ricardo, who was an “Ethics Fellow” in 2003 had been Editorial Columnist at The Arizona Republic. He’s moved into Milwaukee to work at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel as the Editorial Page Editor. Enjoy those bratwursts, Ricardo!

Denise Reagan is a frequent visitor to Poynter and has moved from Savannah to Florida. She’s now the News Art Director at the Sun-Sentinel in Ft. Lauderdale. Welcome to sunshine!

Kalimah Redd attended our “Reporting on Race Relations” Seminar in 2002. She’s changed jobs to become a reporter for Globe South in Boston. Kalimah had been a reporter at the Portland Press Herald.

Kim Schumacher, a graduate of “TV & Radio Power Reporting” 2001 has moved from News 13 in Myrtle Beach to WRIC-TV in Richmond, Va.

Adam Sharp, who attended the first “Leadership Academy” seminar in 2001, is now the Deputy Communications Director for U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu in Washington.

Tim Wieland was promoted to News Director at KCNC-TV in Denver. Tim was a participant in Poynter’s “Leadership for TV & Radio News Directors” 2003 seminar.

Jan Winburn is a great friend of Poynter, having taught in several writing and leadership seminars. She’s moved from The Baltimore Sun to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Jan will join the projects department, working in the newsroom to identify great stories and guide mid-range and shorter-term enterprise. She’ll work with reporters directly on some stories, and on others she’ll serve as an editing coach.

March 31, 2004:

Richard Adkins cuts his Locks for Charity. He decided to get a major haircut and donate the tresses to charity. He arranged the donation to the Florida-based organization through the David Wade Salon in  Raleigh, N.C. His hair had to make at least a 10″ ponytail for donation. Richard was a Power Reporting Seminar 2003 grad and Visiting Faculty.

Michelle Eisenberg is a staff reporter and photographer at the Middletown Transcript, a weekly paper in the Dover Post Company in Delaware. She was a 2002 graduate of the News Writing and Reporting for College Graduates Fellowship program at Poynter. Michelle also was a winner in the Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association 2003 Editorial Contest for Division F: Non-dailies from 10,000 and under. She won in the category Medical/Science, 1st place for “A Local Woman Shares Courageous Battle with Breast Cancer.”

Hollis Towns, managing editor at Michigan’s Kalamazoo Gazette, has been named managing editor of the Cincinnati Enquirer. Hollis attended Poynter’s first Reporting on Race Relations Seminar in 1996.

March 15, 2004:

Paul Aker is headed to Seattle to work at KING-TV. Paul was a participant in our Enterprise and Investigative Reporting for Broadcasters Seminar while working at KAKE-TV in Wichita.

Geo Beach was elected to be on the Board of Directors at the Association of Independents in Radio. AIR is a 400-member organization of audio producers and allied professionals.

Tim Brown has accepted an Assistant Professor position at the University of Central Florida in Orlando.

Angshuman Das was a Media Leadership Fellow Graduate in Chip Scanlan’s 1996 Seminar, entitled Storytelling on Deadline. Angshuman is currently a new media producer in Kolkata, India.

Fernanda da Escossia attended our Reporting on Race Seminar in 2003. After almost 10 years at Folha de S. Paulo, she is moving to the O Globo Newspaper, based in Rio de Janeiro.

Robin Rowland (who attended the August, 1996 Computer Assisted Reporting Seminar) is the Toronto-based Photo Editor and producer for CBC.ca, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation website. He was part of the CBC news Online team that won the Online Journalism Award last fall for service journalism for its coverage of SARS.

Heidi Williams was a 2003 graduate of the Reporting on Race Relations Seminar at Poynter. She has left the Augusta Chronicle to join her husband in upstate South Carolina. She’ll be working for the Anderson Independent-Mail newspaper, covering Oconee County.

Kristen Young volunteers at the Denver Voice, a homeless newspaper in Colorado, through the Urban Servant Corps program. She joined the staff of the Voice in August, after two years of Peace Corps service in Moldova. Kristen previously worked at the Charleston (W.Va.) Daily Mail for two years following her summer at Poynter, where she attended the 1998 News Reporting and Writing Fellowship for College Graduates program.

Feb. 23, 2004:

Mike Abrams, who attended a Leadership and Ethics Seminar for College Editors (in ’93), is now the Portsmouth Editor for The Pilot in Norfolk, Virginia. He just attended our week-long leadership seminar for Mid-Level Managers.

Tokunbo Awoshakin completed Chip Scanlan’s 2002 Newspaper Writing & Editing Seminar. Shortly after that, he was selected to be the Kattering W. Fanning Fellow at the Kettering Foundation. He has since returned to his job as Washington, D.C. Bureau chief of The Anchor newspaper, published in association with The Independent of London.

Heather Bailey is now a Copy Desk Team leader at The Charlotte Observer in N.C. She had been the Features Editor at the Santa Barbara News-Press in Califiornia when she came to the New Leaders in the Newsroom seminar in October,2002.

Jared Burden came to Roy Peter Clark’s Writing & Editing Fellowship Program in the summer of 1984. He’s now a lawyer in the Shenandoah Valley, working for Wharton, Aldhizer & Weaver but has published some magazine features and short fiction in the last 20 years.

Miriam Lewin was one of our foreign journalists from Argentina who attended a 1998 Ethics Seminar. She was then working as an Investigative Reporter at Channel 13, in Telenoche Investiga, where she completed an investigation on child abuse which involved the most famous Catholic priest of her country, father Julio Grassi. After 11 years, she accepted an offer to move to another station, where she co-anchored and produced another investigative reporting show, Puntodoc.

Carolyn Mungo, a very frequent visitor to Poynter, won the Anna Quindlen Award for Excellence in Journalism on Behalf of Children and Families. One print and one broadcast award is given out every year. Without her knowing it, Carolyn was nominated by Child Protective Services in Harris County, Houston, Texas.

Chris Nguyen, a grad of the 2003 Reporting & Writing the Untold Stories Seminar, has moved from Special Projects Reporter at The Sun in San Bernardino, Calif., to working with AP in Los Angeles.

Cynthia Wang came to Ethics for College Journalists in 1991. She was then a student at Northwestern. Cynthia now tells us she’s Associate Bureau chief for People magazine in Los Angeles.

Jan. 9, 2004:

David Waters, former Columnist and Visiting Faculty in our 2003 Reporting on Faith, Religion & Values Seminar, has been named Associate Editor of The Commercial Appeal in Memphis.

John Lansing, a good friend to the Poynter family, has been named executive vice president for Scripps Networks.

Mary Flood, who was a Poynter Ethics Fellow in 2002, was recently interviewed on NPR’s Morning Edition about the latest developments in the Enron case. Mary is the Legal and Investigative Reporter at the Houston Chronicle.

Jo Cates, who was the first Chief Librarian at Poynter in 1985, has been named Dean of the Library at Columbia College.

Dec. 31, 2003:

Updates from a few folks in the 1996 College Ethics & Leadership Seminar

Ed Fletcher writes for The Sacramento Bee‘s capitol bureau.

Michael Landauer now works at the Arlington Morning News. For the past few years, he’s been writing suburban editorials and managing Opinions pages in suburban sections and zoned editions for The Dallas Morning News. He’s also the lead editorial writer in Collin County.

Michael Raum attended law school and then clerked for a federal trial judge in Fargo, N.D., for two years. He’s now living in D.C., where he’s a trial attorney for the Department of Justice, tax division. Michael litigates tax cases in federal trial and bankruptcy courts.

Big things from members of the Poynter Ethics Fellows 2002 class

Margie Nichols, WBIR news director, will now be working as director of communications and government relations for the city of Knoxville. She will also be in charge of policy development.

Pam Fine is now the Managing Editor of the Indianpolis Star.

Joyce Dehli has been promoted to Managing Editor at the Wisconsin State Journal.

Other folks

Chelsea Carter, a correspondent for The Associated Press in Orange County, Calif., has been named an AP national writer. She attended a Newspaper Writing & Editing Seminar in 2000.

One of our recent graduates in the Visual Journalism Fellowship Program wrote with good news. Edmund Fountain has been offered the spring photo internship at the Concord Monitor. He has also won two awards in the COPY contest!

Kehrt Reyher, a participant from the 1980’s in both design and management seminars, is the principal owner of Media & Marketing Polska (MMP), Poland’s leading media trade magazine, based in Warsaw.

Joe Lopez works in Boulder, Colo., at a PR firm and writes for Heritage, the in-flight magazine of Vietnam Airlines. He was a graduate of the Media, Management & Entrepreneurship program in 1993.

Brenda Box (Public Radio ’02) is now as associate producer at NPR in Washington, D.C.

Susan Ladd has been promoted to features editor at the News & Record of Greensboro, N.C. She was formerly assignments editor and enterprise editor at the paper. Susan attended the seminar on Writing, Editing, and Design for Assignment Editors in 2000.

Deborah Potter, former Poynter faculty and Executive Director of NewsLab, has accepted a job as Executive Director of RTNDF, the training and research affiliate of RTNDA.

Oct. 16, 2003:

Conroy Chino, a broadcast seminar alum, has been appointed secretary of the New Mexico Department of Labor by New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson. The former Investigative Reporter resides in Albuquerque.

Matthew Hilk was promoted to Assistant Newss Director at WTAE-TV in Pittsburgh. Matthew was a participant in the 1999 Producing TV Newscasts Seminar.

Chris Nguyen, Special Projects Reporter for The Sun in San Bernardino, Calif., was part of the team who won a National Journalism Award for Web Reporting. The series entitled “Teens Who Kill” was published in the Sun for seven consecutive days and continues to be available online. Nguyen participated in the 2003 Reporting & Writing the Untold Stories seminar.

Bode Opeseitan, a 2002 Poynter Ethics Fellow, has been appointed editor of his weekend paper, thee Nigerian Tribune, in Oyo, Nigeria.

Mizanur Rahman, a Poynter Ethics Fellow and Visiting Faculty at Poynter, left The Virginian-Pilot and is now Bureau Chief of the Northeast Tarrant Bureau of The Dallas Morning News.

Dan Serra, who participated in Reporting, Editing, Designing for Business Sections in 1999, is now  assistant business editor at The Colorado Springs Gazette.

Dan Serra, who participated in Reporting, Editing, Designing for Business Sections in 1999, is now  assistant business editor at The Colorado Springs Gazette.Sept. 25, 2003:

Ann-Marie Adams, formerly of the Hartford Courant, is a journalism fellow at Quinnipiac University. She’s currently writing a book on school desegregation. She was in the 2001 seminar “Untold Stories” and the 2002 News Writing and Editing workshops.
May 7, 2003:

The Honorable Carol Beier has been appointed to the Kansas Court of Appeals. She graduated from one of Poynter’s early graduate school management courses.

Melissa Block is the new anchor for “All Things Considered” on National Public Radio. She came to Ethical Decision-Making in 1992.

Paula Bock from The Seattle Times is the winner of the Ernie Pyle Award for Human Interest Writing. She has been Visiting Faculty at Poynter.

Cesar Brioso, who attended the Leadership for New Leaders (October 2002) Seminar is USA Today’s Baseball Editor.

Wright Bryan joined Ball State University as Web News Editor for the Center for Media Design. Wright participated in the Tough Choices: Doing Ethics Seminar in 1999.

Rebecca Catalano, a summer graduate of Poynter, won a 2002 National Award for Education Reporting. She placed second for features and her piece was entitled “Bobby’s New Game.” Rebecca works at the Mobile Register in Mobile, Ala.

Bill Chronister is now the Night Business Editor at the St. Petersburg Times. He participated in the Writing & Editing Seminar in 2001.

Eric Eyre won a 2002 National Award for Education Reporting. His series entitled “Closing Costs: The Long Haul and Broken Promises” won the first prize for a series award. Eric works at the Charleston Gazette in West Virginia and attended the 1999 Magazine Writing Seminar.
 
Claude Jackson was accepted at the Pre Law School Institute in Albuquerque, N.M. This is an exclusive summer program for Native American students entering their first year of law school. Claude was a participant in the Newspaper Writing & Editing 2001 Seminar.

David Molpus, an early participant in a Writing for Radio Seminar, has been re-assigned to NPR’s Business Desk in Florida. He works mainly on the changing nature of the workplace.

Eric Nazarenus was promoted to Assistant News Director at WGAL-TV in Lancaster, Penn. Eric attended the Leadership for New Leaders Seminar in October of 2002.

Rolando Otero has accepted the job of Deputy Director for Photography at the Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel. He was a participant in the Photojournalism Ethics & Leadership 1998 Seminar.

Laure Quinlivan, visiting faculty in the 2002 Power Reporting for Reporters and Photojournalists Seminar, won first prize for a 2002 National Award for Education Reporting. She works as an Investigative Reporter at WCPO-TV in Cincinnati, Ohio, and her story was entitled “Lawrenceburg Education Fund.”

Adrienne Wilson is now working at the State Capitol in Salem, Oregon reporting for a variety of the public radio stations in the Northwest. She attended the Reporting for Public Radio Seminar in 2002.

May 2, 2003:
Claudia Banks, a 2000 alumni of the writing, editing and design for assignment editors seminar, has been named the Chicago Tribune’s Chicago Bureau Chief, Metro. Banks had been Associate Editor in Business, focusing on Small Business for the Tribune. The change took effect April 21. 

 
April 7, 2003:
Mark Ginther has become News Director at WHO-TV in Des Moines, Iowa, effective April 7. Prior to the move, he was Asst. News Director at KSTP/KSTC Television, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minn.

February 24, 2003:
Amy Morris, who attended Poynter’s 2001 “Tough Choices: Doing Ethics” seminar, has taken a job as Executive Producer at WLS-TV in Chicago. She had been E.P. for KSTP-TV in Minneapolis. 
  

AWARDS

Jason Johnson writes that he’s a demographics reporter with the San Francisco Chronicle. He won first place for environmental reporting for newspapers with over 150,000 circulation from the NABJ Salute to excellence Awards. His story covered the poor health conditions for minorities in the Bay area. Jason attended a past writing program.

Our friend Carolyn Mungo from KHOU-TV in Houston won 2 more Emmy awards! One was for best writing and the other was for feature reporting. This was the Lone Star Emmy region. She’s been to Poynter many times, including first as a 1996 Reporting on Race participant. We’ve invited her back as visiting faculty several times.

John Blake and Bill Lobdell both won awards at the Religion Newswriters Association 2004 annual conference. Both were participants in the 2003 Reporting on Faith, Religion and Values November seminar. John works at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Bill reports for the L.A. Times. Great job!

Geo Beach has been named a finalist in the 2004 Golden Reel Awards for his NPR “All Things Considered” essay “A Numeric Grammar.” He attended the ’98 “Don Murray Colloquium II: Persuasive Writing Conference.” Geo has also been appointed to the Board of Distinguished Judges & Advisors of the International Radio Awards at the New York Festivals.

John Blake, Religion Reporter with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, has written his first book. It’s entitled “Children of the Movement”and has just been released. The book is already posted on Amazon.com. John came to our “Reporting on Faith, Religion, and Values” 2003 seminar.

Rogger Bustamante, newspaper designed of Al Día in Costa Rica, has won the Bronze medal at the Malofiej Awards in Spain. This award recognizes the world’s best in infographic design. Rogger was a participant in the 2003 “Diseño, Tipografía y Color para Diarios en Español” seminar, led by Mario Garcia.

Clyde Hughes and others at The Blade in Toledo, Ohio deserve kudos for the Pulitzer for Investigative Reporting. Clyde was in the 2000 “Reporting on Race Relations” seminar.

Melissa McCoy, assistant managing editor, and others at the Los Angeles Times celebrated in April winning five Pulitzer Prizes. Melissa was in our 2003 “Ethics Fellows” class.

Stephen Stock deserves a hand for his achievement in winning a 2004 George Foster Peabody award. Stephen is a 2004 “Ethics Fellow” and an Investigative Reporter at WESH-TV. He won for “Building Homes; Building Problems,” which exposed shoddy new home construction that prompted a flurry of legistive actions.

Alan Zagier, Senior Writer at the Naples Daily News, writes that his paper recently won the Scripps Howard Foundation’s Edward Meeman Award for national Environmental Reporting for a 15-part series on the Gulf of Mexico’s declining heath. It was entitled “Deep Trouble: The Gulf in Peril.” Alan was one of the project’s writers and helped line editor. Alan is a 2001 graduate of the “New Leaders in the Newsroom” as well as several other seminars.

Big congrats to 2001 Poynter Ethics Fellow Jeff Seglin. His “The Right Thing” collection of business ethics columns (from his New York Times column) was just named one of the best business books of 2003 by Library Journal. Way to go, Jeff!

Stuart Watson, Investigative Reporter at WCNC-TV in Charlotte, N.C., (Enterprise Broadcast Seminar) won the national Scripps Howard Award for his dental clinic investigation. Congratulations!

Kelley Benham, Feature Writer at the St. Petersburg Times, and a product of Poynter’s student journalism programs and Roy Peter Clark’s tutelage, has won the Ernie Pyle award.

Susan Ladd, features editor at the News & Record in Greensboro, N.C., won the Carl Bell Award for outstanding editing from the AP News Council for the second consecutive year. Susan attended the Writing, Editing, and Design for Assigning Editors seminar in 2000.

David Waters won a Wilbur Award for The Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Tenn., in the category of best newspaper column. His winning entry was entitled “Faith Matters.” David taught as visiting faculty in Reporting on Faith, Religion & Values Seminar, November of 2003.

Poynter friend and visiting faculty member, Carolyn Mungo, won two Emmys!

Tom De Walt won an award from the California Newspaper Publishers Association (CNPA). Second place 2002. The category was Information Graphics/Illustration. It’s no coincidence that this was the first major info-graphic he pitched, wrote, and designed after attending the “Information Graphics” Seminar in 2002.

Poynter alumni Mike Jenner, executive editor of The Bakersfield Californian (former visiting faculty) and Bob Christie, Californian city editor, (Jan. 2003 Leadership for Mid-Level Editors), received the 2003 Bill Farr Award from the California First Amendment Coalition (CFAC) and the California Society of Newspaper Editors. The Farr Award goes annually to an institution or individual who has performed exemplary work in the open government or press freedom arena and is named for Farr, a journalist who went to jail rather than reveal a source.

CFAC General Counsel Terry Francke noted that Jenner and Christie and their newspaper have been tireless champions of open government in Kern County, pushing reporters routinely to use open government laws when necessary to pry open meetings or records; sponsoring open government training for their community; and at one point suffering a union-organized subscription boycott when they persisted in demanding payroll information for public employees.

Todd Frankel won a 2002 SPJ Sigma Chi Delta award in feature writing for “Day Zero” at The Herald in Everett, Wash. He attended Poynter as a summer newswriting fellow. He is now a reporter with The St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

In January, Susan Ladd won the Carl K. Bell Award for editing from the N.C. Associated Press for editing and coaching on “Thrown Away,” the story of a local drug addict and prostitute who was murdered and thrown in a dumpster. The same story won the Thomas Wolfe Award for staff writer Nancy McLaughlin. Ladd is Enterprise Editor at the News & Record of Greensboro, and attended the “Writing, Editing and Design for Assigning Editors” seminar at Poynter in May 2000.