Alumni News

MICHAEL ACHTERLING (B.A. ’20) is a reporter and digital media supervisor for the Detroit Lakes Tribune.

HEIDI ANDERSON (B.A. ’92) is now president and chief growth officer at Nox Health, where she will be responsible for leading all commercial efforts to promote, sell and manage relationships with employer clients, health plans and partnerships.

JAY BOLLER (B.A. ’10), along with three former City Pages editors, launched Racket, a new digital news, arts and culture newsroom in the Twin Cities.

PHAVANNA NINA BOUPHASAVANH

(B.A. ’03) is a journalist with CCX News in Brooklyn Park, Minn., while continuing to run her business, I Heart Storytelling.

KELLI BRADY (M.A. ’14) is now director, strategy, at Roundpeg Consulting.

KEVIN COSS (B.A. ’11, M.A. ’20) joined the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency as a communications specialist.

PATRICK FILE (M.A. ’09, Ph.D. ’13) was awarded tenure and promoted to associate professor at the Reynolds School of Journalism at the University of Nevada-Reno. He was awarded a one-year sabbatical for academic year 2021-2022 to work on a book on the early legal history of photojournalism.

TERRY FISHER (B.A. ’60), who earned his way through his senior year by drawing Minnesota Daily editorial cartoons, now draws cartoons for his Asheville, N.C., community’s bimonthly newsletter.

LAURA FITZPATRICK (B.A. ’12) is now strategy and culture manager at Hulu.

KATY FRIESZ (B.A. ’02) was promoted to vice president, corporate responsibility, at Winnebago Industries and continues to serve as executive director for the Winnebago Industries Foundation In December, she was elected as chair of the Minnesota Council on Foundations board of directors.

SARA KEHAULANI GOO (B.A. ’98) is now editor-in-chief at Axios. She was also the news publication honoree at last year’s Multicultural Media Correspondents Dinner, held in November.

SOFIA HAAN (B.A. ’21) is now a research assistant with MSPC, a content marketing agency in Minneapolis.

MIRIAM HERNANDEZ (M.A. ’78) accepted an Emmy for the Crime/ Social Issues News Story award for her work at ABC7 in Los Angeles and Southern California.

MUKHTAR IBRAHIM (B.A. ’11) won the Emerging Leader of the Year award from The Institute for Nonprofit News.

BRETT JOHNSON (Ph.D. ’15), associate professor at the Missouri School of Journalism, was named a 2021-2022 Presidential Engagement Fellow. The systemwide program recognizes outstanding faculty who excel at communicating their research to the public and charges them with representing the UM System at several outreach events throughout the state each year.

NANCY KEATING (M.A. ’84) was named the winner of the 2020 Antivenom Prize by Elixir Press, which has published her second volume of poetry, White Chick.

KEVIN KEEN (B.A. ’09) joined UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency, as a communications officer.

ANTHONY KIEKOW (B.A. ’09) received the Community Development Leadership Award at the annual North County, Inc., breakfast for his work on the Help Hazelwood Get Healthy strategic communications campaign. Through the campaign, Hazelwood School District promoted life-saving COVID-19 mitigation strategies and helped vaccinate approximately 850 people. Kiekow is the director of communications and public relations for Hazelwood School District, which is located in suburban St. Louis, Mo.

AMY NELSON (M.A. ’02) is now editor of Minnesota Monthly magazine.

TINA NGUYEN (B.A. ’21) is now associate editor at Twin Cities Business.

JOHN S. NICHOLS (B.A. ’67, M.A. ’74, Ph.D. ’79), professor emeritus of communications and international affairs in the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications,

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received Penn State’s 2021 McKay Donkin Award. Established in 1969 in honor of the late McKay Donkin, the award is presented to a full-time member of the faculty or staff or to a retiree who has contributed most to the “economic, physical, mental or social welfare of the faculty” of the University. The contribution should be for duties or services above and beyond the recipient’s regularly assigned duties.

MICHELE NORRIS (B.A. ’85) was named to the American University Sine Institute’s 2022 class of fellows and distinguished lecturers. These experts lead discussions and study sessions with students, as well as convene and participate in campus-wide events throughout the year.

MIGUEL OCTAVIO (B.A. ’19) started as a journalist at WTSP-TV in Tampa Bay in September.

COURTENAY PARKER (B.A. ’20) moved to Seoul, South Korea, to teach English at a private academy.

SAVANNAH SIMMS (B.A. ’19) is now at Leo Burnett working on the Unilever portfolio.

C.J. SINNER (B.A. ’08) became the director of graphics and data visuals at the Star Tribune.

MELVIN R. SMITH (B.A. ’75) donated his sculpture titled “The Spirit Of Rondo” to the city of St. Paul, Minn. The sculpture honors the first African American community and James Thompson, the black founding father of St. Paul.

JAKE STEINBERG (B.A. ’19) started graduate school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, pursuing an M.S. in cartography and geographic information systems.

DEEPAK PREM SUBRAMONY (M.A. ’99) is professor and coordinator of educational technology graduate programs in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at Kansas State University.

JOY WINKIE VIOLA (B.A. ’57, M.A. ’58) self-published From Schnitzel to Nockerln And Everything That Happened In Between, a memoir about her life traveling all seven continents with her husband.

JENNIFER VOGEL (B.A. ’92) saw her memoir, Flim-Flam Man: The True Story of My Father's Counterfeit Life, become a movie called Flag Day, starring Sean Penn.

NANCY YANG (B.A. ’04) moved from MPR to the Star Tribune as senior editor for audience engagement.

IN MEMORIAM

CHARLENE FOLLETT (B.A. ’56) died Jan 13, 2021. After graduating from the Hubbard School, she went on to earn a Master’s degree and Ph.D. in Educational Psychology. She became a licensed therapist and worked as a student counselor at the U of M for many years before joining the Minnesota Human Development Consultants (Minneapolis). She is survived by her husband, Don Follett (B.A. ’56).

DENNIS ‘D.J.’ LEARY (B.A. ’61) died Aug. 4, 2021. He started his media career as a DJ at KDWB radio. He then took a position on the media advance team for Hubert H. Humphrey’s presidential campaign. He established his own firm, Media Services, and was a well-respected adviser in politics, journalism and public relations. He founded the Politics in Minnesota newsletter, was a commentator for Almanac, and served on many boards of directors. Gifts in honor of Leary can be contributed to the DJ Leary Fellowship Fund, give.umn.edu.

DENNIS NUSTAD (B.A. ’62) died on Oct. 12, 2021. After graduating, he spent time with the Peace Corps in Peru. He then went on to be a writer and account manager for the advertising agency BBDO, ending his career in 1994 as a VP Account Supervisor. Some of his accounts included 3M, Hormel Foods, Cargill, Pillsbury, Burlington Northern, Dodge and more.

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