ALUMNI NEWS

JJ AKIN (M.A. ’22) is senior manager, media relations, at Fast Horse.

CAITLIN ANDERSON (B.A. ’20) is a reporter at the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal, covering technology, startups, residential real estate and health care.

After 41 years as publisher, MARGO ASHMORE (B.A. ’78) sold the Northeaster, the community newspaper serving Northeast Minneapolis, St. Anthony, Columbia Heights and Hilltop.

JIM BAYER (B.A. ’75) is a co-editor of Eden Prairie Local News, a startup nonprofit digital news organization published at eplocalnews.org.

TIM BLOTZ (M.A. ’11) received an Upper Midwest Emmy for his work as a news anchor on FOX 9.

PHAVANNA NINA BOUPHASAVANH (B.A. ’03) joined Best Buy in a newly created role as a social impact content producer to lead storytelling efforts around Teen Tech Centers across the country.

BEN ENGEN (B.A. ’22) is content creative at Rise and Shine and Partners.

MARIAH FLORES (B.A. ’20) is a news reporter at LinkedIn News.

NATASHA FREIMARK (B.A. ’95) joined Mall of America as its tourism sales director.

JESSICA GORDON (B.A. ’22) is a marketing coordinator at Libra Solutions.

ALEXA GRACE (B.A. ’22) joined West Monroe as a consultant with the Operations Excellence - Organizational Change Management practice in the Chicago office.

LINDSAY GROME (M.A. ’13) is now the director of marketing and development at OneSource Center for Nonprofit Excellence.

MAGGIE HABASHY (B.A. ’07) started a new role at ExxonMobil leading communications and public/government affairs for the Low Carbon Solutions business.

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TIM BROWNE (B.A. ’72) published his book The History of Yacht Racing in Minnesota—How Its Sailors and Boat Builders Transformed Competitive Sailing in America: 1870-2022

WILLOW BUCKNER-GAUDYNSKI (B.A. ’20) joined KARE-11 as a visual storyteller.

EMMA CAREW GROVUM (B.A. ’09) joined the staff of The Marshall Project as its first ever director of careers and culture. Carew Grovum will develop and execute a strategy to identify, recruit and communicate with future Marshall Project employees.

MACKENZIE DAVIS (B.A. ’20) has been a reporter at KAAL TV in Rochester, Minn., for almost 2 years.

LINWOOD HAGIN (M.A. ’79) retired as senior associate provost of academic administration at North Greenville University.

REBECCA HARRINGTON (B.A. ’14) is an executive editor at Insider in the News Division.

BRITTANY HAVILAND (B.A. ’06), is a producer for the TODAY show and received her fifth Emmy in June 2022.

HAMY HUYNH (B.A. ’20) is talent acquisition & DEI manager at Colle McVoy.

GRETA KAUL (B.A. ’12) is associate editor at MinnPost.

AVA KIAN (B.A. ’21) was named MinnPost’s race and health equity reporting fellow. The full-time position covers the different ways poverty, discrimination, education, employment, transportation,

Alumni

housing and the environment affect health and health care among Minnesota’s communities of color.

VINCENT KIERNAN (M.A. ’84) wrote “Atomic Bill: A Journalist’s Dangerous Ambition in the Shadow of the Bomb,” a biography of The New York Times science journalist William L. Laurence, published by Cornell University Press. Kiernan had a successful career as a science writer before earning a Ph.D. He is now the Dean of the Metropolitan School of Professional Studies at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

DOUG KILLIAN (B.A. ’82) is now senior director of marketing and public relations for Pleasurebent Tours in Tucson, AZ. He previously served in communications and marketing roles for Northwest Airlines and Mall of America.

EUNAH KIM (Ph.D. ’22) is an assistant professor at Mount Royal University in Alberta, Canada.

AVA KLOPFENSTEIN (B.A. ’22) is a content specialist at Curious Plot.

JULIA LARSON (B.A. ’21) started a position as an editorial assistant at Wine Spectator magazine in New York City.

AMANDA LEPINSKI (M.A. ’22) is now communications manager, Optum OI Provider Market, at Optum.

TYRESE LEVERTY (B.A. ’21) was the co-director of the 2023 Student Advertising Summit, the local annual event where students can learn and network with professionals in the industry.

SHANNON MURPHY (B.A. ’12) is creative director at MONO.

KATE NELSON (B.A. ’07) was named Editorial Director of the Year by Folio and was honored at the annual Eddie & Ozzie Awards in September 2022. She was also a 2022 James Beard Media Award nominee.

TYREL NELSON’s (B.A. ’03) book, Travels and Tribulations, was recently selected as a Silver Winner (Collection of Human Relations Indie Short Stories or Essays) in the 2022 Human Relations Indie Book Awards. It was also listed as a Silver Winner in the April 2022 Literary Titan Book Awards and a Finalist (Memoirs: Overcoming Adversity/Tragedy) in the 2022 Next Generation Indie Book Awards.

SADA REED (B.A. ’03, M.A. ’11), assistant professor at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, co-authored a paper with Jennifer Harker of Lipscomb University, that analyzed how American and Russian journalists covered doping scandals of their own athletes and athletes hailing from the other country after the athlete in question denied using PEDs. The study, “Dope and deny: A comparative study of news frames in American and Russian coverage of American and Russian athletes,” was recently published in International Journal of Sport Communication.

SHEPARD ROGERS (B.A. ’22) is a public relations coordinator at Lola Red.

GAIL ROSENBLUM (M.A. ’93) retired from the Star Tribune. She was also named to Pollen Midwest’s “50 Over 50” for her career-long work in solutions journalism. The judges said, in part, that “it takes a special kind of journalist to stand knee deep in the muck of the daily news cycle for 45-plus years and not become a jaded cynic. But fueled by the belief that each of us is obligated to do our part to fix the world, Rosenblum has chosen to lift up stories about goodness, hope, and change.”

FERNANDO SEVERINO DIAZ (Ph.D. ’20) is an assistant professor at Illinois State University.

ALEXANDRA SMITH (B.A. ’19) is a media relations specialist with the University of Minnesota Medical School.

MELVIN SMITH (B.A. ’75) and Rose J. Smith presented “Journey of a Lost Tribe,” an online exhibition in collaboration with Amanda Hunt, Oct. 6-Dec. 3, 2022.

THAN TIBBETTS (B.A. ’06) is now a director of engineering at TED.

PHUONG TRAN (B.A. ’20) is a user insights analyst, Tools & Reporting, at TikTok.

CHARLEY WALTERS (B.A. ’75) has been at the Pioneer Press for 48 years.

JAMIE YUCCAS (B.A. ’04) joined KCAL 9, the CBS affiliate in Los Angeles, as one of its morning anchors. In addition to this role, Yuccas keeps her positions as a national correspondent for CBS News and as the host of Nickelodeon’s “Nick News.”

In Memoriam

LYNN (UNDERWOOD) BALLINGER (B.A. ’80) died on Sept. 10, 2022. She worked for the Star Tribune for 40 years, writing on many topics, most recently in the Homes and Gardens section. Gardening was one of her passions.

TIM BROWNE (B.A. ’72) died on Sept. 28, 2022. During his career, Browne worked at corporations such as Colle McVoy, Young & Rubicam, HBO and Anheuser Busch. In 1987, Browne and his wife, Colleen, formed Browne+Browne Marketing, serving clients such as Wells Fargo, Dodge and Polaris. Browne was a champion sailor and just published a book about yacht racing before his death.

REGENE ‘REGGIE’ RADNIECKI (B.A. ’77) died on Aug. 30, 2022. She had a long career as a photojournalist at the Star Tribune. As one of the only female photojournalists at the time, Radniecki had to fight her way into Twins and Vikings locker rooms to cover Minnesota sports. After leaving the Star Tribune, she taught photojournalism at many schools, including Bemidji State University and Minnesota State University-Moorhead.