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SAVE THE DATE: 2017 HALL OF FAME
Thursday, September 14, Juban's Restaurant
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| Tommy Simmons (1968) received this year's Grace "Mama" Marino Lifetime Achievement Award from the Baton Rouge Epicurean Society. This is an industry award never received before by a member of the professional media. Simmons wrote a food column in The Advocate for more than 30 years and now resides in Georgia. |
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Hatfield
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Dan Hatfield
(MJ 1987), was part of the team at the East Bay Times (East Bay of San Francisco) to win the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News for coverage of what was known as the ghost ship fire that killed 36 people. Hatfield is the editorial page editor for the Times. He has been in the newspaper business for 44 years in Florida, Louisiana and California. He was city editor at The Advocate for 16 years and was an adjunct instructor of journalism at the Manship School.
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Wilson-Barker
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Valentina Wilson-Barker
(1992) was honored by the Baton Rouge Area Association of Black Journalists in Baton Rouge on April 21. She received the Pioneering Journalist Award of Excellence at the fifth annual scholarship luncheon. She is an anchor at News Channel 12 in Greenville, NC.
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2000-2009
Amy Boyle Collins
(2001) was promoted to vice president of Gambel Communication, New Orleans. She is immediate past-president of American Fundraising Professionals and incoming chair of the Women's Professional Council.
Jason Dore'
(2003) left the Republican Party of Louisiana to take a job with President Donald Trump's administration. He has been executive director of the state Republican party for the past six years and will relocate to Washington with his family.
Jacob Landy
(2006), along with his business partner, Kyle Huling, celebrated the one-year anniversary of their business, Urban South Brewery in New Orleans.
Erin Sayes Kenny
(2007; 2011 J.D.) was elected a partner in the Taylor Porter law firm in Baton Rouge. She joined the firm in 2011 and serves on the Strategic Planning and Recruiting Committees.
Sunny Mayhall West
(2008) an associate in the law office of Breazeale, Sachse & Wilson, was honored at the inaugural CLUB BLUE Great Futures Gala in April as one of 15 outstanding young professionals in Greater Baton Rouge.
Robert McAlister
(2008) and family moved back to Mandeville from Washington, D.C. He is vice president of sales at Vigilante Coffee Co. He and wife Holly have two children.
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2010-2017
Rigoberto Herrera-Zelay
(2012) is working as a campus minister with Chi Alpha Christian Fellowship in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Michael Lambert
(2012) finished LSU Law School in 2015 and is clerking for a judge at the Washington, D.C. Superior Court. He recently co-authored a text book, "Internet Law Essentials: U.S. Social Media Law."
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James Carson (2013) recently became director of operations and development for the Louisiana Budget Project.
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| Fairey |
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Leigh Fairey
(2013) is the associate production manager at Turner Sports PR.
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Bria Turner Felicien
( 2014 ) won first place in the Digital Sports Project. She is a digital producer at The Greenville News in South Carolina.
Christina Li
(2014) is a creative content developer at Bandujo Advertising + Design in New York. She writes and designs for clients such as Audible and JP Morgan Chase.
Mallory Richardson (2014) is the communication coordinator for the Jake Jabs Center of Entrepreneurship in the University of Colorado's Business School in Denver. |
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Grillot |
Chris Grillot
(2014) is finishing his masters in screenwriting at UCLA. He attended the Academy Awards ceremony this year.
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Erin Hebert
(2015) is a copy editor/page designer at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Previously, she was a copy editor/page designer at The New York Times Editing Center in Gainesville, Fla.
Michael Edmonson
(2015) is working at a non-profit wealth management company in Washington, D.C., Whisnant Strategies. Some of its clients include the United States Institute of Peace and the U.S. Olympic committee.
Kelli Griffin ( 2015 ) recently accepted a position with the LSU Office of Financial Accounting. Previously, she was on the tax staff at Ernst & Young in Houston.
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| Chvonjan |
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Allison Chvonjan
(2015) recently accepted an account executive position at Cooksey Communications in Dallas. She is in charge of internal and external communications, crisis communication, event management and more.
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Broussard |
JoLena Broussard
(2016) was awarded the Huel Perkins Leadership Award by LSU Black Faculty and Staff Caucus. She is pursuing her MBA degree in the LSU College of Business.
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MARRIAGES & ENGAGEMENTS
Nicolas Persac
(2010) and Tori Yu (2011) announced their engagement in January. He is the social media coordinator at The University of Texas in Austin, and she is a public affairs representative at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the same university.
Shay Randall
(2008) married Tony Warfield this spring. They reside in Houston, where Shay teaches at Reed Academy and is a hair stylist.
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Ginger Gibson
(2008 ) married Travis Burk in March. She is a political reporter at Thomson Reuters in Washington.
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Meg Casper
(1994) married Eric Sunstrom last fall. She is the press secretary for the Louisiana Secretary of State in Baton Rouge.
Rachel Whittaker
(2011) became engaged to Adam Jones on Feb. 25. She is a marketing communications associate at the New Orleans Business Alliance.
Sarah Voelkel
(BAMC, 2012; MMC, 2015) married Robert Killeen (2013) this spring. Sarah is an account manager at Feigley Communications, and Robert is a marketing director at Big Fish Presentations in Baton Rouge.
Raimy Living
( 2009) is engaged to Kevin Vital, and they are planning a December wedding. Raimy is unit manager at Altria Group Distribution Company.
Laura Crosswell (Ph.D., 2013) married Joel DesOrmeau in February. Laura is an assistant professor of health communication at the University of Nevada at Reno.
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BIRTHS
Emily Burris Hester
(2006) and husband Chris Hester welcomed Hayden James Hester on Sept. 6, 2016. The family resides in Baton Rouge.
Ted Greener
( 2011, MMC ) and wife Elizabeth welcomed their first child into the world on January 4. Her name is Hannah Leigh Greener. Ted is the director of DCI Group in Washington.
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| Buttry |
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Steve Buttry
, director of Student Media, died Feb. 19, after a third battle with cancer. He was recognized for his growing role as both a pioneer and scribe of the newspaper industry's digital transformation and held leadership roles in newspapers all over the country for four decades.
Steve was also an educator who served as a tireless mentor to students. To honor Steve's memory, some of his friends have set up a scholarship for students majoring in mass communication at the Manship School. You can make an online donate by clicking here.
Steve received the Rich Jaroslovsky Founder Award from the Online News Association Sept. 17, 2016 and the Chairman's Citation from the National Press Foundation the day before he died. True to form, Steve blogged his own obituary.
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| DeFleur |
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Melvin DeFleur
, renowned Mass Communication scholar and distinguished professor at the Manship School, passed away in Baton Rouge on February 13, 2017. He was 93. His wife, Margaret DeFleur, is also a professor in the Manship School.
DeFleur was a pioneer in mass communication theory and research and made significant contributions to the disciplines of sociology and psychology. He wrote numerous articles and more than a dozen books which were translated into multiple languages. His book "Milestones in Mass Communication Research," was honored by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication as one of the ten more significant books of the 20th century.
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What our students are saying...
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Drake Boudreaux, graduating senior
"The Manship School of Mass Communication has afforded me countless opportunities, from serving as an Orientation Leader for incoming Mass Communication students for the past 3 years to allowing me to study abroad in Greece as the 2016 Luke S. Bashore Traveling Scholar. I am so proud to be a Manship student and I am honored to represent my senior college as a
Homecoming Court Member."
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Thanks to all alumni who helped with Manship events. Here are just a few:
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Jim Engster (1981) and Dan Borne (1998, MMC) with NCAA President Mark Emmert at the Reilly Center Sports Communication Summit held Nov. 2, 2016.
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Associate Dean Andrea Miller with Katherine Terrell (2012) and Chris Hagan (2011) at the Sports Summit.
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Emily Villere Dixon (2009) was a panelist at the Sports Summit.
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Wilborn Nobles (2015) was also a panelist at the Breaux Symposium.
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Let's stay in touch!
Have you moved? Changed jobs? Updated your e-mail address or phone number? Received an award?
If there's anything you'd like us to know, send an Alumni Update to
Linda Rewerts. We'd be happy to post internships and jog openings, too.
We also encourage you to visit the
Manship School website - there is so much happening, you won't want to miss a thing!
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Copyright © 2016. All Rights Reserved.
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