Annenberg Alumni News, Fall 2017

The latest news from Annenberg School graduate alumni.

By Toni Walker

We love to hear from our alumni! To share your news with us, please click here.

1960-1969

Bonnie Good (M.A.C. ’62) retired from her career as an Independent Fundraising Professional. She will celebrate 55 years of marriage with her husband Jerry Good (M.A.C. '62) in February of 2018.

Bill Novelli (C'63, M.A.C. ’64), a distinguished professor at McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University, oversees Georgetown’s Global Social Enterprise Initiative. Novelli also co-chairs the Coalition to Transform Advanced Care, which reforms advanced illness and end of life care in the U.S.

Anne Klein (W'64, M.A.C. ’65) retired from her role as owner and CEO of Anne Klein Communications Group, LLC, but continues to do marketing for the firm. She and her husband Jerry were recognized for their achievements in a Joint Resolution of the NJ Legislature commending AKCG on its 35th anniversary and new owner and CEO of the firm. Klein also has a book in the works about “The Women of Penn C’64.”

1970-1979

Peter Flemington (M.A.C. ’71), broadcasting executive, producer, documentary filmmaker, and teacher, had his professional archives acquired by York University Archives & Special Collections in Toronto.

Eric Macey (M.A.C. ’75), founding partner of Novack and Macey LLP, was elected by Best Lawyers magazine as its 2017 “Lawyer of the Year” for Real Estate Litigation in Chicago. For the sixth straight year, he was also selected by Super Lawyers as one of the top 100 attorneys in Illinois.  

Robert Steeg (C'73, M.A.C. ’75), Managing Partner at Steeg Law, recently completed a term as Chair of the City Planning Commission of New Orleans, a body on which he continues to serve as commissioner. He is also on the Executive Council of the local NPR radio station, WWNO-FM. Steeg has written several articles for the law firm newsletter and website, as well as for The Lens and the local SPCA chapter.

1980-1989

Diane Steinour (M.A.C. ’86) serves as the Telecom Policy Specialist for the US Department of Commerce, where she’s currently busy with the new G20 Digital Economy Task Force, the G7 process, and more recently the NAFTA renegotiation.

Roy Head (M.A.C. ’89) is the CEO of Development Media International. DMI has just generated the first randomized trial to prove mass media can change behaviors. It was a three-year trial focused on child survival in West Africa.

1990-1999

Kristen Conrad (M.A.C. ’92) is the Director of Customer Research at LHK Partners Inc.

Bette Kauffman (M.A.C. ’82, Ph.D. ’92) retired from full-time teaching at the University of Louisiana Monroe. She is starting a chapter of the Louisiana Master Naturalist for the Northeast corner of the state and serving as part-time chaplain to the University of Louisiana at Monroe student ministry.

Joelle Reizes, (M.A.C. ’92), the Communications Director at Life Line Screening, has published fiction under the pen name JD Blackrose.

Eleanor Novek (M.A.C. ’90, Ph.D. ’94), Professor of Communications at Monmouth University, published an article entitled, "Jail Pedagogies: Teaching and Trust in a Maximum-security Men's Prison" in Dialogues in Social Justice.

Brigette Rouson (M.A.C. ’94), principal consultant of Rouson Associates, is also a consultant and the Network Engagement and Racial Justice Action Team Liaison for Road Map, a national team of consultants dedicated to movement building organizations. She is a co-founder, board member, and team member of Diverse City Fund, a grassroots grantmaker which supports changemakers of color in the nation's capital.

Christopher Koepke (M.A.C. ’89, Ph.D. ’95), Director of the Strategic Marketing Group at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, has spent the past five years directing the enrollment marketing for HealthCare.gov among other outreach and research activities for CMS. He also continues to play in two big band jazz bands as a hobby.

2000-2009

Erika Prosper (M.A.C. ’00), Senior Director of Customer Insights at H-E-B Corporations, will serve as the Chairwoman of the executive board of the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in 2018. In 2016, Prosper served as the 2016 Chair of the Steering Committee for the Latina Leadership Institute.

Jessica Fishman (M.A.C. ’96, Ph.D. ’01, M'06) has a new book, Death Makes the News: How the Media Censor and Display the Dead (New York University Press), which will be available on October 27, 2017.

Ron Nirenberg (M.A.C. ’01) was elected Mayor of San Antonio, Texas in June 2017.

Brian Southwell (M.A.C. ’97, Ph.D. ’02) is the Director of Science in the Public Sphere Program and senior research scientist in the Center for Communication Science at RTI. He is also an Adjunct Professor at Duke University and a Lecturer at UNC Chapel Hill. Misinformation and Mass Audiences (The University of Texas Press), edited by Southwell, will be available in January 2018.

Alex Slater (M.A.C. ’03), founder of communications and public affairs firm Clyde Group, has become Chair of the Whitman Walker Foundation Board of Directors.

Jody Madeira (L'03, Ph.D. ’07) is a Professor of Law and Louis F. Neizer Faculty Fellow at Indiana University Bloomington. Her second book, Taking Baby Steps: How Patients and Fertility Clinics Collaborate in Conception (University of California Press), will be published in January 2018.

Magdalena E. Wojcieszak (Ph.D. ’09), Associate Professor at the University of California, Davis, is currently running for the Vice-Chair of the Political Communication division of the International Communication Association.

2010-2016

Nicole Maurantonio (Ph.D. ’10), Associate Professor of Rhetoric & Communication Studies at University of Richmond, was awarded a year-long fellowship from the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities for her book project, “Changing Hearts and Minds: Memory, Race and the Confederacy in 21st Century Richmond."

Michael Serazio (Ph.D. '10) and Emily Thorson (Ph.D. '13) recently co-authored “Sports Were Already Politicized. And Sports Culture Is Deeply Conservative,” an op-ed in The Washington Post about research they did on sports fandom and political attitudes.

Aymar Jean Christian (Ph.D. ’12), Assistant Professor of Communication Studies at Northwestern University was named an inaugural fellow with the Peabody Media Center. His research project Open TV (beta) has received much recognition, and his new book Open TV: Innovation Beyond Hollywood and the Rise of Web Television (New York University Press) will be published in January 2018.

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