We look to our national Communications Advisory Board for both professional expertise and program support. Our students benefit enormously by having media professionals and corporate executives come to campus each semester to share their expertise in classes and with individual students. In fact, students tell us the Advisory Board visit is a highlight of the semester. In turn, our faculty benefits from their discussion of communication trends that may impact our curriculum, our internship program and the job market for our seniors. Additional program support comes in the form of gifts and development efforts. For example, the Advisory Board and other sources have raised more than a half-million dollars in gifts and pledges to support the School of Communications.
Brian Williams (national chair) is only the seventh anchor and managing editor in the history of NBC Nightly News. In his first five years on the job, he became the most highly decorated network evening news anchor of the modern era. He has received 11 Edward R. Murrow Awards, 12 Emmy Awards, the duPont-Columbia University Award, the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism and the industry’s highest honor, the George Foster Peabody Award. Many were awarded for his work in New Orleans while covering Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. The New York Times said his reporting of Katrina was "a defining moment,” and Vanity Fair magazine later called his work "Murrow-worthy" and reported that during the crisis he became “a nation’s anchor.” In 2006, Time magazine named Brian Williams one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
Williams is a former NBC News Chief White House Correspondent, and former anchor and managing editor of The News With Brian Williams on MSNBC and CNBC. He has traveled the world extensively, including two years covering the president on board Air Force One. He has covered numerous nominating conventions and presidential campaigns and elections, and has moderated seven presidential debates. He was the first NBC News correspondent to reach Baghdad during the 2003 war in Iraq, and was part of a U.S. Army helicopter mission that was forced down by enemy fire south of Najaf. He nonetheless has returned to Iraq several times, in addition to recent travels to Afghanistan and Iran.
He is a native of Middletown, N.J., where he spent many years as a volunteer firefighter, and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation. He attended Catholic University and George Washington University, both in Washington, D.C. He is a former White House intern, and has been awarded seven honorary degrees. Williams is a frequent guest on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and has often appeared with David Letterman, Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien. He has written for The New York Times, Time, Newsweek and The Wall Street Journal. After hosting Saturday Night Live in November 2007, Entertainment Weekly said his name belongs alongside SNL’s all-time greats. He is married to Jane Stoddard Williams and together they have a daughter and son. Brian Williams was named "Father of the Year" in 1996 by the National Father's Day Committee.
Michael Radutzky (vice chair) was named senior producer for the former Ed Bradley Unit, which produced reports for “60 Minutes,” in January of 2005. After Ed Bradley’s death in November 2006, he was named senior producer for “60 Minutes,” a supervisory role in the selection, pursuit and production of critical “60 Minutes” stories. The seven-time national Emmy winner has been producing “60 Minutes” segments for the show since 1995, including for many of the news magazine’s biggest headline-making exclusives. In 2000, he produced the only television interview of Oklahoma City Bomber Timothy McVeigh, an effort that won him his second Emmy. He obtained the only interview with Michael Jackson after his arrest on child molestation charges in 2003. His 1998 interview with Kathleen Willey was the first in which she spoke of unwanted sexual advances from President Bill Clinton. In 1997, Radutzky produced two reports that uncovered racism and abuse of female cadets at the Citadel military college. A 1999 report revealed rampant bias at the U.S. army base where a gay soldier was murdered. His 1997 interview with six of the late Robert F. Kennedy’s children is the largest ever group interview of the Kennedy family.
His 2006 reports on the Duke Rape Case, which brought to light the flaws in the case against the three Duke University Lacrosse players were awarded the Peabody, Murrow, and Emmy Awards. This past season Michael Radutzky was at the center of many of the most important stories broadcast on “60 Minutes.” Michael was the senior producer on six reports on candidate and then-President Barack Obama. This work has been nominated for two Emmy Awards.
The nation was riveted when US Air Flight 1549 made an emergency landing in the Hudson River, saving all 155 onboard. The plane’s pilot, Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, told his story for the first time to “60 Minutes.” Michael led the team of producers who obtained that interview with Capt. Sullenberger, his wife, and the flight crew for a special three-part segment, which he wrote and produced.
Some of Radutzky’s best work has been on medical stories. He produced an exclusive report in 1997 on the first human testing of a promising class of cancer drugs. He won his third Emmy for a 2002 profile of terminal cancer patients given a new chance by the creative and aggressive treatments of leading oncologist Duke University’s Dr. Henry Friedman.
Radutzky won his first national Emmy for his breaking news coverage of the explosion of TWA Flight 800 on the “CBS Evening News” in July 1996. He came to “60 Minutes” from the “CBS Evening News” in late 1995, where he was producing medical, investigative and hard news stories since 1988. Before that, he was a producer for the CBS Morning News beginning in 1987. He joined CBS in 1984 as an investigative news researcher for the CBS owned-and-operated television station in Chicago, WBBM, where he rose to producer and won two local Emmys. Before that, Radutzky had been a reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times for two years. He began his career as a reporter for a Chicago weekly newspaper in CITY.
Radutzky was born in New York City in 1956. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin at Madison with a bachelor’s degree in American history in 1978. He lives in Summit, N.J., with his wife, Katherine, and three children.
Ann Camden has more than 15 years of communications management and public relations experience. In 2006, Ann was named a shareholder in Gibbs & Soell, a top mid-size independent public relations firm. Ann joined Gibbs & Soell in the Chicago office in 1993, before transferring to the Raleigh office in 1996. Ann currently oversees client work in both agribusiness and home and building products, while also serving as a core part of the agency’s business development team efforts in the southeastern United States. Ann’s experience includes extensive public and media relation efforts, crisis communications management and oversight of tactical programs: collateral production, digital media, trade show/event management, product, service and corporate launches.
She is a regular on the drama team at Asbury United Methodist Church and is also very involved in the local YMCA Endurance Running Program. She earned a B.S. in Agricultural Communications from Purdue University.
Kelly Carlton, who graduated from the University of Cincinnati with an M.F.A. in Electronic Media and Film, is the creative director of Trailer Park in Hollywood. After freelancing for Ethos Interactive and Deloitte and Touche for two years in Cincinnati, Ohio, he took a position as a motion graphics artist at Acme Filmworks in Hollywood. While at Acme, he worked with directors to create animated commercials and main title sequences. A year later Kelly joined Intralink Creative as an Art Director in 1998. Soon after he became the Creative Director of Motion Graphics and created and led team of talented motion graphic designers, whose impressive work ranges from feature main titles to entire CG graphic teaser trailers and corporate logo design and animations. Some of his work from Intralink Creative includes “The Dark Knight” theatrical campaign, “Angels and Demons” teaser trailer, “Valkyrie” theatrical campaign, “The Da Vinci Code” main titles and theatrical campaign and “Surfer, Dude” main titles and feature graphics.
Michael Clemente is senior vice president of News for FOX. Previously, Clemente spent 27 years at ABC News, most recently as a senior executive producer of the ABC Digital Media Group (2006-09). There, he served as the executive producer of ABCNews.com and ABC News Now. During his extensive career at ABC News, Clemente most notably launched ABC News Now (2004-06), the first ever fully live 24/7 broadband wireless news channel. He also held the positions of senior broadcast producer for "20/20" with John Stossel, Elizabeth Vargas and Barbara Walters (2001-04) and executive producer of ABC’s breaking news specials during that same period. He served as senior broadcast producer for "World News Tonight" from 1997-99 and was the chief producer for Peter Jennings, responsible for much of the editorial and creative direction for the anchor.
Prior to ABC News, he spent two years at CNN (1996-97). There, he oversaw all live and breaking news coverage out of Washington and helped grow CNN’s signature talk shows of that era, including "Crossfire," "Reliable Sources" and "Inside Politics." Earlier in his tenure at ABC News, Clemente served as the senior producer of "This Week with David Brinkley" (1987-93). He was also a senior editor-producer of "World News Tonight" in New York (1983-87) and spent three years as an editor/writer on the program, as well. He is a graduate of American University’s School of Communications.
Nina Easton has served as Fortune's Washington editor since 2006, covering people and policy in the nation's Capitol for a readership of more than 5 million. She has produced cover stories on such major figures as President Barack Obama and former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, and explored the impact of critical economic trends, such as rising anti-globalization sentiment, on the political process. She is author of “Power Play,” a column appearing on CNNMoney.com.
Nina is a regular panelist on "Fox News Sunday," "Special Report" with Brit Hume and the 2008 Fox News Election Desk, where she has provided primetime commentary each primary election night as well as during the Democratic and Republican political conventions. She has also co-hosted CBS' "Face the Nation" and appeared on ABC's "This Week," PBS' "Washington Week in Review" and National Public Radio, among others.
During the 2004 presidential election, she was a political analyst on CNN's "NewsNight with Aaron Brown." That year, she also co-authored the book “John F. Kerry: A Complete Biography” and coordinated much of the Boston Globe's political coverage as deputy chief of that newspaper's Washington bureau, a position she held from 2003 until 2006.
Nina is the author of the acclaimed political history “Gang of Five: Leaders at the Center of the Conservative Ascendancy” (Simon & Schuster, 2002), which was praised by the Washington Post for telling the story of post-Reagan conservatism "more inventively, exhaustively and entertainingly than anyone else." Her insights into the rise of the modern political right prompted the Wall Street Journal to dub her "the Dian Fossey of conservatism.” In 1982, she co-authored the book “Reagan's Ruling Class: Portraits of the President's Top 100 Officials,” a Washington Post best-seller that profiled the capital's new leaders.
From 1988 until 1998, Nina was a staff writer for the Los Angeles Times and its Sunday Magazine. Her articles won numerous major awards, including the National Headliners Award for best magazine writing and the Sunday Magazine Editors Award for investigative reporting. Before joining the Los Angeles Times, she covered business for The American Banker, BusinessWeek and Legal Times, where she reported on the 1980s savings and loan crisis as well as critical policy debates over the direction of the nation's banking system.
Nina is a native of California and a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of U.C. Berkeley.
Anders Gyllenhaal was named executive editor of The Miami Herald in 2007. From 2002 to 2007, Gyllenhaal (pronounced JILL-in-hall), was editor and senior vice president at the Star Tribune, Minneapolis-St. Paul. Previously, he was executive editor and senior vice president of The News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C. He joined The News & Observer in 1991 and worked as metro editor and managing editor before becoming editor in 1997. He also serves as the chair of the Pulitzer Prize Board.
Born in Cleveland, Ohio, and raised in a small town in Pennsylvania, Gyllenhaal is a graduate of George Washington University. His first reporting job was at The Daily News Record in Harrisonburg, Va. Following that, he worked at The Press in Atlantic City, and then The Miami Herald, where he spent 12 years as a reporter, editor and head of the paper's Fort Lauderdale office.
He is married to Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal, who writes a weekly cooking column that appears in approximately 115 papers across the United States and Canada. A member of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, he joined the Pulitzer Board in 2001.
Ellen Weaver Hartman, APR, Fellow PRSA, is president of Weber Shandwick/Atlanta. Hartman has almost 30 years of experience in global corporate and investor communications, consumer branding and strategy and business to business. She has worked for some of the world's most well known brands, including Cox Enterprises, Cox Communications, Manheim DRIVE, Cox Radio, MasterCard, CheckFree, BellSouth, Kraft, Popeyes, Avon Products and Coca-Cola. She has expertise in media relations and crisis management, including such situations as food-borne illnesses, labor issues, workplace violence, legal issues and financial mismanagement.
Hartman was vice president and chief communications officer for AFC Enterprises, where she managed all internal and external communications. Hartman also was a senior vice president for both Fleishman-Hillard and Manning, Selvage & Lee and worked for The Coca-Cola Co. in financial communications.
Hartman serves on the boards of The Carter Center, the American Institute for Managing Diversity, the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregiving, Georgia State University's School of Hospitality, Elon University's School of Communications and the Public Relations Society of America/Georgia Chapter, where she was president in 2001. She also is a member of the Arthur Page Society for senior level communication professionals, the International Women's Forum, Les Dames d'Escoffier, the Women's Foodservice Forum and the Multi-Cultural Foodservice Hospitality Alliance.
Hartman is a graduate of the University of Mississippi with a bachelor's degree in journalism.
Stavros Hilaris is a digital media and production executive with technology, management and business expertise in new media, broadcast, cable, telecommunications, satellite communications, IT & e-commerce. He has held engineering, operations, development and senior management positions in the above industries. As the chief technology officer for National Geographic Global Media in Washington, D.C., he has the honor of spearheading several major initiatives including a transition from a videotape based to a digital file based environment, including media asset management and centralized ingest, transcode and storage. Additionally, his software development team has created a next generation content management system for rapid publishing of Web content. He was previously senior vice president, technology for Ascent Media in the broadcast and media field.
In 2001 he founded and managed Mediavision LLC to engage in business and technical consulting and to provide professional services. Mediavision comprised a telecommunications practice, fixed and mobile satellite practice, IT and e-commerce practice and broadcast, cable and new media practice. Stavros has held senior technology and management positions at Vectant, a Japanese communications provider, Net2000, a regional CLEC, Teleglobe, a global telecommunications provider, Worldcom and its acquired company IDB Communications, CBS Television and Warner Amex Cable Communications.
He has built engineering and operational teams, software development teams and built global networks and switching & data centers. He has strong international experience in Europe, Asia and Latin America. He has participated and contributed to U.S. and international standards organizations. He has presented and co-authored papers at the National Association of Broadcaster’s, European Broadcasting Union and several Digital Media and Global Satellite organizations.
He was an advisory board member for Optim Systems, a network device software management start-up company, until its acquisition in January 2002. He holds a BSEE and MBA in International Business from Farleigh Dickinson University and an MSEE from Polytechnic University. He is registered as a Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA).
Tom Howe is the chief executive responsible for UNC-TV's 11-station public television network, and the director and general manager of UNC-TV. Howe manages a budget of $27.7 million and a staff of 174 employees. Since Tom joined UNC-TV in 1992, annual contributions to UNC-TV have increased 136 percent.
Under his leadership, UNC-TV launched the state's first statewide weeknight television information magazine, “North Carolina Now,” which is a staple in many North Carolina households. Since 1992 Tom has overseen improved transmission in Chapel Hill, Winston-Salem, Charlotte/Concord, Edenton/Columbia and Asheville, as well as the construction of a station in Lumberton. He has overseen the FCC-mandated conversion to digital television, which converted from analog to digital 11 major transmitter sites, more than 20 translator sites, the 35-site microwave interconnection system and the network program origination center. This also led to UNC-TV’s expansion from a single program service to four full-time services. During his tenure, statewide viewership has increased significantly, and now more than four million viewers watch UNC-TV weekly. This, along with a variety of new series and specials and a significant increase in original local productions, makes UNC-TV a very active facility.
A graduate of San Diego State University, where he earned both a bachelor of science and a master’s degree, Tom has devoted more than 40 years to public television. Before coming to North Carolina, Tom spent 10 years as an executive at KCTS in Seattle, and prior to Seattle, he served in programming and production management positions in Albuquerque, N.M., Nebraska, Hawaii and San Diego, Calif. During his career he has supervised programs that have won 120 program awards, including a national Emmy, a Peabody Award and 40 local Emmys. In 2003 he was awarded the Distinguished Service Award from the North Carolina Association of Broadcasters, and in 2004, he received the Governors’ Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Board of Governors of the Nashville/Midsouth Chapter of The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. The University of North Carolina at Greensboro’s Department of Broadcasting and Cinema named him the 2005 recipient of its Distinguished Broadcaster Award.
Tom presently serves on the Elon University School of Communications Advisory Board and the UNC Chapel Hill School of Journalism and Mass Communication Board of Visitors. His is also a member of The Fifty Group. He and his wife, Lindi, live in Hillsborough and have a son, Sean, who is a lawyer living in Seattle.
MJ Jacobsen is vice president of communications for the National Geographic Society. She oversees a staff managing consumer and trade publicity campaigns for the Geographic’s programs and products, including magazines and the National Geographic Bee. She also oversees the intranet employee newspaper and cross-platform editorial campaigns.
Before joining the Society in 1987, she was an on-air reporter at WJLA-TV and WTTG-TV in Washington, D.C., KPHO-TV in Phoenix, WTVF-TV in Nashville and WOWK-TV in Charleston, W.Va. She taught journalism at Arizona State University from 1981–1982. A 1976 graduate of American University in Washington, D.C., MJ holds a bachelor’s degree in political science. She is a third-generation Washingtonian and lives in Silver Spring, Md., with her husband, actor Rick Foucheux, and their two daughters.
Founded in 1888, the National Geographic Society is one of the world’s largest nonprofit scientific and educational organizations. It reaches nearly 370 million people every month through its magazines, the National Geographic Channel, books, videos, maps and interactive media. The Society has funded more than 9,000 scientific research projects and supports an education program combating geographic illiteracy.
Allen H. Johnson III, editorial page editor of the Greensboro News & Record, is a Greensboro native who took deadlines seriously from day one; he was born weeks early at the old L. Richardson Memorial Hospital. He relishes the chance to discuss issues that affect his hometown's future. He joined the News & Record in 1987 as features editor. In 1992 he became sports editor and in 1999 editorial page editor. Allen leads editorial board meetings, edits most editorials and writes some editorials. He also screens letters to the editor and writes a weekly column.
Allen is an alumnus of UNC-Chapel Hill, where he received an undergraduate degree in English with highest honors and a master’s degree in journalism. He received the W.P. Jaycocks Award as the outstanding male in the UNC Class of 1973. He was editor of the weekly Winston-Salem Chronicle from 1981-87, during which the paper won more than 70 state and national awards.
Allen has taught part time at a variety of area colleges, including UNC-Chapel Hill, UNCG, Winston-Salem State, North Carolina Central and, currently, North Carolina A&T. In 1996, he taught a short course in newspaper management for newsroom executives in Zambia (formerly Northern Rhodesia).In addition, he has volunteered at several local schools, including Rankin, Jones and Hunter elementary schools and Lincoln and Jackson middle schools. He has served on the boards of Big Brothers/Big Sisters and Youth Focus Inc.
Never having entirely grown up, he is a model train buff and a member of Carolina Model Railroaders. He also likes to read, especially biographies and science fiction, and is addicted to jogging, despite bad knees and rapidly advancing age.
Doug Limerick has been an ABC News correspondent since 1982. His radio career began in 1961 at WOHS Radio in his hometown of Shelby, N.C. Limerick attended Wake Forest University, majoring in Speech and also working at the campus radio station. Following college, Doug joined the Air Force, hoping to land a job in radio or television, but ended up as a Russian linguist in England in Pakistan. After the Air Force, Doug joined a small station in Monroe, N.C., before moving onto radio jobs in Raleigh, N.C., Birmingham, Ala., Charlotte, N.C., and Boston.
In 1979, Limerick joined Washington, DC’s WRQX Radio. During this time, he also handled the weather at Washington’s Channel 7. Limerick frequently substituted for the late Paul Harvey and has won many awards, including two Edward R. Murrow awards.
Limerick is married with three daughters and is also a grandfather. He currently resides in Fairfax Station, Va. He enjoys golf, football, good food and a fine glass of wine.
Mary Beth Marklein has covered higher education full time for USA TODAY since 1987. Before that, she was a freelance Washington correspondent for the Baltimore Sun and San Francisco Chronicle, and contributed to a number of publications, including USA TODAY. She earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1981, and a master's from American University in Washington. D.C. In 2007, she received a fellowship from the Hechinger Foundation for Education and the Media to write about community colleges. In 2004-05, she taught journalism to college students in Romania as a Fulbright scholar. She also spent a sabbatical the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill in the summer of 2001 to study the role of technology in higher education.
Sunshine Overkamp, APR, Fellow PRSA, is chairman of Overkamp Overkamp-Smith, a management, marketing and communications consulting firm specializing in strategic planning and crisis communications. She previously served as vice president of the Council on Foundations, senior vice president of the United Way of America, as senior staff at two local United Ways, as a university administrator and professor and as a journalist.
She has an MBA from Pepperdine University and a BA from Michigan State University. She has done post-graduate work in management at Harvard University and in law at Marymount Manhattan. Among her many honors is an Emmy from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, election to Honor Roll of Women in PR and being named most admired practitioner of non-profit public relations by pr reporter. An active PRSA member, she has served on the national board, chaired the Ethics Promotion Committee, the Social Services Section and the Honors and Awards Committee and served on the Universal Accreditation Board, the Strategic Planning Committee and other national and local committees.
Byron Pitts was named a contributor to CBS’ “60 Minutes” and chief national correspondent for “The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric” in January 2008. He had been a national correspondent since February 2006. Prior to being named contributor, Pitts reported occasionally for “60 Minutes” since 2006. His first story on the broadcast, an interview with New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin in August 2006, made national news. Prodded by Pitts about how long it was taking to clean up his city’s streets a year after Hurricane Katrina, Nagin shot back by mocking New York City’s longtime efforts to rebuild Ground Zero. “That's all right. You guys in New York City can't get a hole in the ground fixed and it's five years later. So let's be fair,” said Nagin, who later apologized.
Pitts was one of CBS News' lead reporters during the Sept. 11 attacks and won a national Emmy award for his coverage. As an embedded reporter covering the Iraq War, he was recognized for his work under fire within minutes of the fall of the Saddam Hussein statue. Other major stories covered by Pitts include Hurricane Katrina, the war in Afghanistan, the military buildup in Kuwait, the Florida fires, the Elian Gonzalez story, the Florida presidential recount, the mudslides in Central America and the refugee crisis in Kosovo.
Pitts was named CBS News correspondent in May 1998 and was based in the Miami (1998-99) and Atlanta (1999-2001) bureaus before moving to New York in January 2001. Before that, Pitts was a correspondent for CBS NEWSPATH, the 24-hour affiliate news service of CBS News, based in Washington, D.C. (1997-98). He joined CBS News from WSB-TV Atlanta, where he was a general assignment reporter (1994-96). Previously, Pitts was a special assignment reporter for WCBV-TV Boston (1989-94) and a reporter and substitute anchor for WFLA-TV Tampa, Fla. (1988-89). He also served as a reporter for WESH-TV Orlando, Fla. (1986-88) and as a military reporter for WAVY-TV Virginia (1984-86). While at WNCT-TV Greenville, N.C., he reported and served as weekend sports anchor (1983-84).
Pitts’ other awards include a national Emmy Award for his coverage of the Chicago train wreck in 1999 and a National Association of Black Journalists Award. He is also the recipient of four Associated Press Awards and six regional Emmy Awards. Pitts was born on Oct. 21, 1960, in Baltimore, Md. He graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1982 with a bachelor of arts degree in journalism and speech communication. He lives with his wife in Upper Montclair, N.J.
Tony Quin was born and educated in the United Kingdom and came to the United States in his 20s to work at Leo Burnett Advertising in Chicago. Stints at both NBC and ABC in New York followed before he moved to Los Angeles. In Hollywood, Tony produced TV series and specials for NBC, ABC and syndication, as well as writing and directing TV commercials. In 1995 he founded IQ television group in Atlanta, which subsequently became IQ Interactive. Tony created the Marconi awards for the radio industry and was a founding member of the Society of Digital Agencies (SoDA), where he is currently a member of the board. He is also a member of the board of Digitainment Georgia, an initiative to bring creators of digital entertainment to the state. He has won numerous awards for his writing, directing and interactive work. Since 2003 his company, IQ Interactive, has accumulated more than 200 national and international awards including the Grand Prize at Cannes for their VW work.
In 2008, IQ Interactive, with offices in Atlanta and New York, was named one of the top three Interactive Agencies in the United States by BtoB magazine. IQ’s clients include IBM, UPS, Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft and Royal Caribbean. Tony has written extensively about what’s next in the digital world and appears frequently as a speaker.
Lee Rainie is the Director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project, a non-profit, non–partisan “fact tank” that studies the social impact of the internet. The Project has issued more than 200 reports based on its surveys that examine people’s online activities and the Internet’s role in their lives. All reports and the Project’s data are available for free.
Lee is a co-author of “Up for Grabs” and “Hopes and Fears” and “Ubiquity, Mobility, Security,” a series about the future of the Internet published by Cambria Press. He is also co-authoring a book for MIT Press about the social impact of technology with sociologist Barry Wellman that will be published in late 2010. The working title is “Networking: The New Social Operating System.”
Prior to launching the Pew Internet Project, Lee was managing editor of the newsweekly magazine U.S. News & World Report. He is a graduate of Harvard University and has a master’s degree in political science from Long Island University.
Rick Rogala rejoined Nexstar Broadcasting as senior vice president of the Little Rock, Ark., media properties on July 6, 2009. He has operating responsibility for the Nexstar owned or operated television stations located in the states of Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois and Indiana. Rick came to Nexstar from Media General owned WCMH-TV (NBC) in Columbus, Ohio. Prior to his position in Columbus, Rick served as general manager of Nexstar’s KARK-TV in Little Rock, Ark. Previous to his role in Little Rock, Rick served as general manager of WXIN-TV/WTTV-TV in Indianapolis, Ind., WFLA-TV in Tampa, Fla., WLWT-TV in Cincinnati, Ohio and WZZM-TV in Grand Rapids, Mich. He has also served as president of Rogala and Associates, is co-author of the book “FUEL an Extraordinary Life” and produced motivational radio messages heard daily on more than 300 radio stations across the country. He began his 27-year career with Blair Television and served in various sales management roles in St. Louis, Mo., Pittsburgh, Penn., and Dallas. A graduate of Ohio University, Rick has served on various industry and community boards.
Gayle Sierens co-anchors News Channel 8's 5, 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts. Sierens joined the Channel 8 staff in 1977 as a weekend sports anchor/reporter and became the 11 p.m. weekday sports anchor in March of 1983. In addition to these responsibilities, she freelanced as a play-by-play announcer for ESPN, the cable sports network. In October of 1985, Sierens made the transition from sportscaster to news anchor.
In 1984, Sierens was honored with a Florida Emmy Award for sports reporting. In 1991, as a news anchor, she won her second Emmy for news reporting. Prior to joining WFLA-TV, Sierens was with WFSU-TV in Tallahassee, Fla. She received a B.S. degree in mass communications with a minor in speech communications from Florida State University.
Currently, she is on the board of directors of the Judeo-Christian Health Clinic as well as the Boy's and Girl's Clubs of Greater Tampa. She also serves as chairperson for the Big Brother's/Big Sister's annual "Bowl for Kids' Sake" fundraiser. Sierens was the first woman to do play-by-play for an NFL football game and also appeared on "NFL Live" on NBC. She lives in Tampa with her husband, Mike, and their three children.
Stuart Snyder is a veteran entertainment executive and president and chief operating officer of Turner Broadcasting System Inc.’s Animation, Young Adults & Kids Media. In this capacity, he is responsible for assets including the cable networks Cartoon Network, Boomerang and Adult Swim, along with their respective digital businesses and two animation production facilities, Cartoon Network Studios in Burbank, Calif., and Williams Street Studios in Atlanta. Additionally, Snyder liaises with TBS International on programming strategies for network operations in Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America & Caribbean and Japan. Snyder’s role also includes executive responsibility for consumer products and domestic advertising sales and marketing of these properties. Snyder is based in Atlanta and reports to Philip I. Kent, chairman and CEO of TBS Inc.
Previously, Snyder served in senior executive roles for such diverse businesses as GameTap, CINAR Corporation, Turnstile Entertainment, World Wrestling Entertainment Inc., USA Home Entertainment, Feld Entertainment Turner Home Entertainment and MGM/UA.
Michael Vadini is the founder and CEO of TITAN Technology Partners. TITAN is a leading provider of IT strategy, enterprise professional services, enterprise managed services and IT outsourcing solutions. TITAN is currently among the fastest growing ERP services firms in the U.S., performing more than 1,000 projects for more than 250 firms throughout the United States. Michael leads the strategic development of TITAN. He defines the strategy, structure, values and financial objectives for the firm. Prior to founding TITAN, Michael founded PRIMA Consulting in 1994 and led the company to become one of the largest information management consulting firms in the United States. PRIMA Consulting, which offered strategic planning, enterprise systems (ERP/Supply Chain) and information management solutions, grew to 16 cities across the country with more than 300 consultants and achieved annual revenue of $50 million. In 1997, Michael successfully sold PRIMA Consulting. For one year following the sale, he assumed the responsibility for a $140 million national consulting practice.
Prior to forming TITAN and PRIMA Consulting, Michael spent seven years in the management ranks of the telecommunications industry with Ameritech (ticker: AIT). There, he was a participant in the formation and execution of AIT's entry into the consulting field. Following his work at AIT, Michael worked for the Strategic Management Services Group of Cincinnati Bell Information Systems (CBIS). While at CBIS, Michael was responsible for client management of the Chicago region focused on the delivery of client/server solutions to the Fortune account base.
Michael is a recognized leader and speaker in the areas of entrepreneurial business, business strategy and IT strategy and business transformation for Fortune and mid-market firms. His expertise and leadership in the consulting arena is regularly tracked and referenced by trade press, investment community and client base. With 20 years of extensive IT experience, he has served as an IT strategy consultant to clients ranging from small/medium size to the largest multinational companies in the world. During his career, Michael has personally led the development and execution of IT strategy at the following companies: Dunlop-Maxfli Corporation, Proctor & Gamble, BellSouth, The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, National City Corporation, Invacare, SCANA Corporation, Corning, Hoechst Celanese, Sara Lee, Dyersburg Fabric, Pioneer Standard Electronics, American Electric Power, Duke Power, Exel Corporation, Brunswick Corporation, JM Huber, Lydall Corporation, Michelin, OM Group, Realty One Corporation and Piedmont Natural Gas.
Michael holds a B.A. in Business Administration from Baldwin-Wallace College and MBA studies from Case Western Reserve. He owns several other small companies in diverse industries including furniture, film and real estate. He is a member of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO), the Entrepreneurial Leadership Circle, and the School of Communications Advisory Board at Elon University. He is an avid golfer.
Ken White is the news director at Fox Charlotte, the No. 1 rated Fox news affiliate in country, where he developed and launched news programming at the station. Ken has won multiple Emmys and RTNDAC and AP awards. He is also a National Delta Sigma Chi winner and RTNDAC News Director of the Year (2004). He served as president of RTNDAC from 2003-2007.
Ken began his career as the sports director WAKA in Montgomery, Ala. He’s also worked as a political reporter and assignment manager at WPXI in Pittsburgh, Penn., and assistant news director at WXII-TV in Winston-Salem, N.C., and a news director at KTBS-TV in Shreveport, La. Ken graduated from the University of South Florida with a B.A. in Mass Communications-Broadcast, English Literature and English Education.
Jack Womack is senior vice president of domestic news operations and administration for CNN/U.S. He oversees a portfolio of departments that serve both the CNN News Group and CNN’s worldwide broadcast affiliates.
Named to his current position in 2000 Womack has executive responsibility for CNN Newsource, CNN Satellite Services, The CNN Affiliate Wire, CNN U/S News Group Administration, CNN world wide Sports and CNN Satellite Technologies. He is based at CNN World headquarters in Atlanta and reports to Ken Jautz, executive vice president of Operations and Administration for CNN World wide.
Under Womack’s leadership, CNN Newsource is the world’s premiere syndicated news service with over 950 domestic affiliates and 300 international affiliates. CNN’s Satellite Services leads the way in providing live from the field transmissions from all over the world. CNN’s engineering and satellite departments won an Emmy for their digital news gathering technology design in 2008.
Also under Womack CNN debuted the CNN Affiliate Wire service in 2009. This service is powered by the CNN worldwide news gathering resources and provides clients with hundreds of text stories and photographs each week.
Womack remains active in a variety of technology and capital projects that bring together the various CNN networks, Turner Properties and CNN’s broadcast engineering departments. In addition to this work he is involved in a variety of employee programs through his co-sponsorship of the CNN Action Team.
Womack joined the company in 1984 after working in local television and radio. He has held a variety of positions at both CNN and Turner Broadcasting Sytem to include: Manager of the CNN Public Relations department, senior vice president for editorial for CNN Headline News (now HLN), executive vice president CNN Headline News and executive vice president CNN affiliate services.
Womack has lectured at the University of Georgia, Piedmont College, Grambling State University and the University of Montana. He spent 12 years in the Montana and Georgia National Guard and attained the rank of captain before leaving in 1993. Womack is an executive board member of the Georgia chapter of Juvenile Diabetes and coaches many youth sports. He is on the school of communications advisory boards for Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw Georgia and Elon University in Elon, North Carolina.
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