The Francis B. Francois Award was created by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials in 2000, honoring a former AASHTO executive director. The AASHTO Standing Committee on Performance Management chooses the winner of the award, a state transportation department, which has implemented an outstanding innovative program.

By accepting the award, WSDOT received a fellowship to bestow on state university students. They decided to partner with the University of Washington to create the strategic communications competition, with $5000 going toward the chosen competing teams to fund the completion of their projects. “The partnership with WSODT is a great example of the value that places like UW and WSU can add…the development of timely and relevant solutions to the challenges that we face in the state of Washington,” said Scott Macklin, Associate Director of the Master of Communication in Digital Media.

Presenting first were Shan and Huang, with their recommendations on how the WSDOT can better communicate with students surrounding the SR520 bridge construction, and how they can make travel across the bridge more convenient for the UW student body. The team recommended that a status widget for the UW website be created in order to notify students of most recent updates on the construction that would link directly back to the WSDOT website. Shan and Huang also recommended more frequent use of social media by WSDOT with updates similar to what would be on the UW widget, as well as a more easily student-accessible payment system for the GoodToGo tolling system.

Saenz was next to present, and brought forward her idea of “Short C.U.T.S. (Short Creative Uses of Traffic in Seattle)”. Saenz recommended that WSDOT spark conversation within the community about ways to get around congested areas through social media and message boards. People can share their own “secret” routes, and learn what insight others may have, as well. She also suggested that WSDOT partner with different companies, like Microsoft, PBS, or Audible.com, to provide commuters a way to get to their “happy place” when they are stuck in traffic. Possible activities drivers could engage in could include learning a new language, listening to an audio book, or practicing their karaoke skills.

Lastly, Fraser, Palubicki and Sperry shared their social media guidebook which can help WSDOT employees choose the best social media tools for the different kinds of information they want to communicate to the public.  The team determined that most people use Facebook to get information from WADOT. The public would like to see more posts about traffic accidents and other things that may affect their driving and interact more with WADOT when the agency uses photographs and cross-promotion amongst many social media platforms in their social media posts. On WSDOT’s YouTube page, the most popular videos are disaster simulations and the team determined that people generally want to see things that they wouldn’t normally see. WADOT should continue to give the public visualizations like that, but be conscious of YouTube best practices surrounding length and editing of videos to tell a better story.

Jeremy Bertrand of WSDOT Communications said he was very happy with what he saw in the presentations. “It was a pleasure working with the students and hearing such unique and creative ideas presented to real world problems.” To learn more about the students’ proposals, watch their presentations on the Flip The Media YouTube page >>

Communication students in lecturer Amoshaun Toft‘s Qualitative Inquiry and Discourse classes have worked all Spring quarter to produce the website, ‘Change the Discourse’, focusing on how the public talks about the Occupy movement. According to the website, “Change the Discourse is a collaborative project engaged in analyzing the following question: How is the Occupy/99% movement represented through discourse in the public sphere?”

Toft says, “The site presents 23 collaborative original discourse analysis research projects that students completed looking at how the Occupy/99% movement has been produced through language use in the public sphere.”

Check out the website here >>

Visit our Flickr page to see all the photos from the event >>

Department Chair David Domke presented Rita Brogan (BA, 1972; MA, 1975) the Distinguished Alumnus Award. Brogan, President and Chief Executive Officer of PRR, Inc., gave the keynote address.

Read Brogan’s full remarks to the graduating class >>

The Department of Communication held its 2012 Celebration of Excellence in CMU 120 on May 23. Here are the winners!

Skip to:
• Scholarship Awards
• Pioneer Awards
• Kaplan Awards
• Nyquist Undergraduate Research Awards
• Nyquist Public Speaking Awards
• Judges

Scholarship Awards

Journalism Foreign Intrigue Endowed Scholarship

Katelin Chow

Kat is a senior in the University Honors and Department of Communication honors programs, studying journalism and Asian American studies. She’s excited to work for The Cambodia Daily in the summer and is passionate about reporting on immigrant communities. Recently, Kat worked for the Seattle Weekly as a food truck columnist and visual arts calendar editor. She is working with Allrecipes.com on creating its press website, and is interning with The Seattle Times’ digital news team. She recently jumped into political blogging with the UW Election Eye. Kat has also worked with NBC Universal at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, KOMO News, the Seattle Review, Comcast, UWTV and The UW Daily. During her sophomore year, Kat helped create The Daily’s Double Shot, a bi-weekly, 30-minute news magazine show that’s still produced and aired statewide on UWTV. She also helps create and implement social media and public relations campaigns for the Pike Market Senior Center.

Erin Flemming

Erin is a junior majoring in Journalism. Currently, she is interning in the business section at the Seattle Times. Last quarter, Erin was a part of the department’s Olympia Program, in which she lived in Olympia for the legislative session and worked as an intern at TVW, where she got on-air experience on the Legislative Review TV show. This summer, Erin will be living in Amman, Jordan, and working as an intern at The Jordan Times through the department’s Foreign Intrigue program. Before moving to Olympia this past winter quarter, Erin worked at The Daily, where she has served as a writer and editor at the paper. Erin is a current member of the Society of Professional Journalists and the Sigma Kappa sorority. After graduation, Erin hopes to work in either broadcast or print journalism.

Steve Shelton in Sudan.

The Department of Communication caught up with multimedia journalist Steve Shelton (BA, 1984) as he was preparing for his second trip to the village and refugee camp of Doro, Sudan. Once more partnering with Dr. Allan Kelly of the international non-profit medical care provider, Medical Teams Worldwide, Shelton documented the plight of the refugees through the use of video, photography, and writing. However, this trip’s destination proved to be different from the village he had left in November 2011.

Shelton is a veteran photographer and journalist with over twenty years of experience. His journalistic expertise has led him to work in such places as Kosovo, Nicaragua and El Salvador. He says that after years of refining his skills, his current focus is “visually exploring subjects’ potential, challenging stereotypes of what we might think of another’s potential.” Simply put, he wishes to “optimize potential.” Working for non-profit and socially conscious organizations appeals to his journalistic approach. “If it’s not personal, maybe I shouldn’t be in the business.”

Shelton prefers to partner with companies with missions like environmental intelligence, gender equality, conservation and disease control, and believes the key to reaching these goals is “empowerment through education.” Although Shelton enjoys his work, Sudan is an extreme climate with equally intense social issues. As he describes it, “It’s not a great camping trip. You’re basically camping out in a dustbowl. It’s just an armpit.”

Sudan is a war-torn country with a history of conflict and violence. A decades-long civil war that left two million people displaced in its wake ended in 2005. The peace didn’t last long as a new issue developed when South Sudan seceded from the rest of the country in July 2011, drawing a bloody, oil-stained border in the sand. The most recent conflict involves ta dispute over the right to ownership of territory along the nations’ shared border. It only added fuel to the fire when the southern territories turned out to be rich in oil reserves. It was here, on a dirt-covered makeshift airstrip, that Shelton and his team entered Sudan.

When Shelton arrived in South Sudan in November 2011, Sudan had recently bombed the bordering country of South Sudan, killing an estimated twenty people and forcing thousands more to flee their homes. As many as 5,000 shell-shocked, hungry and wounded refugees piled into the village of Doro. Shelton began documenting the injuries and strife of the Sudanese nation. He encountered people who were directly affected by the bombings, as Dr. Kelley treated everything from shrapnel wounds to malaria patients. However, as Shelton would discover upon his return visit in March 2012, the situation would only progress from bad to worse.

The differences between the two trips were vast. Shelton returned to Doro in March 2012 to find the village had increased from 5,000 to 45,000 occupants. The world had started to pay attention to the Sudanese conflict with non-governmental organizations like Doctors Without Borders and World Vision arriving to offer aid. The United Nations also appeared, mediating conflicts between the many different tribes, helping to keep tensions as low as possible. Although these organizations lived more comfortably than the actual refugees, no one ever gets comfortable. As Shelton explains, “Everybody is in refugee mentality. Everybody is in some way displaced, even the NGOs that have come over there.”

The increase of heat from 120 to 135 degrees, combined with cool nights, played a huge role is the types of illnesses the team was treating. Respiratory problems such as pneumonia, malaria and whooping cough were more prevalent than the physical injuries from last November’s bombings. Although the situation was bleak, Shelton maintained a positive attitude, keeping in mind the possibility for growth and the hope embedded in the refugee camp. In an interview, he paid tribute to “the strength and resilience of the refugees in terms of what they are able to withstand, physically and emotionally, on an everyday basis.”

When asked to predict some future problems of the Doro refugee camp, Shelton said that with the rainy season approaching, the potential of the area becoming a giant cesspool is realistic. With those kinds of unsanitary conditions being a breeding ground for dysentery, diarrhea, and malaria, the camp may be facing relocation in the July through August timeframe. He also believes we have only had a small taste of the magnitude of events to come in Sudanese oil conflict.

Although he would love to revisit Sudan, Shelton has moved on to address other social problems in the world. He recently finished a short film for Dormans Coffee in Kenya, highlighting the inequality of women in the coffee industry. Also, “I’m currently working on more extensive productions in Sudan and Kenya and partnering with established NGOs who, themselves, are invested in social responsibility, health care and education issues,” he said. Currently, Shelton is spending time with his family during a well-deserved short break.

The Alumni Board invites you to:
Wear Purple Give Gold: #UWComm Spring Fundraiser
Thursday, April 4, 2013
5:30 to 8:30 p.m.
The Husky Union Building (HUB), The Lyceum
UW Seattle Campus
Seattle, WA 98195

What: Silent auction and short live auction, with $30 patron fee.

Why: Connect with alumni, meet students, hear about our vision.

Our pledge: All funds down to the last dime will support our students.

Details: Join friends of the Department for complimentary food and wine, a photo opportunity with Dubs our UW husky mascot, and an exciting night of bidding. Registration will close at the closing of the silent auction.

Register here: tinyurl.com/UWCommAuction13

Can’t Attend?
Please support our students with a donation at:
http://www.com.washington.edu/uwcomm-alumni/make-a-gift/

Or contact Communication Department Alumni Relations Manager Victoria Sprang at vsprang@uw.edu, or 206-724-3580

Our visitors came from middle school at Highline Big Picture High School and they were accompanied by UW alumni Katharine Chen (2011, English), working with the school as part of Americorp VISTA, and Emily Bylin (2012, Communication), also a mentor to the students.

Monroe shares career stories, journo tips

By Amanda Weber

Friday’s mentor lunch with alum and CNNPolitics.com editor Bryan Monroe (BA, ’87) was informative and entertaining. A handful of students took advantage of the chance of a lifetime to ask as many questions as they wanted of the highly successful and famous reporter. Among his stories about interviewing Michael Jackson (the last interview before MJ’s death), Senator and President Obama (being the first to get the interview with him as a newly elected President), and covering Hurricane Katrina and other breaking news stories, Monroe had plenty of tips for our future journalists.

• Working internships are the best way to get a job in the industry
• When you network with people, take their business card and write on the back what you were talking about with them. A day later, send them an email reminding them of your interaction, and thanking them for their time. A week or two later, send another email on something specific.
• Never accept a job at the job interview. Giving some distance will give you better leverage as it puts you in a better position to negotiate.

On his experience working at CNN, Monroe answered many questions concerning interviewing and social media. “You call it like you see it,” said Monroe, on being familiar with President Obama, but writing stories on instances where Mr. President “should be more assertive.” Despite having done six interviews with Obama, and being on a first-name basis with the First Lady, the first priority of a reporter is to write objectively.

Monroe also fielded questions on CNN policy surrounding social media. He said all reporters must take a two-hour online tutorial before they are allowed to post to CNN social media outlets. Once they have clearance, they must follow certain guidelines. Tweets and Facebook posts, first of all, must be correct. Second, it must be free of opinion – Monroe added that while he follows this rule, he often includes his own personality in his posts. Third, the social media post has to be dual-source verified.

When he’s not busy reporting, Monroe said his own “news diet” consists of reading stories from CNN.com (of course), The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, New York Post, MacDailyNews.com, and Zite on the iPad. He also enjoys reading food blogs, and watching the TV show Mythbusters in his spare time.

From all of us here in the Department, thank you, Bryan, for your time, engaging stories, and helpful tips!

Spring quarter is almost through, and that means it’s time to register to walk in the Department of Communication Graduation Celebration. Our graduation will be held on Thursday, June 7, from 1-3pm in the UW Quad. Students participating in the ceremony will be expected to arrive at the Communication Building at 11:45am to get ready for lineup. If you would like to walk in the Communication Graduation Celebration you will need to fill out our Catalyst survey. The survey will be open until May 31st. Register here (no late registrations will be accepted): bit.ly/UWCommGrad12

All registered students will receive detailed instructions for graduation via email by June 1. If you have any questions concerning the event, please contact event coordinator Amanda Weber at anweber@uw.edu.

Howell was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay area, and attended the very small Mother Butler Memorial High School for Girls. Her graduating class held only 68 girls. Howell suggests that because of this very small sheltered environment, “I wasn’t really ready for a State college with over 25,000 people.” However, Howell continued on to San Jose State University where she said she lacked motivation and was forced to disenroll. “It took me a while to figure out that going to college was important,” she said.

During her time away from college, Howell worked for a local insurance company, became married to David Wilma, and had her first child, Mathew. However, she was not content with her socio-economic status and began thinking of ways to move up in the world. She realized a college education was the key needed to progress. She explained, “It was clear to me that I was only going to go so far in life if I didn’t have a college degree.”

So Howell went back to college, first at North Seattle Community College. She then transferred to the UW School of Communication in the summer  of 1979. “When I transferred, communications was probably the only thing I saw in the catalog that would interest me,” she said. At the time the department was called the School of Communication. It offered degrees in radio and television production. Howell said she “thought that was really interesting” and “considers herself lucky” for being one of the last classes to obtain that specific degree.

In 1982, Howell became a UW Cum Laude graduate , despite her college experience being vastly different to that of the traditional college student. “I was already married, I was a mom by that time, and it took me about six years because I went to school part time. So, I went from somebody who flunked out my first time around to graduating with honors in Phi Beta Kappa.”

She was politically active while attending UW, especially in issues concerning equal rights for women. Acting as President of the Seattle chapter of the National Organization for Women, Howell directly contributed to obtaining women’s rights by organizing rallies and speeches.  She also held an internship at Seattle’s KIRO-TV, but it wasn’t until post-graduation and a two year break in Chicago that she would begin her illustrious career in broadcasting back in the Bay Area.

Howell worked for the top rated KTVU, the Fox affiliate in Oakland, as the Senior Segment Producer.  She quickly made a name for herself and began booking exclusive, live interviews with top names in the news, public figures, and celebrities. In 1996, she produced live broadcasts from the White House and from the Capitol in Washington, D.C., on the Republican & Democratic National Conventions, and she reported from “Camp O.J.” during the Simpson murder trial in Los Angeles.

Howell also worked for KPIX, the CBS affiliate, producing the number one morning talk show, People Are Talking. This one-hour news show featured breaking news stories, controversial issues and emerging trends, and a long list of celebrities. Howell doesn’t go around bragging about her award-winning career, but notes that awards are a way to highlight her level of expertise in media skills training and give her a sense of credibility.

She was inspired to write her book after colleagues continually requested her help in professional networking and writing speeches. After starting her own business and after conducting workshops in media professional training for over two years she began to think, “I need to write this down now.” Despite all her success, she was still reluctant to write her book until colleague Dr. Julie Miller gave her “a big kick in the pants.”

Her book, now in its second edition, has sold over 7500 copies and is currently being used as a textbook at Cornell and Rhode Island University.  Howell is currently an instructor at the University Of Washington Foster School of Business in the Technology Management MBA and Global Executive MBA programs, where she uses her book as a learning tool. She also uses it as an entrée in her public speaking seminars. “People take notice and they grant you a level of expertise that you wouldn’t ordinarily have when you’re a subject matter expert.”

In 2009 Howell received the national AWC Headliner Award from the Association for Women in Communication, and she continues to work at educating and developing in various fields of communication.  Even after all of her success, Howell stays grounded and humble, citing her graduation from UW as a Phi Beta Kappa member her crowning achievement. She snickers, “that’s something in my heart of hearts that lets me know that I am not a loser,” but continues, “It was validation that I was smart and could accomplish big things.”

In the future, Howell said, “I’m hoping to expand to other colleges and universities.” She plans to follow up Give Your Elevator Speech a Lift! with Give Your Presentations a Lift!, and possibly Give Your Media Interviews a Lift!. She enjoys teaching and plans to continue her work at the UW Foster School of Business. “I’m very honored to be an instructor at UW at this stage in my career, and I love what I’m doing.”