Department Chair David Domke and alumnus Don Kraft ('48) pose with scholarship recipients in May. About $100,000 in scholarship money was awarded to 39 undergraduate students.

volunteers

From the Communication Alumni Board

Dear CMU alums:

Welcome back to another school year — figuratively, and to another year with the Alumni Board for the Department of Communication.

Our meetings start up again Sept. 20, and we’re looking forward to a good year, although it might be tough to top 2009/2010.

Last school year, the board — thanks to the work of Pat Foote, Neil Neroutsos, and David Blandford — overhauled its bylaws, providing for term limits, election of board members and officers and more. As a result, we have a new position starting this year — president elect. And that first-ever prez-elect is Edgar Gonzalez. He takes the president’s chair for one year beginning next fall. In the meantime, this is my last year as president and the last year for Pat as board secretary.

The big highlight from the past year is the board’s first-ever fundraiser. It happened in April, and thanks to far too many people to list here, raised more than $45,000 for students and what the department calls transformative experiences. What that means is that CMU students will be able to travel, go to conferences, study outside of the classroom, and a myriad of things that would not have been available to them in this world of budget cuts without your generosity.

The event was held in April and more than 150 of you attended. Perhaps the best news is that we’re going to do it again April 21, 2011. We had a great evening and look forward to seeing many, many more of you there for round two.

I hope you’ll follow the board’s efforts this year at CMU’s Web site. And please feel free to e-mail me with your thoughts and questions. You can find me at ttazioli@me.com.

Again, “welcome back to school.” Glad to have you with us. Here’s to continued alum success.

Sincerely,

Terry Tazioli

President Department of Communication Alumni Board

President
Terry Tazioli ('70)

Past Presidents
Megan Coppersmith ('04)
Kathleen F. Miller ('87)

President-elect
Edgar Gonzalez ('04)

Board Members
Megan Coppersmith ('04)
Pat Foote ('71)
Priya Frank ('04)
Jenni Hogan ('02)
Dan Lamont ('89 and '04)
Neil Neroutsos ('86)
Lie Shia Ong ('04)
Maureen Trantham ('07)

Outgoing Board Members
David Blandford ('87)
Jaime Bourns ('09)
Catherine Hinrichsen ('95)
Kathleen F. Miller ('87)
My Tam Nguyen ('06)
Kim Runciman ('83)

Thank you from our students, faculty, and staff to our outgoing Board members for their outstanding service to the Department.

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Spring fundraiser update

Thank you to everyone who contributed to our April 15 fundraising event, Transforming Communities: One Communication Student at a Time. With your generosity, we raised more than $45,000. These funds will go directly toward supporting transformational learning opportunities for our students.

Thank you to everyone who made this event possible, including:

• The Communication Alumni Board
• Board President and the evening’s auctioneer Terry Tazioli ('70)
• Event Coordinators: Lesa Linster ('00) and Katie Hamilton
• Special Guests: Cammie Croft ('05) and Marc Watts ('82)
• Student Volunteer Coordinator Stacey Engle ('08)
• Our student volunteers
• Auction item donors

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Mentor Lunch Series

Cynthia Flash, a 1985 graduate of the Department, took time to come to campus and talk to students about careers. Cynthia is a Seattle-based journalist, writer, public relations professional and media consultant. She currently specializes in representing public relations clients in the Pacific Northwest, working to tell their positive stories in the local and national media.

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Scholarship Awards

The Department of Communication held its 2010 Scholarship Awards Ceremony in Communications 120 on May 6. We awarded about $100,000 in scholarship money to 39 students. Thank you to our alumni and friends who joined us to honor these outstanding students.

• Frank Blethen, Publisher and CEO, The Seattle Times
• Harold Carr (’55)
• Sally Hanson, Scholarship Chair, Northwest Automotive Press Association
• Don Kraft (’48)
• Erin Mayovsky (’97)
• Assunta Ng (‘74 and ’79), President and Publisher, NW Asian Weekly
• Ann Reid, UW alumna (’72)
• George Riddell, President, Ad Club Seattle
• Wilson family representatives Steve Camp and Charles and Kathy Wilson

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Excellence in Communication Awards

Every year our alumni and members of our community join our faculty to help select the best of our undergraduates’ work in Public Speaking and Journalism. The Department presents the cash awards at our annual Excellence in Communication Awards ceremony (which also includes our Excellence in Undergraduate Research student work). Here is the lineup of judges for this year’s competition. We are honored to have such a stellar group of people join us in recognizing our students’ hard work.

Judges for the Jody Deering Nyquist Excellence in Public Speaking Awards

• Glenn Kuper (’90 and ’98)
  Glenn is the Communications Director, Washington State Office of Financial Management.
• Lucas Mack (’04)
  Lucas is the Founder & Principal of 4th Avenue Media.
• My Tam Nguyen (’06)
  My Tam is a PR Specialist for the City of Seattle in Planning & Development Community Relations

Judges for the Pioneer Newspapers Excellence in Journalism Awards

• Doug Alder, Network Editor, Next Door Media
• Joni Balter, Editorial Writer, The Seattle Times
• Joy Jernigan, Contributing Editor, MSNBC.com
• Carol Nakagawa, Art Director, Pacific Northwest Magazine
• Sharon Salyer, Staff Reporter, The Herald (Everett)
• Jim Simon, Assistant Managing Editor, The Seattle Times