class notes

1950s

Peter Clarke (1958) and his partner Susan Evans joined the sold-out Four Peaks Salon featuring Intellectual Ventures CEO Nathan Myhrvold and host Hanson Hosein. Myhrvold explained why his new 2,400-page book Modernist Cuisine is destined to turn the kitchen upside down. Read more and watch the Media Space interview >>

With Evans, Clarke co-directs From the Wholesaler to the Hungry, which has received awards from the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture and the UPS Foundation. The project has helped launch hundreds of programs that direct surplus produce to low-income Americans.

1970s

Gary Odegard (1972) is the owner of Coast Private Investigations. Wanting to be an adman since he was a freshman in the Department of Communication, Odegard became a public relations professional and found solutions to communications challenges despite the hurdles in his way. Marketing a Colorado ski resort while waiting for snow, and creating a rock 'n' roll music hall of fame for the grand opening of The Guitar Center on Sunset Boulevard are just a couple of Odegard’s triumphs in the marketing communications business. He finds that running a PI firm is exactly like running a PR firm. “You’ve got to be creative, got to have a strategy and an end-game goal,” said Odegard. Read more >>

Clarence Moriwaki (1978) has stepped down as the CEO of the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Washington to seek appointment on the Kitsap County Commission.

Assunta Ng (1979) is the 2011 recipient of the University of Washington’s Charles E. Odegaard Award. Established in 1973, the Odegaard award honors individuals whose leadership in the community exemplifies the late UW President Charles Odegaard’s work on behalf of diversity. It is the only University and community-selected award, and is regarded as the highest achievement in diversity at the UW. Ng joins a long list of civic leaders who have received the award, including former Seattle mayor Norm Rice and Washington state representative Phyllis Gutiérrez Kenney. Read more >>

1980s

Jeff Manning (1980) is an investigative reporter for The Oregonian. He covered the fall of Enron and Capital Consultants investment scandal and specializes in business crime and corruption.

Anita Helt (1984) took over as the president and general manager at KXTV-TV in Sacramento, Calif., at the end of 2010. She has been with Gannett for 15 years and comes to the Sacramento station from KPNX-TV, Gannett’s NBC affiliate in Phoenix, where she was the vice president/Marketing and Programming. She joined the Phoenix station in 1995 as a special projects manager, relocating from Kansas where she was responsible for media and public relations for the state.

Todd Meyers (1986) is the manager of external communications for Allegheny Power in Pittsburgh, Penn.

Bryan Monroe (1987) is the new editor of CNNPolitics.com. He’s been a superstar journalist ever since, having won two Pulitzer Prizes — one with the Grand Forks Herald in 1998 covering floods in that city, and one with Knight Ridder for its 2005 coverage of Hurricane Katrina. He has been editor of Ebony and Jet magazines, and spent the past year as a visiting professor on the faculty at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. He is a past president of the National Association of Black Journalists.

1990s

Shari Storm (1992) has worked at a Seattle credit union since 1998. In 2003, she decided to try her hand at publishing a book. She got a book deal in 2006 and her book, Motherhood is the New MBA: Using Your Parenting Skills to be a Better Boss was published by St. Martin’s Press in late 2009. She has been featured in Time Magazine, Redbook, HybridMom, Body and Soul, Costco Connection, The Metro News New York, Martha Stewart’s radio program, BusinessWeek online, MomLogic website and Working Mother magazine blog, to name a few. Her book jacket includes reviews from a Pulitzer Prize winner, a producer of the TV show “24” and the former board chair of PCC Natural Markets. Rights to the book have been sold in Brazil and China.

Jay Maebori (1994) was named the 2010-2011 Washington state Teacher of the Year. Maebori teaches language arts at Kentwood High in Covington. He also covers the schools' intervention courses, which help at-risk students meet state standards on mandated assessments. He can boast an 80 percent success rate for his students passing the state tests.

Andrea Heuston (1997) is the CEO and creative principal of Artitudes Design Inc., her graphic design firm that she established in 1995. She hosts the popular radio show, “Artful Moxie” on KKNW, all about pushing past obstacles and learning from others’ experiences. She recently returned to campus to sit on a panel as part of Professional Development Week. Read more >>

2000s

Marita Gronnvoll (2000) is an assistant professor at Eastern Illinois University. Her book, Media Representations of Gender and Torture Post-9/11, was published in 2010.

New Voices Ensemble Theatre — a Seattle-based theater dedicated to producing and developing works written by local and national playwrights of color — presented a staged reading of Betty's Wish by award-winning playwright La’Chris Jordan (2001) at the Seattle Repertory Theatre. The staged reading — in collaboration with the Northwest Playwrights Alliance — was held on Feb. 8 and included a talkback with the playwright and cast.

Jenni Hogan (2002), KIRO TV’s morning traffic anchor, was a finalist for the 3rd Annual Shorty Awards, which honors top short-form content creators on Twitter. Read more >>

Jaime Herrera (2004) represents Washington’s 3rd Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives. That district is in southwest Washington. Herrera has served in the Washington Legislature since 2007. While at UW, she was active in College Republicans and took part in the Washington legislative internship program. Her communication degree had an emphasis in political science.

Lie Shia Ong (2004) recently accepted a job at Microsoft. She leaves her early-morning fill-in producer job at KIRO Radio to be a producer for MSN.com's TV site.

Allison Peryea (2004) is a lawyer for Leahy McLean Fjelstad and the 2010-11 editor in chief of De Novo, the Washington State Bar Association's Young Lawyer Division publication, and serves as chair of the Young Lawyers Division Editorial Advisory Committee.

Joel C. Ballezza (2007) is an endurance runner, digital marketer and blogger. He serves as the Communications Manager for Foundation for Early Learning and also sits on the boards of Powerful Schools and the Seattle LGBT Commission. He is a graduate of the Digital Media program in the Department of Communication.

Nicholas Cenac (2009, magna cum laude) is attending Tulane University Law School. He is a graduate of the Evening Degree program. While attending the UW, Cenac worked with UW Communication professors John M. Gastil and Cindy Simmons on their book (with co-authors E. Pierre Deess and Philip J. Weiser) The Jury and Democracy: How Jury Deliberation Promotes Civic Engagement and Political Participation. Cenac is currently serving as the President of the Disability and Health Law Society at Tulane and spent last summer both interning for a federal judge and working for a public interest health law firm.

Ryan Priest (2009), a communication specialist for Sigma Chi Fraternity’s national headquarters in the Chicago area, visited Karen Rathe's Community News Lab class last fall to discuss his career path and how his current job differs from traditional journalism. Read more >>

Leah Sprain (2009) was awarded the prize for the outstanding dissertation of 2009 in Language and Social Interaction by the National Communication Association.

Abby Fujioka (2010) made the top 40 contestants vying to win the job of hosting Paradise Hunter, a television travel series.

Jamie Moshin (2010) accepted a position as assistant professor in the Department of Communication and Media Studies and he is co-director of Forensics at Marietta College in Ohio.

Aaron Salo (2010) works in information technology and is Principal Consultant at Icon Ridge Technical Services.

Chris Wells (2010) accepted a position as an assistant professor at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin- Madison.

Sean Wilson ('10) was recently accepted into the University of Southern California Gould School of Law. Wilson, an alumnus of the Communication Evening Degree program, secured one of only 220 seats in the incoming class, out of a pool of 6,500.

Louise Edgerly (2011) successfully defended her dissertation.

Deen Freelon (2011) accepted an assistant professor position in the School of Communication at American University in Washington, D.C.

John Harris (2011) is an associate professor in the Department of Journalism at Western Washington University.

Nate Johnson (2011) accepted an assistant professor position in the English department at Purdue University for autumn 2011.

IN MEMORIAM

Tom Koenninger, B.A. 1953
Read more about Tom >>