Aisha Al-Muslim, ’09, who joined The Wall Street Journal in November 2017 as a breaking news reporter, is now working on their Pro Bankruptcy team.

After working as a data and interactive graphics journalist for NJ.com and The Star-Ledger for six years, Carla Astudillo, ’12, moved to Austin in June where she is now a data news apps developer at the Texas Tribune.  

Previously an associate producer for NowThis World, Kimberly Avalos, ’16, was promoted to producer for the NowThis News Originals team.

Claudia Cruz, ’08, joined the Reynolds School of Journalism in Reno, NV as director of internships and experiential learning. 

After freelancing as a podcast producer since December, Matthew Cutler, ’18, was hired as a research associate at  PEI Media.

Allyson Escobar, ’18, was hired as a reporter for The Tablet, a newspaper that covers the Catholic community in Brooklyn and Queens and the Catholic Church in New York.

After freelancing for five months, Natalie Fertig, ’14, joined POLITICO as a federal cannabis policy reporter in Washington, D.C.

In June, Bianca Flowers, ’14, was hired at MarketWatch as a video journalist.

From July through November 2019, Alva French, ’11, will be producing videos related to women’s health and family planning as a bilingual video and digital producer for the  Population Reference Bureau in Washington, D.C.

Constanza Gallardo, ’17, was hired at Transmitter Media, where she’ll produce the podcast WorkLife with Adam Grant and develop new shows.

Deanne Gaston, ’16, has joined TBS and TNT’s Chasing the Cure Live with Ann Curry  as a social associate producer.

In addition to working as an assistant editor and director of video production for the American Heritage magazine, George Goss, ’16, was promoted to studio manager for the Diocese of Arlington, VA.

This fall, Rachel Glickhouse, Social Journalism ‘15, returned to the Newmark J-School to co-instruct the community practicum course with Social Journalism Program Director, Carrie Brown.

Andrea Gonzalez-Ramirez, ‘15, was hired as a senior writer at Medium’s new power, politics, and culture publication, GEN.

Kirsti Itameri, ‘11, started work as the New York bureau chief for the South Florida Media Network, the student-powered news service of Florida International University.

Sarah Kerr, ’17, was hired full-time as a video journalist to cover the 2020 presidential race for The New York Times.

In August, Katherine Lavacca, ’17, was hired as news assistant for NY1.

On August 5, Olivia Leach, ’15, started as a multimedia journalist for Spectrum News Hudson Valley.

Kat Long, ’15, was promoted from staff editor to science editor at Mental Floss, leading all of the science and health coverage for the site.

In June, Kyle Mackie, ’17, started working as a reporter for WBFO, the NPR member station in Buffalo, NY.

After joining Tylt as assistant entertainment editor in May 2018, Keydra Manns, ’17, was promoted to entertainment editor in April.

In July, Will Mathis, ’17, started working at Bloomberg’s London bureau covering renewable energy and climate change.

Desiree Mathurin, ’15, was hired as a news associate at the Associated Press‘ South Desk in Atlanta.

This fall semester, K. Dominic McKenzie, ’19, started teaching TV News Magazine with Professor Linda Prout at the J-School.

“Amanda Knox” producer Stephen Robert Morse, Tow-Knight ’12, is working on projects based on the book “Sons of Wichita: How the Koch Brothers Became America’s Most Powerful and Private Dynasty.”

Natalia V. Osipova, ’12, was hired as a producer for CNN’s Digital Features team.

In July, Nick Perez, ’16, started a year-long data fellowship at the News Journal and Delaware Online.

Cathy Rainone, ’07, was promoted to manager of editorial operations, digital, at NBC Owned Television Stations.

Emilie Ruscoe, ’18, is working at Law 360 as general assignment reporter covering white collar crime, securities, banking, and transportation.

On August 15, Alyxaundria Sanford, Social Journalism ’17, started her new role as digital trainer with the Society of Professional Journalists and the Facebook Journalism Project in New York City.

Derek Scancarelli, ’15, was hired as a producer for Consumer Reports‘ show “Consumer 101” in Yonkers, NY, where he is writing, shooting, and editing consumer-based news stories that are distributed to over 100 TV stations nationwide.

In May, Minda Smiley, ’14, was hired as an agencies reporter covering the advertising industry for Adweek.

Sierra Leone Starks, ’13, (above) is working behind the camera as a social media specialist for the U.S. Army Recruiting Command’s Seattle Battalion.

Tiffany Thomas, ’17, is now teaching 8th graders Citizen Multimedia Journalism at Linden SDA School in Queens.

Kanyakrit Vongkiatkajorn, ’15, joined The Washington Post as the Subscriptions and Engagement Team’s community editor.

Michael Wilson, ’16, was promoted from associate editor to associate managing editor at Anesthesiology News.

In May, Alex Wolf, ’13, left Law360 to work with BloombergLaw in New York, covering bankruptcy around the country.

In June, Naomi Yane, ’17, joined WRNN/ FiOS1 in New York as a news reporter.

Two 2018 Tow-Knight alums were selected to participate in the ONA Midway for innovative new journalism ventures:

–Miguel Dobrich will showcase Amenaza Roboto, a platform that provides Latin American and global tech news, podcasts, and videos for technologists and business people in Spanish.

–Hersh Patel will present Hindsight, a tool that helps news organizations show readers related content from their archives. Hindsight has already begun partnering with Forbes, The Virginian-Pilot, and other news organizations around the world.

MORE KUDOS

Meral Agish, ’14, was part of the team behind “Operation Ceasefire,” which was nominated for an Emmy in the Outstanding Editing: News category.

Class of 2017 alums Lizeth Beltran, Jeremy Ibarra, Mallory Moench, Rahima Nasa, Nicole Rothwell, and Pauliina Siniauer (pictured above with Investigative Reporting Professor Andrew Lehren) won the national “best student investigation” award from the Investigative Reporters and Editors for “Food Plight: Cafeteria inspections reveal critical health violations at New York City schools”.

Brett Dahlberg, ’17, was a guest on NPR twice in July: first, for a story about how the heat wave affects urban populations and second,  for “Walking On Painted Keys: Creative Crosswalks Meet Government Resistance,” about how colorful crosswalks and engaging sidewalks lead to safer intersections, stronger neighborhoods, and better public health.

Class of 2018 Graison Dangor‘s capstone, “Mental Health Parity’ Is Still An Elusive Goal In U.S. Insurance Coverage,” was published by NPR and Kaiser Health News.

Less than three months after getting hired at The Wall Street Journal, 2018 alum Ben Foldy’s story, “SUVs Are Bumper-to-Bumper on Dealer Lots, With More on the Way,” made it to the front page of the newspaper.

Andrea Gonzalez-Ramirez, ’15, was one of the recipients of the 2019 Ida B. Wells Fellowship. As a fellow, she will receive $16,000, editorial feedback, legal counsel, research resources, and mentoring while covering an investigation on women’s rights in Puerto Rico.

2016 Social Journalism alum and Newmark J-School adjunct professor Sabrina Schmidt Gordon’s QUEST Documentary was nominated for two Emmy awards, for “Best Documentary” and “Outstanding Social Issue Documentary.”

Katie Honan, ’10, and her Wall Street Journal colleagues, won a Loeb Award for distinguished business and financial journalism for their breaking news coverage of Amazon’s decision to abandon plans to come to New York City.

Kayle Hope,’14; Charu Raman, ’18; and Maria Villasenor, ’14 worked on the Emmy Award nominated team for outstanding business, consumer or economic report, “Future of Aging.”

Tow-Knight 2016 alum Stephen Jefferson‘s startup Bloom.li partnered with the San Diego NBC local station NBC 7 and students at San Diego State University to produce local news stories.

Caroline Lewis, ’14, helped launch the NYC Media + Social Justice Collaborative, a network that aims to make it easier for journalists to reach out to social workers about stories they’re working on and for social workers to alert journalists to issues they think they should cover.

Mariya Moseley, ’16, (seated in orange) was named co-director for the First Take Journalism workshop hosted by The New York Association of Black Journalists. She will oversee the six-week program for high school students at the Newmark J-School, creating their curriculum while preparing interactive activities, field trips, and introductions to industry professionals.

Class of 2018 alum Paula Moura’s story, “If Carbon Offsets Require Forests to Stay Standing, What Happens When the Amazon Is on Fire?,” was published on ProPublica.

2014 alum Jake Naughton’s piece about octopus farming and fishing in Yucatán, Mexico was published on the TIME magazine website.

Social Journalism Class of 2017 alum Laura Olivieri Robles’ opinion piece on Puerto Rico’s political situation, “In Puerto Rico, Rosselló Finally Hears the People,” was published in The New York Times.

Mike Reicher, ’09, won the Tennessee AP’s Malcolm Law Investigative Reporting Award for his report, “Amid Nashville’s housing boom, safety rules are ignored and more workers die.”

Monica Cordero Sancho, ’17, and Giannina Segnini published their cross-border investigative project, #transnacionalesdelafe, on Univision and El Centro Latinoamericano de Investigación Periodística. Their project looks at how a group of fundamentalist religious leaders with ties to the White House and ministries in Latin America has influenced presidents and policies towards Israel.

Julia Sclafani, ’17, (right) and Priscella Vega, ’19, won second place in the Orange County Press Club’s 2019 Excellence in Journalism Awards for their story, “Arrests of white power leaders are a reminder of Huntington Beach’s painful past.”

Jackie Snow, ’12, was accepted into Harvard Medical School’s media fellowship program, where she will be meeting with experts, physicians, and researchers in September for a research track called “The Doctor and the Machine: The promise and peril of artificial intelligence in medicine.” 

Brandon Sugiyama, Tow-Knight ’17, won an Emmy for Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj in the Outstanding Motion Design category.

Christina Thornell, ’16, just finished producing the fourth season of Vox Borders.

Lindsey Allen started as our new assistant director of student affairs on July 15 after serving as assistant director of graduate programs at the NYU School of Professional Studies.

Last year, Amanda Aronczyk, acting director of audio journalism, needed to get in touch with the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, for a story. This year, he wrote back to her, leading to a three-part series for WNYC’s new show, ‘The Stakes. “

Geraldine Baum, assistant dean for external affairs, has launched a quarterly newsletter to share the latest J-School happenings with “Friends of Newmark” and members of the public.

Jeremy Caplan, who has been the Tow-Knight Center’s director of education since 2010, will take on the new position of director of teaching, learning, and assessment. He will support Associate Dean Andy Mendelson by serving as the school’s adjunct coordinator, implementing new faculty development programs, strengthening the school’s outcomes and assessment process, and developing new learning opportunities for students.

Yahaira Castro, who started working in admissions in 2005 and served as director of student affairs starting in 2015, has been promoted to assistant dean for student experience. In her new role, Yahaira oversees Admissions, Student Services, Career Services, and Alumni Affairs.

Marie Gilot, director of professional development, launched a new series of free video classes taught by Washington Post reporter David Farenthold and Hearken CEO Jennifer Brandel. Coming soon is a course taught by NY1 political anchor and Newmark J-School adjunct professor Errol Louis.

After teaching as a Craft adjunct professor for the past two years, journalist and educator Michelle Higgins was hired as the new Director of Career Services.

Yoruba Richen, director of the Documentary Program, received the Henry Hampton Award For Excellence in Documentary Filmmaking by the Roxbury Film Festival for her documentary, “The Green Book: Guide to Freedom.”

Bob Sacha traveled to Anchorage, AK to participate as a judge for Alaska’s Photographic Center’s Rarefied Light 2019.  He also gave a public lecture and workshop called “Visual Storytelling – Creating short, powerful iPhone videos.”

Anthony LaViscount, who spent more than 17 years in student activities and residence life at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, SUNY’s Stony Brook University, and Monmouth University, was hired as Interim Director of Student Affairs.  

Colleen Leigh, who joined the school in 2007 as an admissions/outreach counselor and served as director of admissions starting in 2014, has been promoted to assistant dean for administration. She oversees Public Safety, Facilities, Technology, Human Resources, and Academic Operations.

International students’ coach Diane Nottle met up with Tow-Knight Fellows, Masa Oga, ’18; Hisashi Ayuzawa, ’18; Michiko Kuriyama, ’13; Miyuki Inoue, ’14; and Katsu Ishii, ’16, after teaching at Jinan University in Guangzhou, China.

Maximo Patiño who joined the admissions team in 2014 and most recently served as associate director of multicultural recruitment, has been promoted to director of admissions.

Distinguished Lecturer Miguel Paz left the J-School to return to his home country of Chile, where he will continue to teach and work with a startup business.

As a judge for the National Museum of the American Indian, Photojournalism Program Director John Smock helped select three Native-American photographers who will receive support from the Smithsonian to work on “Photo Essays from Indian Country.” He was also a keynote speaker at the Go Viral festival in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

Have a job or internship to offer?

Looking for a new gig?
Check out these listings