It was an evening for recognizing former faculty members who made an impact, envisioning the future of production and film at Athena Studios and saluting bravery in defending the U.S. Capitol, as nearly 170 Grady College alumni, faculty, students and friends celebrated honorees at the 2023 Grady Salutes: A Celebration of Achievement, Leadership and Commitment.
The dinner gala took place April 28 thanks to a special arrangement at the new Athena Studios, a 14,000-square-foot creator space that the College shares with Georgia Film Academy for the purpose of teaching production classes to students in Entertainment and Media Studies and the MFA in Film, Television and Digital Media. The studio space is donated to Grady College for five years by Joel Harber, developer of the studio complex, who was also in attendance.
Perhaps the highlight of the evening the presentation of the Dean’s Medal for Leadership Excellence to Private First Class Officer Caroline Edwards (ABJ ’12). Edwards was the first police officer injured during the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. She testified to the Jan. 6 House Select Committee on June 9, 2022, where millions of television viewers were riveted by her bravery and calm under pressure.
“Her fearlessness, her courage and her devotion to duty embody the best of us,” Charles N. Davis, dean of Grady College, said in his introductory remarks.
She accepted her award to a rousing standing ovation.
“Bringing an unthinkable story to life, giving words to those who cannot speak for themselves and telling the truth, despite personal costs, is what Democracy’s Next Generation is all about,” Edwards said, tying together her testimony with the motto above the front door of Grady College. “It is what we are called to do every day as journalism majors, despite what career we end up in.”
Maura Friedman accepts her John E. Drewry Young Alumni Award. (Photo: Sarah E. Freeman)
Yolanda Taylor Brignoni celebrates at Grady Salutes with family and friends. (Photo: Jackson Schroeder)
Doreen Gentzler accepts her John Holliman, Jr. Lifetime Achievement Award from Dean Charles Davis and Alumni Board President Tracy Brown. (Photo: Jackson Schroeder)
George Daniels accepts the Distinguished Alumni Scholar Award. (Photo: Jackson Schroeder)
Regina Hicks talks about her finding her passion for writing as a student at Grady College. (Photo: Sarah E. Freeman)
Robin Hommel talks with Randy Travis before the Grady Salutes ceremony. (Photo: Sarah E. Freeman)
Randy Travis talks with students (from left) Dania Kalaji, Elise Kim and Ashley Balsavias. (Photo: Sarah E. Freeman)
Caroline Edwards (front row, second from right) celebrates her Dean's Medal with family and friends. (Photo: Sarah E. Freeman)
Brian PJ Cronin, the McCommons Award for Distinguished Community Journalism recipient, celebrates with (from left) Gay and Pete McCommons (the award namesake), Beth Cronin, and Award benefactors, Kathy Prescott and Grady Thrasher. (Photo: Jackson Schroeder)
Set against the backdrop of house scene used for class productions, honorees accepted their awards. Those receiving awards included Alumni Award recipients:
Maura Friedman (ABJ ‘13), John E. Drewry Young Alumni Award
Susan Percy shares comments after her Fellowship induction. (Photo: Jackson Schroeder)
Each recipient shared brief personal narratives about how their education directed their professional life.
Friedman thanked those who bought a Georgia Lottery ticket and helped fund her education.
“I am very seriously a testament to loan-free, public, quality education and that is a cause and need of support across Georgia,” said Friedman, a senior photo editor at National Geographic.
Many honorees recognized faculty who encouraged them and gave them confidence while they were students. Emeritus professors Bill Lee and David Hazinski, who were in the audience, were mentioned several times, along with Bill Martin.
Hicks, who is a writer, executive producer and showrunner for “The Upshaws” on Netflix, talked about discovering her writing talent while a student at the College. She recalled a conversation with the late Barry Sherman after she turned in a project where she wrote the first 30 minutes of a film.
“’Did you write this?’” Hicks recalled Sherman asking her. “’Because, this is what you should be doing.’ I will forever be grateful for that moment in his office because he led me down this path. The foundation I got from this school has shaped who I am.”
Travis, an investigative reporter at Fox 5, talked about the lasting impact of his education.
“I thank Grady,” Travis said at the end of his acceptance speech. “As all the people who have walked up on this stage tonight can attest, you made our dreams come true. You really are the dream factory.”
Caroline Edwards accepts the Dean’s Medal for Leadership Excellence from Dean Charles Davis
The following is one installment of a series recognizing alumni and friends who will be honored at the 2023 Grady Salutes celebration on April 28, 2023. For more details, please see our posts about our Fellowship honorees, Alumni Award recipients and Dean’s Medalist.
Friedman looks through various photos of birds at the National Geographic office.
Friedman gives a presentation at Atlanta Photo Night.
Friedman studied abroad in Cambodia during her time at UGA.
Congratulations to Maura Friedman (ABJ ‘13), recipient of the John E. Drewry Young Alumni Award.
Friedman is a senior photo editor at National Geographic where she curates and commissions photography on stories across print, digital and social media.
Before starting at National Geographic, Friedman worked at the Urban Institute, the Chattanooga Times Free Press, and as a freelance visual journalist producing stories across the Southeast United States.
Friedman takes a photo in a cemetery.
She has produced work for many well-known organizations, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Whole Foods and YouTube. Friedman has also served on juries and portfolio reviews for organizations such as American Photography 39, Visa Pour L’Image and the International Center of Photography.
Friedman has been recognized with several awards for her work as an editor as well as for her work in the field. Her own visual work has won Tennessee Associated Press awards, a Dart Award and it has been part of a Pulitzer finalist special project.
During her time at UGA, Friedman received her Bachelor’s in Magazine Journalism with an emphasis in photojournalism. She also completed the New Media Certificate. She decided to pursue a career in photojournalism because she truly enjoys it.
“I was trying to figure out what to do when I was graduating and I thought to myself, ‘What has felt like the least amount of work?’ And that was photojournalism,” Friedman said.
The path to photojournalism
Friedman has been interested in photography since she was little. Because of her mom’s background in art history, she grew up going to the High Museum of Art in Atlanta. During these visits, she would take pictures of the artwork, and she even remembers saving up her babysitting money to buy her first DSLR camera: a Canon Rebel.
When Friedman arrived at UGA, she knew that she was interested in studying magazine journalism. However, it wasn’t until she immersed herself in organizations like Ampersand Magazine that her passion for photojournalism began to take root.
“I was becoming the managing editor at Ampersand, and I was like, ‘I need to have some context for leading the photo editor and these teams of photographers.’” Friedman said. “So I dove a lot more into [photojournalism] and decided to apply to the emphasis and I ended up loving it.”
Friedman said that her time at Grady College and her involvement in different organizations on campus prepared her well for life after UGA.
Friedman poses with other students in her photojournalism class at UGA.
“The way that we conducted ourselves at The Red & Black and Ampersand, along with the expectations from all of my professors, and especially Mark Johnson, has made such an impact on me,” she said.
After graduation, Friedman decided to pursue a career in photojournalism. With the help of Grady funding, she attended a northern short course workshop through the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA). There she met a leader in NPPA who was also a friend of Professor Johnson’s, and she asked him to look over her portfolio.
“He looked at my photos and he was like, ‘Do you really want to do this?’ And I was like, ‘Yes,’” Friedman said. “And he essentially said, ‘Okay, well, you’re not very good, so you should just take a lot more photos and I would suggest that you apply to one of the six month newspaper internships around the country because you’ll get a lot of experience and be taking photos every day.’”
Friedman took his advice to heart and created a spreadsheet of all of the newspaper internships and then applied to every single one. She diligently followed up with each of them and ended up getting a position at the Chattanooga Times Free Press.
Friedman said that the Times Free Press had had a great experience with UGA interns before, but that her persistence also probably helped her secure the internship.
“I think they were a little eager to go back to UGA interns and also, I was told later that I was given a phone interview so I would stop calling the newsroom,” she said.
Persistence is key
As she has moved forward in her career, Friedman has noticed that new doors continue to open as a result of seeking out overlaps between her interests and gaps in the interests of others.
“When I was at the Times Free Press, it was a pretty seasoned team of photo journalists and so they weren’t very eager about video,” Friedman said. “So I worked a lot on video and was able to kind of pitch myself into a multimedia reporter position.”
Friedman smiles with her camera during her internship at Chattanooga Times Free Press.
Friedman also took the time to invest in new skills that didn’t necessarily fall directly within the responsibilities of her role at the time. She turned to the larger photojournalism community, attending workshops and getting connected with people in order to continue learning and pursuing her interests.
“I learned about how editors work with stories and curation… and people were always like, ‘Oh, if you need someone to look through an assignment, Maura can do it,’” Friedman said. “The Week also used to have a photo column that I wrote for them for free with the caveat that the editor, when she inevitably rearranged my whole photo edit, would tell me why she did that and kind of walk me through the process.”
All of this learning and searching for overlaps led Friedman to her jobs at the Urban Institute and National Geographic.
“A lot of opportunities or things that ended up helping me stand out or advance just came from looking at issues with curiosity,” Friedman said.
National Geographic
During her time as a senior photo editor, Friedman has been able to build long-lasting relationships with the photographers who she works with. Additionally, National Geographic still has a filing system which does not allow you to delete any images, so the editors look at every single picture taken by the photographers.
Friedman edits the Appian Way story at the National Geographic office.
“When I’m going through someone’s entire take, it feels like I can tell what they’re feeling and what they’re thinking,” Friedman said. “And it makes for really productive conversations.”
She added that advancing the work of these photographers is one of the most rewarding parts of her job as a senior photo editor.
“For me, it’s most rewarding when I talk to photographers and our collaboration has, in some way, advanced their body of work, whether it’s that the assignment that we did has been meaningful and has contributed to the archive that they’re building, or that they were on assignment for someone else and heard me in their head,” Friedman said.
One of her favorite pieces that she has worked on so far is a story on the Appian Way, one of the first and most famous ancient roads. Friedman really enjoyed being able to work with photographer Andrea Frazzetta on this project.
“He and I gelled really well,” Friedman said. “We’re both pretty esoteric thinkers, so a lot of our brainstorming was exchanging heroes’ epics and being like, ‘We want to photograph it like the Italian academic period.’”
Working with Frazzetta was also a full-circle moment for Friedman. She sat in on a meeting with him and another photo editor at the start of her time at National Geographic and she said that he was one of the first photographers to really talk to her and look her in the eye in those meetings.
Friedman poses for a picture with photographer Andrea Frazzetta on the Appian Way.
“Andrea is a great guy and was one of the first people to be really nice to me when I showed up at National Geographic and no one knew me. You definitely get treated differently everywhere you go as a woman,” Friedman said. “It feels great to now be working with him in this professional capacity.”
Advice for Grady students
When asked what she would tell herself at 20 years old, Friedman said that she would tell herself that everything works out and to stop being so hard on herself. She would also tell herself to look at more photography.
“I think I was really focused on productivity and making stories and checking things off versus really exploring documentary photography and all sorts of inspiring spaces and getting to know my taste,” Friedman said.
She added that it took her a long time to develop her own taste in photography and that she sees that same gap in lots of other young photographers.
“I think that’s important, not so that you can have an answer for me when I ask about it, but so that you have your own kind of North Star,” Friedman said.
Friedman also shared some of the best advice that she has ever received, which has helped her in her career.
“There are three important things, and you only have to pick two: you can be really good, you can be really nice, or you can be on time,” Friedman said. “I really think that everyone who has a long career fits into those spaces.”
Something else that Friedman has learned throughout her career is the importance of trusting your own creative vision and of finding people whose work you admire and whose input you value.
“I think it is important to decide whose voices matter to you and who you trust,” Friedman said. “You’re always right in your vision.”
The following is one installment of a series recognizing alumni and friends who will be honored at the 2023 Grady Salutes celebration on April 28, 2023. For more details, please see our posts about our Fellowship honorees, Alumni Award recipients and Dean’s Medalist.
Congratulations to Doreen Gentzler (ABJ ’79), this year’s John Holliman, Jr. Lifetime Achievement Award recipient for sustained contributions to the profession throughout her career. By nature of this honor, Gentzler also will be inducted into the Grady Fellowship.
Gentzler anchored the news on WRC/NBC4 in Washington, D.C. for 33 years before retiring in November 2022. During that time she interviewed presidents; reported from war-torn areas including Bosnia and the Persian Gulf; and, in the words of her colleagues, covered local and regional news with empathy, intelligence and care.
Gentzler won several local Emmy’s and has been long-respected for her award-winning series, “News 4 Your Health,” bringing viewers into hospital operating rooms, sharing medical breakthroughs and explaining the latest technology helping to save lives.
The late Jim Vance and Doreen Gentzler on the WRC/NBC4 set in 2011.
As the late Jim Vance said, “Her compassion for the afflicted and her passion for storytelling…have led her to become the station’s, and indeed the city’s, premiere health reporter. It is a labor of love and in it, she has no fear.”
Gentzler spent her early childhood in Arlington, Virginia, and prior to returning to the area, she held reporting and anchoring jobs in Chattanooga, Charlotte, Cleveland and Philadelphia before joining NBC4 in 1989. Doreen has also filled in on “The Today Show” and “NBC at Sunrise.”
As a student of the broadcast journalism program at UGA, Gentzler had an internship with “Lawmakers,” covering the Georgia State Legislature for Georgia Public Broadcasting.
“This was the best experience and was where I learned about daily deadline reporting, and writing explanations of pending legislation and how it would affect people,” Gentzler said.
The following are responses to an interview with Gentzler:
Georgia College: What class at Grady College did the most to prepare you for your current career?
Doreen Gentzler interviews President Barack Obama in 2013 (Photo: Pete Souza)
Doreen Gentzler: I have to say that the classes that made the biggest impact on me were news writing and reporting classes. I worked on my high school newspaper, but never had any news writing training before I started college. But some of the techniques and rules I learned in the J-school writing classes are still in my head 40-plus years later as I write and edit news copy…especially using clear and straightforward language, active verbs and no unnecessary extra words…these all still apply!
GC: What do you miss most about being at UGA?
DG: All the fun I had for four years—of course! The learning experience was wonderful, but all those football game weekends, the parties and the wonderful independence of living on my own for the first time are all still memorable. I made some life-long friends during my time in Athens and today, 40-some years later, they’re still some of my besties.
GC: What advice do you have for today’s Grady College students?
DG: Writing, writing, and writing. Good writing skills are the basis for everything else you’ll do in your professional life. I know everyone’s got a cellphone camera and you can make YouTube and TikTok videos and host a podcast, and learning how to work in front of a TV camera is important. But, without good clear writing skills, you won’t be as effective at communicating on TV, or public speaking, or responding to emails. I’ve worked with a lot of young people with degrees from good journalism programs, and too many of them are writing news copy like text messages. Get your writing act together to lift up everything else. And don’t forget: proofreading is very important, too.
GC: Do you have any other advice for today’s students?
DG: Yes, stay true to yourself. Don’t try to imitate anyone else. Don’t let anyone try to change your self-image to fit their idea of what you should be. Speak up if someone asks you to report something that you think is wrong or inaccurate. Identify a mentor you respect and ask for their feedback. Even if they’re busy, there are a lot of people in journalism who want to help those coming up behind them. In this era of dis-information, you can play an important role!
Tickets to Grady Salutes: Celebrating Achievement, Leadership and Commitment on April 28, 2023, are available for purchase. Register here.
WRC/NBC4 celebrates Doreen Gentzler’s retirement in this special from November 2022
The following is one installment of a series recognizing alumni and friends who will be honored at the 2023 Grady Salutes celebration on April 28, 2023. For more details, please see our posts about our Fellowship honorees, Alumni Award recipients and Dean’s Medalist.
Brignoni (right) and her roommate stand in the hallway of their dorm (Mary Lyndon Hall) at UGA.
During her time at UGA, Brignoni was a Peabody student judge for the entertainment division. Here, she smiles for a picture with Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons, at the Peabody Awards ceremony in New York City.
Brignoni (right) met Oscar-winning actress Angela Bassett in New York City at the Revlon Run/Walk for Women.
While at UGA, Brignoni (right) interned with U.S. Senator Max Cleland's press office as part of Georgetown University's Institute for Political Journalism summer program for college students. She is pictured with a fellow intern in the U.S. Capitol.
Brignoni (middle) worked as a health and lifestyles reporter and as an advisor for "The Teen Board" at The Macon Telegraph. Her colleagues Debbie Rhyne Blankenship (left of Brignoni), Joe Kovac Jr. (right of Brignoni) and Travis Fain (second from the right) are also Grady graduates.
Brignoni (left) is pictured staffing a wellness event in Napa Valley for the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance, where she served as the organization's first head of communications. It was her first public relations job.
Brignoni smiles in front of the U.S. Capitol during Pope Francis' first visit to Washington, DC.
Congratulations to Yolanda Taylor Brignoni (ABJ ‘98), recipient of the 2023 Mid-Career Achievement Award.
Brignoni is the VP of External Affairs and Communications at Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF), a nonprofit organization working to prevent pediatric HIV infection and eliminate pediatric AIDS.
Brignoni has more than two decades of experience directing strategic communications campaigns for government, corporate and nonprofit clients. Through these campaigns, she works to motivate action and fuel social change; she is passionate about helping others and making a difference in the world around her.
An active member in many organizations, Brignoni is involved in ColorComm, Public Relations Society of America and Jack and Jill of America. She was also handpicked to serve on the communications board for Optum Labs, and in 2020, she was selected to be on the Forbes Communications Council.
Brignoni interviews Ebony Thomas, now president of the Bank of America Foundation, about the importance of Juneteenth as part of Axios’ “View from the Top” executive series.
Brignoni has won several awards for her work in communications and journalism, including recognitions from Adweek, PR News, PRWeek and the Georgia Press Association.
Prior to working at EGPAF, Brignoni served as the head of communications for Axios Media, and the organization won its first Emmy under her leadership.
Brignoni graduated from UGA with Bachelor’s degrees in Newspapers and International Affairs, and she received her Master of Public Administration from George Washington University. She is inspired by her family and attributes her success to her hard work and curiosity.
What experience during your time at Grady College had the biggest influence on where you are today?
Grady offered me opportunities to explore all of my career interests – writing, storytelling, journalism, politics, international affairs – in one place. I wrote for The Red & Black, interned in the public relations department at the Georgia Museum of Art, and even looked into becoming a DJ for a campus station. Grady also helped me secure a summer internship in Sen. Max Cleland’s press office that completely cemented my love for politics, foreign affairs, and all things DC. With each opportunity, I gained real-world experience and a better understanding of what would be a good fit for me once I left college.
What skills, values and/or circumstances do you attribute to your success?
Curiosity and hard work. I have always been curious about the world and its people – how things came to be and what makes people tick. The hunger for knowledge led me to continue my education in graduate school and to be constantly seeking new opportunities to learn new things and expand my skill-set. Coupled with my curiosity, I have an incredibly strong work ethic. From a young age, my parents stressed to me that you do the best job you can do at whatever you are assigned. I carried that with me into my working life too. Transitioning from newspapers to public relations required a big learning curve; I threw myself into every task – eager to learn. I would volunteer to do whatever I could in order to be exposed to new aspects of the industry and learn. I knew I did not know everything, but no one could outwork me and I knew practice made progress. That can-do attitude, and dedication to excellence, opened doors for me. Executives would seek me out to add me to their team, and as my reputation grew, additional opportunities followed. I would also credit my Southern upbringing and values for my success. Southerners pride themselves on being honest and living with integrity. Those values are the foundation of how I have lived my life. The reporters – and colleagues – I have worked with know that they can depend on me to give them what I can when I can – straight with no PR “spin.” I treat people how I’d like to be treated.
Brignoni smiles for a picture at the White House Correspondents Dinner in 2022 while serving as Axios Media’s head of communications.
What would you tell your 20-year-old self?
I would tell her that everything will not go according to her plan, but she will be so much better for it. I was (and still am, to some extent) a big planner, and I had my whole post-collegiate life mapped out. I was going to be a newspaper reporter who worked her way up to a big newsroom such as The New York Times or The Washington Post. But six months after starting my first journalism job after graduation, my paper closed down, and a few months later, I was back home and at The Macon Telegraph (Macon, Ga). The Telegraph was my hometown paper where I interned during high school and during UGA breaks. I never thought I would be back there; it definitely wasn’t part of my plan. But it ended up being the best thing for me at the time. I became much more connected to my craft and was surrounded by a community who taught me, loved me, and nurtured me. When I left Macon to come to Washington, DC, for my first job in public relations, I knew I was ready for whatever DC would throw at me. My time in Macon taught me that situations that at first look like setbacks can also be opportunities – to grow, stretch and learn. Now, instead of being so focused on what is next, I try to enjoy the present and embrace whatever lesson I am meant to learn at that stop on my journey.
What motivates you?
I describe myself as a do-gooder who knows how to get things done. I am most inspired and energized by work that helps others – whether supporting global women and girls at the United Nations Foundation, arming people age 50+ with health information to live their best lives at the AARP, or now, at the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, fighting for an AIDS-free generation. It’s a privilege to use the skills that I have to make a difference in the world around me.
What does this recognition mean to you?
Brignoni (middle left) takes a picture with staff of the United Nations Foundation at a charity launch benefiting the UN Foundation’s Girl Up campaign: a global effort to highlight UN programs for adolescent girls. The national tour won PR News’ 2011 award for launch public activities.
It is such an honor to be recognized by an institution that has shaped so many heroes of mine, including Charlayne Hunter-Gault, Deborah Roberts, and Maria Taylor. These are women who look like me, had similar dreams as mine, and have gone on to live extraordinary lives. Grady grounded me and helped set me on the path I am on now. Would I be living and working in Washington, DC, now if I had not first attended a summer political journalism program at Georgetown University? Would I have known it was even possible to go to DC if I had not first had Grady and Baldwin College professors who believed in me and championed me for that program? I would hope so, but I am extremely grateful that I had UGA’s support behind me as I took that first step. I hope my story will be an inspiration for others as they venture out into the working world.
Tickets to Grady Salutes: Celebrating Achievement, Leadership and Commitment on April 28, 2023, are available for purchase. Register here.
The following is one installment of a series recognizing alumni and friends who will be honored at the 2023 Grady Salutes celebration on April 28, 2023. For more details, please see our posts about our Fellowship honorees, Alumni Award recipients and Dean’s Medalist.
Group picture from 2001 of the research assistants in the Cox International Center, where Daniels worked as a graduate research associate.
In 2000-2001, Daniels served as the graduate student liaison for the AEJMC Media Management and Economics Division. The late Mary Alice Shaver presented the plaque honoring Daniels for his involvement as a graduate student.
Daniels with Professor Emerita Dr. C. Ann Hollifield, who served as his master’s thesis adviser, and Professor Emeritus Dr. Lee Becker, who was his dissertation chair.
As a graduate student, Daniels had the opportunity to lead workshop sessions during the Georgia Journalism Academy, which was sponsored by the Georgia Scholastic Press Association. This photo was taken from a broadcast writing session he facilitated.
In 2001, Daniels won the Lionel C. Barrow Minority Doctoral Scholarship from AEJMC.
Daniels with George Popescu from the University of Bucharest, who he met through work with the Cox International Center. Popescu spent three weeks at Grady in Summer of 2002.
Congratulations to George L. Daniels (MA ’99, PhD ’02), recipient of the 2023 Distinguished Alumni Scholar Award.
Daniels is an associate professor and Reese Phifer Fellow of Journalism and Creative Media at The University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. He is also currently the president of the Alabama Communication Association and serves as the Faculty Fellow for Diversity and Inclusion for the Broadcast Education Association.
Recently, he received the U.S./U.K. Fulbright Global Challenge Teaching Award for Racial Justice. He’s the co-editor of “Teaching Race: Struggles, Strategies and Scholarship for the Mass Communication Classroom.”
Daniels is currently completing his first sole-authored book entitled “Barrier Breakers: Media Educators Meeting the Diversity Challenge Across the Decades.”
Previously, Daniels worked for eight years as a local television news producer in his hometown of Richmond, Virginia, and then in Cincinnati, Ohio, and Atlanta.
Following are answers from an interview with Daniels, which have been edited for length and clarity.
Grady College: What experience during your time at Grady College had the biggest influence on where you are today?
In March 2023, Daniels joined two of his students in his Spring 2023 service learning class in presenting a panel at the Discerning Diverse Voices Symposium in Tuscaloosa, Ala.
George L. Daniels: By far, the experiences as a graduate research associate in two of Grady’s research projects have had the biggest influence on where I am today. As a master’s student, I was fortunate to be the research associate in the Michael J. Faherty Broadcast Management Laboratory.
When I arrived in 1997, the lab was just in its second year of operation. I learned how to do research projects by being directly involved in them. Additionally, the lab was tied to my teaching media management and programming course in what was then the Department of Telecommunications.
After completing my master’s degree, as a Ph.D. student, I was given a graduate research assistant assignment in the Cox Jr. Center for International Mass Communication Training and Research. Working for two years in the Cox International Center, I assisted with the Annual Surveys for Mass Communication Enrollments and Graduates. This placed me on the team to not only do data collection, but also participate in the presentations at national conferences. Even though the national surveys have moved to another institution, the reports we produced as a research team are still ones to which I refer in my research today.
GC: What skills and/or values and/or circumstances do you attribute to your success?
GD: The three skills or values that I most attribute to my success are, one, research project development, two, team leadership and, three, understanding higher education.
Thanks to the research assistant roles, I gained valuable knowledge as a Grady graduate student on how to put together a research project and use whatever method best answers my question.
The second skill/value would be team leadership. Over the years, I’ve found myself in leadership roles and draw on the skills I learned in the television news industry and in graduate school to influence others to follow my direction.
Last but not least, I developed skills in understanding the arena of academe. This is quite different from the television news industry, where I worked for eight years. Not all higher education institutions have the same mission, and the dynamics of committees and departments differ.
GC: What advice do you have for today’s Grady College students?
GD: Take advantage of the Grady alumni network. There are so many of us everywhere. We’re working in all areas of the mass media and journalism and mass communication education. Don’t take for granted the top-notch learning facilities and world class faculty you find in Grady College. It’s second to none. Appreciate it and know that with that opportunity comes an expectation to excel when you graduate. There is nothing you can’t accomplish as a Grady graduate.
GC: What advice do you have for today’s young professionals?
GD: Be flexible and teachable. Even though you have all of your training from Grady, our media workplaces are changing so rapidly, one has to be in a posture of readiness to adapt quickly to change.
GC: What do you miss the most about being at UGA?
GD: I miss many of the people with whom I worked and lived there in Athens. Except for my first year as a master’s student, I spent four of the five years in the master’s and Ph.D. programs living on campus. I was there around-the-clock and struck up so many informal conversations in the graduate student carrels of Grady or in the Main Library. I have fond memories of the Bible study groups on Friday night and the outreach to schools in the Clarke County School District. At UGA, we were truly a part of a much larger community than our own campus.
GC: What does this recognition mean to you?
GD: While I have been blessed to receive many research and teaching awards over the years, this recognition by Grady College is the highest honor I’ve received as a scholar.
Yes, I am the recipient most recently of an award from the U.S./U.K. Fulbright Commission. But, even a Fulbright award pales in comparison to one from my beloved Grady College. It means you view what I’ve become is worthy of recognition. It means what I’ve done so far in my research, teaching and professional leadership is on the right track—representing the highest standard of quality that comes with being a production of the Grady College.
GC: What motivates you?
GD: Of course, first and foremost, my actions are directly by my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. God put me on this earth to make a difference with every encounter, activity, project or accomplishment. Thus, I am motivated by the knowledge that I’m always fulfilling a God-given purpose.
I’m using my spiritual gift of teaching in an awesome way. I know that God so ordained and directed my steps to the Atlanta Metro area where, in the late 1990s, I discovered Grady College while working in the television news arena.
GC: Are there any books or podcasts that you would recommend to our students?
GD: Definitely every Grady student must read “In My Place” by Charlayne Hunter-Gault. As a master’s student in my first year, I read that 1992 book by the woman who was one of the two students to integrate the University of Georgia.
Tickets to Grady Salutes: Celebrating Achievement, Leadership and Commitment on April 28, 2023, are available for purchase. Register here.
Grady College is proud to announce honorees for its annual Alumni Awards, recognizing alumni who have established a tradition of service and achievement in their careers.
Alumni Award recipients will be recognized at the College’s annual recognition event, Grady Salutes: A Celebration of Achievement, Leadership and Commitment, on Friday, April 28, 2023. Inductees into the Grady Fellowship also will be recognized at Grady Salutes.
The 2023 Alumni Award recipients include:
Maura Friedman (ABJ ‘13), a senior photo editor at National Geographic, will receive the John E. Drewry Young Alumni Award. Friedman previously worked as the lead photo editor and projects photographer at the Urban Institute, a multimedia reporter at the Chattanooga Times Free Press and an independent visual journalist producing photo and video stories across the Southeast United States. The Young Alumni Award recognizes a graduate of the last decade who has experienced a successful early career.
Yolanda Taylor Brignoni (ABJ ‘98), the vice president of external affairs and communications at the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF), will receive the Mid-Career Award. Prior to joining EGPAF, she was the head of communications for Axios Media. The Mid-Career Award is presented to a graduate for professional achievements, influence and success.
Doreen Gentzler (ABJ ‘79), who retired in November 2022 after a career spanning four decades, will receive the John Holliman, Jr. Lifetime Achievement Award for sustained contributions to the profession throughout a career. Gentzler anchored the news on WRC/NBC4 in Washington, D.C. for 33 years. She spent several years honing her journalism skills in Chattanooga, Charlotte and Cleveland, then Philadelphia, before joining NBC4 in 1989. Doreen also filled in on “The Today Show” and “NBC at Sunrise.” Grady College has recognized its Lifetime Achievement recipient for more than 45 years.
George Daniels (MA ‘99, PhD ‘02), an associate professor and Reese Phifer Fellow of journalism and creative media at The University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, will receive the Distinguished Alumni Scholar Award. Daniels previously served as assistant dean for administration in UA’s College of Communication and Information Sciences. The Distinguished Alumni Scholar Award honors a graduate for excellence and sustained contributions to scholarship in journalism and mass communication education.
More information about the Alumni Awards and a list of past recipients can be viewed on the Alumni Awards webpage.
Julia Carpenter (ABJ ’13) is this year’s recipient of the John E. Drewry Young Alumni Award, honoring a graduate of the last decade who has experienced a successful early career.
Carpenter is a reporter for The Wall Street Journal. She previously worked at both CNN and The Washington Post, and has also written for publications including Glamour, Vogue and New York Magazine.
Covering stories on gender, culture, finance, technology and everything in between, Carpenter has received several awards for her reporting. In 2019, she was honored with the Excellence in Business Coverage Award from The Association of LGBTQ Journalists for her story “When Work Puts You Back in the Closet,” published in CNN Business. In 2020, she received a Front Page Award in the Personal Service category from the Newswomen’s Club of New York for her reporting in WSJ’s “The New Rules of Money” series.
In addition to reporting, Carpenter also publishes a daily newsletter, “A Woman to Know,” and mentors aspiring writers through Girls Write Now.
Following is a brief interview with Carpenter:
GC: What is it about your field that appeals the most to you? Why did you decide to enter that field?
JC: I’m a big talker and an obsessive journaler. As soon as teachers saw those two things, they started recommending I think about studying journalism. In my career now, those two things — my chattiness and my note-taking — are huge strengths of mine. As a student, I loved the idea that journalists could ask anyone about anything and spend all day learning about everything. Even today, I’m still marveled that I will think “I wonder how that’s going to work?” and then I’ll call someone and say, “You’re the expert, and I’m a journalist — can you tell me how that’s going to work?”
Carpenter is currently based in New York City, where she reports for The Wall Street Journal (Photo: submitted).
GC: Looking back at your time at Grady, is there anything you wish you had done (classes you had taken, skills you would have liked to have learned, clubs to be involved with) that would help you with what you are doing today?
JC: As a college student, I was so intent on double-majoring (in English and in journalism) and excelling at the student newspaper. I wish I had taken more classes just for fun! Looking back on my time at UGA, I can truly think of only a handful of classes I took that weren’t fulfilling a requirement or adding to some other part of resume. If I could go back, I like to think I would do that differently. I know I would be a better writer for it, that’s for sure.
GC: What would you tell your 20-year-old self?
JC: There’s no “right way” to build a career and a creative life. Stop trying to find it! Go to Marti’s and eat some pita chips.
Carpenter graduated In 2013 with a degree in journalism (Photo: submitted).
GC: What motivates you?
JC: The day after I publish a piece, I set aside time to read all the tweets, emails and comments responding to it. Sure, some of them are negative, and many require an eye roll or, in bad cases, a block and report. But I save all the emails that say, “you put words to what I was experiencing” or “thank God someone finally said this!” or — this one most of all — “I thought I was the only one.” Those motivate me.
GC: Is there anything else you would like to share?
JC: I have spent countless hours, therapy sessions and fat baby tears stressing over finding a mentor. Everyone kept telling me “Do you have a mentor? You need a mentor!” and at all these different points in my career, I resolved to find a mentor who (I presumed) could shepherd me to career enlightenment. But here’s the thing: my strongest advocates and best advice-givers and most generous sounding boards have always been people at the same level as me. Some of them I met at The Red & Black, some of them I met at internships and some of them I met during my early days at my first job. But we’ve all come up together, and grown together, and I want future students to know that building those connections is enough. Now, these peers are worth more to me than any idea I had of some “Fairy GodMentor.”
This is one in a series of profiles about our 2022 Alumni Award honorees and Fellowship inductees.
All our honorees and inductees will be honored at Grady Salutes: Celebrating Achievement, Leadership and Commitment on April 29, 2022 at Athens Cotton Press. Please visit our Grady Salutes registration webpage for more details.
Julie Wolfe’s (ABJ ’03) path to the news director’s chair at Seattle’s legacy television station KING 5 started at the University of Georgia, where she was president of DiGamma Kappa and news director at WUOG. She started her career as a reporter at KGWN in Cheyenne, WY, WGRZ in Buffalo, NY, and WXIA in Atlanta. When social media bloomed as a publishing platform, Wolfe turned her attention to digital journalism, taking on the roles of social media manager and then digital director at WXIA, before becoming the assistant news director.
She took over as news director at WHAS in Louisville in 2018, leading the team through award-winning coverage of the Breonna Taylor case and launching its Emmy-winning investigative unit, FOCUS. Wolfe has been the news director at KING 5 in Seattle since June 2021. She served as a board member of RTDNA and is a graduate of The Carole Kneeland Project for Responsible Journalism and the Center for Creative Leadership.
Following is a brief interview with Wolfe:
GC: What skill(s) should graduates and young alumni focus on to have success early in their careers?
JW: Relentless optimism. You need both. Optimism without relentlessness is just wearing rose-colored glasses. Young journalists need to remember that what they do is important, and when done well, has a lasting and positive impact on their community.
Wolfe organizing live wall-to-wall coverage as news director at WHAS in Louisville. (Photo: submitted)
GC: What is it about the broadcast news field that appeals the most to you? Why did you decide to enter that field?
JW: I’m one of those people who knew what I wanted to do from the time I was young. The idea of telling important stories that helps people make more informed decisions was something I felt I could dedicate a career to pursuing. Every day is different, and there is nothing that compares to the energy and adrenaline of a group of journalists working together on a big news day.
GC: What do you miss the most about being at UGA?
JW: I made lifetime friends during my time at UGA. Now, more than 20 years later, we’re spread around the country, but still support each other and cheer for the Dawgs.
Wolfe with a group of KING 5 journalists outside KING 5 studios in Seattle, WA. (Photo: submitted)
GC: What would you tell your 20-year-old self?
JW: It’s okay to take a breath, a moment, a year. I was in such a hurry to get to the next step at every phase of my career, I look back and realize I didn’t always get the most out of where I was before moving to the next chapter. Right now, at 20 years old, you’re building who you ARE. There’s plenty of time to build what you’ll DO.
GC: What does this recognition mean to you?
JW: When Dean Davis called me about the award, I was so overwhelmed. It’s a difficult time to be a journalist. As a leader in journalism right now, I feel a huge responsibility to leave our industry in a better place: a place where we can continue to do important and vital work, dedicated to facts. A recognition at mid-career is a nod that you’ve done some things but have a lot more to do. It’s a position I’m embracing, and this celebration, to me, is a reminder that there is so much work left to be done.
GC: What are your best strategies for keeping up to date with industry advancements?
Wolfe with Sr. Assignment Editor Kendra Gilbert KING 5. (Photo: submitted)
JW: Consuming news on all platforms exposes me to up-to-date information, but also creative and interesting ways to communicate that information. I’m an avid podcast listener so I can multitask. I also consume much of my news on mobile, and I think there’s still a lot of interactive presentation work to do on how we present news on the platform where people are consuming on the go. With Neilson now including BBO homes (Broadband Only), we’re better poised to understand how viewers are watching local news on those platforms. While it’s important to keep searching for the best ways to use technology to collect, understand and deliver news, it’s also important to me that LOCAL JOURNALISM remains at the center of those advancements.
GC: Is there anything else you would like to share?
JW: Grady College of Journalism will always hold a special place in my heart. It’s where the seeds of this career, this life, were first planted. Because of the great professors and great experiences I had then, I’ve built a fulfilling journalism career on that foundation.
This is one in a series of profiles about our 2022 Alumni Award honorees and Fellowship inductees.
All our honorees and inductees will be honored at Grady Salutes: Celebrating Achievement, Leadership and Commitment on April 29, 2022 at Athens Cotton Press. Please visit our Grady Salutes registration webpage for more details.
Carolina Acosta-Alzuru (MA’ 96, PhD’ 99) is this year’s recipient of the John Holliman, Jr. Lifetime Achievement Award, honoring a graduate for sustained contributions to the profession throughout a career.
Acosta-Alzuru is professor of public relations at Grady College. She teaches courses in public relations campaigns and cultural studies, specifically focusing on links between the media, culture and society. She has also published multiple articles and books on telenovelas – a subject she has been studying for over 20 years.
She has won several awards for her teaching and research, including the 2015 AEJMC-Scripps Howard Foundation Journalism and Mass Communication Teacher of the Year for the United States and University of Georgia’s Josiah Meigs Distinguished Professorship. Her career has also taken her abroad to the United Kingdom, Chile and most recently Turkey, where she has conducted research on the tensions between the domestic and global markets for Turkish dramas.
Following is a brief interview with Acosta-Alzuru:
Grady College: What lessons learned from your time as a Grady College student have most helped you succeed in your professional life?
Carolina Acosta-Alzuru: Everything I needed to learn to become a professor and scholar I learned in our College, where I received both my M.A. and Ph.D. degrees. I learned how to turn my intellectual curiosity into rigorous research because I was taught by great researchers. I learned how to be a better teacher because I had fulfilling classroom experiences that challenged and nurtured me. I learned that mentoring is part and parcel of being an educator because I was superbly mentored. Most importantly, I learned in our College that having faith in the person you are teaching and mentoring is essential for their professional and personal development. I learned this because so many of my professors and fellow graduate students surprised me by believing, when I had no clue of this possibility, that I could become a good scholar and a good teacher. I am particularly appreciative of the lessons learned from my major professor and advisor, Dr. Elli Lester Roushanzamir, and from Dr. Pat Curtin, who was then a doctoral student. Their wisdom has guided me throughout my career, and I am extremely happy that Pat is also honored this year with the Distinguished Alumni Scholar Award.
Acosta-Alzuru with Dr. Elli Lester Roushanzamir hooding her as a new Ph.D in 1999. (Photo: courtesy of Carolina Acosta-Alzuru)
GC: What is it about your field that appeals the most to you? Why did you decide to enter that field?
CA: Understanding and unraveling the links between media, culture and society is what I do and what appeals the most to me. I do this by studying some of the most consumed and, at the same time, most deprecated television genres: Latin American telenovelas and Turkish dramas. My preoccupation with the connections between media, culture and society is consonant with the way I see public relations, a field that has been traditionally viewed from an organizational perspective, but whose relationship with society is mutually transformative. I’m a believer in the many possibilities that public relations has of effecting positive societal change and I bring that belief into my classroom every day.
GC: What does this recognition mean to you?
CA: The fact that weeks after the announcement of this award I’m still processing the news says how big and unexpected this recognition is for me. I remember watching with admiration John Holliman’s reporting from Bagdad in 1991, I was still in Venezuela then. I was a Ph.D. student in 1998 when the College was saddened and stunned with the news of his death. A year later he received, posthumously, the Lifetime Achievement Award. Soon after that I graduated and began my faculty life here. These moments have been playing on my mind as I process the deep feelings of gratitude and surprise that this recognition elicits in me.
Acosta-Alzuru (right) with fellow Grady Ph.D Usha Raman (left) in Hyderabad, India at the IAMCR conference in 2014.
GC: What motivates you?
CA: I love learning, and both teaching and research go hand in hand with learning. The fact that I love my work so much is one of my biggest treasures and the best motivator, of course. I enter the classroom every day in a good mood, ready for the experience of being both teacher and learner with my students. As for my research, I approach it every day with the same fascination it produced on me on day one, more than two decades ago.
GC: Is there anything else you would like to share?
CA: I’m always looking at what’s ahead: my next class, my next research study, the next conference, and the next time I enter the Journalism building, a place where I’ve always been happy. This recognition, however, has made me stop and look back at the many wonderful people that have walked with me throughout the years: my professors, my students, my colleagues and the staff. All of them have embraced me, all of them have been my teachers, all of them have made this Lifetime Achievement Award possible.
This is one in a series of profiles about our 2022 Alumni Award honorees and Fellowship inductees.
All our honorees and inductees will be honored at Grady Salutes: Celebrating Achievement, Leadership and Commitment on April 29, 2022 at Athens Cotton Press. Please visit our Grady Salutes registration webpage for more details.
This is one in a series of profiles about our 2022 Alumni Award honorees and Fellowship inductees.
All our honorees and inductees will be honored at Grady Salutes: Celebrating Achievement, Leadership and Commitment on April 29, 2022 at Athens Cotton Press. Please visit our Grady Salutes registration webpage for more details.
Patricia A. Curtin (MA ’92, PhD ’96) is this year’s recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Scholar Award, honoring a graduate for excellence and sustained contributions to scholarship in journalism and mass communication education.
Curtin is a professor and endowed chair at the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication. After receiving her Ph.D. at Grady in 1996, she took a tenure-track position at UNC-Chapel Hill, where she received early promotion and tenure to associate professor and directed both the master’s and the doctoral programs. She then received an endowed chair and early promotion to professor at the University of Oregon.
Her research encompasses cross-cultural public relations, public relations history, and development of critical/postmodern approaches to public relations theory. She has won top research awards at international conferences and is the author of two books and numerous peer-reviewed book chapters and journal articles.
Following is a brief interview with Curtin:
Grady College: What does receiving the Distinguished Alumni Scholar Award mean to you?
Pat Cutin: The short answer is a lot. The long answer is that I came to Grady’s graduate program in my late 30s as a working mother of two. You don’t put yourself in the position of working full-time as a master’s student, raising tweens, and doing a graduate program unless you’re pretty motivated. My motivation was to get the best education I could so that I could demonstrate how the stories we tell, and how we tell them, make a difference. My research agenda has never been trendy, but instead has been driven by trying to give voice to disenfranchised groups and create shared understandings that allow us to develop better relations among diverse peoples. Part of telling those stories is to put them in the larger socio-political-economic context of the times. Grady gave me the broad knowledge base and tools to be able to do that. To have Grady recognize the work that I’ve done over the years to ensure we hear those voices in context is validation not only of what I’ve tried to accomplish but of the broad diversity/equity/inclusion perspective that Grady values, as well. My current work is centered on how the U.S. public relations profession developed in relation with organized labor. Grady’s recognition of my work is an immense honor at this point in my career.
Pat Curtin (second from right) with other Grady College Ph.D. students Usha Raman (MA ’83, PhD ’96), Melinda Robbins, Pat Curtin and Carolina Acosta-Alzuru (MA ’96, PhD ’99) at a IAMCR conference in Dublin, Ireland, in 2013. (Photo: courtesy of Carolina Acosta-Alzuru)
GC: Why is a cross-cultural perspective important?
PC: The research study I’m proudest of to date is one I completed while a Grady doctoral student in Dr. Wally Eberhard’s Media and War class. It told the story of the Japanese-American troops in World War II—how the media portrayed them in order to promote U.S. government objectives and how the media-savvy 442nd Regimental Combat Team used the media to advance its goals of recognition and acceptance. After the piece was published, I was contacted by a Japanese-American soldier who had served in the war who told me I “nailed” the story. In 2005, 10 years after that study was published, I sailed as an instructor on Semester at Sea, the experiential-learning study abroad ship that takes students to 10 different countries to experience comparative cultural insights. The cross-cultural term embraces a variety of levels, including not just international boundaries but also those of cultures within the United States, which are important to recognize and embrace. I think any good communicator needs to authentically connect with an audience—the ability to empathize, to see others’ perspectives, to realize the commonalities that unite us as well as the rich diversities that complement us and fully realize our humanity and potential.
GC: What are your favorite memories of your time at Grady College?
From L-R: Dale Harrison, James Rada (PhD ’97), Margie Morrison (PhD ’96), Elfriede Fursich (MA ’94, PhD ’98), Carolina Acosta-Alzuru and Pat Curtin. (Photo: courtesy of James Rada)
PC: When I think back to my time at Grady, it’s the people who stand out. Grady attracts top scholars from around the world, and the opportunity to learn from them is immense and priceless. My professors, across the board, exposed me to a rich variety of theoretical and methodological perspectives, and my own research is so much better and stronger for that. Grady professors didn’t give us a hammer and tell us the world was a nail. We were given a toolbox and the knowledge from which to choose the appropriate tool for the job. Additionally, Grady attracts an amazing cohort of graduate students to its competitive program. I also fondly think of the staff, who supported even lowly graduate students and made us feel part of the larger Grady family. My fellow students pushed me, supported me, and remain my close friends after all these years. I am honored beyond words to be sharing the awards ceremony this year with one of those people, Dr. Carolina Acosta-Alzuru, who is receiving the John Holliman, Jr. Lifetime Achievement Award.
GC: What advice do you have for someone considering getting a Ph.D.?
PC: Pick a program not for the one professor you want to study with simply because they study just the precise area you think you want to. Instead, be open to having your intellectual horizons widened to include areas you never considered before. Pick a program for its breadth and its rigor. Pick a program for the foundation it will give you to explore new areas of interest and for its ability to push you to become the best scholar you can be. Grady made me question many of my long-held beliefs, expand my conceptual and methodological breadth, and learn how to never back down from the hard questions.
Editor’s Note: the above has been edited for length and clarity.
Maura Friedman accepts her John E. Drewry Young Alumni Award. (Photo: Sarah E. Freeman)
