The University of Georgia Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication is pleased to honor four outstanding graduates with its 2018 Alumni Awards, and a beloved Grady College professor who will be inducted into the Sanford Circle.
Sally Yates (ABJ ’82, JD ‘86) receives the John Holliman Jr. Lifetime Achievement Award; Ashley Huston (ABJ ’96) is honored with the Henry W. Grady Mid-Career Alumni Award; Polina Marinova (ABJ ’13) is awarded the John E. Drewry Young Alumni Award; and Jisu Huh (MA ’00, PhD ‘03) receives the Distinguished Alumni Scholar Award.
Barry Hollander, a professor of journalism who died in January, will be inducted into the Sanford Circle, a posthumous membership created to honor friends of Grady College whose achievement and generosity of spirit remain with the college.
All award recipients will be recognized along with the 2018 Grady Fellowship inductees, at Grady Salutes: A Celebration of Achievement, Commitment and Leadership on April 27, 2018.
Sally Yates is a distinguished lecturer at Georgetown Law School. Yates is a former deputy attorney general of the United States. President Barack Obama nominated Yates to be the U.S. Attorney in the Northern District of Georgia, where she was the first woman to hold the position in the Northern District of Georgia. During her time as U.S. Attorney, Yates was appointed by Attorney General Eric Holder to serve as vice chair of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee. She was nominated for John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award and won the Mary Church Terrell Freedom and Justice Award during the Detroit NAACP’s 62nd Fight for Freedom Fund Dinner. She graduated from the public relations program at Grady College, and earned her law degree from the University of Georgia School of Law. As the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award, Yates also will be inducted into the Grady Fellowship.
Ashley Huston most recently served as the chief communications officer for the Dow Jones Company and The Wall Street Journal. Huston is a strategic communications executive with extensive experience working with dynamic global media, sports and news brands. She has also held roles at CNN, ESPN and News Corp. Huston began her career as a student assistant in the University of Georgia’s Sports Communications office. She graduated with a degree in public relations from Grady College.
Polina Marinova is an associate editor at Fortune Magazine where she is the author of Term Sheet, Fortune’s daily newsletter. Before the Term Sheet, Marinova was an audience engagement editor at Fortune, managing all of Fortune’s social media accounts and crafting social campaigns around Fortune franchises. She is a journalism graduate of Grady College.
Jisu Huh is the Raymond O. Mithun Endowed Chair in Advertising and Director of Graduate Studies at the Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota. Huh’s research program covers a wide range of topics related to advertising and its effects, especially in the digital and social media contexts. Huh is immediate past president of the American Academy of Advertising and also serves as an associate editor for Journal of Advertising. Additionally, she serves on the editorial board of several journals in the field of advertising, including International Journal of Advertising, Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising, and Journal of Advertising Education. She is an elected member and chair of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) Standing Committee on Research. She holds a master’s degree in journalism and a doctorate in mass communication from Grady College.

The Sanford Circle honoree, Barry Hollander, taught the fundamentals of journalism to countless students throughout his 26 years at Grady College. He was known for his wit, his attention to facts, his social media comments and his fierce loyalty to his students, many of whom he stayed in touch with through their successes after graduation.
Grady Salutes: A Celebration of Achievement, Commitment and Leadership will be held at the University of Georgia Center for Continuing Education and Hotel. Tickets can be ordered by visiting the Grady Salutes reservation website.