The visit to Grady was as a part of the U.S. Department of State’s International Visitor Leadership Program’s Media in a Democracy Project.
Amanda Bright speaks with the visiting journalists about key concepts in news literacy. (Photo: Jackson Schroeder)
While at Grady, the group of Sri Lankan journalists listened to lectures and participated in discussions led by Tudor Vlad, director of the Cox International Center, Amanda Bright, director of the Cox Institute Journalism Innovation Lab, Janice Hume, the Carolyn McKenzie and Don E. Carter Chair for Excellence in Journalism and incoming associate dean of academic affairs, and David Hazinski, professor emeritus.
“We were pleased and honored to put together a training program for the Sri Lankan journalists here at Grady College,” said Vlad. “This is an extraordinary time for Sri Lanka, and all my colleagues who contributed to the sessions were aware of the turmoil that the country is going through and by the important role that journalists will play in the following weeks.”
The Grady faculty members led discussions about the responsibility of the media, the need to inform citizens while avoiding incitement, and about the opportunities for journalists to contribute to the process of democratization, Vlad explained.
The visitors, who are managers, editors and producers of newspapers, television stations, radio stations and news websites in Sri Lanka, were also led on a tour through the College, making stops by the Grady Newsource facilities, the Social Media Engagement and Evaluation Suite and elsewhere.
Before lunch, Tudor Vlad (left) walked the visitors through a tour of Grady Newsource, the SEE Suite and elsewhere.
“The topics are not new to us, but the technologies and the approach are. So, it’s really good for us and helps us think differently,” one visiting Sri Lankan journalist explained. “The University and the media school, we don’t have these types of facilities in Sri Lanka, but I’m hoping that younger Sri Lankan students can come here and get this experience.”
That’s 111 years of educating students, collaborating with colleagues, sharing knowledge with peers, cheering on alumni after graduation and making Grady College a better place to work and learn. There are bittersweet feelings as we wish Alison Alexander, Michael Castengera, David Hazinski and Spencer Tinkham the best in their retirements.
Alison Alexander most recently served as Grady College’s senior associate of academic affairs, a position she has held since 2007.
Alison Alexander in the mid-1990s. Photo: Craig Poole
“It’s safe to say that were it not for Alison, I’d still be searching for the most basic answers about how to do my job,” Dean Charles Davis said. “She has been my touchstone on all things academic, providing such wise counsel and most recently guiding us seamlessly through the accreditation process. To say she’ll be missed fails to do her justice.”
Alexander joined Grady College in 1991 following teaching positions at the University of Massachusetts and TA positions at Ohio State University. Her research specialties have been in children’s television and audience research, and she has authored several books including “Taking Sides: Controversial Issues in Mass Media and Society” a book she co-edited with Jarice Hanson through 12 reprints. She served as editor of the “Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media” from 1989 to 1991, and also served on several university committees, including chair of the University Admissions Committee since 2010.
Michael Castengera (r.) accepts the Darwin Davis Award for demonstrating the Grady spirit, from then Dean Cully Clark in April 2010.
Castengera, a senior lecturer, retired in December 2017.
“Michael taught his students how to be professionals and continually raised the bar with what he expected,” said Janice Hume, the Carolyn McKenzie and Don E. Carter Chair for Excellence in Journalism, and head of the Department of Journalism.
Before his time in academia, Castengera spent more than 25 years as a professional journalist, including 5 years in newspaper reporting, followed by more than 20 years in broadcast news, mostly in news and station management. He brought his experiences in the field and his fascination with how politics is portrayed in the news to the classroom and to Newsource, which he helped produce for several years.
He continues to work in retirement as a station management consultant.
For 31 years, Hazinski has been a professor of Grady College, teaching digital and broadcast journalism.
“David has built Newsource from scratch, from spit and baling wire, and built it to be one of the premier broadcast centers in the country,” Hume said during a ceremony in April recognizing him as the Department of Journalism Teacher of the Year. “He is a force of nature and I cannot imagine Grady without him.”
David Hazinski in 1988, a year after he started teaching at Grady College.
Hazinski is a Kennedy Professor of New Media and was named this past spring a Top Journalism Educator by NewsPro Magazine. Hazinski also serves as the CEO of Intelligent Media Consultants, an international communications consulting and training company that has launched more than a dozen national television channels, including the first private and 24/7 news channels in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Prior to joining Grady College, he was the originating co-host, writer and technology advisor for “World Business Review with Caspar Weinberger,” and he served as an international correspondent for NBC News, based in New York, London, Washington, and then Atlanta. Hazinski holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Duquesne University and a master’s degree in educational communications and technology from the University of Pittsburgh.
Spencer Tinkham, professor of advertising, has worked at Grady College for 37 years. Over the years, he has spent time teaching undergraduate courses in advertising research methods, management and campaigns. He has also taught graduate-level courses in advanced communication research and quantitative data analysis.
Spencer Tinkham and graduate student, Mary Lynn Hanily (PhD ’93), in 1993.
“Spencer Tinkham has been a devoted mentor to graduate students and junior faculty,” said Bryan Reber, head of the Department of Advertising and Public Relations. “He has been the go-to guy for any sticky quantitative research problem. His advertising and political communication research have been very influential in those fields. Perhaps most importantly, Spencer is one of the nicest guys on the planet. He has been a departmental treasure these 37 years and we will miss him deeply.”
Prior to joining the faculty of Grady College, Tinkham taught in the Marketing Department of Columbia University Graduate School of Business, at the University of Illinois and as a visiting professor at the University of Florida. His research focusing on political communication, especially message and audience factors in persuasion, has earned him national attention including a ranking in the top 25 academic advertising researchers in the Journal of Advertising.
Dean Charles Davis and Grady College are pleased to announce the 2018 class of Grady College Fellows: E. Culpepper “Cully” Clark, Melita Easters (ABJ ’76), David Hazinski, Lisa Ryan Howard (ABJ ’92) and Lee Thomas (ABJ ’87).
Established in 2008, the Grady College Fellowship honors friends of the college whose accomplishments, friendship and service to the industries they serve have made a positive impact on Grady College.
The induction of the Fellows, along with recognition of the Grady College Alumni Award winners, takes place at “Grady Salutes: A Celebration of Achievement, Commitment and Leadership” on April 27 at the Georgia Center.
“This year’s Grady Fellows class reminds me of the ties that bind us all together,” Davis said. “Each member of this sterling class represents the very best of us all, and has such deep ties not only to us all, but to the industries that we serve, forming another lasting addition to Grady’s pantheon of stars.”
The recipient of the John Holliman Jr. Lifetime Achievement Award will be also inducted into the Fellowship during ceremonies on April 27. The recipient of the Holliman Award, along with the other Grady College Alumni Awards, will be announced later this month.
E. Culpepper “Cully” Clark
Fellows to be inducted include:
Culpepper “Cully” Clark — Clark is dean emeritus of Grady College, a position he held from 2006 until his retirement in 2013. During this tenure as dean, Clark increased the number of endowed professorships and chairs from four to 15. Clark was dean of Grady when the college inducted its first class of Grady Fellows in 2008. Prior to Grady College, he served as dean of the College of Communication and Information Sciences at The University of Alabama, after serving as an assistant professor and assistant to the president of UA. A historian of the South since the Civil War, Clark’s published works have focused on the New South Movement, Civil Rights and communications. In 2015, he wrote “Centennial: A History of the Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia,” as a gift to the college. He is finishing a new book, “Sherman, Grady, and the Making of Atlanta.” Clark earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Emory University and a doctorate degree from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
Melita Easters
Melita Easters (ABJ ’76) — Easters is the founding chair and currently serves as executive director of Georgia’s WIN List, a political action committee dedicated to electing Democratic women to statewide office and the Georgia General Assembly. She is also a playwright, having written, among other works, a series of one-woman plays about southern literary figures including Margaret Mitchell and Harper Lee. She is currently finishing a new play, “The Cigar – Robert Woodruff and the Rise of Coca Cola.” Easters served on the board of The Red & Black for more than a decade, including serving as board chair in 2013 and 2014. She has also served as the state news editor for the Tifton Gazette, as a political reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and as a producer for “The Lawmakers.” Easters earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Grady College.
David Hazinski
David Hazinski — For more than 30 years, Hazinski has been a professor of Grady College, teaching digital and broadcast journalism. He is a Kennedy Professor of New Media and was just named a Top Journalism Educator by NewsPro Magazine. Hazinski also serves as the CEO of Intelligent Media Consultants, an international communications consulting and training company that has launched more than a dozen national television channels, including the first private and 24/7 news channels in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Prior to joining Grady College, he was the originating co-host, writer and technology advisor for “World Business Review with Caspar Weinberger,” and he served as an international correspondent for NBC News, based in New York, London, Washington, and then Atlanta. Hazinski holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Duquesne University and a master’s degree in educational communications and technology from the University of Pittsburgh. He plans to retire at the end of this academic year.
Lisa Ryan Howard
Lisa Ryan Howard (ABJ ’92) — Howard currently serves as senior vice president and general manager, media, at The New York Times. In this role, she is responsible for the newspaper’s category-organized sales team in New York, its national sales offices in the U.S and around the world, and the group’s planning and operations teams. Howard joined The Times in 2016, following executive strategy positions at WebMD and Yahoo. She has also served as publisher of Billboard and several leadership positions at Conde Nast. She was the recipient of Grady College’s Henry W. Grady Mid-Career Achievement Award in 2012, and has been recognized as one of Advertising Age’s “40 Under 40.” She has a bachelor’s degree in advertising from Grady College.
Lee Thomas
Lee Thomas (ABJ ’87) — Thomas is a deputy commissioner at the Georgia Department of Economic Development, and division director of the Georgia Film, Music & Digital Entertainment Office. She returned to Atlanta in 1996 to work for the Georgia Film and Videotape Office as a project manager, and then became a location specialist for the office in 1998. After finding locations for film and television projects for 12 years, Lee became director of the film division in 2010. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in telecommunication arts from Grady College and she holds a master’s degree in film studies from Georgia State University. She also attended the Tisch School of the Arts Doctoral Program in Cinema Studies at New York University.
The induction of the Fellows, along with recognition of the Grady College Alumni Award winners, takes place at “Grady Salutes: A Celebration of Achievement, Commitment and Leadership” on April 27 at the Georgia Center.
This year’s honorees were recognized for their outstanding work and were nominated by NewsPro readers and members of the Radio Television Digital News Association and the Broadcast Education Association.
“It’s nice to see NewsPro–a leading publication in the broadcast news business–publicly declare that which we at Grady College always have known: that David Hazinski is an innovator and a leader in higher education,’ said Charles Davis, dean of Grady College. “David is a joy to work with, a rare mix of the classroom and the newsroom, with a personality as big as this building. His students and his former students always, always stop me just to tell me what he means to them.”
Hazinski, a new media professor at the University of Georgia, specializes in digital and broadcast news. He owns Intelligent Media Consultants, which helps to launch eight TV networks around the world, including Aaj Tak, CNN-IBN in India and GEO TV in Pakistan.
Prior to working at Grady College, Hazinski served as an international correspondent for NBC News for six years and a reporter for TV stations in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Pittsburgh. He spent two years as a writer, co-host and technology advisor of the international syndicated World Business Review with Casper Weinberger, the secretary of defense under President Ronald Reagan.
In addition, Hazinski has trained national news anchors and reporters such as ESPN anchor Maria Taylor and Fox News correspondent Will Carr. He has been appointed a Senior Teaching Fellow, and holds a Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professorship, the university’s highest teaching award.
Hazinksi has announced his retirement at the end of this academic year.
