Tag: Randy Travis

New Grady Fellowship inductees announced; Dean’s Medal to be awarded

Posted on by Sarah Freeman

Grady College proudly announces four honorees who will be inducted into the Grady Fellowship this year.

Grady Fellowship honorees for 2023 include:

  • Regina Hicks (ABJ ’85, MFA ’90)
  • Robin Hommel (ABJ ’96)
  • Susan Percy (ABJ ’66)
  • Randy Travis (ABJ ’82)

The Grady 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 2023 recipient of the John Holliman Lifetime Achievement Alumni Award, Doreen Gentzler (ABJ ’79), will be inducted into the Fellowship, as well.

Caroline Edwards (ABJ ’12), a U.S. Capitol police officer who responded to the Jan. 6 attacks, has been named the Dean’s Medal for Leadership Excellence recipient, the College’s highest honor.

Private First Class Officer Caroline Edwards, a public relations major and current U.S. Capitol Police Officer, will be awarded the Dean’s Medal at Grady Salutes.

The induction of Fellows and recognition of Edwards takes place along with the presentation of 2023 Alumni Awards on April 28 at Grady Salutes.

Grady College looks forward to celebrating the Fellowship inductees:

Regina Hicks has spent her career writing for television. She is currently an executive producer and showrunner for “The Upshaws,” a sitcom on Netflix that she created. She is also a writer and co-executive producer of “The LWord – Next Generation” on Showtime, and “Insecure,” on HBO. Other writing credits include “The Mayor,” “Marlon,” Girlfriends,” and several made-for-TV movies including Jump In and Camp Rock for the Disney Channel.

Robin Hommel is a three-time Emmy Award-winning producer and showrunner whose career spans network news, daytime talk and primetime programming. She currently serves as the executive broadcast producer of the ABC News daytime talk show, “The View,” where she has worked since 2015. Prior to “The View,” Robin served as co-executive producer of VH1’s “Big Morning Buzz Live.” Hommel was the creator and executive producer of “Grady Greats,” a panel series in collaboration with ABC News featuring Grady College alumni, ABC talent and media leaders offering insight and analysis into and decisions made behind the scenes.

Susan Percy is a Metro Atlanta-based journalist who has spent most of her career in magazine journalism. She was executive editor and editor of Georgia Trend Magazine from 2001 through 2013 and editor-at-large from 2014 through 2022. She wrote an award-winning monthly opinion column for more than 20 years and remains a regular contributor.

Randy Travis is a Peabody Award-winning investigative reporter for FOX 5 Atlanta. Randy joined WAGA in 1990. In 1994 he moved to the station’s distinguished investigative unit, the FOX 5 I-Team.  In addition to the Peabody Award, Randy’s investigative work has earned him two national Edward R. Murrow awards, plus more than 20 regional Emmy awards.  Travis is also the recipient of the 2005 Mid-Career Alumni Award from Grady College.

Dean Charles Davis is also pleased to recognize Caroline Edwards as a Dean’s Medalist. The last Dean’s Medal was presented to Loran Smith (ABJ ’62) in 2017.

Caroline Edwards is a Private First Class Officer with the U.S. Capitol Police. Her law enforcement career started in 2017 and she has served for six years on the Department’s First Responders Unit. On January 6, 2021, Officer Edwards was the first police officer injured by the rioters while stationed on the West Front of the Capitol. She was knocked unconscious and suffered a traumatic brain injury. On June 9, 2022, Officer Edwards testified to the January 6th House Select Committee. She graduated from Grady College with a degree in public relations.

More information about the Grady Fellowship and a list of past inductees can be viewed on the Grady Fellowship webpage.

The registration link for the Grady Salutes celebration on April 28, 2023, will be available in early March. 

Travis, Lewis to address fall 2019 graduates at convocation

Posted on by admin

Grady College graduates will gather for Fall 2019 Convocation ceremonies on Thursday, Dec. 19 at the Hugh Hodgson Concert Hall.

The ceremony will begin at 10 a.m.

Randy Travis (ABJ ’82) will be the keynote speaker at the event. Travis is a Peabody Award-winning investigative reporter for Fox 5 Atlanta.

During his career, Travis has won two national Edward R. Morrow Awards and more than 20 regional Emmys. His Peabody win came this past May for a series of investigative reports he produced, wrote and reported called “$2 Tests: Bad Arrests.” He was the recipient of the Henry W. Grady Mid-Career Alumni Award from Grady College in 2005, and in 2015, Travis was named to the Silver Circle, a lifetime achievement honor given by the Southeast Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

The senior speaker at convocation will be Peyton Lewis. Lewis is a journalism major with a minor in communications and a New Media Certificate.

Lewis interned for Joy FM’s radio team in the summer of 2018, where she worked on storytelling through mediums such as radio and social media. During the summer of 2019, she worked as a news intern at 11Alive.

Lewis, a native of Stockbridge, Georgia, aspires to work as an investigate reporter after graduation.

Taylor Maggiore, a journalism major and Grady Sports Certificate student, will be the senior speaker at the UGA Commencement on Dec. 13.

For more information about convocation, please visit the Grady convocation webpage.

Peabody win comes full circle for Grady College alumnus

Posted on by Sarah Freeman

When Randy Travis (ABJ ’82) was a Grady College journalism student, he took a class called “History of Program Ideas,” taught by Worth McDougald, director of the Peabody Awards from 1963 to 1991. Each class period was spent analyzing a different entry from the vast Peabody archive — all exhibiting the best in storytelling techniques.

“If someone had told me 39 years ago, that one day, a story that I had a hand in would be in those archives with all those shows I listened to, I would have said ‘you’re crazy,’” Travis said, with a combination of humility, shock and pride in his voice. “But, they put me on the path of storytelling…that’s what that class did for me.”

On May 18, Travis, a reporter for the investigative team from WAGA Fox 5 Atlanta, will accept the Peabody Award for investigative journalism for a series that aired in 2018 called “$2 Tests: Bad Arrests.” The 78th Peabody Awards ceremony takes place May 18, 2019, in New York City.

“I have been fortunate to win awards in my career,” Travis said, “and, they are always thrilling, but this is the cream of the crop. This is an award that you dare to dream about.”

The series examined inexpensive drug tests used by many police departments during traffic stops. The tests are designed to analyze substances found in cars and determine whether the substance is a narcotic or not. The problem is that many tests are returned with false-positives for harmless everyday items like headache powder, cotton candy and vitamins. Citizens were arrested, creating chaos in their lives, time in jail, lost jobs and tarnished reputations…all based on information that many times was false.

When Travis suspected that this was not an isolated incident, he and the I-Team investigated whether these false-positive results were a trend. Over six-month period, the team submitted FOIA requests and researched incident reports indicating a drug test came positive for illegal drugs. After reviewing more than 1,000 records from police precincts, sheriff’s offices and other law enforcement agencies in Georgia, the investigators found at least 145 cases were false-positives and resulted in arrests based on these drug tests. Travis said that number is conservative because that number doesn’t include reports that were restricted and were not reviewed.

As a result of this investigative report, changes are being made in the law enforcement process: “The most encouraging result we have seen from our investigation,” Travis said, “is that police departments now are not accepting the results of these tests as gospel. They are using them as just one of many tools to decide if someone should be arrested.”

Randy Travis (l.) and Ashlyn Webb (second from right) are joined by Dale Russell, senior investigative reporter, and Mindy Larcom, producer for the FOX 5 I-Team after the series won an award from the Atlanta Press Club in April. “Randy Travis, Dale Russell, Dana Fowle, and the FOX 5 Atlanta I-Team are truly my role models. Having the chance to intern with such phenomenal investigative reporters was an honor. ” (Photo: Courtesy of Ashlyn Webb)

Many law enforcement agencies have stopped using the kits entirely or they are waiting to arrest a suspect until after the confirmation of the questionable substance is returned from the state crime lab.

There are other impacts of the report, as well.

Just as McDougald set Travis on a path of storytelling that eventually led to this Peabody Award, so did Travis have an impact on the education of two Grady College students.

Ashlyn Webb (AB ’19), a third-year journalism student, spent the summer of 2018 interning for the Fox 5 I-Team, and Sidney Shadrix (MA ’19), spent a week shadowing for the I-Team. During the time Webb and Shadrix were with the I-Team, they worked on the “$2 Test” series, gathering, following up and analyzing the police incident reports. In addition, Webb interviewed some of the victims in the report.

“I really appreciate assistance of the interns,” Travis said of the Webb and Shadrix. “We really are a team and it was great to have the interns as part of our team for this significant project. They were a second and third set of eyes that helped us find stories to tell the story

For Webb, interning at Fox 5 was a growth experience where she could apply lessons learned in class. Lessons including accessing records, analyzing data and fact checking from Information Gathering class and how to file FOIAs and open records requests discussed in Communication Law were used day to day last summer.

“Having the chance to work on this Peabody-Award winning investigative series with Randy Travis and the FOX 5 Atlanta team was an opportunity of a lifetime,” Webb said of the group that continues to mentor her even after internship has ended. “It’s even more rewarding to see the story that I had the privilege of contributing to is making a difference locally, nationally, and now, even internationally.”


View a special presentation of “$2 Tests: Bad Arrests” here.

Peabody Citation for $2 Tests: Bad Arrests

In a prime example of the ripple effect of excellent local investigate reporting, reporter Randy Travis delves into the reliability of drug-testing kits, known as “$2 Tests,” used by police around the country as a quick, cheap way to analyze suspicious substances in the field. Despite warnings of the tests giving false positives, dashcam videos show how police regularly relied on them to arrest individuals for everyday items such as headache powder, vitamins, or cleaning supplies. The coverage led police departments to drop the tests and compelled professional associations to educate law enforcement, prosecutors, and public defenders on the fallibility of the tests.

Executive Producers: Eric Ludgood. Associate Producers/Producers: Mindy Larcom, Aaron Willen, Randy Travis. Writers: Randy Travis. Editors: Randall Rinehart. Reporters: Randy Travis. Photography: Aaron Willen.