Spring 2006
CLASS OF 1964
Joseph Barbato has a new book, The Mercifully Brief, Real World Guide to Attracting the Attention Your Cause Deserves (Emerson & Church, 2005). Barbato has served for the past two years as president of Washington Independent Writers, the nation’s largest regional writers group. He is now working on a book about Frank Sinatra and the American 1940s.
CLASS OF 1971
Bruce M. Mitchell is a senior partner in Grunfeld, Desiderio, Lebowitz, Silverman & Klestadt LLP, a New York-based law firm specializing in international trade and customs law. He travels frequently throughout Asia and Europe, representing foreign producers and exporters involved in trade disputes arising under the U.S. antidumping and other trade laws.
CLASS OF 1984
Myra Alperson publishes a newsletter, NoshNews, and is the author of Nosh New York: The Food Lover’s Guide to New York City’s Most Delicious Neighborhoods, which was published in 2003 by St. Martin’s Press. She has also written books on adoption, multicultural parenting, and corporate social responsibility in South Africa.
David H. Lippman is working on his eighth State-of-the-City address since joining the staff of the Newark Public Information Office in 1998, and just had an article published in World War II Magazine on “Operation Bodenplatte,” the Luftwaffe’s last attack of World War II.
CLASS OF 1985
Kris Fischer is the editor in chief of the New York Law Journal, a daily newspaper for lawyers in New York State.
Inspired by a year of undergraduate study in Trinity College Dublin, history devotee Gerry Regan nine years ago co-founded TheWildGeese.com, a lively and far-ranging webzine chronicling “The Epic History and Heritage of the Irish.” Assembling a living with freelance copy editing and web production gigs has allowed Regan the time, working with editorial partner Joe Gannon and a far-flung team of freelance and volunteer writers, to produce hundreds of features, drawing nearly 10,000 page views per week. The pair, through their company GAR Media LLC, syndicate many of their features to print publications in Ireland and the United States.
CLASS OF 1987
Dana Alexander Nolfe is the chief public affairs officer for the Rhode Island Department of Transportation. Currently she is serving on the national committee that is planning the events honoring the 50th Anniversary of the Interstate.
Leah Ingram published two more books in 2005: Gifts Anytime: How to Find the Perfect Present for Any Occasion and The Everything Etiquette Book: A Modern Day Guide to Good Manners. Ingram, based in New Hope, Pennsylvania, continues to build her etiquette platform as an author and speaker, including getting trained last year at the Protocol School of Washington as a certified etiquette and protocol consultant. Part of her responsibilities included doing media interviews (WABC, Good Day New York, WINS) and teaching mini-etiquette classes to young diners.
CLASS OF 1988
Jamie (Newmeyer) Litty is chair of the Department of Mass Communications at The University of North Carolina at Pembroke and a mother of two children.
Roger Smith teaches at St. John’s University and is a freelance book reviewer for the Indianapolis Star and New York Sun, among other publications. He is writing a book about the novelist Theodore Dreiser scheduled for publication in 2007.
Cara M. Tuzzolino is an adjunct professor in the English department at Pace University, teaching an on-line writing course to undergraduates. She earned her Ed.M. from Teachers College, Columbia University in TESOL.
Robyn Walensky is a New York correspondent/anchor for Fox News Radio and co-edited the book, Covering Catastrophe-Broadcast Journalists Report 9-11-01.
Michael Wong is working for Apple Computer, Inc., as the senior manager for US Market Development in the professional applications group, which includes broadcasters, film makers, and professional photographers. He is also producing his second movie, this one a thriller entitled Person of Interest.
CLASS OF 1989
Tony Greco recently joined WBBR-Bloomberg Business Radio in NYC. Greco is writing business and financial news for the morning drive-time show. WBBR is a 50,000-watt station at 1130 on the AM dial and is also carried on Sirius and XM satellite radio, as well as streaming worldwide on the Internet.
Nina M. Svoren has returned to work as an attorney at the law firm of Healy & Svoren in Toccoa, GA, after she and her husband had their first child last fall.
CLASS OF 1990
Michael Dolan is the deputy editor of FHM magazine. He is also the associate producer of a PBS documentary: “The Video Game Revolution,” which was produced by KCTS in Seattle. He is married to Denise Maher, journalism undergrad class of 1994. They live in Brooklyn Heights.
Yvonne Latty is the author of We Were There: Voices of African American Veterans from World War II to the War in Iraq (Harper Collins/Amistad). Her next book In Conflict: Iraq War Veterans Speak Out on Duty, Loss and the Fight to Stay Alive (PoliPointPress) will be in bookstores in May. She is an adjunct professor of journalism at Villanova University and until recently was a reporter for the Philadelphia Daily News.
Robin Meyerowitz is a freelance writer and editor living in San Francisco. She recently completed a web project for the California Digital Library (part of the University of California) highlighting some of its historical photographs and documents. She also started teaching English Composition at San Francisco State University in the Fall. And she continues to work on her book: a memoir that tries to reconcile her grandmother’s experiences in Nazi Germany with her relationship with a German man.
Maria Divina Paredes-Japa (now using Divina Paredes as a byline) is the editor of MIS (Managing Information Strategies) Magazine in New Zealand. The magazine, a publication of Fairfax Business Media, was awarded the best trade/professional magazine in the 2005 Qantas Media Awards. She is also a columnist for Diario Filipino, the newspaper of the Filipino community in New Zealand, and writes occasionally for newspapers in Manila. She and a former NYU journalism classmate Wilma Lacaba helped Professor Michael Norman do some research for his upcoming book.
CLASS OF 1991
Irwin Gratz completed a one-year term as president of the Society of Professional Journalists, the nation’s largest and most broad-based journalism organization. His tenure ended with Gratz defending a controversial award the Society made to New York Times reporter Judith Miller for the time she spent in jail. Gratz remains morning edition producer for Maine Public Broadcasting in Portland, Maine.
Sharon LaCruise is directing and producing her first one-hour documentary film titled “In the Shadow of Little Rock: The Life of Daisy Bates” for PBS. Her deadline for completion of the film is September, 2007, so it can correspond with the 50th anniversary of the 1957 Little Rock Desegregation crisis.
CLASS OF 1992
After five years covering the auto industry for The Detroit News in Washington, Jeff Plungis moved on to Bloomberg News as an editor, overseeing coverage of the SEC. In 2005, his work for The News earned the Gerald Loeb Award, considered the highest honor in financial journalism, as well as a “Best in Business” designation by the Society of American Business Editors and Writers.
CLASS OF 1993
Matthew Pace is a reporter with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC TV News) based in Montreal.
CLASS OF 1994
Charlie Gould is leaving MSNBC, where he had been a segment producer and line producer for the past four years. He will be producing for CNBC’s “On the Money” starting Feb. 6, 2006.
Denise Maher is a freelance magazine writer and reporter specializing in health and nutrition. She contributes to Self, Seventeen and Women’s Day, among others. She co-authored Your Diet Is Driving Me Crazy: When Food Conflicts Get in the Way of Your Love Life (Marlowe & Co.). In 1999, she married Michael Dolan, NYU Class of 1990.
Elena Romero is an academic advisor/communications coordinator at the City College of New York Center for Worker Education. In addition, she is an Adjunct Professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), where she teaches journalism, fashion journalism, and advertising & promotion. Her work has appeared in the New York Post, WWD, DNR, Sportswear International, Vibe and Latina.
Erin Rottman (Gebroe) writes freelance articles for Los Angeles magazine and Shape. She also fact checks for Shape and Natural Health. Freelancing allows her to be home with her two young children.
Eric Stirgus is a staff writer at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He’s currently assigned to cover Henry County, an Atlanta suburb that ranks among the nation’s fastest-growing counties.
Leslie-Jean Thornton is a journalism professor at the Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University and is preparing to defend her dissertation at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She left the Virginian-Pilot, where she was an editor, after being awarded a Freedom Forum doctoral fellowship.
Kathleen Nicholson Webber wrote a book coming out this spring called Spectacular Homes of Philadelphia (Panache Books). She teaches as an adjunct at Temple University. Also, she started at a luxury lifestyle publication called New Jersey Life last week as Deputy Editor.
CLASS OF 1995
Josh Bernstein recently became the writer/editor for the Lourdes Health System of Camden, N.J. after spending almost nine years as an awarding-winning reporter for the Burlington County Times of Willingboro, N.J. He also is the author of Images of America: Willingboro from Arcadia Publishing.
Monica Rivituso is an associate editor at SmartMoney.com, where she’s worked since 1999. In the past year, she became a featured columnist at the site with her column Techsmart, which casts a critical eye at the world of tech investing.
Rebecca Schoenkopf is the senior editor at Village Voice Media’s OC Weekly in Orange County, CA, where she writes about art, pop culture and politics in my column, “Commie Girl.”
CLASS OF 1996
Sid Dinsay is currently an account supervisor at Dan Klores Communications, a PR firm based in New York City. He recently left the NYC Health Department, where he served as deputy director of communications, and he has previously held public information posts at the NYC Buildings Dept. and the Office of Emergency Management. He was deputy press secretary to Mayor Rudy Giuliani and yes, he was a journalist before going to the “dark side” He worked five years at New York 1 News — a job gained after an NYU internship!
Allen Salkin wrote the book Festivus: The Holiday for the Rest of Us. He continues to write for the New York Times and has had recent articles in The Atlantic Monthly, Cargo, and New York Magazine. He is spending five weeks this winter in Buenos Aires, where he is working on a proposal for his next book.
CLASS OF 1997
Rick Appin is the senior content editor for a London-headquartered company called mergermarket.
Adam Levine recently moved to DC to run CNN’s assignment desk.
Wendy Sheehan is the managing editor of Computer Shopper magazine.
Chuck Shelton is the managing editor for VNU US Literary Group.
Sylvan Solloway started her first on-air job in Fayetteville, Arkansas. She stayed three years, a little longer than the intended year or so. After taking home three AP awards and being recognized for “Balanced Reporting on Arkansas’ Hispanic Community,” she created and launched the state’s first Spanish newscast and then produced and anchored it. Next, she moved home to Oklahoma City to work as a reporter at the Fox affiliate. Finally, a year ago, she moved back to New York City, where she is now producing PR video at DS Simon Productions.
CLASS OF 1998
Michael B. Friedman is the president and owner of Brandon Public Relations.
Jared Lipworth is the executive producer of science programs at Thirteen/WNET New York. He is responsible for such prime-time PBS series as “Secrets of the Dead, Innovation, War Plane, The Mysterious Human Heart, The Human Spark, Big Ideas” and more.
Patrick Markey is a correspondent for Reuters in Venezuela.
Phil Rosenbaum is a producer on CNN Headline Prime’s Nancy Grace, a news/talk show that launched in February 2005. He has also recently co-authored a suspense thriller screenplay he hopes to someday bring to a theater near you.
Katie Thomas has just finished a book about the rescue and reunification of a New Orleans family caught in Hurricane Katrina. The book, Waters Dark and Deep, which grew out of her reporting for Newsday, is being published by Cold Spring Press and will be distributed to the trade by Simon & Schuster in mid-February.
John Vukelj had an article entitled “Post No Bills: Can the NBA Prohibit its Players from Wearing Tattoo Advertisements?” published in the Winter 2005 issue of the Fordham Intellectual Property, Media & Entertainment Law Journal. He is an attorney with the law firm of DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary US LLP in New York City.
CLASS OF 1999
Sharon Guynup published her first book in November, State of the Wild 2006: A Global Portrait of Wildlife, Wildlands, and Oceans for the Wildlife Conservation Society. The Dec. 2005 issue of Men’s Journal listed it among its top 10 books of the year.
Tatiana (Fish) Siegel has been working at The Hollywood Reporter for the past three years, and last year she was promoted to film reporter. In that position, she covers three studios: Paramount, Sony and 20th Century Fox. In addition, her freelance writing has appeared in The Nation, USA Today, the San Francisco Chronicle and Sierra magazine.
CLASS OF 2000
Daphne Carr was recently named the new series editor for the book series Da Capo Best Music Writing. The next edition will be out in 2006.
Matt Creamer is a reporter at Advertising Age magazine in New York. Among the many issues he writes about are the technological changes sweeping the ad business. He lives in the Sunset Park section of Brooklyn.
Tamer El-Ghobashy has been a staff writer for the NY Daily News for six years, reporting and writing for the Metro and National desks of the newspaper. Most recently, he spent 11 days in New Orleans covering Hurricane Katrina.
Adam Kraemer has been working since February for Energy Intelligence Group, Inc. in their production department, doing Quark Xpress layouts. Prior to that, he was a copyeditor for the same publications. In addition, he is still a monthly columnist for IntrepidMedia.com.
Leital Molad is the associate producer at Studio 360, a nationally broadcast public radio show produced at WNYC. She started at the show as an intern in early 2000, while she was studying at the graduate program at NYU.
John Taranto is currently in his sixth year at Outdoor Life, where he is senior associate editor.
CLASS OF 2001
Sonal Dutt is the associate editor at Woman’s Day magazine and the Style and Home Design editor at For Me magazine.
Deborah Freeman (Charles) is an associate producer for National Geographic Television and Film. Her recent project, “King Tut’s Final Secrets,” is a 1 1/2 hr. documentary airing on the National Geographic Channel nationally and internationally.
Kathy Koupai is working on her Ph.D. in Education at Claremont Graduate University and San Diego State University in southern California. She moved back to her home city, Los Angeles, and is working as a public school teacher in Simi Valley. She teaches phonics and phonemic awareness to elementary school students who have difficulty with reading. She also contributes articles to the Iranian Times, online.
Justin Ku returned to China since graduation to become the executive producer and host of a prime time TV show called “Meet China” on China Central TV network, the only national TV network in China.
Tania E. Lopez is a reporter at The Indianapolis Star covering courts and crime and Latino issues for the past two years. Prior to coming to Indiana, she spent two years working at a Knight Ridder owned daily called The Belleville News Democrat where she covered education and covered the Venice School District in Illinois. Her articles on the school’s mishandling of federal funds led to the first ever disbandment of a school board in the history of Illinois public schools. The school, located in a low income, crime ridden neighborhood eventually closed and has now been replaced by a charter school.
Yusef K. Robb is deputy chief of staff to California State Controller and gubernatorial candidate Steve Westly. Robb previously served as Los Angeles Mayor Jim Hahn’s press secretary, CA Gov. Gray Davis’ campaign speechwriter, and as a press deputy to Carl McCall’s gubernatorial, Bill Mulrow’s NY State comptroller, and Al Gore’s presidential campaigns. Robb also worked for an NYC public relations firm. Small world — Robb last year worked closely with Professor Richard Blood’s son Michael, who was covering the L.A. Mayor’s race for the AP.
Suzanne Rozdeba is a senior reporter with Star magazine in New York City, where she reports and writes stories about celebrities, and frequently travels nationally and internationally to cover celebrity scandals. She frequently appears on specials for VH1, Fox, and A&E. Previously, she was a reporter with the New York Daily News.
CLASS OF 2002
Jessica DeCostole is an editorial assistant/assistant to the editor-in-chief at Redbook Magazine.
Sujin Ock is a video editor for WMAR, the ABC affiliate in Baltimore. She trains in dance, and recently started a t-shirt company called seed and seltzer design.
Megha Ramaswamy received a Masters degree in Public Health in 2003 from Univ. of Kansas. She did HIV research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx for two years after. Now she is a PhD student in sociology at CUNY, the Graduate Center. She also teaches public health courses at Hunter College.
Mary Schas worked for a year after graduation at New York magazine, first as an intern and then as a freelance fact-checker/reporter. During that time, she contributed to several chapters (researching, writing, editing, fact-checking) of Chris Hedges’ second book, What Every Person Should Know About War. In October 2003, she was hired as an assistant editor at Organic Style magazine, which folded in September. Since October 2005 she has been working at Women’s Health as an associate editor. She also got engaged on her 30th birthday in December.
Anna Spiewak is a news reporter at New Jersey Herald, a daily newspaper in Sussex County. Starting Feb. 1st, she will be starting a job at North Jersey Media Group (which owns The Record) as a special sections editor for weeklies and monthly magazines at the company.
CLASS OF 2003
Akshay Bhansali produced the “10 the hour” news for a year and is now the MTV news producer for MTV Desi, a channel celebrating South Asian and American pop culture and entertainment.
Carola Mandelbaum works as a program associate at Creative Associates International Inc. in Washington DC. She manages a human rights reconciliation project in Guatemala and is writing a study on child sexual exploitation in sex tourism in Costa Rica. She is also currently working on education projects in Pakistan and the Philippines.
Wendy Manwarren is the associate home editor at Family Circle magazine.
Carey Fox Masters is a segment producer for “Countdown w/ Keith Olbermann” on MSNBC.
Gabrielle Menezes is a West Africa correspondent for Al Jazeera International, (a new English language channel which will begin broadcasting in April). She has been based in Abidjan, Ivory Coast for the past year, covering politics in the war divided country, as well as reporting around the region.
Sarah Muller is a producer at MSNBC.
Holly Russel started a PR firm in New York last September called Pilot Publicity. Her specialty is in arts and entertainment PR - since she has a background in publishing, she works with a number of authors, but her client roster also includes a filmmaker, a choreographer, a pair of astrologists, and a magician, among others.
Evita Torre, formerly an editorial assistant/junior copy editor for Ladies’ Home Journal, is the senior associate editor at Seventeen.com.
Sara Walker worked for ABC World News Tonight with Peter Jennings after graduation. After leaving the broadcast, she entered the public relations field and currently works at Rubenstein Communications in midtown.
Lauren Rosenblum Wiseman works for the Washington Post out of its Anne Arundel County bureau in Annapolis, writing the weekly entertainment calendar, highlights and new briefs. She also writes cover stories for the weekly “Extra” section and recently had a ski piece in the Travel section.
CLASS OF 2004
Tara Rummell Berson is working at Redbook magazine. She contributes articles to the “Handbook” section, writes the “Time For You” column, and edits the embarrassing moments and astrology pages.
Bill Chapman is president of Portico Publications in Charlottesville, Va., which publishes free alternative newsweeklies in Charlottesville, Columbia SC, and Augusta, GA.
Brian Foster was a one-man-band reporter at WIVT in Binghamton after graduation. After leaving Binghamton, he was promoted to reporter at sister station WSYR (formerly WIXT) in Syracuse. In June 2005, he accepted a new position with WSYR as the website producer.
Bonnie Friedman is a staff writer and columnist for The Jersey Journal, a daily newspaper in Hudson County, New Jersey. She covers the City of Hoboken and writes a weekly transportation and mass-transit column.
Ben Goldberg is in his second year of law school at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. He has accepted a summer associate position at Brown, Raysman, Millstein, Felder and Steiner, a large law firm in New York.
Chantal Gordon lives in Los Angeles, where she is the West Coast Assistant at Vogue magazine. She coordinates photo shoots and scouts new designers.
Aisha Khan joined the Los Angeles Times’ Foreign copy desk in 2003, after working for a year at Newsday. She has written several books for the Manhattan-based Rosen Publishing Group, including a biography of the medieval philosopher Avicenna due this year. She is married and has a two-year-old daughter.
Sheena Lee works for Reuters news agency as a correspondent in Taipei.
Courtney Malenius is the assistant director of admissions at NYU.
Valerie Nahmad is the “Chill Out” editor at Time Out Chicago Magazine, overseeing coverage of all aspects of physical and mental wellness.
Jessica Mintz is a reporting assistant at The Wall Street Journal.
Shaya Tayefe Mohajer works for the Associated Press as an assistant on the national news editing desk in New York. In the last year she helped with Farsi translations for a New Yorker cover story about Iran.
Mackenzie Dawson Parks works for the New York Post as the editor of the weekly “@Work” section. Prior to this, she was the deputy Sunday features editor, also at the Post.
Corrie Pikul is working as a fact-checker for New York Magazine. In addition to small reporting assignments for New York, she has also been writing freelance articles about women and pop culture for several online and print magazines.
Brittany Schaeffer is a features reporter at the New York Daily News.
Anna Spiewak won a 2004 First Amendment award from the New Jersey Press Association for news writing.
Beverley Wang is a reporter for The Associated Press in Concord, N.H.
Evan Weinberger lives in Kigali, Rwanda where he does freelance work for the Catholic News Service and the Dallas Morning News. He’s also the editor of a new English-language monthly newspaper called Focus, run by a Rwandan journalist. He writes, “We have a mighty staff of three reporters. My job, aside from headline writing, staff photographer (I’m the only one) and staff writer, is teaching these young reporters (the oldest is 24) how to be real journalists.”
CLASS OF 2005
Mallory Carra is a sports reporter at the Chattanooga Times Free Press in Chattanooga, Tenn and previously interned at the Raleigh News and Observer in North Carolina as a sports reporter.
Loretta Chao is a news assistant at The Wall Street Journal, where she covers career, health and small business issues, and writes a regular travel column.
Karen P Herter is an assistant editor at Stitches magazine, an embroidery trade magazine published by Prism Business Media.
Ashley Matthews works as a reporter at the Burlington Free Press in Burlington, Vermont. She spent the greater part of 2005 at a small newspaper in Texas covering pasture fires, university hazing cases and Katrina fallout.
Rachel Montross is a staff reporter at the Southbridge Evening News, a small daily paper in Central Massachusetts.
Ashley Nichols is an editorial assistant at New Jersey Life Magazine in Lambertville, N.J.
—Compiled by Joseph Daniel Michener