Alumni Notes
1999
Chris Heine is a beat reporter for DM News and iMarketing News in New York City. Each of the two weekly newspapers, published by Mill Hollow Corporation, has a subscription base of more than 45,000 marketing companies and advertising agencies.
Sarah Jewell is an assistant media planner at DDB in Chicago. She works on the U.S. West account.
Katie Schwalm is based in Omaha as a sales representative for the imaging division of Jostens.
Kerry Shepherd is marketing manager for the St. Joseph News-Press in St. Joseph, Mo. She was previously director of communications for Benedictine College in Atchison, Kan. She earned the master’s degree in journalism in 1999.
1998
Gina Dvorak is assistant city editor at the Chronicle-Tribune in Marion, Ind. The Chronicle-Tribune received the Blue Ribbon award for daily newspapers in 1999, recognizing the paper as the best daily in Indiana.
Kenneth Maddox, Louisville, Ky., is an account executive at the Louisville NBC affiliate, WAVE 3 TV. He is a member of the executive committee of the Advertising Club of Louisville and serves as its diversity chairman. He and his wife, Laura Strope Maddox, a 1994 journalism graduate, have two children: Emileigh Grace and Christian Fairweather. Laura Maddox is employed at the Kentucky Autism Training Center.
Rebecca Stone is communications coordinator for an Omaha firm, Omnium Worldwide Inc. She writes articles, edits copy, works on brochure copy and produces a wealth of other communications-related projects like press releases and annual reviews.
1997
Jason Frederick is a reporter for the Nebraska Public Radio network, covering western Nebraska. Frederick and his wife, Amy, and their daughter, Aubrey, live in McCook. Frederick earned degrees in broadcast journalism and meteorology/climatology. His previous work was as news director at KOGA-AM/FM in Ogallala and at KIOD-FM in McCook.
Mary Ann Muggy Norton and her husband, Glenn, are the parents of a daughter, Adaryn Elisabeth, born Jan. 28. Norton works at gear.com in Seattle where she is the graphic/user interface designer. She designs the “look and feel” of the Intranet and some graphics for the Internet as well.
Seth Schuchman joined the NU Admissions staff in October 1999 as the recruitment representative for the Los Angeles/Southern California area. He had previously worked in recruitment and leadership consulting for his fraternity, traveling nationally.
Julie Sobczyk is working on the universal, features and sports desk at the Dallas Morning News, helping the paper introduce its new pagination system. She was previously a copy editor at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in Little Rock.
Matt Waite began a new job at the St. Petersburg Times on March 6. He is a general assignment reporter with an emphasis on computer assisted reporting. Waite had previously been a reporter at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in Little Rock.
1996
Travis Heying has been a staff photographer at the Wichita (Kan.) Eagle since September 1997. He will be married Sept. 2 to Teresa Veazey, a 1997 University of Kansas graduate, who is membership and marketing coordinator for the Society of Decorative Painters.
Jennifer Schein is community coordinator for weather.com, the Weather Channel’s Web site, in Atlanta.
1995
Kristin Armstrong is a page designer and copy editor and is in training to be an assistant city editor at the Denver Post.
1994
Kevin Hynes was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force in 1999. He has been editor of the Prairie Soldier, the Nebraska National Guard’s award-winning newspaper, since he was a journalism student. The promotion took him from an enlisted rank with the Army Guard to an officer’s rank with the Air Guard.
1993
Becky Kruse Gjendem, Molde, Norway, is translating stories from Norwegian into English for The Norway Post, a new online newspaper. Its online address is http://www.norskland.com. Gjendem moved to Norway in the summer of 1999 with her husband, Trond, a native of that nation. He is a computer programmer with New Media Science.
Terry Jochum is the marketing director for USA Roller Sports, which is based in Lincoln.
Kristine Stelzer began work June 5 as an account executive at Bailey Lauerman & Associates Public Relations in Lincoln. She had been with the NU Admissions Office for four years. She earned the M.A. in journalism in 1999.
1991
Christine Pillard Kaldahl, a news-ed graduate, is teaching journalism at Millard South High School in the Omaha area.
Julie Naughton, Hoboken, N.J., has been health and beauty aids editor at Women’s Wear Daily in New York City since May 1999 and has been with parent company Fairchild Publications since 1993 in a variety of writing and editing positions. Prior to that, she was the beauty and fashion assistant at Woman’s Day magazine. She travels a lot with her job and also reports that she enjoys skiing, snowboarding, Rollerblading and hunting for used books.
Bob Nelson is a feature writer with the New Times, a nontraditional publication, in Phoenix.
Mary Place-Schaffert earned the M.A. in journalism at NU in December 1999. She began work April 10 for Nebraska Wireless Telephone Co., Grand Island, as director of sales and marketing. She is responsible for marketing plan development, public relations and advertising and sales plan development. She and her husband, Chris, live in Aurora where he is sales and marketing manager for Top Flite Industries.
Sriyani Tidball is editor of The American Mother magazine. She has also developed the MAA Project (Mothers Against Abuse), a cooperative effort between Street Kids Worldwide, the University of Nebraska and American Mothers Inc.
1990
Ron Anderson is national director of hockey for USA Roller Sports, which is based in Lincoln.
Butch Ireland has been a photographer at the Bryan-College Station Eagle in Bryan, Texas, since April 1996. He is engaged to be married to Sandi Hartman.
1988
Dawn Novacek, Los Angeles, is president and CEO of Grace House Projects. The company has published The Whole Human Race and is also developing a National School Program, “A Week for the Whole Human Race,” due to be implemented sometime in 2000.
1978
Rex Seline is the new managing editor/news at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. He is in charge of the Fort Worth, business, national/foreign, news and copy desks. He worked first for the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, from 1978-81. From there he went to the Dallas Times Herald, The New York Times and The Miami Herald. He joined the Star-Telegram in 1994 as business editor and was named senior editor for business a year later. He added the title of editor of Star-Telegram.com in 1998.
1977
Larry Lutz has been named editor of the Arlington Star-Telegram, Arlington, Texas. He is responsible for all news, photo and graphics for a seven-day-a-week news staff, copy, news and design desk operations, sports and business staffs and a weekly community news publication. All told, the paper has a staff of more than 75. Lutz has been with the Star-Telegram nearly 15 years, serving in many editing capacities. Most recently, he was city editor for about three years. Lutz is married to Sandy (Mohr) Lutz, also a 1977 NU journalism grad and now a national health care analyst for PriceWaterhouse-Coopers. They have two daughters; Katie, 16, and Sarah, 11.
Ken Schrad, Richmond, Va., is chief spokesman for the State Corporation Commission, the agency that charters Virginia corporations and regulates the state’s utilities, banks and insurance companies. He was previously a reporter and news director at KLMS radio in Lincoln and was Lincoln bureau chief for KMTV -TV, Omaha. He and his wife, Dana, have a daughter, Erin, a student at the University of Virginia, and a son, Jeff, a junior in high school.
1971
Kathryn Christensen is vice president of the Dow Jones international group, a job that combines her four interests: television, print, international news and management. She serves on the boards of CNBC Asia and CNBC Europe, which Dow Jones owns jointly with NBC.
1969
Barbara Tabak, Milwaukee, is editor of an “advertorial” section called Transportation Marketplace at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. She was lifestyle editor at the paper but left that job when her third child was born in 1982. She returned to the paper in 1992.
1967
Steve Davis is CEO of an Internet company in Silicon Valley called PatternRx. Davis says the company’s mission is to help people who suffer from chronic disease deal more effectively with their condition. Davis was formerly an executive with advertising agencies in New York and Chicago.
1938
Donald Wagner, Sioux City, is retired from medical practice. He worked for the United Press International in Chicago and Minneapolis after graduation and then entered the NU Medical School in Omaha where he earned his medical degree.
1931
William McCleery died Jan. 16. His play, “Match Play,” was performed March 21-25 at the NU Howell Theatre in its Nebraska premiere. “Match Play” is a three-character comedy/love story about the newspaper business. During his career, McCleery worked for Hearst Newspapers, the Associated Press, Life magazine, the New York newspaper PM, the Ladies Home Journal and Princeton University’s magazine University.