The College of Media, Communication and Informationwas established in 2015. The CMCI alumni community includes you, your classmates and all graduates of the Department of Communication and the former School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
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Cindy (Cossid) Stern (Jour) recently celebrated 10 years with the Chicago Festival of Israeli Cinema, where she serves as executive director. She spent the previous three decades at advertising and marketing agencies in Los Angeles and Chicago, including Frankel & Co./Arc Worldwide, J. Walter Thompson, Euro RSCG and Leo Burnett. During her career, she helped pair Starbucks and United Airlines and develop the USPS ReadyPost boxes. She lives in Lincolnshire, Illinois.
Posted Oct. 20, 2021
In 2021, Jim Gray (Advert) received Boulder’s George Norlin Award, recognizing outstanding alumni who have demonstrated a commitment to excellence in their chosen field of endeavor and a devotion to the betterment of society and their community. It is the highest award bestowed by the university on Boulder alumni. In 2020, he released his book, Talking to GOATs: The Moments You Remember and the Stories You Never Heard, in which he reflects on four decades of sports reporting from the perspective of one of the world’s most respected and skilled interviewers. It includes interviews with Tom Brady, Muhammad Ali, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Michael Jordan and more. Always a loyal Buff, he followed the book’s release with a virtual reading and discussion for students in CMCI’s sports media minor. He was recently featured in the documentary series Mike Tyson: The Knockout and contributed to Fox Sports’ coverage of the Tokyo Olympics.
Posted Oct. 20, 2021
After graduation, Patti Sanford (Advert) worked in public relations for Petroleum Information in Denver and then for Cartier in New York. She later lived in Istanbul, Paris, Brussels and Toronto working as a freelance writer. For the past 15 years she has been a fine arts photographer and Broadway producer, including for Hadestown, which won eight Tony awards in 2019. She lives in Larchmont, New York, with her husband, Michael Roberts. They have two daughters.
Posted Oct. 16, 2020
Thom Kuhn (Jour) is president and CEO of Millstone Weber, a heavy civil construction company focused on the transportation industry, and PHL Inc., a charitable organization that provides free athletic facilities, equipment and long-term maintenance services to inner-city and underserved public school districts and community organizations. He and his wife, Dianne, have three sons and a daughter. Two of their sons work in sports radio. The Kuhns live in Wildwood, Missouri.
Posted Oct. 16, 2020
Linda Villarosa (Jour) runs the journalism program at The City College of New York in Harlem and is working on a book about race, health and inequity. She is a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine, and her cover story, “Why America’s Black Mothers and Babies Are in a Life or Death Crisis,” was nominated for a 2019 National Magazine Award.
Posted Nov. 12, 2019
Rick Mullen (Jour) has lived in Malibu, California, since 1990 and was elected to the Malibu City Council in 2016. During the 2018 wildfires, he worked with media outlets and elected officials—including President Donald Trump—as the city’s mayor. Rick is a retired Marine Corps colonel with 30 years of active and reserve service and was a captain in the Los Angeles County Fire Department. He and his wife, Jenny Ball, have two children, Marshall and Tatiana.
Posted Nov. 12, 2019
Eugene Rosenquest (Jour) is an account representative for ADT Corporation in Volusia and Lake counties, Florida. He will be visiting Boulder this year for the first time since 1981.
Posted Oct. 30, 2018
Kathleen MacDonald (Comm) is the senior vice president of marketing at Spectrum Retirement Communities, LLC. She is part of a three-generation CMCI family. Her mother, Helen Kiley Masterson (Jour’56), is a public relationsand communications specialist and an active member and former president of the Denver Woman’s Press Club. Kathleen’s son, John Sauer (Jour’14), is a personal vacation advisor at Inspirato.
Posted Oct. 30, 2018
Michelle R. Houser (Jour)was named the chief operating officer of the Tesla Foundation, a think tank focused on workforce development and education related to autonomy and autonomous technology. She previously managed advanced transportation, aerospace, cybersecurity and clean tech economic development efforts at the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation and worked as a political communications consultant in Southern California.
Posted Mar. 16, 2018
Last year, Jenny Herring (Jour) joined the National Park Service’s Rivers, Trails and Conservation Assistance program as a strategic planner and writer. This came after years of public relations and writing for financial services firms and other organizations. In February, she adopted an English Labrador puppy named Griffin.
Posted Aug. 19, 2024
Shannon Luthy Lukens (Jour) is the news director for seven radio stations in Northwest Colorado and was recently voted Best Radio Personality in Steamboat Springs. Her photos and news stories frequently end up on the Denver networks. As president of Lukens Mountain Media, she is hired to announce events, sports and any shows in the area that need an emcee, including many of the activities at Steamboat Resort. Lukens was the longtime announcer of men’s lacrosse games in Boulder.
Posted Dec. 1, 2022
David Plati (Jour) will reach his 40th year working full time at on Jan. 9, 2023, all spent in the sports information department. He will be semi-retiring in 2023 to transition into the role of athletic historian for the university.
Posted Dec. 1, 2022
Vaughn Morrison (Jour) joined The Associated Press in 2014 as head of U.S. video production. He started his career with 17 years at CNN and has managed several digital media startups, earning three news and documentary Emmys along the way. Vaughn lives in Kensington, Maryland, with his wife, Cathryn, and has two grown children and a granddaughter. Vaughn also lays down some crazy funk jams on his bass guitar.
Posted Oct. 16, 2020
Vaughn Morrison (Jour'82) joined the Associated Press in 2014 as head of U.S. video production. He started his career with 17 years at CNN and has managed several digital media startups, being awarded three news and documentary Emmys along the way. Vaughn lives in Kensington, Maryland, with his wife Cathryn and has two grown children plus a granddaughter. Vaughn also lays down some crazy funk jams on his electric bass guitar.
Posted Aug. 3, 2020
Neill Woelk (Jour) joined Buffs.com as its contributing editor in 2015 after three decades as a sports reporter, columnist and sports editor at the Daily Camera. He and his wife, Sue, live in Frederick.
Posted Nov. 12, 2019
Jenny Herring (Jour) works in institutional client relations at Wilshire Consulting. Based in Broomfield, she writes proposals for institutional investors including large pension plans, university endowments and corporations. Previously, Jenny spent much of her career providing public relations and marketing for financial services companies.
Posted Nov. 12, 2019
David Plati (Jour), longtime Boulder associate athletic director/sports information director, was honored in January with the Football Writers Association of America’s Lifetime Achievement award. David, who has been with the athletic department at since he was a freshman in 1978 (and worked there full time since he graduated), will also be inducted into the national College Sports Information Directors of America Hall of Fame in June. He has worked on the game-day statistics crew with the Denver Broncos for 39 seasons, is an official scorer for the Colorado Rockies and is on the game week PR staffs for the Rose Bowl and College Football Playoff championship game.
Posted Jun. 3, 2019
Marsha Piccone (Jour, Law’85) is a partner with Fox Rothschild LLP and was named a top appellate lawyer for 2018 by 5280 magazine. She and her husband, David, have two sons, one of whom is a freshman in the Boulder College of Engineering and Applied Science.
Posted Jun. 3, 2019
Shannon Lukens (Jour) is the award-winning news director for all seven radio stations in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. She can be heard daily on the radio and as a sports announcer for events across Colorado. As president of Lukens Mountain Media, she manages social media for clients. Shannon and her husband, Jeff, have three children, two of whom are Boulder alumni.
Posted Jun. 3, 2019
Steve Getzug (Jour) spent 15 years as a journalist in Colorado, Wyoming and California before becoming a corporate communications executive at AECOM, a global infrastructure firm based in Los Angeles. He manages CEO and strategic communications activities while occasionally daydreaming about moving back to Boulder.
Posted Jun. 3, 2019
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