Joe Strupp:
Elizabeth Elizalde:
Elizabeth Elizalde is a metro reporter for the New York Daily News. She writes for The News’ Latino section, Viva New York, where she covers Latino issues. She was also a reporter on the breaking news desk for over a year. Before working for New York’s hometown paper, Elizabeth was a freelance news reporter with DNAinfo. Additionally, she interned at CBS News, CNN en Español, NY1 and Latina Magazine. Elizabeth is a proud Brooklyn College alumna who received her bachelor’s degree in journalism in 2015. At BC, she was editor-in-chief of The Kingsman, one of the campus’ newspapers. She lives in Brooklyn, and enjoys exploring up and coming restaurants, traveling and writing.
See Elizabeth Elizalde’s Daily News page here.
Charmaine Nero:
In August of 2018 Charmaine Nero joined the KTXL Fox 40 team in Sacramento as a reporter.
She comes to Sacramento from Little Rock, where she was a reporter and multimedia journalist for two years at the NBC and FOX affiliate stations, KARK/FOX 16. She reported on groundbreaking stories including a mass shooting at a night club, which left 28 people injured. She also reported on several tornadoes damaging homes in the state, covered executions, and exposed K2 smuggling in a county jail – prompting officials to build a new outdoor recreation area for inmates, to name a few.
She also worked in Gainesville, FL where she was a Multimedia Journalist at WCJB, an ABC affiliate. Aside from turning daily stories as a one-woman band, Charmaine served as the station’s technology reporter, producing and putting together stories for “Tech Tuesday’s.”
Charmaine is a proud alumna of the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism in NYC, where she served as president of the Columbia Journalism Association of Black Journalists. She is also an active member of the National Association of Black Journalists.
Charmaine was born in Queens and raised on Long Island. She is a proud alumna of Brooklyn College.
Glenn Thrush:
Glenn Thrush grew up in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, and attended Sheepshead Bay High School, from which he graduated in 1984. Thrush graduated from Brooklyn College, where he concentrated in journalism, political science and Greek classics.
Thrush first jumped onto the national scene as a reporter for Newsday, covering Hillary Clinton’s first presidential candidacy. He then spent eight years at Politico, becoming one of the paper’s most senior and versatile journalists, at times working as a long-form magazine writer, a scoop generator and a podcast host. He then soared even higher as a national correspondent for The New York Times. On Saturday Night Live, Thrush went viral, as Bobby Moynihan portrayed Thrush during mock White House press briefings. (Melissa McCarthy appeared as Sean Spicer.)
Recent and archived work by Glenn Thrush for The New York Times is here: https://www.nytimes.com/by/glenn-thrush
Bobby Moynihan as Glenn Thrush shows up two minutes into this clip.
Rebeca Ibarra:
Rebeca is a Mexico City native who lives in Brooklyn and works on the New Jersey desk at WNYC. She joined the newsroom as assistant producer in 2016 and in the fall of 2018 was promoted to associate producer. Rebeca wears many hats — reporting on everything from Penn Station’s design flaws to the development boom in downtown Newark, and producing segments that range from New York City’s vanishing storefronts to the rising tides threatening the Jersey Shore. (And of course, there’s been the occasional cat story.) You’ve probably also heard her afternoon newscast, where she’s been complimented on how she rolls her Rs. Follow her @RebeIbarraC
Paul Moses:
[photo by Liz Willen]
Paul Moses ’75 worked in daily journalism for 23 years, mostly as a reporter and editor at Newsday’s New York City paper, and then joined the faculty of the BC Journalism Program from 2001 to 2017. At Newsday, he served as city editor, Brooklyn editor and City Hall bureau chief. He also covered the religion and federal court beats. He has written for The Associated Press, Daily Beast, Wall Street Journal, New York Daily News, CNN.com, Time.com and other outlets. He is a contributing writer for Commonweal magazine and author of The Saint and the Sultan: The Crusades, Islam and Francis of Assisi’s Mission of Peace (Doubleday, 2009) and An Unlikely Union: The Love-Hate Story of New York’s Irish and Italians (NYU Press, 2015). As a professor, he was the first to advocate merging the college’s two journalism programs—which faced considerable faculty opposition at the time–and helped write the original curriculum of the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. He also served as the first director of the Center for the Study of Brooklyn. As a BC student, he studied journalism with Bruce Porter. During his 16 years of teaching, he was pleased to sit at the same desk in Boylan Hall that Professor Porter had once used—but equipped with a computer rather than Porter’s typewriter.
Russell Midori:
On Oct. 24, at Brooklyn College’s Alumni Association Awards Evening at the Dyker Beach Golf Course in Brooklyn, awardee Russell Midori, Class of ’13, spoke of his admirable past, present and future in journalism. Then he stunned the crowd even as he caused them to burst out in applause. He carried the microphone from the podium to where the love of his life, Lily Zhangh, was sitting at a table, and he put a ring on her finger and asked her to marry him. Lily said yes.
The Alumni Association’s Awards Evening booklet said:
Russell Midori was born in Brooklyn, NY and loved writing and storytelling from a young age. At Brooklyn College he studied broadcast journalism in the Department of TV and Radio under Barbara Nevins-Taylor in 2013. He was a member of the first ever Summer Broadcast Institute class at the school to win an Emmy award for best newscast, beating top-ranked broadcast journalism schools in the country for the distinct honor. He also earned a Mark of Excellence Award from the Society of Professional Journalists for work he produced in class.
His high marks and awards secured him a coveted spot at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. For his master’s thesis, he produced an investigative documentary about wage theft and worker exploitation in the New York construction industry. In the film, which received honorable mention for the duPont-Crichton award, he relied largely on evidence gathered by fellow Brooklyn College alumnus City Council Member Jumaane Williams.
While studying at Columbia, Midori began producing work independently around the world. He won an Overseas Press Club scholarship for his coverage of violence and security measures in the 2015 presidential election in Haiti.
In 2017 he began working at CBS news, where he has covered major conflicts on the ground in Iraq and Korea, reported on detention centers at the U.S.-Mexican border, and investigated transcontinental computer hacking. In his free time he mentors Brooklyn College students through the Magner Career Center, showing them a path to success in a challenging but rewarding career field.
Natalie Musumeci:
Natalie Musumeci is a Brooklyn-born staff reporter for the New York Post. She works as a rewrite reporter covering local, national, and international stories with a focus on breaking news and crime. Musumeci is called upon daily to produce volumes of material from the bizarre to the gritty to the tragic. For The Post, she’s been the main reporter on the extensive coverage of sicko sports doctor Larry Nassar, has covered mass shootings including those in Parkland, FL, Orlando, FL, Roseburg, OR and others, and has covered the deadly Times Square car rampage and the ISIS-inspired attempted suicide bombing at Port Authority. Musumeci graduated from CUNY Brooklyn College in 2012 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a minor in sociology. Click here to see more about Natalie.
Jamila Pringle-Fynes:
Jamila Pringle-Fynes is Brooklyn Borough Director for the Mayor of New York City. Prior to that, she served as Chief of Staff for New York State Assembly-member Diana Richardson. She served with the state legislator for nearly three years. Jamila is an alumna of Brooklyn College with a Bachelors degree in Journalism and Political Science. She graduated in 2011.
(the late) Dele Giwa:
Dele Giwa was an enterprising and courageous Nigerian journalist who was born in Nigeria but received his bachelor’s degree in English at Brooklyn College in 1977. He would be assassinated in Nigeria in 1986 as he pursued his dream of publishing news articles in his native land. To many Africans, he is a hero.
It should be noted that Giwa was a colleague of a Nigerian journalist, Dele Olojede, who went on to write a biography of Giwa (“Born to Run,” published by Spectrum Books, 1987) and immigrated to the United States, where he eventually won a Pulitzer Prize for reporting while at Newsday. Dele Olojede is a close friend of Brooklyn College journalism professor Ron Howell.
Olojede’s wife Amma Ogan, a journalist who is also a good friend of Howell’s, gave Howell permission to publish here an article she wrote about Giwa.
Here’s a significant article about Giwa that was published last year by Pulse media.
Laura Albanese:
It’s been a strange and winding road since my graduation (Journalism, ’07) from Brooklyn College – one that began with me working at the news desk at the Daily News and Newsday, covering the courts and local crime, and now has me as a special writer for sports at Newsday. Along the way, I’ve had the privilege of covering every major professional sports team in New York, and have traveled all over the country looking for stories that might be of interest to our readership. When the Mets went to the World Series, so did I, and when the Yankees embarked on their own playoff run, I did too. It’s been a thrill for me, a kid who grew up in Brooklyn, who looked to sports as an inspiration and an outlet.
I loved covering breaking news in the time that I did it, but I was completely entranced by the larger-than-life stories that came from covering a sports beat, and not just when it came to the pros. I was able to follow and write about high school sports for years – from the pitcher with only three fingers, to young women who broke barriers, becoming the first girls in their schools and communities to ever play for a varsity football team.
Don Lemon:
Don Lemon, Class of ’95, anchors CNN Newsroom during weekend prime-time and serves as a correspondent across CNN/U.S. programming. Based at the network’s New York bureau, Mr. Lemon joined CNN in September 2006.
Lemon earned a degree in broadcast journalism from Brooklyn College and also attended Louisiana State University. He’s also served as an adjunct professor at the college, teaching and participating in curriculum designed around new media. In 2010 he received a Distinguished Alumnus honors at the Brooklyn College Commencement.
Lemon has reported and anchored on-the-scene for CNN from many breaking news stories, including the George Zimmerman trial (2013), the Boston Marathon bombing (2013), the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting (2012), the death of Michael Jackson (2009), and many more. He also anchored breaking news coverage of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, the Arab Spring, and the death of Osama Bin Laden. Lemon reported for CNN’s documentary Race and Rage: The Beating of Rodney King. He is also known for holding politicians and public officials accountable in his “No Talking Points” segment.
Lemon joined CNN after serving as a co-anchor for the 5 p.m. newscast for NBC5 News in Chicago. Prior to moving to Chicago, he worked in New York as a correspondent for NBC News, The Today Show, and NBC Nightly News.
Jhodie-Ann Williams:
Jhodie-Ann Williams is an associate producer for CNN Opinion and she’s been doing that since 2016, even before she graduated. She received her bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism from Brooklyn College in 2018.
She’s also done a number of freelance and independent projects, which you can check out here.
Joseph Wade:
Joseph Wade, Brooklyn College, Creative Writing BFA (2014) and MaCaulay Honors College.
Joseph Wade’s first news publication was at the The Lebanon Daily News, when he was a stringer in his freshman year of college. At Brooklyn College Joseph was the web editor and he hosted a show at Brooklyn College Radio. After graduating, he was one of 100 people in a pool of 17,000 applicants accepted into the NBC Page Program where he worked on a number of shows including “All In With Chris Hayes.” He went on to work the news wire at CBS before spending two years writing news stories and producing cable news hits at CNBC where he also helped launch a feature documentary series called “The Brave Ones.”
He is currently a staff producer at PBS Thirteen’s news show, MetroFocus where he is also producing a series on Post 9/11 Veterans called “Frontline to Home Front.”
Faraz Toor:
Faraz Toor is a 2015 graduate in Broadcast Journalism and English Department Journalism.
Faraz is now an Associate Producer of Digital Content for NY1, helping create and edit content for NY1’s website and social media platforms. Faraz is responsible for helping NY1 tell New York City stories for its digital audience, including by editing on-air scripts for the website, editing videos for social media, and helping craft social media campaigns to promote stories and shows. As NY1’s point person for digital political content, Faraz works with on-air reporters and producers to craft and edit stories in support of the weekday political show, “Inside City Hall,” and election season coverage. Faraz also helped launch NY1’s first podcast, “Off Topic/On Politics,” and helps implement social media campaigns to promote the show.
Faraz has also created original digital exclusive content, including by working with NY1’s weather team to report on the probability of a major earthquake hitting New York City.
Faraz earned a B.S. in Broadcast Journalism from Brooklyn College, where he was a show host for the student-run radio station, WBCR, and was the editor-in-chief of the student newspaper, The Excelsior.
Joan Martinez:
Joan “Radio Free Joanie” is currently working on her Master’s thesis in the TV/Radio Department of Brooklyn College. Her thesis topic is the so-called “pirate radio” as it operates in Brooklyn. She graduated from Brooklyn College with her bachelor’s degree, majoring in Television and Radio and minoring in journalism in 2014. That was her second bachelor’s degree. She had also gotten one in 2008 with a major in film production with a concentration in screenwriting. Radio Free Joanie has been laying the groundwork for a successful career as an on-air talent, hosting podcasts. Pegged as opinionated since she was a teenager and as a smart alec, Radio Free Joanie brings a perspective often unseen in the diaspora community. She’s a female representing the children of Haiti’s “Lost Generation.” She straddles two worlds: that of the traditional Haitian household and that of the hyphenated American. Joanie is an American enigma. Her last name confuses people she meets. Martinez. She’s assumed to be Latina. But after a minute of exchanging with her – and maybe hearing her say something in Haitian Creole – people say, Oh, and even become fascinated. Alert: Some become standoffish and brush her to the side. But that’s okay. She remains resilient, like the vast majority of Haitians. Haitians thrive from adversity. They feed off obstacles. Radio Free Joanie she will carve out a big spot for herself in her environment and she will make her voice heard way beyond that environment.
Paolo Cremidis:
Paolo Cremidis is a Democratic Party activist, who worked upstate New York with the State Rural Caucus intending to flip the New York State Senate from red to blue. He was successful. A self-described Blue Dog Democrat, Paolo also traveled around the country, attempting to get middling Republicans and Democrats to go with the blue part. Paolo double majored in political science and journalism and graduated in 2014.
Linda Krestanova:
My name is Linda Krestanova and I graduated from Brooklyn College in 2017 with a B.A. in journalism. Having moved between Slovakia and the U.S. all my life, I am a simultaneous bilingual who has liked to play with words from early childhood. I knew I had the creativity, but I needed school to teach me structure. The journalism program at BC did that wonderfully.
Although reporting on the streets of NYC was a thrill even at the amateur level of a student, I am a traveler above all else. I needed change, and that need brought me to Prague. My first job here was as a marketing specialist at an industrial real estate company, where I utilized my research and writing skills to produce everything from articles to newsletters and press releases. I played a key role in revamping the company’s award-winning magazine, which I co-wrote and co-edited with my coworker. Two people composing an entire magazine – it was as stressful and exciting as it sounds.
After six months, I decided to leave (for many reasons). I began freelancing as a copywriter and translator before stumbling upon a start-up in need of a content manager. Today, for the publication OutdoorVisit, I write about outdoor experiences for travelers all over the world, and it may actually be my dream job. I learn about cities, activities and cultures, and I compile that knowledge into engaging one-page descriptions. My writing requires structure and creativity, a combination that is tricky if you haven’t learned to balance the two. Luckily, my journalism professors taught me well.
Izabela Rutkowski:
Izabela Rutkowski is a 2011 Brooklyn College graduate (B.A. in journalism) and 2013 graduate of Columbia Journalism School. As an Assistant Director of Career Development at Columbia University, she provides career guidance to the students in the graduate journalism program. She is also in charge of planning the annual Journalism Career Expo, which is the biggest journalism job fair in the country, and she works closely with CUJ alumni and journalism employers around the world.
Izabela is a former reporter for Polska Gazeta, a Polish language daily, the New York Daily News and Consumer Reports.
Derek Norman:
Now on the Metro desk of The New York Times, I came to Brooklyn College as a junior, after getting an associate’s degree from Guttman Community College in Manhattan. I took my first two journalism classes with Professor Ron Howell, Intro to News Writing and Press in America, where I very promptly and passionately decided I wanted to pursue a career path in reporting/writing.
I began writing for the campus papers, one of which I eventually worked for as Managing News Editor.
At the Kingsman, my colleagues and I, learned the depth of our skill and exactly how much fun it could be while chasing stories around campus. This included everything from Muslim student prayer locations to immigration law to potentially harmful university policy changes. (Plus, maybe a few snowstorms and leaky ceilings somewhere along the way.)
While finishing up my final year at Brooklyn College, I continued as Managing Editor of the Kingsman, covered federal courts for New Lab, interned as an investigative reporter for City Limits, traveled to Havana, Cuba and West Africa to practice international reporting and worked as an election results monitor for the Associated Press on the 2016 election night.
I now work full time on the Metro desk of the New York Times and have written many articles for the paper.
Paul Frangipane:
Paul Frangipane graduated from Brooklyn College in 2017 and continued on to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle to tackle a beat of courtroom coverage in Brooklyn courts. After a year reporting on crime and punishment, he had decided to delve into photojournalism with a long-term photo series on Brooklyn neighborhoods and their community members.
Having reported in Cuba, Colombia and across the United States in the past, he plans to pursue photojournalism and documentary work between Colombia and Brooklyn in the coming years.
Check out the photos he did for The Eagle’s still-developing site with images of neighborhoods across Brooklyn: http://nabetags.com/
And check out also this feature video he did with his wife Liliana: https://vimeo.com/244752978
Matthew Vann:
Matthew Vann is a Digital Associate Producer at NBC Nightly News, where he creates viral original content for emerging platforms, in addition to producing stories for the broadcast. He is a graduate of the Columbia Journalism School and traveled to Rome in a religion reporting seminar covering the papal conclave that elected Pope Francis. Matthew received his undergraduate degree in 2011 from Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, where he graduated with a Bachelor’s of Science in Broadcast Journalism and Political Science, magna cum laude.
A tireless public servant and journalist, Matthew dedicates his career to being an all-purpose story teller and problem solver. He draws on his unique background in political communications, public policy and journalism to tackle various issues.
Jesus Triviño:
Jesús Triviño, Class of ’03, is an authority on Latino pop culture. He is a Webby-nominated content creator, who has covered music, TV, film, and more for 15 years as a reporter, editor, producer and curator. His work has been featured in People.com, Latina, Vibe, Apple Music, New York Daily News, SLAM, XXL, The Source, Essence.com, and BET.com. He is presently the Editorial Director of Latin Culture & Content at TIDAL.
Website: https://www.jesustrivino.com/ INSTAGRAM: @JesusTalks
Reuven Blau:
Reuven Blau, Class of ’01, is a journalist who covers criminal justice issues and public policy matters. He joined the New York Daily News in 2012. Previously, he worked at the New York Post and The Chief-Leader. See Reuven’s Daily News articles here: http://www.nydailynews.com/reuven-blau-staff.html
Mira Lowe:
Mira (Thomas) Lowe, Class of 1984, TV & Radio major, is director of the Innovation News Center at the University of Florida, College of Journalism and Communications. The INC is a multimedia newsroom of student journalists and professionals that serves North Central Florida via multiple distribution channels, including PBS, NPR and ESPN. Prior to joining UF, Mira was a Senior Editor at CNN Digital in Atlanta, managing the planning, execution, and programming of daily features content and special projects across a global portfolio. She was Editor-in-Chief of JET magazine, the first woman to helm the publication, and Assistant Managing Editor of Ebony magazine, both in Chicago, and an Associate Editor at Newsday in New York. An experienced journalist who loves new and old media, Mira also has been an adjunct or guest lecturer at Columbia University, York College, Loyola University Chicago, Northwestern University and Marquette University. She is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), Online News Association (ONA), American Society of News Editors (ASNE) and Radio Television Digital News Association (RTNDA), and serves on the board of the Journalism & Women Symposium (JAWS) and Florida Society of News Editors (FSNE). A Brooklyn, N.Y., native, Mira graduated from Brooklyn College with a bachelor’s degree in television and radio, and from Columbia with a master’s in journalism. She is co-author of “Heart and Soul: A Marriage of Love, Faith and Journalism” monograph, published in 2007 by the World Journalism Institute, and an essayist for “Black Women Redefined” (paperback edition, 2012). Follow her on Twitter @miralowe or on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/miralowe/.
Rachel Silberstein:
Rachel Silberstein is a capital bureau reporter at the Albany Times Union.
An Ithaca native, she moved to New York City to attend Brooklyn College, where she served as editor in chief of The Kingsman student newspaper and won an award for her reporting on the NYPD’s 2006 surveillance of campus life. She also interned at major New York City publications, such as the New York Daily News and NY1.
After graduating in 2013, she worked at several digital media companies, including a parenting site and a hyper-local news start-up, now known as BKLYNER. Her reporting at BKLYNER won the top prize in investigative reporting from CUNY School of Journalism’s Ippies Awards.
She moved to Albany in 2017 to cover state politics for Gotham Gazette, and later the Times Union.
Alexandra Simon:
Alexandra Simon majored in Journalism and minored in Psychology at Brooklyn College. She graduated in 2012, and afterwards worked in copy editing, social media, and now as a local news reporter at Caribbean Life and Brooklyn Paper.
Reza Malek:
Reza Malek graduated from Brooklyn College as a Journalism Major in 2016.
Reza is a Project Manager and CSM (Certified Scrum Master) at Hearst Newspapers where he is part of the day-to-day management of multiple projects working with marketing technology and mobile apps teams. In addition, Reza is part of the PMO (Project Management Office), which continues to deliver improvements around overall process, communication and transparency to all cross-functional teams.
Reza works with stakeholders across Hearst brands – Houston Chronicle, San Francisco Chronicle, San Antonio Express News, Connecticut Post and Albany Times Union. His Marketing team was recognized and nominated as a finalist for the INMA Global Media Awards for “Best New Paid Content or Subscription Initiative”.
You can contact Reza at rmalek23@gmail.com or on LinkedIn.
Lauren Keating:
Lauren Keating says that after graduating with a degree in journalism in the fall of 2013, “I landed a job at Tech Times where I covered tech news, pop culture, mobile gaming, music streaming, podcasts and apps for three years. I interviewed CEOs of various startups, attended trade shows and as well as reviewed products. After a brief break to focus on starting a family, I currently am a freelancer for RunnerClick. It is here I get to combine my passion for writing and running—interviewing professional athletes, reviewing gear and writing about races.”
David Lepeska:
David Lepeska, journalism graduate in the class of 2006, is a Berlin-based freelance journalist and editor at Ahval News, an online news outlet focused on Turkey.
After graduating from Brooklyn College, David moved to Srinagar, India, to take up his first full-time journalism job: senior reporter for the Kashmir Observer. While there he began contributing to The Economist and The Guardian, setting him on the road to a globe hopping freelance career.
A dozen years later, David has lived in Doha and Delhi, in China, Barcelona, Istanbul and now Berlin, and has written for The New York Times, Financial Times, The Atlantic, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Al Jazeera, and other top outlets. His reporting focuses on two broad subjects: Muslims, terrorism, and refugees; and cities, media and technology. In April 2016, he was banned from Turkey, where he’d been living for years, likely for his reporting on the Kurds and Turkey’s southeast.
David loves good food, a solid cocktail, and lively conversation. He also enjoys advising young journalists, so feel free to give him a shout. You can find his portfolio here, his LinkedIn profile here, and he’s @dlepeska on Twitter and Instagram.
Joseph De La Cruz:
Joseph De La Cruz, Class of 2017, is now an Associate Producer at MSNBC. Joseph, in his own linked-in words, is an “aspiring journalist and media personality for a national media organization dedicated to informing general public and creating premium content. He is a capable, articulate, versatile individual, with ability to multitask and work professionally with clients and colleagues of widely diverse ages and cultures. He is recognized for being well organized, attentive, outgoing and inventive.”
Bob Liff:
Bob Liff, BC 1970, is a former White House advance staffer for President Jimmy Carter who went on to become a key political reporter and columnist in Florida and in New York City for New York Newsday and the Daily News, assigned primarily to City Hall and his native Brooklyn. His extensive work covering economic development, land use disputes, politics, budgets, ethnic affairs, demographic trends, and the history of the city followed him into his current position as Senior Vice President for George Arzt Communications, a consulting firm offering public, community and governmental relations services in the city and beyond, where he writes and places lots of opeds for clients on a wide variety of issues and causes. Bob has also been an adjunct professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, teaching budding journalists how to cover local politics. He also hosts the CUNY Forum on CUNY-TV. He loves advising Brooklyn College journalism students on how to blend journalism skills with the skills needed to work with politicians and non-profit organizations. (Note: Supreme Court Justice Sonya Sonia Sotomayor once said that the best law clerks are those attorneys who have backgrounds in journalistic writing.)
Michelle Cummings:
Everyone has stories to tell. Michelle Cummings is drawn to stories that engage, inform, surprise and impact their audience. Michelle graduated from Brooklyn College in 2018 with a BA in journalism. She is an aspiring digital marketer focused on creative strategy and content creation. She is poised to share stories that deliver on measurable business goals. She’s the conduit between brand and consumer. Michelle enjoys helping clients find the subject and medium that best fits their unique perspective and producing high quality content. She currently works at Brooklyn College as a college assistant in admissions. She’s in the process of developing a robust set of skills through COOP, a Google funded talent incubator in New York. Her specialties include digital media, consumer behavior, brand awareness and multi-channel marketing campaigns.
Aisha Asif:
Aisha Asif, Class of 2012, heads the Marketing at ICNA Relief, a Muslim American social services organization. She is a graduate of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, has a degree in biology teaching from Brooklyn College and completed her student-teaching in New York City public schools. She has interned with The Hechinger Report and The New York Daily News, and has written for Pakistan’s leading English newspaper, Dawn.
Lola Alapo:
Lola Alapo is a December 2002 graduate of Brooklyn College’s journalism program. She writes: “I studied under Anthony Mancini and Paul Moses. I interned at New York Newsday for a year. Then I moved to Knoxville, Tennessee, where I worked at the Knoxville News Sentinel newspaper for eight and a half years. I covered cops/courts and finished my career there as the K-12 education reporter. I left the newspaper world and transitioned into public relations in 2011. I was a media relations specialist and science writer at the University of Tennessee for seven years. I recently started a new job as the public information officer for the University of Tennessee Police Department.”
Ariana Costakes:
Ariana Costakes graduated from CUNY Brooklyn College in 2010 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism. She served as Communications Assistant, then Associate at the Innocence Project, where she worked for seven years, helping to make the organization a household name. In 2016 she earned her Master of Science degree from Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, and in 2018 returned to CUNY as the Manager of Communications and Marketing at the Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy. Her most recent endeavor is her son, Finn, who was born in June (2018).
Dominique Carson:
Dominique M. Carson is truly a hardworking and ambitious media professional. She received her Master of Science degree in Media Studies in September 2014. Carson also graduated with her Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and Italian in 2012. Carson has strong interviewing, writing, and reporting skills. She has many attributes in media including marketing and publicity, blogging, social media, entertainment journalism, news and feature writing, profiles, concert reviews, and conducting interviews. Her work has been featured in Ebony.com, TheGrio.com, NBC News, Bleu Magazine, Singersroom.com, just to name a few. Carson has interviewed over 100 celebrities within the last five years. She is also a Program Coordinator for Man Up! Inc, a non-profit organization in East New York. Carson recently signed a contract with the Lefferts Manor Association to write a profile of the historic neighborhood for its upcoming 2019 centennial.
Outside of journalism and her daily work duties with non-profit groups, Carson is working on her certification in massage therapy. She will have her LMT license in 2019. Her overall goal is to “facilitate people’s lives through her words and hands.” If you would like more information on Dominique Carson, you can email her at dominique.carson922, or follow her on Facebook (facebook.com/dmc922<http://facebook.com/dmc922>) Twitter (domcarson) and Instagram(domcarson90).
Samairah Khan:
Samairah Ali Khan received her Baccalaureate degree from Brooklyn College in 2015. At Brooklyn College she majored in journalism, where she met professors who were to become her mentors over the following years. The professors of the journalism program worked very closely with Samairah, motivating her to accomplish her goal of becoming an attorney.
Samairah started her law career at Brooklyn Law School while still maintaining contact with the professors from the journalism department, notably Ron Howell, seeking advice, encouragement and recommendations for internships and job opportunities. At Brooklyn Law School, Samairah was in the Pro Bono Scholars Program, where she spent her last semester in law school interning full time at New York Legal Assistance Group, Matrimonial and Family Law Unit, representing victims of domestic violence. As a benefit of being in the program, Samairah was able to take and pass the Uniform Bar Examination in February, a semester before graduating law school. Upon graduating from law school in May 2018, Samairah was able to land a job at Center for Family Representation, where she represents parents in abuse and neglect cases.
Melanie Goldberg:
Melanie Goldberg graduated from Brooklyn College in 2013, having majored in Journalism & TV/Radio. She is currently an Associate Attorney at Tetzlaff Law Offices in Chicago, focusing on federal securities litigation, appeals, and anti-money laundering in the context of financial counterterrorism. She graduated from Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York City in May 2017, and was admitted to the New York & New Jersey State Bars in January 2018.
Throughout her law school career, Melanie focused on financial counterterrorism measures by serving in many levels of government, including working as a student district attorney at the New York County District Attorney’s Office, clerking for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Maryland, serving as a legal extern at the New York State Office of the Attorney General, Charities Division, and working as a legal intern at the New York City Department of Investigation, Rikers Island Division.
Lovashni Khalikaprasad:
Lovashni Khalikaprasad received her BA in Journalism with a minor in Health and Nutrition in 2015 from Brooklyn College. Throughout her undergraduate experience, she came across professors in the journalism department who became her mentors. Those professors worked with Lovashni to improve her writing, speaking and researching skills. More so, each professor instilled valuable qualities such as integrity, confidence, and commitment throughout her journalism experience. Each professor effortlessly helped her not just with coursework but also with internships, letters of recommendation, personal essays and job opportunities.
Lovashni received her MA in Political Science with a concentration in International Affairs and Global Justice in 2016 from Brooklyn College. She is currently a student at Touro Law School and secretary of the Women’s Bar Association.
Radhika Viswanathan:
Radhika Viswanathan graduated from Brooklyn College in 2018, having completed the college’s BA-MD program with a focus on journalism writing.
Radhika is now a medical student at SUNY Downstate College of Medicine. At Brooklyn College she was editor of Excelsior, one of the campus newspapers, and she worked in an organic chemistry research lab.
Radhika is freelancing in her spare time and is especially interested in writing about public health issues and health disparities. She is always looking for book recommendations.
See Radhika’s many clips on this link.
Saskia Newton:
Saskia Newton graduated in 2017 with a BA in journalism. She writes, “I’m currently back at Brooklyn College completing an MS in Special Education (7-12). I’m also a NYC Teaching Tellow and I was recently hired as a Special Educator at The High School of Sports Management, where I’ll be teaching English and Social Studies to students in grades 9-12.”
Angelina Tala:
I earned an MFA in Screenwriting at the New York Film Academy, Los Angeles, and a BA in Journalism at Brooklyn College, New York (in 2010), with a minor in Television and Radio.
I also completed an intensive Photography program as my BA concentration at Lorenzo Di Medici: The Art Institute of Florence, Italy. I worked as an ESL instructor in Turkey and Macedonia, and have published a multitude of news articles on platforms across the globe.
I’m currently teaching for the Liberal Arts and Sciences Department at the New York Film Academy, Los Angeles campus.
In addition to teaching at NYFA, I‘m a writer for HealthLine Media, and I’m currently working on my creative portfolio as a screenwriter.
Lorena Ramirez:
Lorena Ramirez is a 2016 Brooklyn College graduate from South Brooklyn. She majored in Journalism with a minor in Latino Studies. Lorena interned at amNY, the Brooklyn Spectator/Home Reporter, where she modestly accumulated over 80 bylines. During her three years at Brooklyn College, she was also Editor-in-Chief for the Kingsman campus newspaper. In 2014, she won Best Feature Writing for writing about the ongoing tensions between Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
As a first generation American inextricably tied to her community, Lorena sought out help after a loved one was put into deportation proceedings. Frustrated by how confusing the US immigration system is, she started diving into immigrant advocacy work. She interned at Families for Freedom, a grassroots organization that helps family members fight for their loved ones in deportation proceedings and/or detention. Then she worked as Coordinator for the Immigrant Justice Project at the City Bar Justice Center, where she interviewed and advocated for domestic violence and trafficking survivors. Currently, she works as a Paralegal for the Criminal Defense Practice at the Brooklyn Defender Services. Lorena is an aspiring lawyer. When she’s not advocating for marginalized communities, she can be found at home cuddling with her beloved calico cat Conchita.
Steffon Fynes:
My name is Steffon Fynes, Brooklyn College Journalism Class of ’11. I am a huge advocate for learning and youth development. My journey started in the field of journalism, writing articles about the world around me for school publications and websites. I embraced The New York Daily News and the craft of writing for the people. But my desire to teach – to share knowledge with our next generation of leaders — came from experiences traveling in Ghana and teaching in the New York City public school system. I now teach at Clara Barton High School and I consider it a service to my community. My Brooklyn College classmate Jamila Pringle-Fynes and I are now husband and wife, with a recent addition, a lovable son.
Sophie Dweck:
Sophie Dweck graduated from Brooklyn College in the spring of ’17 with a major in English Department journalism and a minor in TV/Radio.
Sophie says, “Since graduating from Brooklyn College, I’ve been working as an editorial assistant for Us Weekly. I primarily work on print where I write the weekly franchise features: What’s in My Bag?, 25 Things You Don’t Know About Me, and Hollywood Moms. As my writing in the entertainment media gets stronger, my editors have given me larger features to write such as exclusive interviews with TLC’s The Duggar Family and R&B singer + former boy bander Zayn Malik.
“You can find my name in the weekly issues or you can read my work, which I later transfer online: https://www.usmagazine.com/author/sophie-dweck/”
Isaac Monterose:
My name is Isaac Monterose and I’m a 2017 journalism graduate from Brooklyn College. I’ve had my work published in the Amsterdam News and other outlets, including campus newspapers. During my time at Brooklyn College I developed a special affection for reporting on, and writing about, criminal justice and technology. I have my eyes fixed on writing about those topics, for reputable news outlets. I am needed in this world that sometimes seems hostile.
I’m the son of two Haitian immigrants and was born and raised in Harlem. I have lived there all my life. The reason I got interested in journalism is simple: I love reporting news!
Patrick Hickey:
Patrick Hickey, Jr., ’08 graduate in journalism, is the founder and editor-in-chief of ReviewFix.com and a lecturer of English and journalism at Kingsborough Community College, in Brooklyn, New York. Over the past decade, his video game coverage has been featured in national ad campaigns by Nintendo, Disney and EA Sports. He is also a former NBC Editor and at one time was the most-read video game critic on the late-Examiner.
“Right now I am promoting my book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult and Classic Video Game Developers, https://www.amazon.com/Minds-Behind-Games-Interviews-Developers/dp/1476671109 working on a sequel, writing the story for the video game Treason in Space, performing voice acting in The Padre and Relentless Rex video games, running ReviewFix.com, writing for Old School Gamer Magazine, and teaching full-time at Kingsborough Community College.”
Tatyana Bellamy-Walker:
Tatyana Bellamy-Walker graduated with a major in journalism, Spring, 2018. Half-Panamanian and half-French, Tatyana was born in Manhattan and grew up in Long Island, New York. For undergraduate studies, she attended Brooklyn College, where she studied journalism. Last spring, she worked at the Daily Beast as an editorial research intern. While reporting at the Beast she covered LGBT politics and has wrote more than 20 articles on breaking news and covered national lawsuits.
Last summer, she was selected as a CUNY Knight Diversity Fellow, where she interned at DNAinfo.com. She came to the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY to be a better reporter, learn how to use various media, and produce quality work-specifically in archival research. She wants to be an investigative reporter and focus on LGBT politics.
Jherelle Benn:
Jherelle Benn graduated from Brooklyn College as a journalism major in 2016. She writes, “Since graduating I have been performing spoken word poetry around the city, worked as a community organizer and program manager for several non-profit organizations in Brooklyn. I’ve also published my first book which I will attach a link to this email.” Here it is: https://www.amazon.com/Disarray-collection-Poems-Stories-Letters/dp/1523999403. “I have also decided to go back to school for my MFA. I’ll add this: jherelleb.wixsite.com/relle-the-poet.”
Tameeka Castillo:
Tameeka Castillo graduated as a Brooklyn College journalism major in 2015. She writes, “My experience at Brooklyn College was amazing. It was there I fell in love with writing. I am a journalism major who still incorporates some of the techniques that were taught to me when writing my pieces for class.
“Currently I am perfecting my art as a poet. In 2017 I wrote and published my first book of poetry entitled, Written from Within. Also, I just completed my first children’s book [and] I am still searching for the perfect publisher who can help me carry this book to the moon.” See more on this link.
Naima Ramos-Chapman:
Naima Ramos-Chapman graduated from Brooklyn College in 2011 with a degree in journalism. She writes, “I am Naima Ramos-Chapman, Brooklyn-born artist whose sole mission as a filmmaker is to tell stories of understated bravery and transformation. I prefer these stories stem from true accounts, and incorporate elements of magical realism and choreographed gestural movement. By doing this, I aim to render on screen the psycho-spiritual realities we cannot see as a way to honor the unquantifiable and ephemeral nature of being. But becoming a writer-director wasn’t always what I dreamed of. I worked as an advocacy journalist for several years before returning to the arts and while attending my alma mater, Brooklyn College, I took up acting and went on auditions for film and dance. However, as a queer black woman, I grew frustrated with seeing flat stereotypical work drive my typecast roles and I was encouraged to begin writing my own stories. And so here we are.” (Read more on Naima here.)
Brooklyn College Journalism Alumni 
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