My work spans written, visual and multimedia platforms.
UNC | Read all about it
Picture 19th- and 20th-century kids who sold newspapers on the streets in American cities — referred to in slang as newsies.
Now, picture one as female.
That may not come naturally, but according to doctoral student Autumn Linford’s research, female newsies were not so uncommon, though obscured like many of the contributions women have made to journalism history.
“Women have been a part of journalism history as long as there’s been American journalism,” said Linford, pictured at right, who studies journalism history at UNC Hussman and will teach it this fall as an assistant professor at Auburn University in Alabama.
UNC | Student entrepreneur Caitlyn Kumi
When Caitlyn Kumi `21 felt her self-esteem sinking in the wake of a difficult relationship, her aunt gave her waist beads symbolizing the power of femininity in her family’s West African culture.
The waist beads wrapped Kumi with the confidence of both body and business and the jewelry item became the foundation of an entrepreneurial venture she launched as a junior at the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media.
While some might wonder why Kumi didn’t wait until after graduation to launch her women’s empowerment fashion-lifestyle brand Miss EmpowHer, for Kumi, building a business as a student simply made sense — especially as a student at a school like UNC Hussman.
Read story here.
UNC | Penny Abernathy Speaks at UNC Local News Exhibit
A new exhibit celebrating two centuries of North Carolina’s local news publications kicked off at the UNC Wilson Special Projects Library Feb. 27 with a talk by Knight Chair in Journalism and Digital Media Economics Penny Abernathy, who shared her groundbreaking local news research.
Abernathy studies “news deserts” — communities with limited access to credible and comprehensive news — and the innovative business models targeting them in her research at the Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media, located within the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media.
Read story here.
UNC | Reese Innovation Lab / Google News Initiative Local News Platform
In the 1970s, when Ju-Don Marshall was 7, her family moved to the South Carolina Low Country from New York.
Marshall had maternal roots in the area, deep in the African-American Gullah culture surrounding Charleston, but to a New York City kid raised on concrete and bustling streets, the silent, humid countryside was a culture shock daily.
Marshall didn’t see many stories about people of color like her in the local newspaper, and even as a kid she found herself wondering: Why?
Read story here.
Carolina Alumni Review | Kenan Scholars
Qiudi Zhang ’12 produces graphic art in Raleigh.
Lauren Schultes ’11 seals deals in her Boston sales job.
Ryan Dickey ’13 studies plastic surgery in Texas; Aaron Robinson ’12 soars the Virginia skies in lightning-fast military planes.
But they have a common tie: They studied music at Carolina as Kenan Music Scholars. And they’ve applied lessons learned in UNC’s music department across their divergent fields.
UNC | Ferrel Guillory retires
For Ferrel Guillory, journalism was a way in.
Into an education few in his working-class Louisiana family ever received. Into a front row seat for the sweeping societal changes taking place around him. Into a chance to leave an impact on the greater public good.
The professor of the practice, who retires from the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media this December, has made that impact in a five-decade career that has spanned roles as a newspaper journalist, policy strategist and educator.
He leaves behind a legacy of award-winning commentary — both in the classroom and on the page — at the intersection of politics, policy and journalism.
Not bad for a Cajun boy born in his grandmother’s house, just beside the Mississippi River.
Raleigh Magazine | Raleigh at Work
Numbers don’t lie.
Raleigh’s got a lot of them when it comes to the local job market, and they all look pretty good.
#1 Best City for Jobs, Glassdoor, May 2015
#2 City Creating the Most Technology Jobs in 2015, Forbes, April 2015
However, behind each of these statistics is a face, a name, a person—one of the many people pushing this once sleepy state capital into national prominence as a thriving hub of technology, banking and higher education.
IEI | Thriving Rural Communities
Just a stone’s throw from the Faison Piggly Wiggly, there’s a man on a mission—his name’s Jabe Largen and he’s pastor of the Faison United Methodist Church in Faison, a tiny eastern North Carolina farming town, situated amid miles and miles of flat brown fields.
Besides the Piggly Wiggly (literally just blocks from the church), there’s a handful of chain stores, a pickle processing plant and a small downtown dominated by mom-and-pop Hispanic businesses, reflective of the town’s vast demographic changes over the past several decades.
But one thing’s a constant in town: The importance of the church in the community’s health, especially in the well-being of its children, and especially this time of year.
Working@Duke | Leading the Fight Against ALS
Name: Dr. Richard Bedlack
Position: Associate professor of neurology and director of Duke’s ALS Clinic.
Years at Duke: 22, since he came to Duke as an intern in 1995.
What he does at Duke: Known for his colorful fashion sense (for this interview he wore a silver-studded black leather jacket) and his work fighting amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Bedlack devotes his Duke days to patients with the disease. ALS is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord, rendering sufferers unable to control voluntary muscle movement and eventually taking away the ability to walk, speak, swallow and breathe—greatly shortening life spans.
IEI | Hey Y'all: Celebrating Linguistic Diversity
What’s in a y’all?
More than you might think, especially when it comes to linguistic diversity and the myriad ways we can judge others’ character based on their speech and regional dialects.
It’s a topic Caroline Myrick helped the Institute for Emerging Issues explore March 27 as part of IEI staff training. Myrick’s presentation, entitled “Language Variation: The Forgotten Dimension of Diversity,” explored questions like “What is language diversity?” “Are some dialects better than others?” and “How is language connected to identity?”
Multimedia
IEI | Thriving Rural Communities
This video photo essay accompanied a story about the Institute for Emerging Issues' Thriving Rural Communities program, which helps rural North Carolina faith leaders identify and address pressing issues in their communities.
Working@Duke | Visiting Musician
This video showcases sitarist Viswas Chitnis, one of the visiting musicians sponsored by Duke's Arts & Health program.
Portfolio | Photographs