Category Archives: J-Profiles

CT Law Tribune Web Editor Karen Ali (’88) Recalls Her ‘Sudden Death’ Lucky Break

Karen Ali, a 1988 Uni­ver­si­ty of Con­necti­cut grad­u­ate, dis­cov­ered her pas­sion for jour­nal­ism while writ­ing for The Dai­ly Cam­pus. Ever since, she has immersed her­self in the jour­nal­ism world. After stints at the Water­bury Repub­­li­­can-Amer­i­­can, The (Dan­bury) News-Times and Patch.com, Ali now works for the Con­necti­cut Law Tri­bune in Hart­ford.  As the CT Law Tri­bune’sCon­tin­ue read­ing “CT Law Tri­bune Web Edi­tor Karen Ali (’88) Recalls Her ‘Sud­den Death’ Lucky Break”

ESPN.com’s Justin Verrier ’09: ‘You’ll never be more valuable than you are right now’

Justin Ver­ri­er grad­u­at­ed from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Con­necti­cut in 2009 with a dou­ble major in Jour­nal­ism and Eng­lish. He cur­rent­ly serves as the con­tribut­ing NBA edi­tor for ESPN.com. Ver­ri­er is respon­si­ble for orga­niz­ing the Nation­al Bas­ket­ball Asso­ci­a­tion edi­to­r­i­al con­tent on the sports web­site while also con­tribut­ing to blogs, columns and fea­tures. In the Q&A below, he talks about hisCon­tin­ue read­ing “ESPN.com’s Justin Ver­ri­er ’09: ‘You’ll nev­er be more valu­able than you are right now’”

An Interview with Talent Booker, Writer and UConn Alumna Ashley Papa ’05

Ash­ley Papa works as the guest seg­ment pro­duc­er for “The Real Sto­ry with Gretchen Carl­son.” The live news show on at Fox News Chan­nel cov­ers top­ics rang­ing from gen­er­al news to inves­tiga­tive report­ing to pol­i­tics. Papa books the var­i­ous tal­ents for on air com­men­tary and does all the pre-inter­views with the guests. Papa also writes aboutCon­tin­ue read­ing “An Inter­view with Tal­ent Book­er, Writer and UConn Alum­na Ash­ley Papa ’05”

A Conversation with Hartford Business Journal Editor Greg Bordonaro ’08

Greg Bor­donaro land­ed the top edi­to­r­i­al job at the Hart­ford Busi­ness Jour­nal in June 2013. Bor­donaro is a grad­u­ate of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Con­necti­cut who earned his degree in Jour­nal­ism and His­to­ry in 2008. In his role as edi­tor, he over­sees the Hart­ford Busi­ness Jour­nal’s award-win­n­ing week­ly busi­­ness-to-busi­­ness news­pa­per, web­site and spe­cial sec­tions. Found­ed in 1992,Con­tin­ue read­ing “A Con­ver­sa­tion with Hart­ford Busi­ness Jour­nal Edi­tor Greg Bor­donaro ’08”

7 Questions with Caitlin Emma ’11, Politico Pro Education Reporter

As an edu­ca­tion reporter at Politi­co Pro, Caitlin Emma gets to feed her pas­sion for Wash­ing­ton D.C. pol­i­tics and pol­i­cy. Emma, who grad­u­at­ed from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Con­necti­cut in 2011 with degrees in jour­nal­ism and polit­i­cal sci­ence, cred­its her UConn pro­fes­sors with nur­tur­ing her inter­est in pol­i­tics and sto­ry­telling, and real­ly push­ing her toward herCon­tin­ue read­ing “7 Ques­tions with Caitlin Emma ’11, Politi­co Pro Edu­ca­tion Reporter”

Q and A with Mike Chiappetta ’95: Mixed Martial Arts Journalist

Jour­nal­ist Mike Chi­ap­pet­ta has carved out a suc­cess­ful career niche cov­er­ing the full con­tact com­bat sport of mixed mar­tial arts, specif­i­cal­ly the UFC. He cur­rent­ly works as a senior writer for FOXSports.com. Chi­ap­pet­ta earned his bach­e­lor’s degree in jour­nal­ism from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Con­necti­cut in 1995. “Fun fact: my diplo­ma is signed by for­mer Con­necti­cutCon­tin­ue read­ing “Q and A with Mike Chi­ap­pet­ta ’95: Mixed Mar­tial Arts Journalist”

A glimpse into UConn Journalism alumna Kala Kachmar’s post-grad life

Kala Kach­mar, a 2009 grad­u­ate of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Con­necti­cut grad­u­ate, earned a bach­e­lor’s degree in jour­nal­ism and polit­i­cal sci­ence, along with a minor in his­to­ry. She cur­rent­ly works as the city/county gov­ern­ment reporter at the Mont­gomery Adver­tis­er in Alaba­ma. Some of her pre­vi­ous jobs include work­ing as a staff writer at The Chron­i­cle inCon­tin­ue read­ing “A glimpse into UConn Jour­nal­ism alum­na Kala Kachmar’s post-grad life”

Two Pulitzer Prize Winners Join UConn Journalism Faculty

Two new fac­ul­ty mem­bers join the UConn Jour­nal­ism Depart­ment fac­ul­ty for the 2013–14 school year. They are Steven G. Smith and Mike Stan­ton. Steven G. Smith is a  Pulitzer-Prize win­ning pho­tog­ra­ph­er from Col­orado. Smith won the Pulitzer as part of a group award for break­ing news pho­tog­ra­phy of wild­fires, Rocky Moun­tain News, 2003. Smith received anCon­tin­ue read­ing “Two Pulitzer Prize Win­ners Join UConn Jour­nal­ism Faculty”

Expressing our gratitude

The UConn Jour­nal­ism Depart­ment would like to thank the many guest speak­ers who took the time to trav­el to Storrs and speak to our stu­dents dur­ing the 2012–2013 school year. They are: Dan Bar­ry, colum­nist, New York Times Elis­sa Bass, senior region­al edi­tor, Patch.com Stephen Buse­mey­er, break­ing news edi­tor, Hart­ford Courant Jeff Cohen, reporter, WNPR Hart­ford SeanCon­tin­ue read­ing “Express­ing our gratitude”