Friday, March 29, 2024

State News Alumni Notebook for Winter 2020

Career and personal successes end 2019, start 2020

February 10, 2020
<p>Dawn Klemish (&#x27;05), a writer and producer with MLB.com, gets reacquainted with The State News Viking Helmet (awarded to the newsroom staffer of the week) during her visit to State News offices in January of 2020.</p>

Dawn Klemish ('05), a writer and producer with MLB.com, gets reacquainted with The State News Viking Helmet (awarded to the newsroom staffer of the week) during her visit to State News offices in January of 2020.

Photo by Courtesy Photo | The State News

A quick recap of just some of the great things happening to your fellow S'News alums and friends of The State News as of late:

  • Four S'News alums are currently serving on the 12-person State News Board of Directors, which oversees the news organization as a non-profit independent business. They are Tanya Gazdik (who also serves as board president), John Foren (who also serves as vice president), Kim Margolis (who with Gazdik and Foren serve on the board as members from the professional world), and Jeremy Steele (MSU faculty/staff member, who also serves as treasurer). The rest of the board includes MSU faculty/staff members Cindy Hudson and Judy Walgren and MSU student members Jarett Greenstein, Helen Komeffel, Jennifer Lai, Nama Nassem, Ariana Taylor and Ally Telfor.
  • Amy Bartner was hired as a digital and content producer for Conga after a long stint with The Indianapolis Star.
  • Kelley L. Carter was honored with the President’s Award at the 2019 National Association of Black Journalists’ Salute to Excellence Gala on Aug. 10, 2019.
  • Lauren Gibbons was elected president of the Society of Professional Journalists Mid-Michigan pro Chapter for 2019-20. She writes for MLive.
  • Susan Goldberg was ranked #7 on InStyle Magazine’s Badass 50 2020 list of women who are changing the world. She serves as National Geographic magazine’s first female editor-in-chief.
  • Zach Gorchow was promoted to executive editor and publisher at Gongwer News Service Michigan, while Alethia (Kasben) DuBose was promoted to managing editor.
  • Jemele Hill wed Ian Wallace on Nov. 10, 2019. You can see exclusive photos of the wedding via Essence magazine’s Web site and read about the wedding in The New York Times. Hill is now a staff writer at The Atlantic after leaving ESPN.
  • Dawn Klemish (pictured here) will cover the Detroit Tigers as a reporter and producer for MLB Advanced Media. She had been covering the Tampa Bay Rays. She visited the newsroom on Jan. 28 and met the Spring 2020 staff.
  • Joe Rexrode was hired as a senior writer for The Athletic Nashville. He had been a sports columnist for The Tennessean newspaper in Nashville.
  • Darcie Moran has been hired as a breaking news reporter by the Detroit Free Press. She comes from MLive.com in Ann Arbor.
  • Kelley Root was named managing editor of the Detroit News.
  • Kellie Rowe was promoted to special projects reporter at Fox 2 Detroit.
  • Simon D. Schuster was named executive director of the Michigan Campaign Finance Network. 
  • Brittany Shammas was hired by The Washington Post as a general assignment reporter.

Do you have a status update to share with the S’News? Please let us know and we’ll consider it for publication in the next newsletter and on SNAA web and social sites! Email your news to alumni@statenews.com.

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