Faculty/Staff
Jule Banville worked as editor of NewWest.Net, a six-year-old website covering the news and culture of the Rocky Mountain West, from June 2010 until August 2011. Prior to moving to Montana, she was the assistant managing editor at Washington City Paper, the alternative newsweekly for D.C.
Lee Banville joined the University of Montana faculty after more than 13 years at the Online NewsHour, the multiple award-winning companion Web site to the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. He joined the NewsHour in October 1995 -- when new media was actually still new -- as one of the three founding editors of the Web site. He became the managing editor in 1997 and took over complete operations in October of 1998.
Sharon Barrett came to the University of Montana in 1981 and has taught many journalism classes including editing, reporting, opinion writing, magazine writing and the literature of journalism. In 2002, Barrett was awarded the "Distinguished Teacher Award" from the University of Montana. The award is based on faculty nominations and then student support, which Barrett found “very pleasing.”
Jason Begay came to the University of Montana in 2010 after spending six years as a full-time reporter for The Navajo Times newspaper in Window Rock, Ariz. He is a 2002 graduate from the UM School of Journalism and has since also worked at the Oregonian and New York Times. He returned to Missoula to work with the school's Native American students both as a professor and through Reznet (http://reznetnews.org), an online news site designed to give college students journalism experience.
With several careers spanning six decades on the planet, Printer Bowler is still figuring out new ways to practice a lifelong fascination with communications. He grew up amid the inimitable fragrance of newsprint and ink at the family weekly newspaper in Scobey, Mont., (which his Grandpa Burley started in 1924). Next stop was the UM Journalism School where he became Kaimin editor, was graduated in 1963 and stayed on to attend a year of graduate school.
Jerry Elijah Brown came to the University of Montana in 1999 from Auburn University, where he had been a faculty member for 20 years and department head for the last seven. At UM, he was School of Journalism dean until 2007, when he stepped down from that role to join the faculty.
Emily Bulger joined the School of Journalism as the Office Manager in July 2009. She graduated from the University in 2006 with a B.A. in English, spent a year teaching bilingual elementary school in Spain, and now lives in Missoula, where she appreciates being able to walk to work.
David Allan Cates is the author of three novels, Hunger In America, a New York Times Notable Book, X out of Wonderland and Freeman Walker, both Montana Book Award Honor books. He's published numerous short stories in literary magazines and his nonfiction has appeared in the New York Times Sophisticated Traveler, Outside, the Montanan and other magazines.
Denise Dowling joined the broadcast faculty in 2000, after 20 award-winning years working in television and radio newsrooms. In 2004 she was named the country’s most promising journalism professor and in 2010 won the Broadcast Education Association's Best of Festival award for her radio news work.
Originally from Southern Oregon, Alisia Duganz moved to Montana to pursue her love of photojournalism. While studying at the University of Montana School of Journalism, Duganz worked as photo editor for the Montana Kaimin, managing editor of Montana Journalism Review and photo editor for the Native News Project. She finished fifth place in the Hearst Journalism Awards for her multimedia piece for the Native News Project. She now splits her time between Missoula and Anaconda, where she lives with her JSchool Alum husband Patrick and her Bowzer dog CJ.
Ray Ekness has worked at The University of Montana since 1989. He began as a television producer at the UM Broadcast Media Center (then known as the Telecommunications Center) and an adjunct instructor. He began working as an assistant professor of Radio-Television in the School of Journalism in 1998. He was promoted to associate professor in 2004 and to professor in 2010. He served as department chair from 2004 to 2011.
Ray Fanning joined the School of Journalism’s Radio-Television Department in 2007, after teaching broadcast journalism courses at Columbia College Chicago. Before he started teaching, Fanning spent more than 17 years working in local television news at KBMY in Bismarck, KTVB in Boise, KUTV in Salt Lake City and KGW in Portland.
He has served as a reporter, line producer, executive producer and special projects manager.
Katy-Robin Garton is a documentary filmmaker living in Missoula, Montana. As a writer, director, editor, and producer, Katy received a Masters in Fine Arts from Montana State University's Documentary Filmmaking Program and is now collaborating of an array projects through her production company Sprout Films.
Keith grew up in Mississippi during the 1960s. One year his parents went on vacation and returned with a 35mm camera. Keith started shooting cars, the business his father worked in all his life. He's been hooked ever since. He studied photojournalism at the University of Missouri, then got an internship with The Miami Herald, which led to a job offer the following year. It was exciting. The Cuban boatlift, riots on the streets of Liberty City, drug trials, the Miami Dolphins, University of Miami sports, Little Havana and Little Haiti made for a photojournalist's dream.
Charlie Hood is a Professor Emeritus of the University of Montana School of Journalism. He served as dean from 1982 to 1993, and headed the journalism graduate program before retiring from the University in 1995 to work in Tokyo, Prague and Paris as a teacher and journalist.
Jeff Hull's first magazine assignment grew from a query letter he'd written as a class assignment while an undergraduate at Pennsylvania State University. Twenty-five years later, he’s still writing for magazines.
William L. (Bill) Knowles joined the faculty of The University of Montana School of Journalism in 1986 following a 22-year career as a television news writer, producer and executive for ABC News. He managed bureaus in Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Atlanta, was a Washington producer throughout Watergate, and covered numerous historic events including the impeachment and resignation of President Nixon and President Ford's trip to China, and the boatlift to Costa Rica and Florida of refugees fleeing Cuba.
Peggy Kuhr has been dean of the School of Journalism since August 2007, when she returned to her home state and her alma mater. She had a 26-year career in newspapers before joining The University of Kansas in 2002 as the Knight Chair on the Press, Leadership and Community.
Wanda LaCroix joined the School of Journalism’s Radio-Television Department in August 2000. Her background includes five years as a typesetter at her hometown newspaper, The Daily Inter Lake, in Kalispell, Mont.
Another five-year stint as office manager for a local software company plus eight years as administrative assistant/payroll clerk at the Arlee School District assured that she is particularly fit to take care of business in a journalism school.
Henriette Löwisch is an international journalist who has worked across continents and media. After serving as the 2006 Pollner Professor, she returned to Missoula in 2009, to join the J-School's full-time faculty and direct its graduate program.
Jeremy Lurgio is a freelance photojournalist and documentary photographer based in Missoula. His photography is driven by a passion for documenting people, places and stories. A native of New Hampshire, Lurgio received his undergraduate degree from Wesleyan University in Connecticut. He began his study of documentary photography at the Salt School for Documentary Studies in Portland, Maine.
William Marcus received his B.A. in Radio-Television/Journalism from The University of Montana in 1974 and has worked in public broadcasting for more than 25 years. He began as a production assistant at KUFM-FM at UM in 1975. He created the KUFM-FM Development Office in 1976 and became Audio Production Director for UM's Telecommunications Center and KUFM-FM in 1984.
Sally Mauk is news director for Montana Public Radio and has taught a section of broadcast writing and reporting since 1998. The University of Kansas graduate and former wilderness ranger has covered every important Montana issue and event for more than 20 years from the legislature to forest fires.
Peet's first love was photojournalism, but in the course of earning his photojournalism degree from the University of Montana he discovered another talent, systems administration. It wasn't a simple decision for Peet to hang up his camera for a career in IT, but in true tech geek fashion he realized that the problem solving in managing and design network systems can be just as satisfying as shooting pictures.
Anne Medley is a freelance photojournalist and videographer based in Missoula, Mont. She received her MA in journalism from the University of Montana and has taught multimedia journalism workshops at the Freedom Forum Diversity Institute in Nashville, Tenn. since 2008. She recently spent three months teaching multimedia journalism in the Democratic Republic of Congo where she also worked on a documentary about prostitution.
Alison Perkins' interests lie at the intersection of media and science education. She holds a MS in Wildlife Biology, a MA in Radio-Television Production, and a PhD in Forestry and Conservation from The University of Montana. Her research interests include ecology education, how people learn about science, and sources of ecological knowledge (especially media). Perkins also is an independent producer with The Broadcast Media Center, where she is actively pursuing productions that enhance understanding of ecology and the environment.
Initially a biologist by training, Jeremy has done everythihg from radio-collaring wolverines to banding hummingbirds. His academic interests, however, lie in the power and psychology of storytelling as a means to conserve biodiversity. In the last decade, his interest in science communication has become primary in his professional pursuits. While earning an MFA in Science & Natural History Filmmaking, he launched Conservation Media, a multi-media production company that specializes in the communication of conservation science.
Gita Saedi is an award winning producer, director and editor with more than 15 years experience in documentary film. She was the series producer and story editor for Kartemquin Films’ nationally acclaimed PBS series "The New Americans," a three-part, seven-hour series following five immigrant families' journey to and first years in the U.S.
Prior to "The New Americans" she served on producing teams for Channel 4 in the UK, CBS and PBS in the U.S. and RTE in Ireland.
Dennis Swibold teaches the school's Public Affairs Reporting and News Editing courses most frequently. He also teaches the school's Investigations course, leads the school's Graduate Projects Seminar, and oversees the Community News Service, which provides Montana's weekly and smaller dailies with student-produced coverage of statewide elections, biennial legislative sessions and other issues of interest.
John Twiggs produces television programs for KUFM-TV/Montana PBS. He started teaching in the Radio-Television Department in 1994, and has taught introductory television production courses and advanced non-linear editing and storytelling classes.
His television career started in high school when he pulled camera cables for a sideline truck at a football game. Later, it was revealed he got this glamorous position because his mother was the director of the broadcast. They have rarely worked together since.
Carol Van Valkenburg worked at the J-School for almost 30 years and retired in December 2011. Carol earned her B.A. In journalism from UM and worked 10 years at the Missoulian as a reporter, copy editor and editorial writer. Her master’s degree is in interdisciplinary studies, concentrating in history and political science. While studying for her master’s she became interested in the detention of Japanese and Italian aliens at Fort Missoula during World War II, a subject that she turned into a book, “An Alien Place.”
Kathleen Whetzel joined the School of Journalism as Administrative Assistant to the Dean in January 2003. Kathleen, the second oldest of 12 children, was raised in Roundup, Mont. After high school graduation, she attended Kinman Business University in Spokane, graduating with a legal secretary degree.
She worked in the legal field for the next 16 years before deciding to obtain a degree at The University of Montana. She received her B.S. degree in business administration in December 1998.
Prior to joining the faculty at UM, Nadia reported for the Lewiston Sun in Maine, the Stillwater Gazette in Minnesota, and the Daily Camera in Boulder, Colo. She was a reporter and editor at the Casper Star-Tribune in Wyoming and in the paper’s Washington D.C. bureau.
Nadia has received several awards for her reporting and writing, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science Award of Excellence for work on brucellosis in central Asia; the Women’s Sports Foundation’s Best Columnist of the Year Award; and several Associated Press Public Service awards.
Steve Woodruff was for 20 years the opinion page editor of the Missoulian. He previously worked as a reporter at the Missoulian, Yakima (Wash.) Herald-Republic and Bend (Ore.) Bulletin. Woodruff is co-author of “Montana Wilderness: Discovering the Heritage” and a contributor to two anthologies, most recently “Science Next: Innovation for the Common Good from the Center for American Progress.” Woodruff is a 1978 graduate of the Edward R. Murrow School of Communication at Washington State University.
Clem Work came to UM in 1990 from U.S. News & World Report, where he was a senior editor. Before that, he was deputy director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press in Washington, D.C. He began his journalism career working for daily newspapers in the late 1960s in Southern California and in Denver, and obtained a law degree in 1975. Clem teaches media law, reporting, editing and senior and graduate seminars.
Kagan Yochim has returned home to Missoula after spending seven years working in the Spokane, Wash., television market. Yochim’s experience is very diverse, with expertise in high-end commercial production, videography and specifically non-linear AVID editing. He has worked in broadcast news as a photographer/editor and as a newscast director and technical director.
He also spent six years working in the promotion department of KREM-2 News in Spokane, leaving as promotion manager.