SUNY Purchase Journalism Faculty, from left to right, Donna Cornachio, MaryAlice Williams, Virginia Breen, Ross Daly, Andrew Salomon and Tara George
Dust does not gather under the feet of the journalism faculty at SUNY Purchase! It’s been a banner year for us this year. Here’s how:
Our esteemed co-ordinator, the unflappable Ross Daly sealed his commitment to this fine institution by earning tenure and promotion. You may now address him as Associate Professor Daly if you bump into him in the hallway. Woo-hoo!
The wonderful Donna Cornachio has officially joined the faculty as a full-time tenure track Assistant Professor of Journalism, having taught here for a number of years as an adjunct. We are now a faculty of six (and the second-largest major in the Liberal Arts and Sciences.) Just saying!
Andrew Salomon, who has music and drama in his soul, was recognized earlier this year by Purchase President Tom Schwarz for his commitment to the college, winning the Student Engagement Award for his hard work launching The Beat. Schwarz later went on to commit to funding the publication, taking a lot of financial pressure off the shoulders of Prof. Salomon and his student editorial team.
MaryAlice Williams, who is truly a star in so many ways, proved it by out-shining all the other former hosts of NBC’s Weekend Today Show in a commemorative show this fall. However, perhaps more impressive even than that: she is neighbors and friends with Stephen Colbert.
Virginia Breen, the longest-serving member of the faculty, won an impressive fellowship at the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma at Columbia University this summer, during which she looked at how reporters cover violence . As an off-shoot of this she plans to head to Kenya next summer to teach journalism to AIDS orphans in Kibera, the largest slum in sub-Saharan Africa.
Brian Kates an award-winning investigative journalist from the New York Daily News has come on board as an adjunct to teach a new Investigative Journalism course, funded by a generous donation from Purchase Journalism benefactor Nancy Deckinger.
As for me, Tara George, I made tenure last year becoming, along with Prof. Breen, the first tenured journalism faculty at Purchase. And this year has been a busy year in the classroom as I have had to prepare three new courses: Multimedia Journalism, Freedom and the Media, and a summer course for Community College students hoping to move into four-year colleges.
We journo profs are cooking! And so are our 170 or so majors. If you fancy basking in the glow of our collective glory, come hang with us in our new digs in the Journalism Suite in the basement of the Purchase library.
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