Five communicators honored for accomplishments, leadership

The career achievements of five communications professionals will be recognized at the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication banquet on Friday, April 11.

Three UW–Madison graduates will receive the school’s Distinguished Service Award for professional contributions to journalism and mass communication. They are:

• Chris Rose, columnist for the New Orleans Times-Picayune, essayist for the News Hour with Jim Lehrer, and a frequent commentator for NPR’s Morning Edition. He is the author of "1 Dead in Attic," a collection of stories about life in post-Katrina New Orleans. He won a share of the newspaper’s Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the hurricane and its devastating impact on the community.
• Mary Conway, a veteran reporter for WXYZ-TV in Detroit. Conway has tackled international issues from a Detroit perspective and has covered major figures from Nelson Mandela to every president since Gerald Ford. She has won two Emmy Awards and anchored for two Emmy Award-winning newscasts.
• Peter D. Fox, executive director of the Wisconsin Newspaper Association, which represents 241 daily and weekly newspapers across the state. Fox spent 24 years in weekly and daily journalism, and later served as director of public information for the UW System and secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Employment Relations.

Also, the Ralph O. Nafziger Award for distinguished achievement by an alumnus within 10 years of graduation will go to Janel Klein, an award-winning reporter for KARE-TV in Minneapolis. She also has reported for a variety of networks and is a freelance producer for media outlets and cable networks, including the Discovery Channel, the Learning Channel and the History Channel.

This year’s Harold L. Nelson Award for distinguished contributions to research in journalism and mass communication will be presented to Byron Reeves, professor in the Department of Communications at Stanford University.

Reeves is an expert on the psychological processing of media in the areas of attention, emotions, learning and physiological responses and is co-author of "The Media Equation: How People Respond to Computer, Television and New Media Like Real People and Places."

The dinner will be held at the University Club, 803 State St. The reception begins at 6 p.m. with dinner at 7 p.m. Tickets are $25 and may be purchased by contacting Corinne Ahrens, at (608) 262-3691, cmahrens2@wisc.edu.