Several Tufts Alums returned to campus for our annual FMS Careers in Media Panel. which featured experts from sports broadcasting, advertising, television production/screenwriting, media relations, and political communications.
Arjun Chawla (A07), Associate Director, C-Space
Christine Dunn (A93), President, ArcPoint Strategy
Amy Spitalnick (A08), Executive Director, Integrity First for America
Jeff Strauss (A84), Producer/Screenwriter
Jimmy Young (A79), Sports Broadcaster
Julie Salamon (A75) has a new book coming in June 2019. An Innocent Bystander (Little Brown) is the definitive story of a shocking act of international terrorism that thrust an ordinary man into history and reshaped the destinies of three families. Learn more by visiting Julie’s website.
Elisa Guarino (A85) is the Senior Director for Media Production at New York University. She is also the founder of NYU’s Department of Media Production. The department creates video content that tells the NYU story from New York to the university’s various sites and campuses around the world. The work of the department has earned numerous CASE (Council for the Advancement and Support of Education) Awards for excellence in content creation.
NYU Stonewall@50, produced and directed by Elisa, is part of the NYU Stonewall Oral History Project. The documentary film features moving testimony with leaders and activists whose work has advanced LGBTQ civil rights. Stonewall is steps from NYU and many people connected to the NYU community were at the epicenter of the movement. Spanning 50 years of history, the documentary explores universal issues of injustice, activism and cultural evolution. The film has been very well received at several NYU events celebrating Stonewall's legacy and will be screened at the Newseum in Washington, DC, this coming June for Pride weekend. Learn more here.
Paul Cooley (A00) is a freelance writer and full-time educator, as well as the Director of Partnerships for EF College Study Tours. He recently published an article, Basketball's Impact On Refugee Camp, Small Town - And Me, The U.S. Volunteer, on ThePostGame.com. For the article, he spent two unforgettable weeks in Greece and examined basketball’s impact on a refugee camp, a small town, a city, and the country as a whole. The entire experience also pushed him to reflect on his own life, and why he is forever tied to basketball. You can find him on ThePostGame.com and on Twitter @Cooley3333.
Jaffar Mahmmod (A00) continues as the Supervising Producer/Director of CBS's Young Sheldon, which will be starting production on Season 3 this July.
Emily Meyer (A05) co-created a show for Netflix Trinkets, which will be airing in June. Learn more here
Kenim Obaigbena (A11), released This is Nigeria, a four-part documentary series about the 2019 presidential election. Kenim O, a Nigerian filmmaker and documentarian, interviews some of the main presidential candidates, and investigates their past and proposed policies, how elections are traditionally rigged and how Nigerians can prevent the rigging process. She goes into the slums to visit a couple of the 86.9 Million Nigerians living in extreme poverty. She visits Boko Haram survivors from Chibok, who received international attention in 2013 for the kidnapping of Nigerian school girls. Finally Kenim investigates Nigeria’s culture of corruption to find solutions for progress.. It aired on ARISE NEWS across the African continent on DSTV , and on her YouTube channel.
She also recently launched an online course Epic Show Creator, an online course that teaches the skills to write and produce a TV shows. The course covers everything from the creative to the business.
Elliot Davis (A13) is nearing the end of his second semester at the University of Maryland's Philip Merrill College of Journalism. His interests are focused on politics and community news beat reporting. This summer he will be interning at the daily newspaper in his hometown of St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. In the upcoming fall semester, he will cover state and local politics at the Annapolis bureau of Capital News Service, UMD's nonprofit news wire service. He’s loving the journalism path he’s on, and sends his best to any holdovers from the CMS days!
Steph Farber (A14) wrote, directed, and produced her first short film, Smokescreen, which won “Best in Show” at the first ever SPLIFF Film Festival. Smokescreen is the story of a queer woman who, during a mediocre date, escapes to the bathroom and imagines online dating through the haze of marijuana . The SPLIFF festival debuted in Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, and Denver. Smokescreen will be shown in theaters around the country during the festival's upcoming wider national tour. The crew also included Tufts alums, Sam Daniel (A14) and Sarah Gannon (A14).
Mika Sanger (A17) is an account coordinator in the marketing partnerships group at Marvel Studios. Part of her job is to organize the global premieres in Hollywood. Here are some photos of her latest venture--the premiere of Avengers: Endgame.
Ben Taylor (A17) worked as Associate Producer and Cinematographer for Eat Up, a documentary film that premiered in April at the Independent Film Festival in Boston. Filmed over 12 months in Boston Public Schools' cafeterias and kitchen, Eat Up, tells a story of power, food, and the future of children, and how hard it can be in America to do the right thing in the face of unwieldy regulations and corporate interests. Eat Up ripples from Boston to cafeterias across the nation, offering a model for healthy eating and how to navigate the politics of our most difficult terrain:public schools. Learn more here.
Jason Adesman (A17) lives in Los Angeles where he was working as an assistant to a comedy/talent manager at Brillstein Entertainment Partners. He recently started a new job working at Elizabeth Banks' production company, Brownstone Productions. He is currently an assistant to her husband and producing partner, Max Handelman, as well as an assistant to film executive, Alison Small.
- Compiled by Gina O'Connor, FMS Program Administrator
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