Presenting this year:
WHITNEY GODWIN
MELISSA ROBERTSTimothy guellaAlyssa Acquavellaabigail turrisiCorinne FindlayChris DaceyDeserae LongoCarly LongoMark EffronJohn DiCarlo |
Whitney Godwin graduated from the West Virginia University Reed College of Media in 2011 with her BSJ degree. During her time at WVU, she served as a Feature Twirler for the Pride of West Virginia, the Mountaineer Marching Band and worked in sports production for the Mountaineer Sports Network. Upon graduation, she worked for NIOSH and the CDC shooting and editing research videos while completing her MSJ at WVU. Whitney currently works in Public Relations at WVU as a Recruitment and Outreach Coordinator. Additionally, Whitney works in sports production as a freelance replay operator for WVU Athletics as well as other major
networks including Root Sports. Melissa Roberts is the Planning and Assignment Editor at News 12 New Jersey. Previously she wrote and managed News12.com as the Interactive Producer. A graduate of Roxbury High School, she spent several summers as a photojournalist for news outlets such as WVIR-TV, the Roxbury Register and the Daily Record before earning her Bachelor’s degree from James Madison University. She began her career at CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta, working through the ranks for 11 years to a position on the National Desk. She also worked on the Assignment Desk at CBS Atlanta before coming back “home” to New Jersey in 2013. Melissa’s work at CNN earned her a National Emmy in 2002, followed by Peabody Awards for Hurricane Katrina coverage in 2005 and Presidential Election coverage in 2008. Primary responsibilities at News 12 include corresponding with PR, communications and marketing representatives and seeking out story ideas. She also assigns news crews for day to day and extended coverage throughout the state. Melissa is proud to be raising a family in Roxbury and looks forward to helping future grads achieve careers in journalism, communications or PR. Tim Guella is the Director of Social Media for Centenary University’s Social Media Center of Expertise | #theVIBE. Within this role, Tim oversees #theVIBE’s two modern technology centers in Hackettstown NJ & Parsippany NJ. #theVIBE’s Social Media Marketing Program is the first of its kind in the tri-state area. Tim's experience building online brands for companies large and small helped to shape #theVIBE into a cutting edge program. Through his leadership, #theVIBE’s Social Media Marketing Program has become a top program at Centenary and students have worked with 50+ organizations. Tim holds a MBA and a B.A. in History from Centenary University. Alyssa Acquavella is an Emmy award winning Segment Producer for Good Morning America/ABC News. At Good Morning America, Alyssa’s main responsibilities include booking guests for the show, producing various segments, and reaching out to witnesses, victims, and officials during breaking news situations. Alyssa graduated from West Virginia University in 2016 where she was a weekend reporter for the local CBS station, WDTV, as well as a reporter for WVU News. Alyssa is proud to be a Roxbury High School Graduate (Class of 2012) and is excited to share her experiences in the TV Journalism world thus far. Abigail Turrisi graduated from Roxbury High School in 2016 and is currently a rising junior at Temple University. She is majoring in Media Studies and Production with a double minor in Digital Marketing and Event Leadership. At Temple, Abbie has held various roles within multiple productions for TUTV, the university's city wide TV channel. Most recently, she worked as the Assistant Director on Temple Tonight, Temple's "Tonight Show"- style comedy production and the Director for Speaking Out, a show covering LGBTQIA+-related content. Last summer, Abbie interned with CNBC within the Technical Operations and Finance Department. This year, she worked for Comcast-NBCUniversal as a Campus Ambassador, partnering with various branches within the Comcast-NBCUniversal family including Universal Pictures, NBCSports, and Comcast XOC, to promote the brands and their content on Temple's campus. This summer, Abbie will be working for the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon as a Research/General Production intern. For the Fall of her Junior year, she recently accepted a position within the Center for Media and Information Literacy at Temple. Abbie is very excited to share her experiences in the industry at this year's Media Conference. Corinne Findlay (Roxbury ‘16) is currently a rising junior at Penn State University majoring in public relations with a double minor in digital media trends and analytics & global and international studies. During her freshman year she was a newscast reporter for CommRadio, Penn State’s official radio station. She has also previously served as the Vice President of Public Relations and Marketing of her sorority and the publications chair. Corinne was a member of Penn State’s Panhellenic Executive Council communications team as well. This past year she was the Senior Marketing and Social Media Producer of 46LIVE, the live 46-hour international webcast of Penn State’s THON. Corinne is a member of the Advertising/Public Relations Club and Public Relations Student Society of America where she will be serving as the Strategic Planning Committee chair this upcoming fall. She currently has an on-campus strategic communications internship position at the Penn State Alumni Association. Last summer, she was a marketing intern at Coburn Communication Inc., an award-winning hybrid communications agency at their New York City office. This summer she will be a public relations intern at Coyne Public Relations, one of the top 10 independent public relations firms in the country. Corinne is extremely passionate about the field of communications and hopes to work at an agency in New York City doing consumer public relations post-grad. Chris Dacey is a junior journalism student at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. Dacey is a graduate from Roxbury High School where he served as a member of Gaelvision covering many Roxbury Athletics events and the sports editor at the Roxbury Review. At Quinnipiac, Dacey is a part of the student run television station, Q30 Television. As freshman, Dacey became an associate producer of the show Sports Paws. His sophomore year he became the executive producer of the same show. Then, Dacey was just named next year’s production manager for the station. Dacey also serves as a Quinnipiac men’s basketball and lacrosse beat reporter for Q30. He is responsible for creating content and covering these two teams. Deserae Longo (Roxbury '16) is a rising junior at Syracuse University and studies Public Relations, in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. She is double minoring in Information Technology, Design & Startups and Psychology. Deserae is a PRSSA member (Public Relations Student Society of America), and this past year was involved in Edge, the introductory PR club, where she wrote and composed case studies for La Torre Communications, an outside agency based in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Deserae was also apart of TNH Greenhouse, the advertising agency at SU, and worked on a mock advertising campaign for S'Well. Deserae is an executive board member for Relay for Life, working on freshmen recruitment and next year will be the PR chair for the event. This summer, Deserae will be interning full-time at LaunchSquad, a PR and content marketing agency in NYC. Carly Longo (Roxbury '16) is a rising junior at Syracuse University where she is studying Advertising in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications with a minor in psychology. She is a member of the TNH Student Advertising Agency where she is the Associate Strategy Director for J-Allen Inspired, a custom bow-tie and accessory company. She interned for the Special Olympics of Central New York during her sophomore year, helping plan and promote Polar Plunge fundraisers and creating social media content and Snapchat filters. She is an Executive Board member for Syracuse University's Relay for Life, serving as a co-graphic designer. She previously was the Outreach Director for FreshU's The Network. The Network crafts creator-driven marketing campaigns by working with influential young people driving conversation and engagement on social media. Mark Effron is a clinical specialist in the School of Communication and Media, where he teaches as well as coordinates the multi-platform newsroom in the new state-of- the-art headquarters for the school. Before that, Mark was an adjunct at Montclair State as well as a fulltime faculty at William Paterson University. For most of Mark’s career, he was a news executive for such companies as MSNBC, where he ran breaking news and daytime programming, Post-Newsweek Stations, where he ran the news division, New York Public Radio, where he served as General Manager of “The Takeaway,” and Tribune’s WPIX, where he was vice- president of news. He also ran a Webby-award- winning digital media company. Mark has a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University and an undergraduate degree in politics from Brandeis University. He is a frequent writer on topics relating to the changing world of media and news. John DiCarlo is the Managing Director of Student Media and an Adjunct Sports Journalism instructor at Temple University’s Klein College of Media and Communication. He is also the Editor of OwlScoop.com, a website in the Yahoo! Sports network that covers Temple football, basketball and recruiting and gets more than 8 million page views a year. He has been a guest on several radio stations and programs, including 97.5 The Fanatic in Philadelphia, 93.7 The Fan KDKA in Pittsburgh, Yahoo! Sports Radio and The Doug Gottlieb Show. He previously worked for Gannett New Jersey at The Vineland Daily Journal from 1998 to 2001, where he covered high school, college and pro sports, including the Philadelphia Eagles. |
THANK YOU TO ALL OF THOSE WHO HAVE SPONSORED AND DONATED TO THE 2018 CONFERENCE
T-Shirt Sponsors:
Womer Baseball Enterprises
Looma Spa
BASF Corporation
Luigi's Pizza
Roxbury Bagel & Deli
Ocampo Trucking
Roxbury Diner
Jeff Fulton
PROGRAM SPONSORS AND DONATIONS:
Randolph YMCA
Weis Supermarkets
Aspen Ice
Delizia’s Pizzeria
Cuts by Kevin
Paradise Nails
Roxbury Bagel & Diner
Randolph YMCA
Weis Supermarkets
Aspen Ice
Delizia’s Pizzeria
Cuts by Kevin
Paradise Nails
Roxbury Bagel & Diner