THE NEWSU CREW

Staff members

Howard I. Finberg is the director of interactive learning at The Poynter Institute for Media Studies and is responsible for News University. In 2002 he was the institute’s Presidential Scholar, examining technology’s impact on media and how new technologies might be integrated into Poynter's teaching and publishing. Prior to joining Poynter he was co-founder and managing director of Finberg-Gentry, the Digital Futurist Consultancy ( www.digitalfuturist.com ). Among his clients are the McClatchy Company, MediaNews Interactive, the San Francisco Chronicle , Hearst Interactive, Freedom Communications, the Houston Chronicle and the Newspaper Association of America. He also served as a Senior Fellow at the American Press Institute’s Media Center.

Finberg was a corporate vice president at Central Newspapers prior to its sale to Gannett Corp., where he managed the company's Internet and technology investments and provided strategic and operational guidance for the company’s print and online efforts. He served as a director at Phoenix Newspapers, Inc., which publishes The Arizona Republic. At the Republic , Finberg led the creation and launch of the award-winning online service, Arizona Central ( www.azcentral.com ) on the Web and on America Online in early 1995. Finberg was honored as the Newspaper Association of America “New Media Pioneer” in 2000. He also held senior newsroom management positions at the Republic and at the San Francisco Chronicle and the Chicago Tribune and worked at the San Jose Mercury News , San Francisco Examiner and The New York Times.

Finberg established the Chicago Tribune ’s graphics desk, one of the country’s first such operations, and was the founding editor of the country’s first syndicated newspaper graphics service. A former teacher at Northwestern University and San Francisco State University, he is the co-author of "Visual Editing -- A Graphic Guide for Journalists" (Wadsworth Publishing, Belmont, Calif.), a college-level textbook about newspaper design, informational graphics, illustrations and photography.

Chip Scanlan is NewsU’s journalism adviser. His NewsU courses include “The Interview,” “The Lead Lab,” “Get Me Rewrite: The Craft of Revision" and “The Writer’s Process.” Chip is senior faculty in the Reporting, Writing and Editing group at The Poynter Institute and director of the National Writers Workshops. He is the author of “Reporting and Writing: Basics for the 21st Century” (Oxford University Press) and co-editor of “America's Best Newspaper Writing: A Collection of ASNE Prizewinners” (Bedford/St. Martin's). He joined the Poynter faculty in 1994 from the Knight Ridder Newspapers Washington Bureau where he was a national correspondent. From 1994-2000, he directed Poynter's writing programs and edited the Best Newspaper Writing series. In two decades of reporting, he earned 16 awards including a Robert F. Kennedy award for international journalism. Chip is a graduate of Fairfield University and Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and spent the first years of his career at The Milford (Conn.) Citizen , Manchester (Conn.) Journal-Inquirer and Delaware State News . From 1977-85, he was a reporter at the Providence Journal-Bulletin , where he helped create and run the paper's writing program and edited “How I Wrote the Story,” a collection of newswriting accounts. From 1985-89, he was a feature writer at the St. Petersburg Times . His articles, essays and short stories have appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies, among them The New York Times, National Public Radio, The American Scholar , Redbook , The Washington Post Magazine , The Writer , The Mississippi Review Web, Fiction Quarterly and The Boston Globe Magazine , and the online magazine Salon. In 2003, Chip and his wife, Katharine Fair, wrote “The Holly Wreath Man,” a 25-part Christmas-themed serialized novel for newspapers that has appeared in 50 papers nationwide and was published in hardcover in 2005. Chip and Kathy have three daughters and live on St. Pete Beach. 

Vicki Krueger is editor at News University. She previously has worked with The Poynter Institute, helping produce "Best Newspaper Writing," the annual collection of the ASNE Distinguished Writing Award winners and finalists, as well as other Poynter publications. Her other editing work includes the business memoirs of former Sunbeam and Scott Paper CEO Al Dunlap and Ken Kirchman, founder of a banking software firm based in the Orlando area, as well as "War Cake," a memoir of the siege of Sarajevo, and several books about spirituality with Dr. James P. Gills, a prominent eye surgeon who also is a driving force behind the Ironman Triathlon competition. She has bachelor's and master's degrees in journalism from Northwestern University and worked at newspapers in Kentucky, Indiana and Florida as a copy editor supervising story content and page design.

Casey Frechette is an interactive learning producer with NewsU. He combines backgrounds in technology and education to find the best ways to translate great teaching into engaging online experiences. He has a master’s degree in media arts and computer science and a doctorate in organizational learning and instructional technologies. His dissertation research examines the effects of animated characters in Web-based learning environments. Prior to joining NewsU, Casey produced multimedia lessons for Navajo students at the University of New Mexico’s Technology and Education Center.

Vanessa Goodrum is an interactive learning producer with NewsU. She brings
10 years of interactive design experience to the team and enjoys solving
design problems with a variety of interactive technologies. She has been the
creative director for a large "dot com" corporation and led the team to win
interactive awards for innovative use of technology and design. She holds a
bachelor's degree in graphic arts from the Savannah College of Art and
Design and a master's degree in educational technology from the University of Florida with a focus on human computer interaction. Her professional goals are to
provide usable and functional learning interfaces that are both engaging and
effective.

ASSISTANT PRODUCER

Jennifer Dronkers is an Interactive Learning Assistant Producer with NewsU. She recently moved to St. Petersburg from Athens, Ohio, after finishing her course work at Ohio University’s School of Visual Communication’s master’s program. Jennifer is a San Francisco Bay area native and received her bachelor’s in photojournalism from San Francisco State University in 2001. She interned and freelanced as a photojournalist with The Oakland Tribune and later interned with The Mountain Democrat in Placerville, Calif. Afterward she was hired on as a staff writer and eventually a photojournalist. She is a spring 2002 Chips Quinn Scholar, attended the Eddie Adams Workshop Barnstorm XIX: 2006 and participated in the 2006 AAJA Convention Student Multimedia Project. Beyond visual communications, she plays the beautiful game, futball.

ASSISTANT

Leslie Passante is an Interactive Learning Assistant, working with faculty members and journalism professionals to produce courses. She was NewsU's 2007-08 Interactive Learning Fellow. Passante graduated with a degree in multimedia journalism from the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at UNC@Chapel Hill.

INTERACTIVE DESIGN FELLOW

Nuria Peña is the 2007-08 Interactive Design Fellow.  Peña has a bachelor of fine arts degree in graphic and interactive communication from Ringling College of Art and Design, Sarasota, Fla.

INTERACTIVE LEARNING ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT

Willi Rudowsky is the customer service department at NewsU. She came to St. Petersburg for the weather from San Francisco. An education junkie, she is working on a a master's degree in journalism at University of South Florida, St Petersburg, to complement her education in bioethics and medical humanities.

Contributors

Aaron McLeran is the electronic composer of the music on News University. He graduated with a bachelor of arts degree from Kalamazoo College, majoring in physics and minoring in music. He recently received a master’s degree in from the University of Notre Dame and teaches high school physics and calculus at Sacramento Country Day School. In addition to writing electronic music of all styles, he also plays jazz trumpet and has started to learn the electric bass. He has played with a Grammy-nominated jazz orchestra and has led a jazz combo on a music tour in Japan.

Jen Wallace is a design consultant for News University. She conceptualizes, designs and produces art work for many of the e-learning courses and other animated promotional pieces. Wallace has a bachelor of fine arts degree in graphic and interactive communication from Ringling College of Art and Design, Sarasota, Fla. While in school, she was a design intern at the St. Petersburg Times and Poynter’s online and marketing department. Before working with NewsU, she worked with multiple design firms focused on journalism and education.

Alumni