UNO MavForensics on Fire!
The MavForensics team has once again hit the ground running with a strong showing at the “Debates on a Plain” tournament, held on September 26-27 in Hutchinson, Kansas. Led by senior Catie Zaleski, who managed to win four individual events on Saturday alone (along with taking home the award for top overall speaker), the young team saw 13 of its 15 competitors make finals over the weekend. As the squad gears up for an exhausting but exciting marathon of competition, it’s safe to say things got off on the right foot!
The squad carried momentum from their opening weekend wins into a big showing at the “Buff Cat” tournament, hosted on the campus of Kansas State University on October 3-4, taking the total to a perfect 4 for 4 on the young season. Among the many highlights was freshman Abby Hoffman winning top overall speaker for the weekend in just her second college tournament ever. Hoffman won five events during the two days of competition. She was closely trailed by senior Catie Zaleski, who finished as the second overall speaker on Sunday’s half of competition and third on Saturday’s half. MavForensics took first place both days by winning 13 of the 22 possible championships across the weekend.
The hot start to the MavForensics season continued, with the team posting their 5th and 6th consecutive victories on Saturday and Sunday, respectively. The team traveled to the Dragon/Loper Rodeo in Kearney, Nebraska on October 10-11. Notable results included Freshman Ameres Groves placing second in individual sweeps on Saturday and tying for first on Sunday. He was joined on Sunday by Freshman Whitney Hansen, who placed 3rd overall. That makes six different competitors who have placed in individual sweepstakes across the first three weekends of competition.
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AdClub 
Will Riley is Director of Web at Grain & Mortar and a Web Developer at AIGA. He spoke at AdClub’s second monthly meeting. A lot of web design majors, graphic design and public relations/advertising students showed up.
Grain & Mortar combine strategy, branding and design to online and mobile platforms. Riley was very enthusiastic about his work, even about search engine optimization (SEO). He shared his passion of web design and says technology will not be able to take over by robots because design needs “human hands”.
Join our next advertising club meeting on November 4 in room 127 in the CEC.
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Creative Media Capstone Spotlights Haunted Heartland
by B.J. Huchtemann
The UNO School of Communication’s first Creative Media Capstone Class is taking place this fall, taught by Jodeane Brownlee and B.J. Huchtemann (UNO Television). The students’ second project was to create promotional audio and video spots for MavRadio’s Haunted Heartland live broadcast that takes place on Thursday, Oct. 29, 6-10 p.m.
Here are links to the student projects that show just how seriously our students are taking their role as creative professionals. With a bit of variance in skill levels in this pilot class, everyone set an ambitious goal for themselves and delivered some great work, along with companion audio promos. The videos will be running on TKN to promote the Haunted Heartland event, the audio promos are airing on MavRadio. To Listen to MavRadio: http://www.mavradio.fm/ OR http://tunein.com/radio/UNO-MavRadio-907-s162110/
Please check out this very creative, spooky and sometimes humorous work from our students.
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The Omaha News
The Omaha News, a weekly news program featuring CFAM students both behind the camera AND on the air, airs live on Wednesdays at 4 p.m. on The Knowledge Network! Check it out on Cox Channel 18 or stream it at TKNomaha.org.
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MavPRSSA earns $4,500 from La Notte Italiana benefit dinner.
More than 75 guests enjoyed the best of Italian cuisine at the 12th annual “La Notte Italiana,” fundraiser.
The benefit dinner on Oct. 2 raised more than $4,500 in ticket sales, silent auction proceeds and donations. A portion of the proceeds will help pay for MavPRSSA’s “Say Yes to a Pack,” backpack drive for Youth Emergency Services, a nonprofit serving at-risk and homeless youth. The 
chapter plans to buy 100 backpacks filled with socks, warmers and hygiene products.
Proceeds help pay for PRSSA National Conference expenses. Nine officers and their faculty adviser will travel to Atlanta in early November. The money raised also supports other professional development opportunities, community service projects and national and state competitions.
Among the favorite entrees were mostaccioli and meatballs, sausage and peppers, penne alfredo and margherita pizza. Desserts featured Italian cream cake made by Gail Baker, dean of the College of Communication, Fine Arts and Media; Italian chocolate cream love cake made by Jessica Teaford, MavPRSSA assistant creative director; biscotti made by Phyllis Stessman, the mother of MavPRSSA’s faculty adviser Karen Weber; and tiramisu made by Carrabba’s.
The guests feasted on authentic Italian cuisine donated by some of Omaha’s finest family-owned Italian restaurants such as Bella Vita Ristorante, Mangia Italiana, Orsi’s and Pasta Amore. The dinner also featured Weber’s homemade meatballs from her Sicilian grandmother’s recipe.
The event’s silent auction earned nearly $1,100 and showcased the following packages: MavMania,” “The Greatest Fans in College Football,” “Because You’re Worth It,” “ “Pamper from Heat to Toe,” “Taste of Omaha,” “Family Staycation,” “Wine a Little, You’ll Feel Better,” and “Stock the Bar.”
“I’m grateful for “La Notte Italiana” because the proceeds are helping us buy 100 backpacks for Youth Emergency Service,” said Kelsey Johnson, PRSSA’s assistant recruitment director.
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Alumni Updates:
Alumnus joins Baxter Arena
By Don Bowen
A recent graduate from the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s School of Communication may have found the job of his life – at 27 years old.
Phil Manley (BS Broadcasting, 2013) is the live event video director at UNO’s new Baxter Arena.
“My specialty is live TV production,” the 2013 UNO graduate said, adding that live TV production aspects of instant replay and switching camera shots on the fly aren’t just for network television anymore.
Event venues, such as Baxter Arena, also have similar equipment to give people who attend events, like UNO hockey games, a much better experience than what was possible before, Manley said.
That love for live video production started at UNO, he said, but he didn’t start out as a broadcasting major. Beginning as a part-time computer science major in 2007 working his way through school, he didn’t change his major to broadcasting with a new media concentration until he started working at UNO-TV.
“I started working there and realized that I liked it,” he said. “That was my turning point.”
That change felt more like what he wanted as a career. “I think what I loved about computer science was all of those components,” he said. “That’s what drove me here.”
To read the entire article, go here: http://www.unomaha.edu/college-of-communication-fine-arts-and-media/news/2015/10/phil-manley.php
Alumna Andrea Guziec Iaccheri (MA, 2011) publishes her first piece from her MA Thesis, Unplugging the power cord: Uncovering hidden power structures via mobile communication technology use within the traditional marital dyad (co-authored with Adam Tyma). The chapter is in an edited Family Communication collection from Peter Lang publishing. The collection has such interpersonal/family comm authors as Sandy Petronio and Jeff Child. If you see Andrea, give her a hearty congratulations. She has earned it!
Alumnus Stephen Croucher, (BA Journalism, 2000), is a full professor of communication at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland. He is currently the editor of the Journal of Intercultural Communication Research, a Taylor & Francis journal. This year, he had his fifth book come out: “Understanding communication theory: A beginner’s guide” … published by Taylor & Francis.
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CFAM grant winners attend powwow in Los Angeles to advance Native health research
By: Susan M. Payne – School of Communication
Dr. Sherice Gearhart and Dr. Teresa Trumbly Lamsam of the School of Communication are traveling to the Hart of 
the West powwow in Los Angeles to collect data for their project “Finding the impact zone: Testing health news for the Native American audience.”
The Waterhouse Family Institute, which had only a 24 percent acceptance rate for the 2015-2016 school year, unanimously funded Gearhart and Lamsam’s project the full requested amount of $8,594 because it met the institute’s mission of “communication as central to the creation of positive social change.” Waterhouse Family Institute of Villanova University in Pennsylvania funds communication research around the world. For the full article: http://www.unomaha.edu/college-of-communication-fine-arts-and-media/news/2015/09/gearhart-lamsam-powwow.php
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UNO Hosts Conference
Dr. Marshall Prisbell and other faculty from the School of Communication attended the annual Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities (CUMU) conference hosted by UNO on October 11-13.
The conference theme is Love of Place: The Metropolitan University Advantage, and celebrated university and community collaborations. Through reciprocal relationships, metropolitan universities provide students unique and enriching educational experiences while contributing to building and strengthening the community. Conference participants explored new strategies for sustaining partnerships and inspiring future successes by examining the symbiotic relationship between university and their love of place. The conference presentations fostered discussion, illustrated best practices, and advanced the scholarship of engagement.
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School of Communication celebrates National News Engagement Day
Media Writing classes participated in news engagement throughout the day, and faculty provided cookies to the students.
Dr. Jeremy Lipschultz‘s Honors Program students met via Skype Tuesday with Chicago Tribune Investigative Reporter Ray Long. The paper wrote about tax breaks in the ConAgra decision to move corporate headquarters from Omaha to Chicago. Long also explained the importance of social media in journalism today.
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Faculty authors chapter.
Dr. Karen Kangas Dwyer is a chapter author, Helping Students Conquer Anxiety in the Sessions, in the Newly published book Communication Advise: Peer Tutoring and Communication Practices. Editors, Wendy Aitkins-Sayre and Eunkyong L. Yook (328 p.).
Although competent peer tutoring [at communication centers, writing centers, and math labs] depends heavily on knowledge within the particular discipline, there is certainly more to the process than subject knowledge alone. One of the most important components of tutoring in any academic area is effective communication. Research in the area of communication studies is relevant to all areas of tutoring, but is often only a minor component of peer tutoring training. This book brings together tutoring center experts and communication experts to provide research-based advice for training peer and near-peer tutors. With a broad audience in mind, these experts translate research from the fields of communication and pedagogy into advice that can be used for tutoring in any field. Peer tutoring centers or pedagogy courses in any discipline will find this book to be an effective discussion tool for encouraging tutors to consider the importance of how they communicate their advice to students.
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Faculty writes to NY Times
Dr. Bruce Johansen placed a letter to the editor in the New York Times, October 3. 
It was less than 24 hours from when it web sent to print.
“Calls for Gun Control After Oregon College Shooting.” [Letter to the Editor]
New York Times, October 3, 2015. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/03/opinion/calls-for-gun-control-after-oregon-college-shooting.html
Bruce E. Johansen also presented “Global Warming Science: What the Mass Media Are Missing” on the Book Authors’ Panel at the 25th Annual Meeting of the Society of Environmental Journalists, October 11, 2015 at the University of Oklahoma/National Weather Center, Norman, OK.
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Speech Center Offers Fall Learn Over Lunch Series for Students
The UNO Speech Center will offer free workshops this semester on presentation skills. All students are invited to attend. Free pizza and pop will be provided. To register for one or more sessions or for more information contact the Speech Consulting Center at 554-3201 or unospeechcenter@unomaha.edu. Space is limited so you must register in advance.
Creating Visual Aids that Work: Designing Effective PowerPoint Slides
- Date: Wednesday, October 28
- Time: 1:00 – 2:00 PM
- Location: Speech Center, ASH 183
Let Your Body Speak: Delivering an Effective Presentation
- Date: Wednesday, December 2
- Time: 1:00 – 2:00 PM
- Location: Speech Center, ASH 183
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Spring 2016 Courses will be available online October 16, 2015. 
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UNO School of Communication 
What an impressive update on school accomplishments! If you’re doing this monthly I look forward to future info.
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