Journalism alumni awards recognize service, achievement

As part of a celebration marking a century of journalism education at UW–Madison, five graduates of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication will be honored Saturday, April 30 for their leadership, service and accomplishment.

Three graduates will receive the 2005 Distinguished Service Awards in a 1:45 p.m. ceremony at the Pyle Center, 702 Langdon St.

They are:

Joy Amundson, corporate vice president and president of Baxter BioScience, a global market leader in recombinant- and plasma-based specialty therapeutics and treatments. She has also served as an executive for Abbott Laboratories, Ross Products and Procter & Gamble.

Scott Cohn, one of the founders of CNBC. Cohn is currently the network’s senior correspondent and also appears on NBC Nightly News, MSNBC and on NBC affiliates nationwide. Most recently, Cohn has led CNBC’s coverage of corporate corruption.

Scott Farrell, an executive vice president of GolinHarris and managing director of the public relations firm’s global headquarters in Chicago. Farrell is an expert in crisis communication and was recently named by PR Week magazine as a “crunch-time counselor.”

In addition, the Ralph O. Nafziger Award, for distinguished achievement by an alumnus within 10 years of graduation, will be presented to Aaron Popkey, assistant director of public relations for the Green Bay Packers. A 1994 graduate, Popkey has been involved in many of the team’s major events, including the Packers’ appearances in Super Bowls XXXI and XXXII and the redevelopment of Lambeau Field.

Receiving the Harold L. Nelson Award for achievement in journalism education will be David Paul Nord, professor of journalism and American studies and adjunct professor of history at Indiana University.

Nord, who earned a doctorate in mass communication at UW–Madison, is an expert in the history of journalism, religious publishing and readership. He is the author of “Communities of Journalism: A History of American Newspapers and Their Readers” and “Faith in Reading: Religious Publishing and the Birth of Mass Media in America.”