November 2005

Alumni honored at Awards Dinner

Three graduates of the School of Journalism and Mass Communications were honored Thursday, Nov. 3, at the School's 2005 Distinguished Alumni Awards Dinner held at the Summit Club in downtown Columbia.

Honored as the Distinguished Alumnus was Rick Kiernan (MA,'82), vice president of strategic communications for MPRI, a global training corporation. Martha Wright (BA,'02), a Style section copy editor and page designer at The Washington Post, and Bradley Walters (BA, ’01) copy editor and page designer at The Washington Post, were honored as Outstanding Young Alumni.

"The faculty of the School takes great pride in selecting the annual Distinguished and Outstanding Alumni Award recipients, and as we recognize and honor the accomplishments of our graduates, we are also paying tribute to the faculty and its excellent instruction, a Carolina tradition. This year’s honorees, one a public relations major and the other two print journalism majors, in their acceptance speeches cited the quality of education they received while attending the University of South Carolina, and the interest in their academic and professional development that faculty exhibited, as being critical to their career successes," said Dr. Shirley Carter.

The School established the two alumni awards in 1984 to recognize former students who have achieved significant recognition in journalism and mass communications.

The Distinguished Alumni Award is for graduates who have been out of school for more than 10 years and whose careers represent significant professional achievement. The Outstanding Young Alumni Award is for graduates who have been out of school 10 years or less but who have already demonstrated significant professional accomplishments early in their careers.

Alumni selected for the awards are nominated by faculty or alumni of the School. A two-thirds vote of the faculty is required for a nominee to be named an award recipient.

David R. Kiernan

David R. Kiernan is vice president, strategic communications, for MPRI, a global training corporation. He is responsible for corporate communications and the public affairs programs in Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Africa. Kiernan was born in Brooklyn and attended The Virginia Military Institute where he received a commission as a second lieutenant in the United States Army. He served 26 years as an infantry officer, retiring as a full colonel in 1993. During his military career, he served in Germany, Vietnam, Alaska, Hawaii and Saudi Arabia. In 1991, he led the last military delegation to the former Soviet Union to assist in its public affairs and media relations programs. Kiernan received two Bronze Stars in combat, three awards of the Legion of Merit for achievement and numerous commendations for service from the U.S. government and the Republic of South Vietnam, Kuwait and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

As a public affairs officer, he has been the managing editor of three newspapers, host of a public television show, editor in chief of a monthly magazine and chief Pentagon spokesman for the Army during Operation Just Cause in Panama and the First Gulf War. He served on General H. Norman Schwarzkopf’s staff as the director of the Joint Information Bureau in Saudi Arabia during Operation Desert Shield.

Upon his retirement in 1993, Kiernan was selected to be the director of both press operations and public information for the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. He was responsible for establishing the main press center for 5,000 journalists from 197 countries. In 2000, Kiernan organized an International Media Symposium, which represented 22 countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

Kiernan received a master’s degree in mass communications from the University of South Carolina in 1982 and has completed postgraduate study at The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He is listed in the 2006-2007 edition of Who’s Who for Executives and Professionals.

Bradley Walters

Brad Walters is a copy editor, page designer and staff writer at The Washington Post, where he oversees every aspect of production for the weekly television section and contributes to the newspaper’s Sunday Source, a weekly section targeting Generation Y readers. Most recently, Brad attempted in an interview to coerce longtime "Price Is Right" host Bob Barker into admitting when he might retire. (The answer? "I've been doing it 'one more year' for the past 12 years.")

Brad graduated from the College of Journalism and Mass Communications in 2001 with a concentration in print journalism. His first job after graduation was at the Herald-Journal in Spartanburg, where he spent two years as a copy editor and page designer for 1A and special projects. While in Spartanburg, Brad earned an Award of Excellence from the Society for News Design, an organization that recognizes the best of professional newspaper design worldwide. He also received a Best of the Best front page design award from the S.C. Press Association, honoring his work as the best among all the state's dailies in 2002.

From 2003-2004, Brad worked as a news designer at The News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C. There, Brad designed daily and Sunday 1A, Business, Metro and Q, the newspaper’s weekly public affairs section.

While a student at Carolina, Brad completed a Dow Jones Newspaper Fund editing internship at the Naples (Fla.) Daily News and a reporting internship at The Charlotte Observer’s Columbia bureau. He worked at The Gamecock all four years he was at USC, including a stint as editor-in-chief, and he was inducted into USC’s Hall of Leaders. He also served as a managing editor of The Carolina Reporter and was named Outstanding Print Journalism Senior in 2001. He is a graduate of the South Carolina Honors College.

Brad lives in Washington, D.C., where he's still on the lookout for a proper glass of sweet tea.

Martha Wright

Martha Wright was born in Lexington, S.C., and graduated magna cum laude from the College of Journalism and Mass Communications in 2002 with a print journalism major.

She served as the editor in chief of both the Garnet & Black and The Gamecock while a student at USC. Wright, a member of Delta Gamma women's fraternity, was elected to Phi Beta Kappa in 2001 and named Outstanding Print Journalism Senior and USC's Outstanding Woman of the Year in 2002.

After a summer internship with the Dow Jones Newspaper Fund in Fort Lauderdale and a post-graduate internship on The Washington Post's national copy desk, Wright took a copy-editing and design job at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. She was hired by The Post's Style section in 2003.

Wright won an honorable mention from the American Association of Sunday and Feature Editors for her headlines in 2005. In addition to her position at The Washington Post, Wright teaches newspaper design as an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland's College of Journalism.