Anchor Lynette Romero makes a point about hiring an agent.

For subjects as diverse as pop-culture reality TV and Middle East media, professionals shared their expertise with students and faculty at the School this fall.

Hearst Professionals-in-Residence for the fall semester included Lynette Romero ('89), anchor at KTLA-TV in Los Angeles; Michael Wilke, an expert on issues relating to gay marketing and media; and Rami Khouri, editor at large for The Daily Star in Beruit.

Romero spent 10 years at KUSA-TV in Denver where she was an anchor and reporter. She moved to KTLA in January 1999 as a general assignment reporter.

Wilke is founder and executive director of the Commercial Closet Association. His syndicated column about gay marketing and media issues appears in leading gay newspapers and Web sites, and he travels frequently across the United States and overseas to lecture at corporations and universities.

Michael Wilke

Rami Khouri

Khouri provided students and faculty with insight into the roles of Arab and American media in the Middle East. He is an internationally syndicated political columnist and author, and a Nieman Journalism Fellow at Harvard and was appointed to the Brookings Institution Task Force on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World.

On Sept. 9, "American Idol" producers Megan Michaels and Jessica Kelly ('02) visited with students in the Armory and gave them a behind-the-scenes account of the popular reality entertainment program. Michaels is a CU alumnus who majored in English but took SJMC courses and worked on "NewsTeam Boulder." Both previously worked at Fox Sports in Los Angeles.

Show producers Megan Michaels (left) and Jessica Kelly discuss the inner workings of the "American Idol" television program during a brown-bag lunch in the Armory. Photo by Alan Kirkpatrick.

On Sept. 13, Paul Loeb spoke on the importance of civic engagement and social responsibility, especially among students. He also presented a separate workshop to faculty, staff, administrators and graduate students on how to teach in a service-oriented manner. Loeb has spent 30 years researching and writing on the topic of civic engagement and has spoken at more than 300 colleges and universities nationwide.

A screening of excerpts from the documentary "Land of the Settlers" was sponsored by the School on Oct. 4.

The film represents a personal journey covering more than two years of excursions into Gaza and the West Bank by Chaim Yavin, known in Israel as "Mr. Television" in broadcast news spanning 30 years. Yavin, who was on hand to discuss the documentary, served as an overseas correspondent in the United States and Europe, the head of news at Israel TV and director-general of Israel TV.

Anchor Kim Christiansen ('84) of KUSA-TV in Denver talked to broadcast students in adjunct instructor's Tony Perri's Radio & TV News class about newswriting on Nov. 7.