Class Notes

Sam Flickinger (Jour) is approaching 14 years at ExpertVoice in Salt Lake City, a software as a service company focused on brand advocacy, retail training, generating helpful product reviews and more. After spending more than a decade in print media, today he is a digital storyteller and editor who chronicles the adventures of the organization’s members and connects them with their 500+ brand partners in a verified community of experts online.

Jeff Tahler (Comm) is the managing director at Madica Productions. Madica's hit Netflix series Ginny and Georgia is in production for its second season. The company’s YouTube series Brave Mission amassed more than 4.5 million views in the first month of its release.

Tracey Marx Bernstein (Jour) is an executive producer at Yahoo. She creates content in the diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEI&B) space, celebrating different cultures, identities and backgrounds.

Brent Schrotenboer (Jour), an enterprise and investigative reporter for USA Today, recently won three national top 10 writing awards from the Associated Press Sports Editors for work he did in 2021. Schrotenboer has received 11 national top 10 awards since 2014. He has been with USA Today since 2012 and covers legal, business and social issues related to sports. He lives in San Diego, California.

Sabine Kortals Stein (Bus, Mus’91; MJour) works closely with the dean of the College of Music and the assistant dean for concerts and communications. Additionally, she serves as editor of the college's annual magazine, and edits and contributes to other print and digital publications. She also serves on the College of Music’s diversity committee. Stein’s career comprises music journalism and for-profit and nonprofit communications.

This year, Kelly Graziadei (Advert) and her co-founder, Joanna Lee Shevelenko, announced and closed their first institutional venture capital fund, f7 Ventures. The venture capital fund was one of the largest first-time funds launched by female operators. This is particularly notable with only 4% of VC firms in the U.S. led by women. The $50 million fund includes a respected and diverse set of limited partners, and 70% of their investments have been to underrepresented founders.

Dave Briggs (Jour) is an anchor for Yahoo Finance. Previously, he worked at CNN, NBC Sports and Fox News as an anchor. 

Drew Krejci (Advert) is vice president of corporate communications at Optum, a UnitedHealth Group company. Krejci’s time in Boulder launched a career in communications that has taken him to New York City, Washington, D.C., and now Minneapolis, where he lives with his wife and two children.

Reid Kaplan (Advert) is a residential real estate broker and value-add apartment investor based in west Los Angeles. In 2021, he ranked in the top 1.5% of realtors in California. Kaplan is married with two sons.

Piya Sorcar (Bus, Econ, Jour) is the founder and CEO of the social venture TeachAids, an adjunct affiliate at Stanford University School of Medicine, and a faculty fellow at the Stanford Center for Innovation in Global Health. TeachAids HIV education software is used in 82 countries, including areas where HIV-related education was previously forbidden. TeachAids launched CrashCourse concussion education in partnership with 23 of the U.S. Olympic Committee’s national governing bodies. Sorcar lives in Mountain View, California.

Ian Cohen (Jour) serves as PayPal’s senior director of global creative strategy and production and head of the brand communications team. He is a four-time Daytime Emmy-nominated television producer, winning twice for Outstanding Daytime Show of the Year for his work on Rachael Ray. He recently became an elected official in his hometown, Wellesley, Massachusetts.

Heather Fehringer Mundt (MJour) is a freelance writer. She wrote a comprehensive guide to family travel called Colorado Family Outdoor Adventure, which was published in May 2022 by the University of New Mexico Press. The Colorado native and mom of two teen boys lives in Longmont with her husband and two rescue huskies. She writes about family, adventure and outdoor travel.

Mitch Schneider (Jour) and his wife, Tania, welcomed their first child, Ivy Isabella, in mid-July. Schneider is approaching nearly two decades of work in technology software sales. He spent the last four-and-a-half years working for Braze, a customer engagement platform, on the global strategic accounts team, selling to many of the world's largest media and entertainment brands. Braze went public in November 2021.

Jake Loskutoff (Comm) was recently nominated for three Emmy Awards for his work with the Los Angeles Angels, Anaheim Ducks and Los Angeles Kings. He continues to grow his production company, LIFEinaVAN Studios, and just completed his first marathon.

In April 2022, Robert Barba (Jour) joined the U.S. news desk of The Wall Street Journal as a news editor. Joining the WSJ in 2018, Barba was also part of a team named as a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in explanatory reporting for a package on the 100-year anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre.

Zach Kouwe (Jour) just celebrated his 11th anniversary at Dukas Linden Public Relations, one of the largest independent financial communication firms in the industry. His work in PR came after more than a decade as a financial journalist, including time as a staff reporter for The New York Times.

Peter Booth (MediaSt) is an attorney and shareholder at Polsinelli PC. Booth lives in Boulder with his wife, Lisa Schneider (Eng'96), and their children, Sidney and Sebastian.

Lauren Glendenning (Jour) is the global communications manager for Amazon Web Services on the global employer brand team. Glendenning previously held the roles of sponsored content director at Swift Communications, editor-in-chief at The Aspen Times, editorial projects director at Colorado Mountain News Media, and reporter and senior editor at the Vail Daily.

Brooke Diamond (Advert) has worked in advertising and marketing since graduating, leading brands such as American Red Cross, Gillette, Campbell Soup Co. and Johnson & Johnson. Diamond is the marketing director at Morgan Stanley. She met her husband while living in New York City. They welcomed their first child in November 2020 and live in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Christopher Bell (PhDMediaSt’09) is the director of creative inclusion at Skydance Animation. Before moving into this role, he served for 11 years as an associate professor of media studies in the Department of Communication at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs. Recognized nationally for his expertise in the area of children's culture, he teaches and has published in the areas of critical analysis of popular culture, rhetorical theory, representation theory and the history of mass media.