Class Notes

In 2017, Barbara Vobejda (Jour) was named deputy managing editor of The Washington Post.

Magdaleno “Leno” Rose-Avila (Comm) is the executive director of Witness to Innocence, an organization dedicated to empowering exonerated death row survivors. His long history of civil and human rights work includes directorial positions at Amnesty International and serving as executive director of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project in Seattle, Washington. 

Martin Streim (Comm, MA’79) retired in 2017 after a 35-year career in corporate human resources, during which he focused on organizational and leadership development. Before retiring, he spent several years as the director of ethics and business conduct in his employer’s office of legal counsel. He and his wife, Christie, live in Boulder.

Peter Lasser (Comm), is a producer and director at Lasser Productions in Atlanta. He has produced for 11 Olympic Games throughout his career in broadcast, including the Tokyo Olympics. He stays connected with the college and its students as a member of CMCI’s advisory board. In 2019, he joined a panel of sports media professionals during CMCI’s inaugural Sports Media Summit and returned to speak with broadcast journalism classes about his experiences in the field. Lasser is married to Cynthia Potter, who earned an Olympic bronze medal in 3-meter springboard diving in 1976 and frequently serves as an analyst for televised diving events, including during this year’s Summer Games.

Gary Vicari (Comm) has been president of Arlington Toyota, a family-owned company started by his father in Palatine, Illinois, since 2000. He and his wife, Amy, have three grown children.

Michael Knisley (MJour) joined the faculty at the University of Missouri School of Journalism as an assistant professor in fall 2018. He is also the sports editor of the Columbia Missourian, a community digital and print news organization staffed by students and managed by faculty.

Stephen Mease (Jour) wrote and edited Champlain Valley Fair in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Champlain Valley Exposition, located in Essex Junction, Vermont. Mease is a former newspaper editor, freelance writer, publicist, special events photographer and communications director. Mease is the public affairs manager for Vermont Student Assistance Corp. in Winooski, Vermont, and the owner of Stephen Mease Photography. He was also features editor for the Burlington Free Press for 13 years.

John Anderson (Comm) is the owner and executive producer at Black Watch Productions, which is creating and producing a filmmaker attraction video for New Jersey. Black Watch Productions has interviewed over 20 subjects from all across the film industry, including Jersey native Danny DeVito.

Dan Shattil (Jour) retired after 37 years as general manager of The Daily Nebraskan, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s school newspaper. “I’m retiring but I will still be around,” he says. “I plan to still come in as a volunteer.”

Sara Fischer (Jour, Engl) oversees worldwide production for all Shondaland TV series and manages production for development and special projects at the company. Most recently, Fischer led production on Shondaland’s groundbreaking hit, Bridgerton, the most-watched series debut in Netflix history, as well as Inventing Anna. Fischer splits her time between London and Los Angeles.

Rob Reuteman (MJour) retired in 2020 after 10 years on the journalism faculty at Colorado State University and 26 years as an editor at the Rocky Mountain News. He served as state-region editor, city editor, national editor, business editor and a columnist for 12 years before the paper closed. He also served as the 2010–11 president of the Society of American Business Editors and Writers.

Dave Curtin (Jour) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who retired from CU Boulder after 14 years in campus executive communications and 30 years as a Colorado journalist. Curtin’s son, A.J. Curtin (CritMed’19), is a freelance media producer and audio engineer based in Denver.

Pam Taylor Yates (Advert), Anne Baldwin Castine (Comm), Francesca Bernhardt Beatty (Comm) and Caroline Bernhardt (Fren) were roommates in college and met up in Boulder for Homecoming in 2019. Pam traveled from New York City; Anne from Greenwich, Connecticut; and Francesca and Caroline from Florida.

After 32 years at KCNC-TV/CBS4 in Denver, Donna Perry Gilbert (Jour) retired in 2017. She is now a volunteer at the Denver Dumb Friends League. 

For more than 40 years, Bill Lerner (Comm) has helped grow and develop iPark, his family’s parking garage business (previously known as Imperial Parking Systems), into New York’s largest garage and parking facilities operator. Bill also started the organization Billy4Kids to provide shoes for underprivileged children around the world. 

Dave Curtin (Jour) won a Pulitzer Prize for feature writing in 1990 and currently is the Assistant Director of Executive Communications at the University of Colorado Boulder.

At the Lippin Group, a brand communications firm, Pamela Ruben Golum (Comm) has managed notable client accounts including Dick Wolf and his Law & Order franchise, various projects for the Disney Channel and the Emmy Awards. Previously, Pam worked as a journalist with Fairchild Publications and at radio station KBOL in Boulder. She and husband, Rob, live in Los Angeles, California, with their two daughters, Caroline and Jennifer.

Ray Ring (Jour) retired from a 35-year career in journalism to focus on writing novels. He previously wrote Arizona Kiss, a noir piece about a journalist exposing a corrupt judge. His upcoming, self published novel Montana Reckoning will explore racism in one of the least diverse states.

Martin Streim (Comm’76; MComm) retired in 2017 after a 35-year career in corporate human resources where he focused on organizational and leadership development. Before retiring, he spent several years as the director of ethics and business conduct in his employer’s office of legal counsel. He and his wife, Christie, live in Boulder.

Michael Getto (Jour) lived and worked in 15 countries––primarily in the former Soviet Union––for over 16 years while working for the United States Agency for International Development, the World Bank, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Global Affairs Canada and UK Aid Direct. He now lives in California, where he works for the International Foundation for Electoral Systems’ Ukraine election support program. In his current role, he writes and edits IFES communications for the international diplomatic, donor and civil society communities.