News & Documentary Alumni Page

Navigation Arrow

Alumni Bios

Are you an alum? Post your bio by sending it to Marcia Rock.

Laura Beatty, Class of 2004

Documentary Producer, Waterdrop Films

Laura J. Beatty is a producer, videographer and editor based in New York City. She has produced both nationally and internationally and her work has been broadcast on Al Arabiya, WashingtonPost.com, HDNet, Al-Jazeera English and Reuters Consumer TV. Her recent story credits include a groundbreaking investigation into the spread of Islamic extremism in Morocco, how the energy boom in Wyoming is devastating local communities and the struggle to save the 3,000-year-old city of Varanasi, India from the twin ravages of time and ignorance. Laura's first feature documentary, "The Road to Sulha," is a cinema verite exploration of peace and reconciliation work between Israelis and Palestinians. She earned her Master's degree in Broadcast Journalism from New York University, where she was honored with the John Peter and Anna Zenger award and the Sidney Gross Investigative Journalism award. Visit Laura on her website at: www.laurajbeatty.com.

Recent Credits Include:
HDNet World Report, "The Littlest Tulku" (premiered 11/3/09), Credits: Correspondent, Producer, Second Camera, Editor
HDNet World Report, "Saving the World's Oldest City" (premiered 6/9/09), Credits: Correspondent, Producer
WashingtonPost.com, "Purples States" - Election-related video series
HDNet World Report: "Energy Boom in Wyoming: The End of the Cowboy?" (premiered 10/7/08), Credits: Producer

Contact Laura Beatty

Anna Boluda, Class of 2005

Freelance Documentary Filmmaker & Video Journalist, Barcelona, Spain

Since Graduation: I have produced articles and videos as a freelancer. I have just finished my second documentary: Homo Baby Boom.

Contact Anna Boluda

Dara Brown, Class of 1987

MSNBC.com, Anchor/ Senior Producer

My husband and I also own a B & B in Spring Lake, NJ, Villa Park House.

Contact Dara Brown

Mariah Craven

After graduation, Mariah served as Press Secretary for the Tony Avella for Mayor Campaign in New York City. After the campaign ended, she became the Communications and Marketing Director for Washington Area Women's Foundation. The Washington, DC-based non-profit raises money and advocates for organizations that serve women and girls in Washington, DC, Northern Virginia, and part of Maryland.

Contact Mariah Craven

Carielle Doe, Class of 2007

ABC News,/Production Associate at ABC News One

Since Graduation: I've been working at News One, I started a week after graduation!

Contact Carielle Doe

Crystal Fisher, Class of 2005

Segment Producer

In the two years since I graduated I have reported/produced/ and hosted. I have also taken home an Emmy for best feature segment in a public or current affair and I have worked on three other emmy nominated special reports including "Kids and Cancer" and "Criminal ReEntry."

Telephone: (917) 549-6060

Contact Crystal Fisher

Carey Fox

Segment Producer, Countdown With Keith Olbermann

Telephone: (212) 664-1623

Contact Carey Fox

Amanda Greenberg, Class of 2003

Segment Producer, TruTV (formerly Court TV)

Since Graduation: I worked at ABC News as a production assistant. I was then an associate producer at KPI, working on two episodes of a History Channel series (Weird U.S.) and an episode of a Court TV documentary (Dominick Dunne’s Power, Privilege and Justice). I’m also currently working on my own documentary.

Contact Amanda Greenberg

Koji Hayasaki, Class of 2002

Producer at Cinemic

Born in Tokyo, Koji Hayasaki is the president of Cinemic, media production company and an experienced producer/ director who has produced many TV programs and video productions for Japan and the U.S.A.

His documentary film "Leang's Journey", a story about Cambodian immigrants living in the Bronx, was broadcast on Link TV. It has also screened over twenty locations. Koji also produced and directed a lot of educational programs and documentary for NHK, a public broadcaster in Japan. He directed a special documentary for NHK in 2007 and It features Al Jazeera's Children channel and its goal in Arab society.

Currently, Koji has been working on his new documentary film "The Quiet Builders." This documentary film features the lives of John D. Rockefeller 3rd and Shigeharu Matsumoto, their 50 year friendship, interrupted but not destroyed by the war, and the vital projects they worked on together to cement a lasting two-way relationship between the United States and Japan. Funded by US-Japan Foudation, the Japan Foundation, and the Blanchette Rockefeller Fund, the 60 minutes documentary will complete in 2011.

Contact Koji Hayasaki

Betsy Herzog, Class of 1990

Director of Communications, NYC Commission on Human Rights

Since Graduation:
1. Reporter/photographer for a weekly paper
2. Freeleance photographer for local dailies and the AP
3. Mayor's Photographer
4. NYPD Press Office - head writer, coordinated all large press conferences, briefed Police Commissioner for weekly press briefings
5. Queens District Attorney's Office - Deputy Director and Acting Director of  Communications
6. NYC Commission on Human Rights - Director of Communications

Contact Betsy Herzog

Selena Hsu, Class of 2004

Columbia MBA Class 2010

Since Graduation: CNN's "Newsnight with Aaron Brown," CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360," and most recently as a Henry Luce Scholar 2007-8: media analyst and reporter for China Central Television and producer for NBC's Olympic in Beijing.

Contact Selena Hsu

CeFaan Kim, Class of 2003

NY1 News, Reporter

Since Graduation: working

Contact CeFaan Kim

Paige Kollock, Class of 2005

Correspondent, Feature Story News

Since Graduation:Paige joined FSN in 2006 from Channel One, an educational television service in the United States. Since then, she's traveled the world on FSN's behalf, producing material from Turkey, Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, and traveling to Africa with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon. Paige splits her time between FSN's bureau at the United Nations, and our office in Midtown Manhattan. She also reports live on a daily basis from the NASDAQ, covering the stock market's ups-and-downs.

Contact Paige Kollock

Dr. Justin Chris Ku

Dr. Justin Chris Ku is founder and chairman of Blue Ocean Media Group, the parent company of Blue Ocean Network (BON). BON is the first independent, China-focused, 24-hour English-language TV channel in the U.S.

Before founding Blue Ocean, Dr. Ku was founder and chairman of Ku’s Communications, Inc., a New York based media company that invests in and manages media projects around the world. Prior to moving into the world of media, Dr. Ku enjoyed a successful ten-year career with Motorola in the U.S., where he worked in such diverse areas as telecommunications software development, wireless system design and implementation, intelligent network product management and world market portfolio management.

Along with management roles in his media companies, Dr. Ku is also a TV producer and host. He has created and hosted major TV shows in China such as the groundbreaking “Meet China” - the country’s first cross-border multilingual talk show. “Meet China” invited high profile foreign government and business leaders, entrepreneurs, celebrities, etc. as featured guests to participate in a dialogue with their Chinese counterparts via live international satellite hookup. Broadcast on China Central Television (CCTV), this 50-minute prime-time weekly show made Chinese television history by pioneering two-way satellite transmission on a talk show. Dr. Ku also acted as executive producer and host on the show for five years, during which he moderated over 200 live international discussions.

Dr. Ku is vice-president of Blue Ocean International Communications Committee, a national nonprofit organization that comprises well-known media executives, professionals and scholars from across China. He is also director of the China Overseas Friendship Association and director of the Beijing Council for Promotion of International Investment. Dr. Ku also serves as vice-chairman of the Ku Foundation for Education and Culture.

Dr. Ku holds six degrees in diverse fields from universities in both the U.S. and China: a Ph.D. in communications from Peking University, China; an EMBA from Tsinghua University, China; an MA in journalism from New York University; an MBA in marketing and international business and an MS in electrical engineering and computer science, both from The University of Illinois at Chicago; and a BS from Xi’an Jiaotong University, China. In addition he is an honorary professor at the Southern Yangtze University in China.

Contact Dr. Justin Chris Ku

Minako Kurasawa, Class of 2007

Producer, NHK Enterprises America, Inc. (NHK: Japanese Public Broadcasting Company) in New York

Contact Minako Kurasawa

Jesse Lanier, Class of 2007

WBOC-TV, Reporter

Since Graduation:  General Assignment Reporter for a TV Station in Delaware; A Couple of Film Festivals with my Documentary, "Under the River," made in NYU's Graduate Program 

Contact Jesse Lanier

A'Melody Lee, Class of 2007

Multimedia Communications Consultant to the Africa Region External Affairs Unit of the World Bank in Washington, DC.

In 2008, A'Melody co-founded Mapbox Media Services, a New York based company that provides strategic media services to portfolio companies around the US.

Contact A'Melody Lee

Katrina Markel, Class of 2005

Project Manager, MediaOne Studio Ventures (San Francisco)

Since Graduation: I moved to Los Angeles where I worked for Channel One Network, CBS News and Oscar nominated documentary filmmaker, Chuck Braverman. My husband was offered a job with LucasArts in San Francisco and we moved to the Bay Area in the Fall of 2006.

Contact Katrina Markel

David McKenzie, Class of 2002

CNN Correspondent

Since Graduation: ABC News productions producer, documentary director, UNICEF correspondent, freelance producer, CNN correspondent, Africa.

Andy McKim, Class of 2003

Editor, Discovery Channel.

Editing clients have included: Discovery Channel, Science Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, Health Channel, The Military Channel, Turbo, Discovery mobile, Disc Education, Eye Candy, CBN, PBS, Reebok, MTV, Video Ordnance, Camera: live concerts for Sony Music Group, Video Fashion Inc., CBN, ADI, System Prods.

Contact Andy McKim

Gabi Menezes

Public Information Officer, United Nations World Food Programme

Gabi Menezes grew up in Zimbabwe, and came to NYU in 2001 to study broadcast journalism. She began free-lancing for Reuters, mainly covering entertainment and cultural events in New York. She moved to West Africa in 2004 to report on an under-covered part of the continent: the civil war in Ivory Coast, Liberia and Sierra Leone. In 2005, she became the West Africa reporter for Al Jazeera. The stories covered ranged from Sierra Leone elections to rebellion in Chad. After leaving in 2008, she joined the United Nations World Food Programme as a Public Information Officer.

Contact Gabi Menezes

Sara Pellegrini, Class of 2004

Freelance video and audio editor (currently working for American Documentary/P.O.V.)

Since finishing my master's degree I have worked for Radiolab at WNYC, GreenHouse Pictures on the documentary film "Hard Road Home", produced video for TurnHere.com, edited web video for American Documentary/P.O.V. and edited audio podcasts for the TED Conference and American Documentary/P.O.V.

Contact Sara Pellegrini

Edward A. Rueda, Class of 2007

Web Writer, NY1

Since Graduation: Freelanced for NYPost.com before getting the job at NY1

Contact Edward A. Rueda

Alyse Shorland, Class of 2007

PBS/ Thirteen, Expose: America's Investigative Reports

Since Graduation: PA for CNN NY Assignment Desk, PA for CNN Presents John McCain Revealed Documentary, moved to PBS in August

Contact Alyse Shorland

Lee Patrick Sullivan, Class of 1996

Reporter - Clean Skies TV News

Since Graduation:
1996- NY1 News - news assistant
1996-2001- Bloomberg TV- reporter
2001-2002- Reuters (NYC) - reporter
2002- Reuters (London)- reporter
2002- BBC1 (London)- reporter
2003- CNN International (Atlanta)- producer
2003- 2008- Fox News (NYC)- Senior PKG producer
2008-present- Clean Skies TV News - reporter

Contact Lee Patrick Sullivan

Megan Thompson, Class of 2006

Field Producer, Worldfocus, PBS

Since Graduation:  Shooting, producing and editing for NOW on PBS and Worldfocus, a daily international news show on PBS.  Have reported on a variety of political and social issues across the United States and around the world, including Egypt, Brazil, Nicaragua and Guatemala. I just got back from my most recent trip.

Shot/edited story on Single Mothers in Morocco - Read

I also produced, shot and edited a series of stories on women in Liberia -
Story 1 | Story 2 | Story 3 | Story 4
Shot/edited stories on the drug war in Tijuana

Produced/shot/Edited stories out of Chiapas, Mexico:
Story 1 | Story 2 | Fighting Cervical Cancer in Nicaragua (producer, shooter, editor)

Maternal Mortality in Guatemala (producer, shooter, editor) - Read Story

Contact Megan Thompson

Latest News

More News

Twitter

More Tweets

Photos

More Photos