1:15 p.m. Registration opens
Carroll Hall, UNC Campus
Please come pick up your credentials, local maps, and any DTH merchandise you’ve purchased.
2 p.m. WHAT’S NEXT? Part 1: What’s the big idea?
Freedom Forum, Carroll Hall, UNC Campus
Innovative thinkers, including Ariel Zirulnick of The New Tropic, Fiona Morgan of Free Press, Daniel Malloy of OZY and other innovators will present their ideas and provocations in a lightning-round session, and then will host breakout conversations to discuss how other people can use or adapt their ideas. Moderated by Daily Tar Heel executive director Betsy O’Donovan.
3 p.m. Rape and the Campus
Freedom Forum, Carroll Hall, UNC Campus
Susan King, dean of the UNC School of Media and Journalism, moderates a discussion with DTH Editor-in-Chief Jane Wester, Duke Chronicle editor Claire Ballentine, the Chronicle of Higher Education’s Sarah Brown, Roanoke Times’ Sara Gregory, UNC media law expert Cathy Packer and Monika Johnson Hostler of N.C. CASA about the challenge and responsibility of covering sexual assault.
4 p.m. News: The Entrepreneurial Generation
Freedom Forum, Carroll Hall, UNC Campus
They began working in journalism during or immediately after the Great Recession, when the journalism world was blowing up. And now they are blowing up journalism, by pioneering new ways of telling stories, new business models for news, and new ways of finding audiences, with The New Tropic’s Ariel Zirulnick, Reuters’ Emily Stephenson, Charlotte Agenda’s Andrew Dunn, and the Center for Community Self-Help’s Ricky Leung. Moderated by Daily Tar Heel visual managing editorJosé Valle.
6 p.m. Happy Hour at Linda’s Bar & Grill
Downstairs at 203 E. Franklin St., Chapel Hill
Meet your fellow journalists at the Daily Tar Heel’s unofficial annex for a reception sponsored by Democracy Fund
8 p.m. Authority: A story slam
Linda’s Downbar, 203 E. Franklin St., Chapel Hill,
Join The Daily Tar Heel for a night of true stories, told live, without notes, at Linda's Downbar. Doors open at 7:30 p.m.; storytelling begins at 8 with DTH historian Ken Zogry.
The Daily Tar Heel was once known as the cradle for the “baby radicals” of the campus and the state. In honor of that history, our inaugural story slam’s theme is “AUTHORITY.” The best true, five-minute story on that theme will win a $25 cash prize. Bring your game. No notes allowed. Tickets: $7.50/person
8:30 a.m.: Coffee with Democracy Fund
Freedom Forum, Carroll Hall, UNC Campus
Conference registration, raffle tickets, merchandise for sale, etc.
9 a.m.: Media skills beyond the newsroom
Room 253 Carroll Hall, UNC Campus
Everything you ever wanted to know about using your journalism skills in new places. We’ll include freelance tips, career changes, business management and your Q&A. Ricky Leung (online communications manager for Self-Help), and photographer Grant Halverson. Moderated by DTH opinion editor Tyler Fleming.
9 a.m. More than spellcheck: How to be an audience-first editor
Room 283, Carroll Hall, UNC Campus
Want to be an editor? Some of the best in the business — Courtney Rukan from the Washington Post, Jenny Abella from the Washington Post Magazine, and Jen McDonald, a former editor at the New York Times — will discuss how to advocate for readers and make stories shine. Moderated by Daily Tar Heel editorial managing editor Hannah Smoot.
9 a.m.: Pulitzer standards, local stories.
Freedom Forum, Carroll Hall, UNC Campus
A sharp, hard look at what community newsrooms can do to practice world-class reporting with the resources on hand. With Roanoke Times’ Sara Gregory, ProPublica’s Adriana Gallardo, WAMU’s Bec Feldhaus Adams and Fiona Morgan of Free Press. Moderated by The Daily Tar Heel’s Kiana Cole.
10 a.m.: Coffee and Pastries with Democracy Fund
Freedom Forum, Carroll Hall, UNC Campus
10:30 a.m. Truth and Trust: Covering the Trump Administration
Freedom Forum, Carroll Hall, UNC Campus
CNN’s Eugene Scott, Huffington Post’s Julia Craven, Reuters’ Emily Stephenson, the Boston Globe’s Matt Viser, the Washington Post’s Peter Wallsten and other notables who are covering Donald Trump and the presidential transition will discuss how their coverage has evolved to accurately report on an unprecedented president-elect. (Submit questions in advance.) Moderated by Daily Tar Heel state & national editor Corey Risinger.
12:15 p.m. WHAT’S NEXT? Part 2: What’s your problem?
Freedom Forum, Carroll Hall, UNC Campus
Civic media matters — but how to start? Innovators including the Fayetteville Observer’s Matt Leclercq, DTH senior advertising account manager Payton Collier and others will get candid about their problems in a lightning-round session, and then will break out into brainstorming sessions. Moderated by Daily Tar Heel newsroom adviser and brand studio director Erica Perel (DTH EIC ’98). Want to present your “problem”? Email alumni@dailytarheel.com.
12:15 p.m.: Fellowships and funding
Room 283, Carroll Hall, UNC Campus
Winning money to work on a dream project, taking your journalism skills outside the newsroom, and more. Fellows and foundation pros, including 2013 Nieman fellow Jen McDonald and Democracy Fund’s Teresa Gorman and Hodding Carter, former president and CEO of the Knight Foundation, will offer advice. Moderated by Daily Tar Heel online managing editor Danny Nett.
2 p.m. Lunch at Hickory Tavern
370 E. Main St. #110, Carrboro
Conference attendees are invited to have lunch together at Hickory Tavern in Carrboro. We’ll also take your best ideas for the DTH’s 125th birthday celebrations. (Note: This was originally supposed to be a game-watching party, but tipoff is now Saturday evening.)
6:30 p.m. Dinner/Awards at R&R Grill
137 E. Franklin St., Chapel Hill
We will honor our 2017 Distinguished Alumnus, give updates on the current state of the Daily Tar Heel, and raffle off prizes, as alumni from multiple generations have a chance to reconnect over dinner. Banquet tickets: $35 for non-alumni.
Park at Daily Tar Heel lot (151 E. Rosemary St., Chapel Hill) or in overflow parking (paid lot) across the street.
Walk to Carroll Hall at UNC
Walk to Linda’s Downbar
Park at Daily Tar Heel lot (151 E. Rosemary St., Chapel Hill) or in overflow parking (paid lot) across the street. Free parking is also available on UNC’s campus on Saturdays.
Conference at Carroll Hall at UNC Lunch and 125th Anniversary planning session at Hickory Tavern, 370 E Main St #110, Carrboro,
DTH Alumni & Friends Banquet at R&R Grill, 137 E Franklin St, Chapel Hill, NC 27514
Jennifer Abella (UNC ’00) is the copy and production chief of The Washington Post Magazine. A Daily Tar Heel alumna, she has been a copy editor at The Washington Post since graduating from UNC in 2000. Before moving to the magazine, she was copy chief of The Post's features desk and a deputy chief of its multiplatform editing desk. She is also the volunteer social media coordinator and blogger for UNC's Jane Austen Summer Program, as well as a pop-culture geek who tweets. A lot. Twitter: @nextjen.
Claire Ballentine is a junior at Duke University and the editor-in-chief of The Chronicle, Duke's student-run daily newspaper. She is majoring in sociology with a certificate in policy journalism and media studies and plans to pursue a career in journalism after graduation.
Sarah Brown (UNC ‘15) is a reporter at The Chronicle of Higher Education, where she covers race and diversity, campus sexual assault and other topics in daily news. A 2015 UNC graduate, she worked for the DTH for all four years of college, including a yearlong stint as the state & national editor. Her bylines have appeared in The New York Times and a handful of community newspapers, and she has been interviewed by several print, TV and radio outlets, including the Boston Globe, C-SPAN, WUNC in North Carolina and KPCC in California.Twitter: @brown_e_points.
Hodding Carter III has spent most of his life as a print and television reporter, editor, columnist and anchor, working his last eight years before retirement in 2015 as professor of public policy at Chapel Hill. He graduated from Princeton in 1957 and was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard in 1965-66. State Department spokesman for President Jimmy Carter, he was president and CEO of the Knight Foundation from 1998 to 2006. He won four national Emmys and is the author of two books and contributor to eight others.
Julia Craven (UNC ‘14) covers civil rights for The Huffington Post. She covered the unrest following Freddie Gray's funeral, the protests in Charlotte after Keith Scott was killed and other major police shootings. During the 2016 election, Julia focused on voter suppression and spent a week in North Carolina looking into push back against the state Republican Party. She also writes in-depth analysis of racial inequality and features that highlight the issues facing black folks. When she has free time, she likes to drink wine while binge-watching bad TV shows with her two pit bulls.
Andrew Dunn (UNC ‘10) is the editor-in-chief of Charlotte Agenda, ultimately responsible for all content at a rapidly growing digital news company. He joined the Agenda after five years at the Charlotte Observer and the StarNews in Wilmington, N.C. He served as editor-in-chief of The Daily Tar Heel in the 2009-10 school year.
Bec Feldhaus Adams balances content creativity and structure as WAMU’s editorial project manager. Previously, she was AIR’s Talent Director, a general assignment reporter at WKMS, an education reporter at the Paducah Sun and a freelancer and consultant. She holds two degrees from Murray State University. Bec has been named both a roller derby MVP and Miss Congeniality in past lives. Twitter: @RFeldhausAdams
Adriana Gallardo is an engagement reporter at ProPublica. In this role she works alongside traditional reporters to fuel the reporting process with communities- ideally those most affected by the story. Previous to ProPublica she spent time at AIR, StoryCorps, and Chicago Public Media. She recently joined the National Federation of Community Broadcasters' (NFCB) board. Twitter: @otraletra
Teresa Gorman is the local news associate at the Democracy Fund’s Public Square program. Teresa has spent years working at the intersection of public media, local news, and digital media. At AIR, Localore: Finding America supervising producer, at NPR working with local stations, and as social media editor at PBS NewsHour. Twitter: @gteresa
Sara Gregory (UNC ‘12) is an education reporter in Roanoke, Va. Before that, Sara was a fellow at the Student Press Law Center, a nonprofit that provides legal information and assistance to student journalists. There, in collaboration with The Columbus Dispatch, she reported on the lack of transparency in college disciplinary boards, which have imposed slight penalties for serious crimes. The series, Campus Insecurity, won the Society of Professional Journalists’ Pulliam First Amendment Award and the Associated Press Media Editors’ First Amendment Award. She was The Daily Tar Heel's managing editor for two years beginning in 2008.
Grant Halverson (UNC ’93) became a freelance photojournalist after more than 20 years in print media. He has been a contract photographer for Getty Images since 2001, and worked as Photo and Design Editor for Tar Heel Monthly magazine, director of photography and multimedia for The Cary News, chief photographer for The Chapel Hill News, and the photographer for Elon University. Portfolio: http://granthalverson.photoshelter.com.
Monika Johnson Hostler is the executive director of the North Carolina Coalition Against Sexual Assault (NCCASA), the sole statewide alliance working to end sexual violence through education, advocacy and legislation with 125 members including local rape crisis centers. She is a member of the N.C. Human Trafficking Commission, president of the National Alliance Ending Sexual Violence, and serves as chair of the Wake County Board of Education. She was appointed to the National Advisory Committee on Violence Against WOmen and has served as a consultant for Liberia’s Ministry of Gender Development for the Liberian government. She holds a master’s degree in public administration and lives in Raleigh with her husband and daughter.
Susan King, former vice president for external affairs for Carnegie Corporation of New York, is dean of the UNC School of Media and Journalism and the school’s John Thomas Kerr Distinguished Professor. After starting her broadcast journalism career in Buffalo, N.Y., King spent more than 20 years in Washington, D.C., serving as a White House correspondent for ABC News and reporting for CBS, NBC and CNN. She has hosted the “Diane Rehm Show” and “Talk of the Nation” for National Public Radio, and been assistant secretary for public affairs for the U.S. Department of Labor, the executive director of the Family and Medical Leave Commission. King launched and led the Carnegie-Knight Initiative on the Future of Journalism Education and serves on numerous boards including BBC Media Action, N.C. Public Radio and her alma mater, Fairfield University.
Matt Leclercq (UNC ‘99) is managing editor of The Fayetteville Observer. He graduated in 1999 from UNC-Chapel Hill, where he learned a thing or two about journalism as a reporter and assistant city editor at the DTH. He took a reporter internship in Fayetteville, which became full-time, and eventually served as metro editor and audience development editor. He now oversees digital operations at the Observer. Twitter: @Matt_Leclercq
Ricky Leung (UNC ‘08) is a communicator by day, aspiring drummer and activist all the other times, Ricky graduated right into the Great Recession from the then-School of Journalism and Mass Communication at UNC in 2008. Since then, he has worked at National Geographic, the Smithsonian Institution, NC Policy Watch and now the Center for Community Self-Help. His passion lies in social justice issues, particularly relating to immigrants and communities of color. Ricky recently helped to jumpstart a non-profit North Carolina Asian Americans Together, aiming to encourage political and civic engagement among Asian American communities in North Carolina. In his spare time, he likes to take long walks in his neighborhood with his puppy, Charlie.
Daniel Malloy (UNC '07) was sports editor during his DTH days ("Undisputed Champions" was his headline for the 2005 basketball championship, a paper we finally put to bed around 4 a.m.) and was aiming for a career in press boxes until his editors at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette got him hooked on news. He covered crime and courts in Pittsburgh, then Congress and national politics for several years in Washington. He spent 2016 living in Laos and freelancing around Southeast Asia, where he snagged regular work with OZY --- a startup online magazine based in Silicon Valley devoted to what's new and what's next. He lives in the Triangle, working remotely and adjusting to a young and growing web publication that lacks the cynical ink-stained wretches he's used to. Twitter: @DanielPMalloy
Jen McDonald, a freelance editor based in Chicago, was formerly an editor at The New York Times, The Washington Post, and CNET News.com. She was a 2013 fellow at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism and got her start as a Dow Jones editing intern, at the Santa Cruz Sentinel. Twitter: @jenbmcd
Fiona Morgan is the journalism program director at Free Press and a local news consultant for Democracy Fund. Previously, she was a researcher at the DeWitt Wallace Center for Media and Democracy at Duke University, a staff reporter at Durham’s Indy Week newspaper, and an associate editor at Salon.com. She holds a Master of Public Policy degree from Duke.
Betsy O’Donovan, the executive director of The Daily Tar Heel, has worked in community newsrooms since 1998, including The Anniston Star, The Idaho State Journal, The (Durham) Herald-Sun, and The Omaha World-Herald, with a four-year detour to ESPN. She was the Reynolds Nieman fellow for community journalism at Harvard in 2013, holds an M.Phil in writing from Trinity College Dublin, and is committed to the idea of journalism as a civic activity. Twitter: @oditor
Cathy Packer is the W. Horace Carter Distinguished Professor in the UNC School of Media and Journalism. She teaches media law and Internet law to undergraduate and graduate students and is co-director of the UNC Center for Media Law and Policy. A former newspaper reporter, she is a co-editor of the North Carolina Media Law Handbook. Packer’s major research interests are access to government information and reporter’s privilege law. She also has written about how law is used to define the power relationships among groups in society. She has worked on free press projects in Albania, Jordan and Russia. Packer earned a Ph.D. and a master’s degree at the University of Minnesota.
Erica Perel (UNC ‘98) is the newsroom adviser of The Daily Tar Heel, where her job is to give student journalists and communicators the tools, resources and training they need to make good decisions and great journalism. Before that she covered crime, traffic, growth and government in 10 years at The Charlotte Observer, with an emphasis on telling community stories. She was editor-in-chief of The Daily Tar Heel in 1997-98.
Courtney Rukan is the deputy multiplatform editing chief at The Washington Post, where she has worked since 1999. She spent 10 years working in sports as a copy editor and the desk chief but moved to features when college athletic conferences stopped making geographical sense. Her stint in features lasted a few months before she was tapped to help create the Post's universal copy desk, of which she has been the deputy for seven years.
Eugene Scott (UNC ‘03) is a reporter for CNN Politics, covering Washington, national politics and identity politics. An online, print and television reporter, Scott's work has appeared in USA Today, the Washington Post, Newsweek and NPR. Scott’s work has been recognized by the National Association of Black Journalists, the Society of Professional Journalists and Gannett Awards of Excellence. He has held journalism fellowships with Columbia University, Vanderbilt University, and the National Press Foundation and received his master's in public administration from Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. Twitter: @Eugene_Scott
Emily Stephenson (UNC ’10) covers the White House for Reuters. She previously was a campaign correspondent and has covered financial regulation, economic policy and retail for Reuters in Washington and Chicago.
Matt Viser (UNC ‘02) is deputy Washington bureau chief for the Boston Globe and was the lead reporter on the Republican field during the 2012 and 2016 presidential campaigns. In 2015, he won the Merriam Smith Memorial Award for deadline reporting. In 2013, he was a finalist for the Livingston Award for Young Journalists, and was part of a team that won the Everett McKinley Dirksen Award for Distinguished Reporting of Congress. Matt is a contributing editor at Town and Country magazine, and regularly appears on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, and NPR. He and his wife, Anne, live in Arlington, Va., with their 6-year-old twins, Benjamin and Abigail.
Peter Wallsten (UNC ’94) is the national politics enterprise and investigations editor for The Washington Post. During the 2016 campaign, Peter oversaw much of The Post’s investigative work examining the backgrounds of the major presidential candidates. Peter edited The Post’s coverage exposing problems inside the Secret Service, which won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for national reporting. Peter joined The Post in 2010 as a White House correspondent and, as a reporter, was a member of the team that won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize public service medal. Peter has covered politics for The Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, the Miami Herald, the Charlotte Observer and the St. Petersburg Times. He was the last editor of The Daily Tar Heel to be elected by a vote of the student body. Peter lives in Washington with his wife Stacey and two sons, Isaac and Theodor.
Jane Wester is the editor-in-chief of The Daily Tar Heel and a senior history major from Charlotte. She has covered sexual assault and the academic-athletic scandal for the DTH, shark attacks and courts for the Charlotte Observer and police and activism for the Austin American-Statesman. She is enjoying her year-long interlude as an occasional editorial writer and columnist at the DTH, but she looks forward to returning to hard news — ideally legal or criminal justice reporting — after graduation.
Ariel Zirulnick (UNC ’10) is the executive editor of The New Tropic, a local media company for Miami’s curious locals that fosters community through journalism and events. Before that, she was a foreign correspondent based in Nairobi and before that, Middle East editor for The Christian Science Monitor. At The Daily Tar Heel, she was editor of the State & National Desk for three semesters, including during the 2008 elections. Twitter: @azirulnick
“Falsehood,” Fisher Ames observed in 1820, “will fly from Maine to Georgia, while truth is pulling her boots on.” In 2017, when information (or misinformation) spreads at the speed of a retweet, journalists have an opportunity and a responsibility to share their standards and ethics.
The Daily Tar Heel created Watchdog Fellowships to support the professional development and inclusion of organizers, civic journalists and students, as well as media professionals, in our training. As 2017 fellow Latria Graham observed, “social justice issues deserve subplots,” and our fellows were selected for their ability to find them. Watchdog Fellows work across a range of communities, subjects and media. Their common quality is their potential to communicate journalism’s standards and to tell complicated stories that help people understand and participate in civic life.
Watchdog Fellowships are available thanks to support from Democracy Fund, a bipartisan foundation that invests in organizations working to ensure our political system is able to withstand new challenges and deliver on its promise to the American people. One of its core issue areas, and the goal for fellows at the conference, is "strengthening media to help people understand and participate in the democratic process."
Victoria Bouloubasis is a journalist, food writer and filmmaker who grew up slurping milkshakes at her grandpa's aluminum-sided Greek diner. She explores identity attached to food and its connection to labor and migration. Her writing has appeared in Guernica, The Guardian and The American Prospect. She is the Food Editor at INDY Week, the Triangle's alt-weekly, where she has been a chief contributor since 2008. Victoria earned a master's degree from the Folklore program in American Studies at UNC-Chapel Hill in 2016. In her fieldwork and research, she visited the hometowns and families of undocumented NC restaurant workers in Mexico. She graduated from UNC's journalism school in 2005, with a focus on news writing and a second B.A. in Spanish.
Chantal Gainous is a recent graduate of Florida A&M University. “As a first generation American, getting my education was of the utmost priority while also retaining my cultural awareness,” Chantal writes. She hopes to emerge from the conference with a new insight on how journalists of color can affect the community and provide a unique and valid perspective on the world around them.
Nick Gallagher, a senior at Appalachian State University with a degree in media broadcasting and journalism and a minor in global studies, plans to pursue his interest in international reporting after graduation. He is specifically interested in communities that are normally left out of traditional media coverage and conversations. “I'm gay,” he writes, “and although I see public figures constantly attacking the rights of people like me, I also recognize that there are certain communities (and subsets of my own community) who are ignored and endangered to an even greater degree by our society. I hope to tell these people's stories.”
Lyndsey Gilpin, a freelance journalist whose work has appeard in FiveThirtyEight, The Atlantic, Outside, Grist and Hakai, knew that she wanted to be a journalist since the age of 11. She holds a master’s degree from Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, where she focused on magazine writing and editing and began reporting on environmental issues. She has covered renewable energy and diversity in the technology industry in Louisville for CBS Interactive, investigated sexual harassment in the National Park Service and reported on things like environmental justice, agriculture, public lands, and drought for High Country News, and now lives in Louisville, Kentucky.
Latria Graham is a journalist, cultural critic, and fifth generation South Carolina farmer. She believes social justice issues deserve subplots, and her work stands at the intersection of food, social justice, sports and culture. She’s written longform pieces about everything from chitlins to NASCAR. She received her MFA in Creative Nonfiction from The New School, and BA in English from Dartmouth College. Her work has been featured in the NYT, LATimes, The Guardian and Elle. You can find more of her work at LatriaGraham.com.
Jasmin Mara Lopez is a journalist and radio producer that works in the southeastern U.S. and Mexico. Born in the U.S. with familial roots in México, her childhood was affected by issues on both sides of the U.S.-México border. This instilled in her a strong passion for immigrant rights, youth empowerment, and social change. In 2007, Jasmin founded Project Luz, which trains and empowers youth to tell stories from within their communities utilizing audio and photojournalism techniques. Her collaborative documentary projects have included coverage of communities affected by the H1N1 Influenza and the disappearance of the Colorado River in Mexico. Jasmin has lead reporting projects that examine issues within the Latinx community, and recently received recognition for her documentary, “Deadly Divide: Migrant Death on the Border.” She is the founder of Listen Up, LA - a growing collective of over 400 radio journalists and producers. Jasmin is a proud recipient of the Society of Professional Journalists' Excellence in Journalism Award, Pacific Media Workers Guild's Freelance Journalism Award, the Association of Independents in Radio New Voices Scholarship, and the Society of Environmental Journalists "Translating Science/Telling Stories" Fellowship.
Lauren Rosier, a 2009 graduate of Pennsylvania State University with a bachelor’s degree in communications, is a copywriter for Hibu by day, music journalist by night with Philly's That Mag and WXPN's The Key. As a Watchdog Fellow, she hopes to learn about networking, investigative journalism and how journalists can evoke change in democracy.
Emily Sides was born in Dallas, Texas, as the daughter of Mexican immigrants. She read about her estranged grandfather in the newspaper when he left behind 200 dogs and has since repaid her debt to journalism by writing obits about other people's grandfathers. She graduated from UT-Austin with a bachelors in multimedia journalism. As an undergrad, she worked as an account executive for Texas Student Media and marketing director for Texas Student Television. Her favorite project was pitching and executing a T-shirt design contest. She interned for Acres USA magazine and the Dallas Mornings News. She was a daily newspaper reporter for the Monitor newspaper on the border of Texas-Mexico where she was able to speak Spanish with sources. She won a statewide award for business reporting for a story about illegal gambling in 2016. She has covered Donald Trump rallies in SC and NC. She has covered local government, crime and international commerce.
Bianca Strzalkowski is a freelance writer and editor. A proud Marine Corps wife of 15 years, she has experience in news reporting, social media management, and content marketing. In 2011, she was named as Armed Forces Insurance’s Military Spouse of the Year for her volunteer work and advocacy within the military community. Because of her volunteerism, the 35th Commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. James Amos, awarded her with a Certificate of Commendation. Bianca has written for various print and online publications to include The Daily News, USA Today, Huffington Post, GI Jobs magazine, Star News, and Military Spouse magazine. Prior to her freelance writing career, Bianca was the deputy director of membership for Blue Star Families and former managing editor of The Onslow Times. She has appeared on Fox News, CNN, and Oprah. Bianca lives in Jacksonville, North Carolina, with her husband and three children. She is an organizational advocate for the American Military Partners Association, chapter lead for In Gear Career’s Camp Lejeune chapter, and adviser for The MilSpo Project.
Holly West (UNC '15) is the assistant features editor at The Daily Reflector in Greenville, North Carolina. She is the editor of two of the newspaper's niche publications: Her, a lifestyle magazine for women, and Mixer, an arts and entertainment magazine for millennials. She previously worked as the Reflector's education reporter for a year and a half. During her time at UNC, Holly wrote for The Daily Tar Heel's city desk and was the city editor in the 2014-15 school year
