100-Year Anniversary Previous Events

Peter Copeland has been a journalist, foreign correspondent, Washington bureau chief and author during a career of more than 40 years.

A former Washington bureau chief for the E.W. Scripps Co., Copeland was the editor and general manager of Scripps Howard News Service, which distributed stories and photos to newspapers and digital media around the world.

He began his career as a night police reporter in Chicago. Copeland covered Latin America for five years based in Mexico City and came to Washington to cover the Pentagon. He covered the U.S. invasion of Panama, the Gulf War and the intervention in Somalia and has reported from dozens of countries on five continents.

Copeland has written, edited and produced stories for newspapers, magazines, television and online. He has published five books. The most recent is a memoir, “Finding the News: Adventures of a Young Reporter.”

Copeland has been a regular visitor to Ohio University as a speaker, guest lecturer and recruiter. He is a member of the Gridiron Club and has been a board member of the National Press Foundation, Scripps Howard Foundation, International Center for Journalists and the Thomas Jefferson Center for Protection of Free Expression. Copeland was on the board of GFR Media, the largest media company in Puerto Rico. He also was a member of the White House Correspondents Association and the American Society of News Editors.

Born in Chicago, Copeland has a degree in government from Lawrence University and studied politics at the University of Exeter in England. He lives in Washington, D.C., and Mexico City with his wife, Maru Montero. They have two grown children.

Twitter: @PeterMCopeland

Jim Heintz is a correspondent for The Associated Press, covering Russia and much of the former Soviet Union since 1999. A San Francisco native, he grew up in Toledo, Ohio, and began his journalism career as a stringer for Toledo public radio station WGTE. Heintz studied print journalism at Ohio University and worked at The Post from 1980-82.

After university, he was a general assignment reporter at The Athens Messenger for two years, then joined The AP at its Columbus bureau in 1984. Heintz transferred to New York City in 1987. In 1996, he was named AP’s Stockholm-based news editor for the Nordic-Baltic region. In Heintz’s career overseas, he has covered events ranging from wars in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq to figure skating. He was in Kyiv, Ukraine, for the outbreak of the conflict with Russia; Heintz returned to Moscow amid heightened security concerns in June 2022. He is a graduate of the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism.

Twitter: @jeheintz

Steve Maschino is a first cousin (twice removed) to Ernie Pyle, a Scripps-Howard Newspapers World War II correspondent. He is also a director of the Ernie Pyle Legacy Foundation, which was established to foster ongoing recognition of the distinct contributions of Pyle, who died April 18, 1945, from a sniper’s bullet at Iejima, an island in the Pacific Theater. Pyle was a nationally syndicated roving correspondent for Scripps-Howard before he volunteered to cover the war. Pyle went ashore on Omaha Beach with American soldiers during the D-Day landing and received a Pulitzer Prize in 1944 for his war correspondence. Pyle wrote about soldiers on the front lines and was considered the G.I.’s best friend. Burgess Meredith portrayed Pyle in the film, “The Story of G.I. Joe.”

Maschino is an environmental and safety manager with 40 years of experience who resides in the Dallas, Texas, area where his daughters and parents live.

The foundation’s recent accomplishments are establishing “Ernie Pyle Remembrance Day” on April 18 to honor Ernie on the day he was killed and “National Ernie Pyle Day” via a resolution of the U.S. Senate on Aug. 3, Ernie’s birthday. Most important is the work being done to honor young journalists through the Ernie Pyle Legacy Award in a partnership with the Scripps Howard Foundation. The award program connects to journalism departments of more than 600 schools and universities.

Will Edwards is a senior investing reporter at Insider based in New York. He has graduate degrees from Ohio University and the University of Leipzig and earned his bachelor's degree at DeSales University.

Edwards is from central Pennsylvania. He has interned and written for Bloomberg News, CNBC, and Bicycling, and has studied or reported in France, Germany and Tunisia.

Edwards primarily covers developments in the stock market, the housing market and the broader economy. He’s interviewed some of the most influential voices in the market, including Rob Arnott, Savita Subramanian, Ken Rogoff, Rick Rieder, Mike Wilson, Cam Harvey, Thomas Peterffy, Jonathan Golub, Keith Parker and more.

Twitter: @w_c_edwards

Meryl Gottlieb was a proud member of The Post and OU Society of Professional Journalists during all four years at OU. As a Postie, she covered the theater beat, built up the culture blog and eventually became editor of the Culture staff. After graduation, Gottlieb joined Insider where she has spent nearly seven years moving through not only different roles but also different departments. After having started as an editorial entertainment intern, Gottlieb led Insider’s social video team for 3 ½ years before transitioning to the business development team in 2020.

She works across editorial, finance, legal, and tech and product to support Insider’s partners including Facebook, Yahoo!, Taboola, Microsoft, YouTube and more. While in school, Gottlieb said, she never could have imagined this career path let alone that she would become a Google Sheets power user. Gottlieb hails from Pittsburgh but now lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her partner and their rescue dog, Arthur.

Twitter: @merylgottlieb

Erik Threet II is a content associate at ESPN. Originally from Rockville, Maryland, he joined ESPN in fall 2018 and has worked on “First Take” (the network’s weekday talk show) since August cutting transitions, promos and other b-roll elements. Other network shows Threet has contributed to are “Get Up!,” “SportsCenter A.M.” and the “Will Cain Show.”

Twitter: @junior_threet

Ethan Sands is a producer in Washington, D.C., working on projects for ESPN. Since graduating from OU, he has written articles for the Los Angeles Times, USA Today Sports and Major League Baseball.

Twitter: @EjElite1

Sandhya Kambhampati is a data reporter on the Los Angeles Times Data Desk, where she covers the demographics and diversity of California and the nation. At the Times, she has reported on COVID, protests and elections. Kambhampati previously worked at The Chronicle of Higher Education, Correctiv and ProPublica Illinois. Her co-reported work on the widespread inaccuracies in Cook County’s property tax assessment system was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for local reporting in 2018.

Kambhampati trains journalists regularly in understanding the Census, statistics, freedom of information laws and data analysis. She graduated from OU as outstanding overall senior. Send her a note: sandhya@latimes.com .

Twitter: @sandhya__k

Taylor Mirfendereski is a two-time Peabody Award-winning investigative reporter at KING 5 in Seattle. She specializes in multimedia journalism, long-form storytelling and digital special projects that combine text, video, photos and graphics. Mirfendereski’s investigations have uncovered many wrongs, including the punishment of foster youth, law enforcement cover-ups and unjustified separations of children from their parents. Her multimedia written narratives about subjects such as racial identity and recidivism showcase some of her greatest strengths: building a deep level of trust with sources, following them over time and capturing compelling, raw details that bring their stories to life.

Mirfendereski’s work has garnered other of the country’s top journalism awards — a Scripps Howard Award and two National Edward R. Murrow Awards. In 2022, she was named a duPont-Columbia Awards finalist and an Investigative Reporters and Editors finalist for her reporting on Washington state’s mistreatment of hard-to-place foster youth. The National Press Photographers Association twice recognized Mirfendereski’s work in its Best of Photojournalism contest, including a first-place award for investigative video photojournalism in 2021. Also that year, she was named an Online Journalism Awards finalist for her multimedia reporting on George Floyd’s biracial cousin.

Mirfendereski has been listed among America's best young journalists as a Livingston Award finalist two times. Before joining the KING 5 team in 2016, she worked as a digital reporter at WCPO in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she exclusively produced in-depth, enterprise news stories for WCPO.com and WCPO-TV. In 2014, Mirfendereski embedded with U.S. military troops in Afghanistan to cover the local impact of America’s longest war. In her free time, Mirfendereski enjoys hiking throughout the Pacific Northwest with her two dogs.

Twitter: @taylormirf

Stephanie Cesear is group director for media strategy and planning at PHD Media. Her experience at Ohio University and Scripps in strategic communications and marketing were crucial to her interviewing process and landing her first job in advertising at Vizeum in New York City.

Since then, Cesear has worked in the advertising industry for nearly a decade, garnering experience across various brands (Proctor & Gamble, Diageo, AMC Networks, Discover Card, Sonos) and media agencies (PHD, Carat, Media Assembly). This background has allowed her to refine her expertise in the media landscape, specifically digital and social media, and build a strong network of connections in the industry. What Cesear loves most about her job is the people and collaborative environment as well as the challenges of creative problem solving and innovation.

She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband and dog where she seeks out new restaurants and cuisines and plays on an intramural softball team. Cesear also volunteers her time locally, cleaning up and gardening local parks, revitalizing schools in need and leading the Metro NY Bobcat alumni networking group. When not in the city, she enjoys escaping to the great outdoors for some hiking, camping and scuba diving.

Ashley Osborne leads marketing and brand partnerships for Hyype Space, a destination for video challenges where people can have fun and celebrate the spirit of competition in a digital community that is positive and upbeat. She is a two-time graduate of Ohio University with a bachelor's in journalism and a master's in community dance. While still at OU, Ashley founded Amplified Communication, a creative and branding firm. Her New York experience includes social media for the Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival, part of the entrepreneurship team for Dreamit Ventures and paid media account coordinator at Cohn & Wolfe. She worked as a copywriter at The Marcus Graham Project in Dallas before moving to the West Coast. In Los Angeles, Ashley has produced and managed social media content and/or marketing at Resolution Media, Talk to Jess, The Oprah Winfrey Network, IMAX and Think Jam. During her time in L.A., she also founded and managed her own photography firm, Ayeoh Studio. Ashley is also a dance movement artist and teacher at Embodied by AEO.

Zainab Kandeh is a People and Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEI&B) leader who finds purpose in guiding people and companies to use tools and resources to maximize their potential and value. With experience at two Fortune 10 companies, she has leveraged her expertise to create business value, drive efficiency and collaborate effectively all while remaining a strategic business partner and employee advocate. Through previous roles as a human resources manager, talent strategist, communications adviser and now as a senior program manager at Amazon, Kandeh seeks to always foster inclusive spaces and experiences to best develop high performing teams and leaders.

She holds a Master of Human Resource Management from The Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University and is a proud “Scripps Kid” and Bobcat.

Twitter: @ SAYITLIKE_ZYNUB

Michelle Mwaura brings more than five years of public relations industry experience to her hybrid digital/client experience role with a passion for health care communications and a love of

all things social/digital. Her background includes working alongside clients across all sectors of the health care space.

As the day-to-day digital account lead across three biotech companies, Mwaura’s role involves the development of strategic plans to help guide the implementation of various digital initiatives for each brand’s corporate and executive social media channels. Some of these initiatives include executive and brand corporate reputation management plus integrated digital campaigns for major disease awareness milestones and medical meetings. At an agency level, she helps lead the dna Communications internship program, DEI Educational Exchange program, and agency social media strategy and implementation.

In her spare time, Mwaura can be found hanging out with her one-eyed cat, Lily, or, when the weather is nice, taking in the views at Domino Park in Brooklyn, New York.

Twitter: @mmichee7

Meg Omecene is a senior corporate communications manager at Visa focusing on risk and security. She spends her days developing media strategies and thought-leadership campaigns about how Visa helps keep their clients’ money safe.

Before Visa, Omecene led communications for the Miss Universe and Miss USA brands, which took her everywhere from leading a press event at the Dead Sea to spearheading a vaccine initiative in Mississippi. She previously worked on the agency side at Endeavor Global Marketing / 160over90, working on brands including Bumble, McDonalds and Microsoft.

Outside work, Omecene loves to swim, hike and read. She is on the advisory council of Smile Train International, the world’s largest organization focused on cleft care. At OU, she was an events manager for Campus Recreation, was the campaign director for NSAC and worked in communications for the IT department. Originally from Pittsburgh, Omecene now lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Twitter: @megomecene

Regina Donizetti is a two-time Emmy-winning TV news producer and writer in New York City. Her resume includes NBC’s “Today Show,” ABC’s “Good Morning America,” MSNBC, CNN and “Dick Clark’s New Year's Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest.” She produces live interviews and coverage of major national and global stories. Donizetti was most recently recognized by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences with a News and Documentary Emmy nomination for her work on a live prime time special honoring COVID-19 victims.

Twitter: @reginadonizetti

Tyler Rosten brings experience from the University of Mississippi, NFL Films and Saatchi & Saatchi X. While at OU, he was a member of WOUB working on “Gridiron Glory” and producing the “Bobcat Sports Showcase” along with contributing at WATH radio station as a board operator and radio host.

Rosten then moved to the University of Mississippi, eventually rising to the role of producer/director. Over four years, the Ole Miss Sports Production department won eight Southeast Regional Emmys. Through his experience at Ole Miss, Rosten joined NFL Films as a ground cinematographer and just finished his fifth season on the sidelines. While maintaining his work with NFL Films, Rosten transitioned to the shopper marketing world and is the associate director of eContent for Saatchi & Saatchi X, working with CPG companies such as Proctor & Gamble and retailers such as Walmart and Amazon. He primarily consults on best practices and shopping principles for product detail pages on eRetailer sites.

Twitter: @tylerrosten5

Alejandro Figueroa covers food insecurity and the business of food for WYSO through Report for America — a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms. He particularly covers the lack of access to healthy and affordable food in Southwest Ohio communities, and what local government and nonprofits are doing to address it. Figueroa also covers rural and urban farming.

While a student at OU, he reported for The New Political, a student-run publication focused on politics and government. Figueroa’s reporting has been featured on NPR, The GroundTruth Project and the Ohio Newsroom.

Twitter: @ALEJANDRO_RFIG

Liam Niemeyer is a reporter for the Kentucky Lantern, a nonprofit newsroom that's part of the States Newsroom network of outlets covering statehouses across the country. He reports on environmental and energy issues and other policies that Kentucky lawmakers consider. Niemeyer has reported in Kentucky for more than four years, having previously worked as assistant news director for WKMS Public Radio in western Kentucky and as a reporter for the Ohio Valley ReSource. His reporting in the state has ranged from covering the aftermath of a catastrophic tornado outbreak to the boom and bust of the hemp industry. Niemeyer has a passion for audio storytelling and public media, having worked as a student radio reporter at WOUB Public Media during his time at Ohio University. He graduated with a journalism degree from the Honors Tutorial College.

Twitter: @liamniemeyer

Kyle Wiggers is a senior reporter at TechCrunch with a special interest in artificial intelligence. His writing has appeared in VentureBeat and Digital Trends, as well as a range of gadget blogs including Android Police, Android Authority, Droid-Life and XDA-Developers. Wiggers lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his partner — a piano educator — and dabbles in piano himself occasionally — if mostly unsuccessfully.

Twitter: @Kyle_L_Wiggers

Heather Willard is a public safety journalist working in south Denver. She is with NewsBreak Originals Denver where she began in March 2022. Willard seeks to use new standards in public safety journalism to increase accountability from law enforcement agencies that have repeated “officer-involved shootings,” or use of force involving a civilian.

She spent her early career in newspapers where she largely focused on courts, crime, public safety and the changing social justice landscape of each area. During Willard’s tenure at The Athens Messenger, she served as interim editor for several months before accepting the role of assistant editor. In 2021, Willard began as a politics reporter for the Pueblo (Colorado) Chieftain before changing beats to public safety. She also was elected the 2021 Pueblo News Guild Chair, a part of the Denver News Guild.

Willard studied in the news and information track of the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism. She previously graduated with two associate degrees, summa cum laude, from Cuyahoga Community College at age 17.

Twitter: @HeatherDWrites

Scilla Alecci is an investigative reporter and video journalist for the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. She is also partnership coordinator for Asia and Europe. A native of Italy, before coming to the U.S., Alecci was based in Tokyo where she worked for Bloomberg News and other news organizations. In 2016, Alecci was a member of the Japanese reporting team that took part in the Pulitzer Prize-winning Panama Papers investigation.

Her work has been published by The New York Times, the Huffington Post, the Japanese magazine Shukan Asahi and others. Alecci holds master's degrees in East Asian studies and journalism and has published a book in Japanese about the Panama Papers and the new frontiers of investigative journalism. In addition to being a reporter with ICIJ, she was invited to become an ICIJ member in 2017.

Ziva Branstetter has been a senior editor at ProPublica since March 2022, supervising a team of national investigative reporters. She previously served as corporate accountability editor at The Washington Post and led projects there including the Post’s award-winning Pandora Papers collaboration with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. Branstetter was an editor at Reveal and co-founded The Frontier, an investigative newsroom in Oklahoma. Before that, she spent more than 20 years as a reporter and editor at the Tulsa World.

Branstetter has reported and edited investigations that resulted in the indictment of a seven-term sheriff, the dismissal of an entire state board, criminal charges against a state lawmaker, exonerations of wrongfully convicted people and new laws to prevent labor abuses and offshore tax evasion. Her investigation into Oklahoma’s flawed death penalty process was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2015. Work she has edited has also received awards from IRE, the Overseas Press Club, Scripps Howard and the White House Correspondents’ Association. Branstetter served three terms on the board of Investigative Reporters and Editors Inc. She and her husband, who live in Oklahoma, have two adult sons and one grandson.

Debbie Cenziper is an investigative reporter at ProPublica who spent more than a decade on the investigative team at The Washington Post. She joined the Post’s investigative staff in 2007 after spending nearly 15 years at the Miami Herald and the Charlotte Observer. Cenziper received the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting for her year-long investigation of housing corruption in Miami, which led to the convictions of several developers and to a federal takeover of the Miami-Dade County housing agency.

In 2006, she was named a Pulitzer finalist in explanatory reporting for her series exposing breakdowns in the nation’s hurricane warning system. At the Post, she has reported on local nonprofit groups that failed to provide services for people with AIDS and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's troubled housing-construction program for the poor, which led to changes in federal law. Other honors and awards include: American Society of Newspaper Editors, local accountability award, 2014; Robert F. Kennedy Award for Human Rights, 2014; Harvard University's Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting, grand prize, 2009; Heywood Broun award for substantial distinction, 2009; George Polk Award for Metropolitan Reporting, 2008; Sigma Delta Chi award for investigative reporting, 2007; Harry Chapin award for reporting on hunger and poverty; Investigative Reporters and Editors Award, winner, 2004; Florida Society of Newspaper Editors, gold medal for public service, 2005, 2006, 2007; and Investigative Reporters and Editors, book award finalist, 2019.

Cenziper grew up in Philadelphia and graduated from the University of Florida in 1992 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism. She is the author of two nonfiction books: “Love Wins: The Lovers and Lawyers Who Fought the Landmark Case for Marriage Equality" (William Morrow, 2016) and "Citizen 865: The Hunt for Hitler's Hidden Soldiers in America" (Hachette, 2019). She teaches investigative reporting at Northwestern University and is a member of Investigative Reporters and Editors.

Will Fitzgibbon is a senior reporter for the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. He is also ICIJ's Africa and Middle East partnership coordinator. Fitzgibbon joined ICIJ in 2014 and coordinated the Fatal Extraction investigation that examined the impact of Australian mining companies in Africa. It remains one of the largest pan-African collaborations of journalists. He has reported on ICIJ projects about West Africa Leaks, Paradise Papers and Panama Papers.

Before coming to Washington, Fitzgibbon worked at The Bureau of Investigative Journalism in London where his work on politics, the finance industry and housing appeared in The Guardian and The Observer. He studied at the London School of Economics, Sciences-Po Paris and The Australian National University.