Moody excellence
Moody College faculty, students and alumni take home A-list awards
Texas Speech clinches top prize once again
This year, the Department of Communication Studies’ Texas Speech team won the national championship at the 2024 American Forensic Association National Speech Tournament, the third consecutive year they’ve taken home this title. The team amassed a final total of 538 points to outpace an exceptional field that included George Mason University, which was second with 356 points.
Texas Exes’ Outstanding Young Alumni include two Moody alums
The Outstanding Young Texas Ex Awards were created by the Texas Exes in 1979 to recognize the achievements of alumni 39 and younger who have made significant achievements in their careers, community and service to The University of Texas at Austin. In 2023, the Texas Exes recognized two Moody alums: mega movie star Glen Powell, who studied radio-television-film before heading to Hollywood to pursue acting, and Kovid Gupta, a film producer, writer and social activist who has worked with India’s most successful studios.
Dan Rather Medals for News and Guts
Every year, the School of Journalism and Media awards the Dan Rather Medals for News and Guts to reporters who go the extra mile to hold people and institutions accountable. This year, the school recognized 17 reporters for their work. The professional prize went to a team of reporters from Bloomberg News that included Michael Riley, David Kocieniewski, Monte Reel, Jessica Brice, Eric Fan, Michael Smith, Natalie Obiko Pearson, Chris Cannon and Henry Baker for “How the US drives gun exports and fuels violence around the world,” a series that revealed the role Republican and Democratic administrations played in boosting the export of U.S.-made guns. The first place student prize went to Theo Baker, a reporter at The Stanford Daily, for a series of articles about former Stanford President Marc Tessier-Lavigne, who resigned after an investigation found that he oversaw labs that manipulated research data. A team from The Daily Northwestern that included Nicole Markus, Alyce Brown, Cole Reynolds and Divya Bhardwaj won second prize for its coverage of hazing accusations against the football team that included reports of sexual misconduct. Third place went to Caitlyn Yaede, Carson Elm-Picard and Emmy Martin of The Daily Tar Heel for a front page that featured the raw text messages that students sent and received as they hid in lockdown during a fatal shooting on campus.
Moody College Staff Impact Award winners
The Staff Impact Award recognizes staff members who go above and beyond their regular duties to make a significant impact at Moody.
Christie Hodge
Director of Graduate Programs
Susanne Kraft
Post Production Specialist
Jeff Bachschmid
Facilities Manager
Lizzie Chen
Assistant Director of Digital Media
Outstanding faculty achievements
Andrew Shea and Cindy McCreery’s film “I’ll Be There” won the Texas Independent Feature award at the 2023 Austin Film Festival. Buffalo8 will begin distributing the film this fall.
Anthony Dudo was named an American Association for the Advancement of Science fellow.
Arturo R. Jiménez’s short documentary “Sangre Violenta / Sangre Violeta,” which he co-directed with Moody alum Edna Diaz, premiered at the 2024 South by Southwest Film Festival and won the Audience Award for the Texas Shorts category.
Craig Scott was named a 2023 International Communication Association fellow.
Deepak Chetty was invited to join the Visual Effects Society, a global, invite-only organization of VFX professionals.
Erin Reilly was named one of the Top Women Leaders of Austin for 2024 by Women We Admire.
Keri Stephens was named a 2024 International Communication Association fellow.
PJ Raval was named a United States Artist Fellow. His documentary, “Who We Become,” was picked up by Ava Duvernay’s distributor, Array Releasing, and released on Netflix.
Sam Shorey was appointed to the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence AI100 Study Panel.
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