alumni profiles

Alumni Honors

		Jane Hames, PR 1982, has been named president-elect of the Florida Citrus Sports Association (FCSA) and will move up to president in 2002-2003. The association produces the Florida Citrus Bowl and other sporting events in Orlando. She is president of Embassy Consultants Inc. and is the first woman to hold the FCSA office. The Bowl is the fifth largest football bowl game in America. Her daughter, Lauren Hames, PR 1999, is a communications assistant in the office of Orlando Mayor Glenda E. Hood.

Dan Dalesandro, ADV 1993, a third-year law student at Florida State University, has won first place and best brief in the Robert Orseck Memorial Moot Court Competition hosted by the Florida Bar Association this summer. He argued the final round before the justices of the Florida Supreme Court. He will graduate in December.

Dalesandro and his wife, Jaime, live in Tallahassee.

Amy Anderson Gross, JM 1994, won a second place award in PRWEEK’s National Non-Profit PR Team of the Year competition for the second year in a row (2000, 2001). She was director of public relations for The Children’s Museum of Houston until recently when she resigned to prepare for the birth of her first child this fall.

Jack Hebert, ADV 1974, was honored by the Fourth District (Florida and the Caribbean) American Advertising Federation with the Jack Philipps Gold Medal Award for public service. The award recognizes “a person who has made outstanding contributions in furthering the industry’s standards, creative excellence and responsibility in the areas of social concern” and was presented at the annual conference in Orlando. Hebert has run his own agency, The Mallard Group, in Clearwater since 1994. He works primarily with political campaigns and trade associations. The late Mr. Philipps was a charter member of the UF Advertising Advisory Council and AAF treasurer at the time of his death.

Jon Kiger, ADV 1985, received the Florida Magazine Association’s 2001 Advertising Director of the Year award earlier this year. He is advertising director for Golfweek’s Superintendent News, a publication for the nation’s 16,000 golf course superintendents. Kiger, his wife, Elaine, and their two sons—Jonathan, 7, and David, 5—live in Dunwoody, Ga.

Jim Leusner, JM 1977, is a co-winner (with Robert Sargent, Ramsey Campbell and Sean Holton) of the 2001 Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism for “Government Inc.,” their series of articles in The Orlando Sentinel examining how a little-known Florida law allowed private developers to profit at the expense of homeowners. They investigated special taxing districts created for and subsidized by an unusual kind of development bond. They won in the medium newspaper category. Leusner has been a reporter for the Sentinel for 22 years and is currently assigned to special projects.

	Milagros Rivera-Sanchez on recent research trip to Machu Picchu in Peru

Milagros Rivera-Sanchez, MA 1987, PhD 1993, received a Fulbright Scholar grant to teach and conduct research in Chile earlier this year. She was a visiting professor at the Catholic University Center for Media Studies in Santiago. She studied policy-making in the telecommunications sector and lectured on broadband regulation, online privacy and Internet regulation.

She is associate professor of telecommunications at Indiana University-Bloomington. The Puerto Rico native reported that Indiana completed its third-coldest winter in history just as she was leaving for Chile (where the temperatures were in the 30s most of the time).

Rivera-Sanchez said, “Chileans use a lot of slang, and I had to buy a book to understand it! For the most part we use the same type of Spanish, but once they get into the slang mode they may as well be speaking French or Greek.”

Rivera-Sanchez was on the UF faculty from 1993-1999.

Lynne Sallot, PhD 1993, has been honored with the 2001 Roland Page Award at the University of Georgia. The award is by vote of students of the Graduate Caucus in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. The award goes to the individual who exemplifies the high standards of teaching and concern for students.

Cindy Canning Smith, TEL 1961, received the Harling Award for her six years of service on the Gainesville City Beautification Board. She served two years as chair and two years as vice chair.

J. Donald Turk, ADV 1968, PR 1972, has been selected for the PRSA College of Fellows. Turk is southeast public affairs manager for Exxon Mobil Corp. and is based in Fairfax, Va. He is the fourth alumnus of the College to be named a Fellow and has served on the UF Public Relations Advisory Council.

Terry Biehl Van Nortwick, PR 1970, MA 1977, was honored by the Girl Scouts of Gateway Council as one of the “Women Who Make A Difference.” Van Nortwick is founder and president of Pro Ink, an advertising, marketing, public relations and interactive design company in Gainesville. She has served on the Public Relations Advisory Council and as an adjunct lecturer in the College.

In the Spring 2001 communigator, the listing of College alumni who are judges proved to be incomplete. Two other judges have stepped forward. They are:

The Hon. Ronald N. Ficarotta, ADV 1979, a circuit judge for the 13th Judicial Circuit in Tampa.

The Hon. Louis H. Schiff, PR 1979, a county court judge for the 17th Judicial Circuit in Deerfield Beach. He has been on the bench since 1997.