Three communications industry stalwarts -- two of them Penn State alumni and the third a Pennsylvania broadcasting icon -- with more than 140 years in the industry were honored with awards recognizing their accomplishments during an annual event coordinated by the College of Communications Alumni Society Board.
Penn State alumnae Mimi Barash Coppersmith, a State College-based publishing and advertising entrepreneur, and Jayne Miller, a veteran investigative journalist for WBAL-TV in Baltimore, were honored for their professional accomplishments and contributions to Penn State. Coppersmith, a 1953 journalism graduate, received the Alumni Achievement Award, while Miller, a 1976 journalism graduate, received the Outstanding Alumni Award.
Jim Gardner, news anchor at WPVI-TV in Philadelphia since 1976, received the Anderson Communications Contributor Award, presented by the Alumni Society Board to acknowledge the contributions and/or achievements of an individual in the field of communications as they relate to the College of Communications, Penn State and/or the Commonwealth. Gardner is a 1970 graduate of Columbia.
Arianna Davis, a 2009 journalism graduate, was the recipient of the board’s Emerging Professional Award, and John Affleck, a Penn State faculty member and the Knight Chair in Sports Journalism and Society, received the Excellence in Teaching Award. Davis is a staff editor at US Weekly and previously was an editor at O, The Oprah Magazine. After 22 years at The Associated Press, Affleck came to Penn State in 2013 and is the director of the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism.
The award recipients were recognized at a luncheon at the Nittany Lion Inn on Oct. 5. Here's more information about each of the winners:
John AffleckSince joining the faculty, Affleck has focused on giving students a classroom experience that will prepare them to step right into a newsroom and perform well. He does this by providing attentive editing, practical tips, on-campus reporting assignments and an accent on working with the latest storytelling tools.
At The Associated Press, Affleck served as a reporter, editor and national manager, working regularly with all of the organization’s major editorial departments. In his final role before joining the University faculty, he helped manage day-to-day operations for the roughly 70-member domestic sports team. He also directed coverage of the Lance Armstrong saga, ran the sports department’s enterprise work and coordinated efforts with the news department as the Jerry Sandusky case unfolded.
Mimi Barash CoppersmithA former Grand National Collegiate Debating Champion, she has served her alma mater in myriad roles in the arts, athletics, communications and development. She was first woman chair of the Board of Trustees and the driving force of the Lady Lion Pink Zone Game. She has been accorded countless honors by Penn State, including Alumni Fellow, Distinguished Alumna, Lion’s Paw medalist, Renaissance Scholarship Fund honoree and Alumni Trustee Emerita.
She founded Town&Gown magazine, the monthly voice of the Penn State-State College community since 1966. For decades, she owned Morgan Signs, a regional outdoor advertising company, and was president and chairman of The Barash Group, a diverse and influential advertising and publishing firm that she founded in 1959 with her late husband, Sy Barash.
Arianna DavisAfter six years at O, The Oprah Magazine, Davis recently started a new job at US Weekly, where she’s in charge of the magazine’s Hot Hollywood section.
Davis began her career as a Dow Jones Newspaper Fund intern at the New York Daily News, then moved to O as a full-time editorial intern. She was an assistant to Gayle King, co-host of “CBS This Morning,” and advanced to associate editor of the magazine. She has freelanced for a variety of publications, including New York Magazine, Pop Sugar, Refinery29 and Cosmopolitan for Latinas.
Jim GardnerGardner has helped guide viewers of Action News through every news event, large and small, since 1976. He joined WPVI-TV in Philadelphia in 1976 as a reporter and anchor of the Noon News. He became the station’s 5:30 p.m. news anchor in November 1976. He has covered every Democratic and Republican political convention since 1980, and has interviewed every President and nearly every major Presidential candidate since 1976.
Gardner graduated from Columbia University in 1970, majoring in broadcasting. His son Josh is a 2010 Penn State graduate in the College of Communications and currently works at NBC Sports.
Jayne MillerMiller started her career in journalism with the Pennsylvania Mirror in State College. Her first job in television was with WHP in Harrisburg in 1976. She has been a reporter with the WBAL for more than 30 years -- first as a general assignment reporter, then as the Consumer Advocate with “11 on Your Side” and now as the chief investigative reporter with the 11 Investigates I-Team. In 2012, she received a national Edward R. Murrow award for her investigative work about Maryland’s Judiciary.
Three scholarships at Penn State are sponsored through the philanthropic efforts of Miller and her family, including the Minority Journalism Scholarship in the College of Communications.