What has your life been like since leaving Southeastern? What do you do for a living? And have you married and/or had children?
A handful of us went to a conference in Washington D.C. just before I graduated in fall 1995. At that point I had a job lined up at a paper in Leesville, La., and somehow the topic over our dinner was what I needed to do when I got on the job. Everyone had their own John Wayne-type idea, but Monica Craig leaned over to me and said, ‘You need to go there and make a difference.’ A light bulb went off in my head, and I tried to carry that at every job I had. I worked at papers in Leesville, Hammond, Stephenville, Texas; Natchez, Miss.; and Tulsa, Oklahoma before I boomeranged back to Louisiana in 2018. I am the business editor at The Advocate’s Lafayette office and still trying to find a way to make a difference. I have been married to Shelly for close to 15 years, and we have four children, ages 14 to 7.
What do you remember most about your time at Southeastern and working with student publications?
I remember the tight crew of people we had with student publications and journalism and how it seemed like we had so much in common. None of us were experts in journalism, but we knew what we knew and we tried to close the gap with hard work. We were all trying to get better at whatever we were trying to do. There were the late Wednesday nights that rolled into Thursday mornings, but hanging out with the crew made it bearable. I remember Mr. Vic encouraging me when I made mistakes and praising me when I did well. For someone who wasn’t sure he could do this, his words were so impactful. I also recall spending fall Friday nights on the sidelines of local high school football games after Joe Mirando connected me with the Daily Star when I was a sophomore. I covered high school games until I graduated, and to this day I’m thankful for that opportunity.
Give me your back story. How did you wind up at Southeastern and interested in working with student publications?
Trying to decide on a college after high school was a hard decision. No one in my immediate family had gone to college. There was no one around me who could offer advice. It was my mom who said, ‘Why don’t you try Southeastern?’ The SLU catalog had a major called ‘pre-journalism’ that advised students to eventually transfer to a journalism school. So I figured I would go to SLU only for my freshman year. Then I had Joe Mirando for Journalism 150, and he recommended the liberal-arts journalism major. When I went to see him at the end of my freshman year, he asked me if I was going to transfer. I told him no. It was the right decision.
What would you say is the biggest thing you learned while at Southeastern?
My biggest growth came when I was editor of The Lion’s Roar and my job was to lead people. I learned how to treat people and get them to believe in their abilities but also how to get people excited about an idea. It was the first time I planted an idea with someone and watched it grow. I made a lot of mistakes, and I tried to turn them all into teaching moments. Joe Mirando taught me what’s news and what’s not and how being persistent is important. My time working for the Daily Star taught me to think on my feet, ask thoughtful questions and make deadline.
Southeastern Student Publications Alumni 