What has your life been like since leaving Southeastern? What do you do for a living? And have you married and/or had children?
I went into journalism immediately and am still working as a full-time journalist today. Spent 25 years working at newspapers, including a 14-year-stint at The Advocate in Baton Rouge. Left there to become an editor at my last paper, The Clarion Ledger in Jackson, Mississippi. In 2020, I left newspapers for good to become the editor of a monthly magazine, Today in Mississippi. It has the largest print circulation in the state at just under 500,000. I’ve been married to my wife, Nisey, for 21 years. We have a 20-year-old daughter, Audrey, who is a junior at Wofford College in Spartanburg, S.C.
What do you remember most about your time at Southeastern and working with student publications?
Making great friends, learning all about journalism and getting to fully practice the craft. Writing, reporting, editing — all of it. Also, Joe Mirando’s guidance and support were key factors in following through on my career choice. It wasn’t just about what he taught me in the classroom. Although it was never an official thing, he was a mentor. He persuaded me to take on challenges and projects I would have never done on my own. (Run for president of the SLU Press Club? Really?)
Give me your back story. How did you wind up at Southeastern and interested in working with student publications?
After an academically disastrous year at USL in Lafayette, I wound up joining the U.S. Navy. One of the best decisions I ever made. I was stationed on an aircraft carrier. I got to see the world and participate in the first few months of Operation Desert Storm. During my time at sea, I decided to turn my love of reading into a job. That’s when I decided to become a journalist. When I started at SLU in the spring semester of 1991, I walked to the student publications offices on my first day and asked them what I needed to do to work on the campus newspaper. And that was that.
What would you say is the biggest thing you learned while at Southeastern?
I learned to work with all kinds of different folks on a common goal. Also, I learned how to fail. And then try again.
Southeastern Student Publications Alumni 