Alumni are urged to send in several graphs about their career(s) to share with their classmates. Submissions should include the person’s degree (BA, BS, MA, MS, etc.) and the year it was received. Please send your news electronically to <hw.norton@gmail.com>.
Susana Bellido Cummings (BA 85) went to work for the Hattiesburg American, then transferred to Florida Today and met Robert, an artist on a sailboat who later became her husband. She wrote for the Miami Herald in both English and Spanish for about a decade, the last few years in its Florida Keys bureau. There, in addition to covering local news and staying busy with the rafters that came to shore, she went on assignment to Cuba and other spots throughout Latin America, including her native Peru. Then came along Lucas and Leah, now 13 and 11, and lots of juggling. She left the Herald and started freelancing and translating, first with dot coms. And after the bubble burst, she landed the White House account, along with several other federal government agencies and publications. Since 2001, her company, Keynotes Translations and Editorial Services, has translated the president’s speeches, fact sheets and releases to Spanish-language media, among other projects. Cummings still writes a magazine piece here and there. In 2006, after one hurricane too many, she and her family moved to New Hampshire. They live in Hollis, a small town full of red barns, picket fences and apple orchards, about 45 minutes from Boston.
Sonny Rhodes (MA 81) is an associate professor of journalism at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. He joined the UALR faculty in 2000 after a roughly 25-year career as a newspaper reporter and editor. He received the Faculty Excellence Award in Teaching in UALR’s College of Professional Studies in 2008. Besides teaching, Rhodes writes a general interest column for AY, a Little Rock-based monthly magazine. Rhodes lives in North Little Rock with his wife, Julie, and their daughter, Abby.
Ashley Strange (BA 06) is a public relations account executive at the Cirlot Agency in Jackson, Miss. During the last three years, she has been a news producer at WJTV News, Channel 12, in Jackson, Miss. In 2008, she produced two live 2008 presidential debate specials on the day before and the day of the debate in Oxford. Her career highlights also include covering the civil rights cold-case trial and conviction of James Ford Seale, covering the capital city’s late mayor’s three criminal trials and producing 24-hour coverage of Hurricane Gustav. Also during her time at WJTV, she produced the 2009 Children’s Miracle Network Telethon and the Blair E. Batson Children’s Hospital 2009 Miracle Home giveaway. A native of Pascagoula, she graduated magna cum laude from The University of Mississippi with degrees in broadcast journalism and English and an emphasis in public relations. The Cirlot Agency is a full-service corporate communications firm, providing strategic branding, marketing, public relations and advertising solutions.
Julie Ward (BA 08) joined Style Advertising in September 2008 as public relations director. She has public relations experience in agency, corporate and nonprofit environments. Originally from Virginia, Ward graduated cum laude from The University of Mississippi with a bachelor’s degree in journalism with an emphasis in public relations and a minor in Spanish. Ward maintains active professional memberships in the Public Relations Council of Alabama, Public Relations Society of America and the Southern Public Relations Federation. She serves as the current chair of the Junior Board of Magic Moments, an Alabama-based wish-granting organization. She also is an integral member of the communications committees of the Rotaract Club of Birmingham and the Birmingham chapter of Friends of St. Jude. In addition to her various community positions, Ward volunteers as a Magic Maker, granting wishes for Alabama children whose childhoods have been interrupted by life-threatening and life-altering medical conditions. The Public Relations Association of Mississippi recognized her work for the Oxford-Lafayette County Chamber of Commerce with a PRism Award, the highest honor awarded to public relations professionals in Mississippi. She also was a contributing writer to The Oxford Eagle, Invitation Oxford, The Daily Mississippian and The Ole Miss.