February 2014

Jeff Hickman (1996) named Oklahoma's new Speaker of the House

Oklahoma Speaker of the House Jeff Hickman

Jeff Hickman was named Speaker of the House for the Oklahoma Legislature on Monday, Feb. 10.

A 1996 graduate, Hickman was a broadcast news major who graduated with distinction, was a Letzeiser Award recipient and a member of Crimson Club and the President's Leadership Class.

Following graduation, Hickman was Press Secretary to President David L. Boren and Vice President of Omni Media Group in Woodward.

A farmer from northwest Oklahoma, Hickman represents District 58 (Rep.) which includes Alfalfa, Major, Woods and Woodward counties.

Read Hickman's full profile on the Oklahoma House website.

Anna Maria Restuccia values freedom
found while studying journalism, PR

Discover OU: Anna Maria Restuccia

Not supported by the government in Venezuela, Anna Maria Restuccia came to the University of Oklahoma to be free, uncensored and to pursue her dream of studying journalism.

Restuccia, a public relations and journalism junior, is an anchor on the award-winning OU Nightly newscast and is a spanish-language anchor for Tyler Media, the Oklahoma City Telemundo and Univision affiliate. She is also an account planner with the Lindsey and Asp student-run advertising and public relations agency, a member of the Gaylord Ambassadors and the PRSSA and has had internships at The Richards Group in Dallas and Diario El Universal, the largest newspaper in Venezuela.

Watch her extraordinary story.
Connect with Anna on LinkedIn.

Bill Hancock (1972) shares his Olympic adventures with The Oklahoman

Bill Hancock

OU Journalism grad and Gaylord College Board of Visitors member, Bill Hancock (1972), is spending his winter in Sochi, Russia at the Winter Olympics.

Hancock, executive director of the College Football Playoff, has volunteered his time at the past three Winter Olympics and several Summer Olympics, according to a blog post on
The Daily Fix on WSJ.com.

Hancock is sharing casual stories of the adventures he and his wife, Nicki, are enjoying with friends and family. Among them are Berry Trammel, sports writer for The Oklahoman, who is sharing the stories on his blog at newsok.com.

Follow Bill's Olympic adventures on Berry Trammel's blog at newsok.com.

Young alumn, Baxter Holmes (2009),
receives two top awards from the
Professional Basketball Writers Association

Baxter Holmes

Baxter Holmes, a 2009 journalism grad, received two of the three first place awards given in the Professional Basketball Writers Association Best Writing contest.

Holmes took first place in the Game Story category and the Features category.

Holmes is a staff writer with
The Boston Globe covering the Boston Celtics and was previously a sports reporter with the Los Angeles Times.

Holmes has also earned Associated Press Sports Editor top ten honors two times - once while an intern at the Salt Lake Tribune and once while at the Los Angeles Times.

While a student Holmes wrote for the OU Daily, served as a Gaylord Ambassador, was a Scripps-Howard Top 10 Scholar and was a McMahon and Henderson Scholar.

Read more about the PBWA awards here.
Follow Holmes on Twitter @BaxterHolmes or connect with him on LinkedIn.

Sooners on the Road

Three of the six students participating in this year's "Sooners on the Road" campaign are public relations majors or have public relations as a double major. Matt Epting, Jessica Freeman and Jake Pasdach

Matt Epting, Jessica Freeman and Jake Pasdach were chosen as part of a group six of the best and brightest students at OU to travel with the Alumni Association and bring a bit of campus to alumni and friends who are at greater distances from campus. The group will travel across the Southwest during Spring Break.

The group's first stop will be in Tucson where they will be welcomed by the OU Club of Southern Arizona (Tucson) that is led by 1967 journalism alumna, Linda Johnson.

The full schedule is as follows:

Sunday, March 16 - Phoenix/Tucson
Monday, March 17 - Travel from Phoenix to San Diego
Tuesday, March 18 - San Diego, travel to Las Vegas
Wednesday, March 19 - Las Vegas
Thursday, March 20 - Return to OKC in evening

Connect with the students on LinkedIn:
Matt Epting, Jessica Freeman, Jake Pasdach

Special "Reflections in the Round" session from the OU Journalism Centennial available on YouTube

One of the most memorable events of our Journalism Centennial last fall was the "Reflections in the Round" session. During this hour-long session alumni where given the opportunity to share special memories of OU, the OU Daily, their favorite journalism faculty and their peers and careers.

Settle in and get comfortable and watch the full video on our Gaylord College YouTube channel. Click here or the image below to watch.

Reflections in the Round - OU Journalism Centennial

Bill Moore (left) and Andy Rieger enjoy stories
shared at the Reflections in the Round
session during the OU Journalism Centennial

Centennial History book is still available as hard-bound book and iBook format

Get your copy of the Centennial book

The Centennial history book is available as both a hard-bound coffee-table book and as an iBook. The printed book can be purchased from the Gaylord College storefront and the iBook is available for download from the iTunes bookstore.

Cost for the hard-bound book is $32 including tax and shipping. The iBook is $9.99 and includes video interviews with the authors and video profiles of the JayMac Distinguished Alumni from 2007 to current.

Volume: 7 � Issue: 1