Welcome SISPA participants. Here are the bios of students and professors who have made themselves available to speak to you one-on-one about your future and the SIU School of Journalism and Advertising. Please read through and select who you’d like to talk. There is a place on the Google form you came from to mark your preference.

Hello! My name is Mikaylan Roach and I am a senior at SIU. I am studying Journalism with a specialization in Advertising and a minor in English with a focus on Creative Writing. I am the President of Saluki AdLab, an on-campus student run advertising agency, and I also have an internship in marketing at a local health care facility. I look forward to meeting you!

Hello, I’m Oreoluwa (Ore) Ojewuyi, a fifth year at SIU studying political science and journalism with a minor in French. I began working at the Daily Egyptian newspaper in the fall of 2020 as a staff reporter. In May of 2021 , I became the Editor-in-Chief. Outside of SIU, I’ve been an active part of the Carbondale community: organizing protests, creating community actions to counter police brutality and racism in the area. My area of interests include the environment, politics and human rights activism.

Hello all! My name is William and I’m a non-traditional student in the Journalism program at SIU. I’m also the News Desk Editor for the Daily Egyptian, our student-run newspaper, and a member of our school chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ). I love being able to talk to and meet new people and I get to do that and get plenty of working experience. I feel there’s a major communication issue in our society today that stems from a lack of media literacy and self-imposed barriers of communication and we need journalists to break down those walls and bring people together!

I am Slaten Swords. I am originally from Ottawa, Illinois. I am currently a senior in my last semester of classes, majoring in Radio, Television, and Digital Media with a specialization in electronic sports media including a minor in Mathematics. In my time here at SIUC, I have volunteered for dozens of ESPN productions for a variety of sports, been Vice-President for the SIU chapter of Engineers Without Borders and working at River Region for 2 years. In the past year I joined the Executive Committee of River Region working as both the Assignment Editor and Managing Editor.

Hi! My name is Samantha Corcoran and I am a senior at SIU. I am studying Journalism with a specialization in Advertising and a minor in Psychology. I am the Treasurer of Saluki AdLab, SIU’s student run ad agency. I am interested in writing advertisements for various companies. I’d love to chat!

Hi, my name is Janiyah Gaston. I am a sophomore at SIUC. I am a communications major and a political science minor. I have worked at the Daily Egyptian for almost a year now. I am the assistant to the editors board and my job entails helping the editors out with certain tasks, such as checking in on the status of reporters stories, making sure stories get uploaded to the website, and helping reporters with any issue they might have with their stories. Working at the DE has provided me valuable experience as a reporter and helped me meet a lot of amazing people.

Hello! Jordan Kruse here. I’m a sophomore RTD major. I am the sports director at River Region Evening Edition news and also anchor and run graphics. I’ve been a LiveStats operator for baseball, football and basketball and have run camera for the ESPN production truck.

Hi all! I’m Sophie Whitten, a second-year student at SIU double majoring in creative writing and advertising. I’m the photo editor for the Daily Egyptian and have been working as a photographer for four years, one of them at the DE. Outside of work, I enjoy reading, writing, and playing chess.

Hello, my name is Annie Hammock. I’m the managing editor of the Daily Egyptian and I teach writing news on a variety of platforms from print to television to social media to app pushes. I worked at CNN and CNN.com for a combined 26 years before moving into teaching. I’ve also helped run newsrooms in a variety of market sizes. My former students are spread across the country doing important and interesting things. I’d love to talk to you about how SIU can make your future equally as bright.

Hi, I’m Lindsay King. With more than 18 years of experience as an award-winning news producer and manager, I use my skills to teach the next generation of journalists. My specific skills are story-telling and using audience analysis to understand how to communicate with my audience. I also teach students how to tell stories on multiple platforms. I’ve worked at eight stations across the United States.

I’m Bridget Lescelius. My career spans over 30 years in advertising and marketing, including vice president and partner of Spark in Phoenix, Arizona; senior associate of marketing at the Institute for Supply Management in Tempe, Arizona; co-founder and principal at The Big Idea, Inc. in Alexandria, Virginia; senior account executive at The Washington Agency in Washington, D.C.