Notes from the Class of 1999

Dave Briggs (Jour) is currently an anchor of "Early Start" on CNN, airing 4-6 am ET. Prior to this, Dave was an NBC Sports studio host for the Rio Olympics.

He has called more games than any other St. Paul Saints broadcaster. He was nominated for a Regional Emmy in 2010 and was the runner-up for Broadcaster of the Year in 2013. Three years later Saints broadcaster Sean Aronson (Jour) has been recognized by Ballpark Digest as the Broadcaster of the Year in all of minor league baseball.

Kristin Boehm (Jour) joined NYC-based Hawkins International Public Relations as digital director in May 2017. Previously, Kristin was Director of Dan Klores Communications' digital division, Editor of People.com and Director of News and Engagement for People, where she oversaw daily digital operations and worked to integrate the print and digital teams to expand content offerings across all platforms.

In 2017, Ryan Thompson (Jour) was appointed to lead Niagara University's new Office for Equity & Inclusion as the school's first full-time Title IX coordinator. Thompson previously served as NU's assistant general counsel and as an adjunct writing professor. Thompson returned home to Buffalo, New York in 2012 after working for years as a newspaper reporter and editor in New York City and Boston.

Steven Alvarez (MJour) is a former U.S. Army public affairs officer with 26 years of military service. In 2016, his book, Selling War: A Critical Look at the Military’s PR Machine, was published by Potomac Books, an imprint of the University of Nebraska Press. The book provides readers with insight into the inner workings of the military’s public relations apparatus during wartime. 

Since March 2017, Justin George (Jour) has been the Washington, D.C., correspondent for the Marshall Project. He previously worked at The Baltimore Sun, where he was embedded with the local police department to cover the internal investigation into the death of Freddie Gray, part of a body of work that made the Sun a Pulitzer Prize finalist.  

Richard Khleif (MJour; PhDMediaSt’07) has held global leadership positions in communication for various technology companies for 25 years. He has also been an adjunct professor for nearly 20 years, serves on strategic advisory boards at two universities, and is an invited speaker at home and abroad on media and communication topics. He established a CMCI scholarship in 2018 to help graduate students channel their research interests toward engaging various publics in meaningful dialogue and critical thinking about media. Richard lives with his family in northern Colorado and enjoys travel, languages and anything with an engine.

Katherine Wojtecki (Jour, PolSci) is executive director for media relations at Blue Cross Blue Shield Association. She previously worked at Golin, leading the media team for McDonald’s and Walmart. She also was a journalist at Bloomberg News, ABC and CNN, where she received an Emmy and Peabody award. She and her family live in Geneva, Illinois.

In 2018, Beth DeFalco (Jour) joined Mercury Public Affairs, a global public strategy firm, where she specializes in media relations in the political realm. She previously worked as a spokeswoman for Bloomberg Philanthropies, the New York City subway system, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and U.S. Sen. Cory Booker. She started her career as a journalist with The Denver Post, where she covered the shooting at Columbine High School before covering government with The Associated Press, Arizona Republic and New York Post. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Justin George (Jour) joined The Washington Post last September as a transportation reporter focusing on national transit and the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. Before that he was the D.C. correspondent for The Marshall Project. Although he has spent over 15 years on the East Coast, he remains a diehard Broncos and Buffs fan.

Drew Krejci (Advert) is vice president of corporate communications at Optum, a UnitedHealth Group company. Krejci’s time in Boulder launched a career in communications that has taken him to New York City, Washington, D.C., and now Minneapolis, where he lives with his wife and two children.

Drew Krejci (Advert) is vice president of corporate communications at Optum, a UnitedHealth Group company. Krejci’s time in Boulder launched a career in communications that has taken him to New York City, Washington, D.C., and now Minneapolis, where he lives with his wife and two children.

Dave Briggs (Jour) is an anchor for Yahoo Finance. Previously, he worked at CNN, NBC Sports and Fox News as an anchor.