Skip to main content
  • March 26, 2012
  • Christine Davis Mantai

John Beard
John Beard 


Joanna Pasceri
 

Vic Baker
Vic Baker

Nick Mendola
Nick Mendola

Two SUNY Fredonia alumni will join a diversified team of well-known Western New York journalists, including WGRZ-TV news anchor John Beard, to share insight and knowledge of the communications industry with students at the 2012 SUNY Fredonia Lake Erie Media Conference on Saturday, April 14, at Jewett Hall.

“Maintaining Journalistic Integrity” is the theme of the spring conference, the second to be held by the SUNY Fredonia student chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.

The keynote address will be given by Beard, who serves as an anchor of WGRZ-TV’s “Daybreak” in Buffalo. He has been a fill-in host on NBC’s “Today” Show and formerly worked at KNBC and KTTV, both in Los Angeles, where he was a top-rated anchor for 28 years. His presentation will explore the past, present and future of television news.

The conference also marks the return to campus of Department of Communication alumni Joanna Pasceri (’87), a reporter/anchor with WKBW-TV; and Jeff Woodard (’95), news director, WGRZ-TV, and former Fredonia student Vic Baker, WIVB-TV’s 6 p.m. producer who has more than 40 years in the business.

They, along with Dan Herbeck, a news staff reporter with The Buffalo News; Nick Mendola, a Buffalo sports blogger, and other Western New York journalists, will give individual presentations at three break-out workshops. Multiple workshops will be held during the three sessions.

The day-long conference concludes with informal networking and personalized sessions with students from WNYF-TV and The Leader.

General admission to the conference, which runs from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., is $15 and includes lunch and refreshments. The fee for SUNY Fredonia students is $10. The conference is open to students from throughout New York and Pennsylvania, and the general public is also welcome. Pre-registration is required by April 6.

For registration information, contact John Matey SUNY Fredonia chapter president of SPJ and president and general manager, WNYF-TV, JMatey@fredonia.edu; or Elmer Ploetz, assistant professor of Journalism and SPJ chapter faculty adviser, 318 McEwen Hall, 716-673-4900, ploetz@fredonia.edu.