Kelly Gulbrandson, President

gulbr042@umn.edu

Kelly is a senior majoring in journalism with a concentration on print journalism. She realized that she wanted to be a journalist when she took a journalism class in high school and worked on the newspaper. However, her real education and desire came from working for a community college student newspaper which allowed her to learn valuable aspects of how a newspaper works alos gained valuable experience from being a staff reporter for The Minnesota Daily for an entire school year and now an intern for a group of community newspapers in North St. Paul. She transferred to the U in 2005 and has been a member of SPJ ever since moving up from member coordinator to Vice-President to now President. SPJ has allowed her to meet other people who also are interested in journalism and has learned so much from previous presidents. After graduation, Kelly hopes to be a reporter for any newspaper that will take her since she is so excited to graduate this December.

Alyssa Kroeten, Vice-President
kroe0085@umn.edu

Alyssa is a junior majoring in broadcast journalism and political science and hopes to be a national political reporter someday. Her love for journalism began in high school, where she was the editor-in-chief of the school newspaper. She has been a part of SPJ for three years. After moving from being a reporter intern for the MN Daily in fall 2007, to a news intern at WCCO Radio in winter/spring 2008, she has now been working at WCCO since May 2008 as an assistant assignment desk editor. Alyssa hopes to graduate winter 2009 or spring 2010.

Vadim Lavrusik, treasurer
lavru001@umn.edu

Vadim is a senior majoring in journalism and Russian and plans to attend graduate school after he finishes his undergraduate studies. His love for news writing was born in high school when he decided to write for the Eden Prairie High School newspaper, The Eyrie. After writing only a few articles, his mind was made up. This is what he wanted to do for a living. At the University, Vadim has written as a staff reporter at the Minnesota Daily for two years, working as managing editor for a year,
and is now the Editor in Chief and Co-Publisher. He has also interned at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal, where he wrote for print and online.

Matt Cummins, Newsletter Editor

Matt is a freshman majoring in Professional Journalism and Economics and minoring in Communication Studies. He first became interested in journalism in high school when he began writing for the school newspaper, The Odyssey. In the summer of 2008 he worked as a Communication Intern for his school district, and in the fall of 2008 he worked as a Communications Intern at The Minnesota Daily. He hopes to start writing for The Daily in the spring of 2009.

Tara Bannow, Secretary

Bann0047@umn.edu

After a couple years of SPJ leadership at her former college, Tara is excited about becoming active within the University of Minnesota chapter. A junior majoring in journalism, she has served as Money/Health editor of UW-Eau Claire’s student newspaper, The Spectator, and currently as editorial intern at the Bridge Newspaper. Tara has never questioned her passion for journalism and certainly does not intend on bailing when the business looks bleak. Outside of writing, she loves reading, music and the outdoors.

Kathleen Hansen, faculty advisor
k-hans@umn.edu

Kathleen Hansen is a professor at the University of Minnesota’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication. She is the director of the Minnesota Journalism Center (MJC) and also the supervisor of the Digital Information Resource Center.