Featured Journalists

Selected Works

Journalist Bios

Stan Alost, Ohio University

Stan Alost is an associate professor in the School of Visual Communication at Ohio University. Alost has more than 20 years of experience in the visual communication field as a photo editor, photojournalist and designer. He worked at the St. Petersburg Times, Morning Advocate and State-Times, Shreveport Journal and the Natchitoches Times. He served as a freelance photojournalist and picture editor for the Associated Press and United Press International. His work has also been published in Life, Ohio 24/7, NewsPhotographer and on the Web.

He served as co-chair of the National Press Photographers Association Flying Short Course for three years and served on the Visual Edge Workshop staff.

Alost holds a Bachelor of Science in Mass Communication from Louisiana State University, a Masters of Science from Ohio University where he was a Knight Fellow. He is currently working on a doctoral degree in the Scripps School of Journalism. He is a member of Kappa Tau Alpha and Gama Beta Phi honors societies and the Associated Press Photo Managers group.

Nicole Frugé, San Francisco Chronicle

Nicole Frugé is the Deputy Director of Photography for the San Francisco Chronicle, where she takes a documentary photography approach to better understand the people directly affected by current events and public policy. Before photo editing, she spent 10 years working as a staff photographer for newspapers in Texas and Florida. She has photographed the war in Iraq, returning frequently to the region to document the lives of ordinary Iraqis and American soldiers coping with the evolving conflict and its consequences.

Frugé received an Award of Excellence for her Photographer of the Year portfolio from Pictures of the Year International and was named the National Press Photographers Association’s Region 8 Photographer of the Year for 2008. Her work has also been honored by the NPPA’s Best of Photojournalism, The Society for Newspaper Design, Atlanta Photojournalism Seminar and the Southern Short Course in News Photography. A wayward Cajun, born in New Orleans, she fell in love with all things Texan while at the San Antonio Express-News (2003-2009). In her free time, she’s happiest wearing an old pair of Wranglers and eating crawfish.

Preston Gannaway

Preston Gannaway is a Pulitzer Prize-winning independent documentary photographer. For more than 12 years, she has focused on intimate stories about American families and subcultures. She has worked as a staff photojournalist for a number of newspapers including The Virginian-Pilot, the Rocky Mountain News and the Concord Monitor in New Hampshire. Her story on the St. Pierre family, Remember Me, was awarded the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for feature photography.

She earned multiple honors from Pictures of the Year and runner-up Photojournalist of the Year (Large Markets) by the National Press Photographers Association in 2011. She is a winner in this year’s Communication Arts’ Photography Annual 54 for her project on black gay youth; an image from her project Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea was selected for publication in American Photography 29.

Gannaway’s photographs have been exhibited both in the United States and abroad. She is a regular lecturer and has served as guest faculty in a variety of educational workshops. A native of North Carolina, she began her career after earning a Bachelor of Arts in fine art photography at Virginia Intermont College.

She is currently based in Oakland, California, accepting editorial and commercial work while pursuing long-term projects.

Richard Murphy, Snedden Chair, University of Alaska Fairbanks

Richard Murphy began chasing ambulances as a newspaper photographer at the age of 18 and continued to work in that capacity during his college summers. In 1974, he joined the Jackson Hole News, a small weekly in Jackson, Wyo., where he served as a darkroom technician, press assistant, chief photographer and beat reporter. In 1985, he became photo editor of the Anchorage Daily News. He was on the team of the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service and team leader for the 1990 Pulitzer nomination in news photography for coverage of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. He has served as a judge for the Pulitzer Prizes. In 2011 the National Press Photographers Association named him Editor of the Year.

Murphy is an Allegheny alumnus (1971 English.)

Larry James

Larry James reported for the Voice of America from more than 50 countries, where he covered Europe, Africa and the Middle East. From 1996 to 2000, he was Director of English Programs for VOA.

During this period, he created the 24 international news program VOA News Now. He has reported on armed conflicts in Liberia, Rwanda, Bosnia, Macedonia, Iraq and Afghanistan and recounted the terrible toll of the wars there.

Before coming to VOA, James learned the ropes as a radio broadcaster at commercial and public radio and TV stations in Illinois and Georgia.

He speaks French and German and has a basic knowledge of Russian and Arabic. James served as an infantry platoon leader in the Vietnam War and is the author of “Unfortunate News: A True Story of Young Men and War.”

James received a Bachelor of Arts in Communication from Southern Illinois University European in 1969. He is married and lives in Washington, D.C.

Sonja Pace, Voice of America

Sonja Pace is Managing Editor of VOA News, the core of the organization’s international and domestic news operation. It provides domestic and international news reporting for the Voice of America’s 45 different language-programming services, which reach a global audience of over 175 million per week. Since she took the position in October 2010, she has transformed what was a mostly radio newsroom into a truly multimedia operation that provides content for TV, radio and the Web.

Before becoming Managing Editor, Pace headed VOA’s largest overseas bureau, London – and was responsible for news reporting in Europe, covering events such as President Obama’s first visit to the continent, the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the start of the near financial meltdown within the EU. She also served as “fireman” for breaking news events in Europe, the Middle East and wherever else needed.

Pace was VOA’s Bureau Chief in Jerusalem (2002-2005), Moscow (2000-2002) and Cairo (1989-1993.) In 1985, Pace became VOA’s first woman correspondent in West Africa. From her base in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, she reported from 25 countries in West and Central Africa.

Pace was born in Munich, Germany. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from the American University in Washington D.C. and a masters degree from George Washington University.

Michael Williamson, The Washington Post

Michael Williamson was born in Washington, but grew up in a series of foster homes and orphanages in more than 15 states. It was an experience he says that has led to his interest in documenting the plight of the homeless for the past 18 years. He and a collaborator, writer Dale Maharidge, have produced three books. The first book, “Journey to Nowhere: The Saga of the New Underclass,” inspired several songs on Bruce Springsteen’s album “The Ghost of Tom Joad.” The pair’s book “And Their Children After Them” received a Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction in 1990. He shared a second Pulitzer Prize in 2000 with colleagues Carol Guzy and Lucian Perkins for their coverage of Kosovo. A photographer with the Post since 1993, Williamson was named Newspaper Photographer of the Year in the 1995 Pictures of the Year contest and Photographer of the Year in 2000 by the National Press Photographers Association.