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The TV Crew, Spring 2008

The TV Crew, Spring 2008
The CNS-TV News Bureau. Back row, from left: Bureau Co-Director Cassandra Clayton, Courtney Laydon, Gabe Hollis, Tamara Ward-Lucas, April Fehling, and Bureau Co-Director Kevin P. Swift. Front row, from left: Tracy Clemons, Brie Jackson and Anna Stonestreet. (Newsline photo by Tamra Tomlinson)

Related Link:

About Us has info on all the news bureau staffs.

The bureau chiefs:

Cassandra Clayton oversees production of UMTV’s nightly newscast, "Maryland Newsline." Hired as an NBC News correspondent in 1983, over the next two decades she reported from their Atlanta, Chicago, New York and Washington, D.C., bureaus. She co-anchored a nightly news and talk program on CNBC called "The Real Story," and substitute anchored "Nightly News," "Weekend Edition," "Sunrise" and the "Today" news segment. She most recently reported and anchored for MSNBC and taught broadcast journalism at Howard University.

Kevin Swift also oversees production of UMTV's "Maryland Newsline" and teaches broadcast production. He is a veteran of broadcast news in many capacities. Swift worked as a writer/producer and reporter for several TV and radio stations in Youngstown, Ohio, and Pittsburgh, Pa. Most recently he served as an anchor/reporter for the award-winning news team at WVLK News in Lexington, Ky. 

The graduate student staff:

Tracy Clemons, 22, is a criminal justice reporter for Maryland Newsline.Clemons will receive his master’s degree in May and plans to pursue a career in television news reporting and anchoring.  He earned his bachelor’s in government and African American studies at the University of Virginia last May. While in college, Clemons worked as a reporter for WUVA radio and interned at the local NBC affiliate. He is from Chesapeake, Va., and now lives in Greenbelt. Clemons can be reached at tclemons@mail.umd.edu or tracyclemons@gmail.com.

April Fehling, 31, is covering environmental issues for Maryland Newsline. Before coming to the Philip Merrill College of Journalism, Fehling ran the Women and International Law Program at American University’s Washington College of Law, where she managed a project establishing a network of Indian law professors and designed programs for women’s rights lawyers from around the world. She is a former Fulbright Scholar to India and has also been a researcher for the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive health organization, and the Washington Area Women’s Foundation. Fehling is an avid fan of public broadcasting and recently completed an internship as a reporter for WAMU 88.5 FM. She can be reached at afehling@gmail.com

Gabe Hollis, 30, works the transportation and consumer affairs beat. Last semester Hollis was a researcher for the consumer unit at WRC-TV NBC4 in Washington, D.C. He also produced a documentary on local street music, entitled "Street Musicians: The Sights and Sounds of D.C." Hollis has freelanced for The Diamondback and The Catholic Standard newspapers. Before coming to the University of Maryland, he worked for the Department of Energy in Washington. He earned a law degree from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale in 2002, and he holds a political science degree from Bradley University. He is originally from Petersburg, Ill. Hollis will graduate with a master's in journalism in May. You can reach him at gdhollis@aol.com

Brie Jackson, 25, is covering education for Maryland Newsline. She received her bachelor's degree in communication from the University of Maryland, where she was a four-year scholarship recipient on the women's basketball team. Jackson is currently an editor at WJLA in Rosslyn, Va. She also appears as an on-air sports analyst for "The Roundball Report" airing on Prince George's and Montgomery County Public Access television. She recently produced and directed a 30-minute documentary entitled "Broken Dreams," examining the progression of the black community since the Civil Rights Movement. She can be reached at briejackson_99@yahoo.com

Courtney Laydon, 25, covers medical and health issues for Maryland Newsline. She has a bachelor of arts degree in broadcast journalism from the University of Maryland and is taking graduate courses at the university. Previously, Laydon worked as a general intern for WTTG and as a medical unit intern for WWRC. She also served as the stage manager for Comcast SportsNet, where she assisted with the production of live sporting events. Her first job in journalism was as the public affairs administrator for seven Clear Channel radio stations in the Washington, D.C., area, where she produced and hosted a variety of shows that covered current events and issues facing the residents of the D.C.-metropolitan area. In her free time, Laydon works as a pilates trainer and is training to run her first marathon. She can be reached at clschemeck@gmail.com.

Anna Stonestreet, 30, is the homeland security and military affairs reporter for Maryland Newsline. She has cheered in the NFL for seven years and is with the Washington Redskins. Stonestreet has worked as a freelance reporter for Comcast, Fox Sports Net and seahawks.com. She will receive her master’s degree in broadcast journalism in May. After graduation, she will pursue a job in sports reporting. Anna can be reached at atbrc2001@yahoo.com.

Tamara Ward-Lucas covers ethnic/religious affairs and politics for Maryland Newsline. She will earn a master’s degree in May and pursue a career in television news reporting. Ward-Lucas earned her bachelor's degree in speech communications from the University of Maryland in College Park. While an undergraduate, she worked as a production intern at WDVM-TV, the CBS affiliate in Washington, D.C., and hosted an on-campus television show called "Coming of Age," where she interviewed notables such as Rosa Parks. After graduation, Ward-Lucas freelanced part-time covering sports, community news and tax law. Most notably she co-hosted "The Baltimore Soccer Show," which covered indoor professional soccer and aired on the ABC affiliate in Baltimore. She can be reached at teward826@aol.com

 

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