Conversations with Creatives – Kevin Reynolds

Kevin Reynolds went from the Marines to college to a career in business journalism with increasing levels of responsibility leading to his November, 2021 appointment as editor-in-chief of Condesk, a news service focused on cryptocurrency. , However, his story is anything but straightforward, and neither is this conversation. I started this conversation for what I thought would be a straightforward question – and Kevin’s response took the conversation in an unexpected, but fascinating direction.

Conversations With Creatives: Kris Tucker

Kris Tucker is the Acting Director of ADA Operations and Customer Service at New Jersey Transit – Access Link and an alumna of the College of New Jersey where she studied English literature and Journalism. She’s also the daughter of Trenton, New Jersey’s first African American police chief, Ernest A. Williams, and the granddaughter of Berline Williams, one of the plaintiffs in the landmark Hedgepeth Williams school desegregation case. In this conversation, Tucker discusses how her family background shaped her thinking about the value and uses of her education, how her African American Studies classes expanded her worldview, and the centrality of the College’s Educational Opportunity Fund program, her Delta Sigma Theta sorority chapter, and administrators such as Robert Alston, James Boatwright and James Chambers to her success as an African American woman studying on a predominantly white campus. 

Tucker said these experiences instilled a deep concern for the most vulnerable members of her community, and a commitment to social justice. She has exercised that commitment through work with and on behalf of people with disabilities, particularly in her roles with New Jersey Transit. As she has moved into positions of increasing levels of responsibility, the skills that she first honed in such classes as Interpersonal Communications, then taught by Dr. Anntarie Sims, proved to be critical to her effectiveness. These skills have been especially important since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Conversations with Creatives is a series of interviews of alumni of the Journalism and Interactive Media programs at The College of New Jersey, conducted by Associate Professor of Journalism and Professional Writing, Kim Pearson. The entire series is available at https://kimpearson.net/tag/conversationswithcreatives/

Conversations With Creatives: Neeha Curtis

The television news business looks glamorous from the outside, but anyone who’s done the job knows that it’s a lot of hard work behind the scenes. TCNJ English department alumna Neeha Curtis knows. She’s worked in television news for the better part of 15 years – as an assistant producer, multimedia reporter, and as an anchor for both local and nationally syndicated news outlets. In this conversation, she traces her journey from her internships at NBC in New York, to stations in Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, and Ohio. She also talks about her approach to covering such tough stories as the aftermath of a mass shooting, or the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic on vulnerable families. And she explains the choices that she felt compelled to make about how to present herself on camera as an Indian-American woman. You can clips of some of the stories that we discuss in this interview on her website: https://vimeopro.com/neehacurtis/neehacurtis This interview is part of the #ConversationsWithCreatives series.

Conversations with Creatives: Joe Hannan

Joseph Hannan has parlayed his background in newspaper industry into a writing consultancy, Aligned Wellness Marketing. In this conversation, Joe talks about how his interest in journalism was ignited as an undergraduate at The College of New Jersey, his career with the Newark Star-Ledger and Advanced Media, his transition into marketing and public relations, and his decision to go into business for himself. He also turned the tables on me and asked some questions of his own, leading into a conversation about emerging business models for news, free speech debates how news organizations can rebuild trust with the communities they serve, and what we’re teaching students these days. This is part of a periodic series of conversations with media entrepreneurs denoted with the hashtag #Conversationswithcreatives.

Conversations With Creatives: Kenyatta Cheese

Kenyatta Cheese is co-founder and CEO of Everybody at Once, a marketing firm that has worked with such major brands as Netflix and YouTube, and media properties such as Dr. Who and Killing Eve. In the interview, Kenyatta shares how his personal experiences of not quite fitting in led to a quest to create spaces and platforms where everyone can feel included and connected to a life-affirming community that is larger than themselves.

Conversations With Creatives is a periodic series of interviews with media professionals and entrepreneurs who have carved out interesting career paths.