The ACU Department of Journalism and Mass Communication will honor three distinguished alumni during the 27th annual Gutenberg Celebration. Introduced in 1993, the Gutenberg Award recognizes distinguished professional achievements of Journalism and Mass Communication Department alumni.
The Gutenberg Celebration will take place in Hunter Welcome Center on Thursday, October 17. A reception will begin at 6:30 p.m. with an awards presentation to follow at 7:45 p.m.
This year’s honorees are: April Ward Farris (’06) of Houston, Michael Hagerty (’01) of Houston, and John Scaggs (’90) of Colorado Springs, Colorado.
April Ward Farris is a graduate of Harvard Law School and an appellate partner at Yetter Coleman, a litigation boutique law firm. She has successfully argued cases on behalf of clients before the Fifth Circuit, the Sixth Circuit, and several Texas courts of appeals, and for the past three years has been named a “Texas Rising Star,” in appellate advocacy by Thomson Reuters’ Super Lawyers.
Michael Hagerty, senior producer of Houston Matters at Houston Public Media, moved into multimedia news reporting after four seasons as a professional sports public address announcer and now produces coverage in
video, audio, graphic design, writing and photography in one of the country’s largest markets.
John Scaggs, president and CEO of WAY Media/WAY-FM, leads and operates the 30 year-old network’s 20 full-power FM radio stations and 24 low-power repeater stations in 12 states. Way Media Network Services is the national leader in Contemporary Christian Music and is based in Colorado Springs, CO, and Nashville, TN, the Christian Music Capital of the World.
“The best thing about Gutenberg is it gives us the ability to highlight the diverse ways our alums put their storytelling skills to use in the marketplace,” said Dr. Kenneth Pybus, chair of the JMC department. “Just look at this year’s honorees: one is a lawyer who is putting her Ad/PR skills to use arguing cases before the federal appeals courts and the state supreme court, another is leading change at the largest national chain of Christian radio stations, and a third is telling compelling audio stories in one of the largest markets in the country. They truly exemplify the excellence we want to model for our students.”
Honorees are nominated by alumni and faculty and must have graduated more than 10 years ago to be eligible.