Although many of our students have departed from campus for summer break, SMPA never takes a vacation from collecting accolades. Recently, the Global Media Institute won top prize at the New York Festivals’ 30th Annual Radio Awards and Professor Nina Seavey was named one of the top fifty journalism and communications professors in the country!

Professor Nina Seavey was named a top professor of journalism.

Professor Seavey, director of The Documentary Center, received her latest honor from journalismdegree.org, a career website.  The list of professors, many of whom are internationally recognized experts in the field, were honored for their ability to  “inspire future reporters and communicators to explore the field of journalism.” Professor Seavey founded the Center in 1990 and has produced many highly acclaimed documentaries on a variety of subjects. Her work has won many awards including an Emmy, the Erik Barnouw Prize for Best Historical Film of the Year, and the Golden Hugo. Seavey also served as the founding director and executive producer of SILVERDOCS: AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Festival, the largest documentary festival in the US.

Courtesy of the New York Festivals

Also recently, SMPA's Global Media Institute was honored with a Grand Jury Trophy for Best Talk/Interview Special for its production of The Kalb Report: Anchoring 9/11.  In this special edition of The Kalb Report, moderator and legendary journalist Marvin Kalb discussed the decade following September 11th with a panel of journalists who covered that tragic day: Charles Gibson (ABC), Dan Rather (CBS), Brit Hume (FOX), and SMPA Director Frank Sesno, who, in 2001, was serving as CNN’s Washington bureau chief. The program, which airs nationally on both Sirius XM Satellite Radio and public television stations, beat out hundreds of broadcasts submitted from around the world to win top honors.

Professor Michael Freedman, executive producer of The Kalb Report, attended the awards ceremony with Kalb to accept the prize—a trophy resembling an art deco radio microphone—on behalf of the Global Media Institute.

“We are deeply touched to be recognized by The New York Festivals which celebrates the most enduring and endearing medium of all – radio,” said Freedman.  “To see our students light up when they first feel the magic of the medium is so very special and to have their efforts rewarded with an honor of this magnitude can only deepen their commitment to raise the bar for the next generation.”

This Just In!, another program produced by the Global Media Institute, received a Gold World Medal at the ceremony. The winning entry included a master class conducted last summer by Professor Freedman and Richard C. Hottelet, the remaining living "Murrow Boy."

The Kalb Report: Anchoring 9/11 can be watched below.