Faculty

Charles Mason - Department Chair
907-474-6217
cwmason@alaska.edu
llinois State University

Charles Mason's photographs and photo essays have won numerous international, national and regional awards, including the Oskar Barnack Award at the World Press Photo Competition in Amsterdam and awards at the National Press Photographers Association's Pictures of the Year. His documentary and art photographs have been in many solo and juried shows throughout Alaska and in California, Illinois and Virginia.

Mason covers Alaska for the Corbis photo agency in New York/Seattle, and is represented by Tony Stone Images/Getty in Seattle/London. His work has appeared in LIFE, Time, Newsweek, Outside, Aperture, The New York Times and GEO. He also has published two children's books, including the award-winning A Child's Alaska. Other books include collaborations with writer Jennifer Brice (The Last Settlers, a black-and-white documentary project on the last federal homesteaders); writer Patti Clayton (Connection on the Ice, about the 1988 Barrow, Alaska, whale rescue); and writer Sherry Simpson (The Way Winter Comes, cover and illustrations).

At UAF, Mason runs the Photojournalism Program. He has lived in Alaska since 1984 and has the distinction of having been in the Journalism Department longer than any other faculty member (since 1990). He chaired the department for five years and played a key role in building our state-of-the-art computer and photography labs.

Brian Patrick O'Donoghue - Currently in India
Associate professor
(907) 474-6247
bpodonoghue@alaska.edu

As a young reporter/photographer for City Paper and The Villager, O'Donoghue covered waterfront politics in Baltimore and the mid-'80s squatter movement on Manhattan's Lower East Side. He chronicled the Purple Man's unsuccessful legal battle to preserve a "Garden of Eden" spouting amid urban ruins. His photo clips from that era range from Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie "Cool Jazz" concerts to police drug raids, Mideast peace summits and a Swiss horn player's performance atop the Great Pyramid.

Later assignments sent O'Donoghue chasing oil slicks and rock scrubbers across Prince William Sound. On the frozen Arctic Ocean, he interviewed oilfield construction workers in 70-below conditions. Readers soared with him in a looping F-16 and mushed dogs the distance in both Iditarod and the Yukon Quest. In 2009, he and a team of UAF student embeds provided Alaskans with an online window offering stories, blogs and video coverage of their missions accompanying 1-25th Stryker Brigade soldiers in Diyala Province, Iraq.

Such experiences color O’Donoghue’s 30-plus year career as a photojournalist, reporter, editor and author.

O’Donoghue, 54, is two-time past president of Alaska Press Club and a staunch supporter of Investigative Reporters and Editors. He joined UAF Journalism's faculty in fall 2001.

He holds a B.A. in history from University of California, Santa Cruz and a master’s degree in broadcast journalism from New York University.

His wife, Kate Ripley, is public affairs director for the University of Alaska system. They have three kids, Rory, 14, Robin, 12 and Rachel, 5.

Lynne Lott
Assistant Professor
(907) 474-6245
lmlott@alaska.edu

Lynne Lott began her career in the Midwest, where she worked as a producer/director at Wisconsin Public Television. Among her credits are national news and public affairs programs with Jim Lehrer (of the Jim Lehrer NewsHour), a weekly, statewide current events roundup, WeekEnd, music performance specials and how-to programs. She also worked as a freelance camera operator, sound person and technical director for ESPN, ABC, TNN and FOX Sports.

Lott moved to Alaska in 1997 and took a job at KUAC-TV in Fairbanks. There, she was responsible for the station’s political coverage and fundraising. But because global warming hadn’t yet taken a foothold and she’s a bit of a wimp, Lott left after her second winter to take a job at the CBS affiliate in Anchorage.

In Anchorage, she produced Inside Alaska, a nightly newsmagazine broadcast in Anchorage and throughout rural Alaska. She was nominated for an Emmy for her work on the program. She also worked as an independent writer and producer and traveling the state from Angoon to Barrow collecting Alaska stories. Also in Anchorage, Lott served as the editor of Anchorage magazine, the managing editor of the Anchorage Press, and a regular freelance contributor to Alaska magazine. Her work in television and print has been honored by the Society of Professional Journalists, the Alaska Broadcasters Association, the Alaska Press Club and the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. She has a bachelor’s degrees in journalism and a bachelor’s degree in communication arts, both from the University of Wisconsin Madison.

Lott returned to Fairbanks in 2006 with bunny boots and a small dog. She looks forward to her first semesters at UAF

Robert Prince
Assistant Professor
(907) 474-6249
rprince6@alaska.edu

M.A. Telecommunication, Information Studies and Media, Michigan State University

The career of award-winning documentary filmmaker Robert Prince started when he went to work for Emmy-award-winning television personality Bill Kurtis in Chicago. He continued on as a Producer/Director for Public Television and then as Video Producer for Calvin College. His experience includes work with ABC Sports, Investigative Reports and other nationally syndicated programs.

His Master's thesis documentary Making Choices: The Dutch Resistance during World War II was picked up for DVD and broadcast distribution and is available on Amazon.com and Netflix.com. John Douglas, Television Critic for The Grand Rapids Press, called the documentary “…wonderful…a quality production whose stories will keep you on the edge of your seat.” Making Choices won the Audience Award at the 2005 Northern Lights Documentary Film Festival in Newburyport, Massachusetts and was an official selection for a number of other film festivals.

Prince’s latest documentary, Finding their own Dance, tells the story of the Alutiiq Natives of Alaska who have begun creating and performing their traditional dances again after centuries of persecution destroyed this key element of their culture. Finding their own Dance won the 2009 Native Sprit award at the Southern Winds Film Festival and was selected for the American Indian Film Festival in San Francisco.

Information on Rob's project on Native Dance can be found atalutiiqdancefilm.org

Learn more about his current projects at professorprince.com !

Robyne
Term Assistant Professor
(907) 474-7995
robyne@alaska.edu

   Robyne has a BA in Journalism from San Jose State University. Her work in statewide public radio includes stints at KUAC, KBBI-Homer, KBRW-Barrow and KHNS-Haines, and has been honored by the Society of Professional Journalists, the Alaska Press Club and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. She produced local television news at both KTVF-11 and KXD-13/KXFX-7 in Fairbanks. She is a past President of the Farthest North Chapter of SPJ and a life member of Alaska Professional Communicators. She serves on the Alaska Public Radio Network's News Council.

Ed Husted
Associate Professor (Media Law)
L.L.B., Indiana University Law School at Bloomington
ffesh@uaf.edu

Ed Husted practiced general law in Indiana for almost 20 years before moving to Alaska in 1982. He then worked for six years as a paralegal in two Fairbanks law offices practicing workers' compensation law. In 1988, Husted and his wife formed Lawyer Support Services to provide contract legal research and written projects for local lawyers. The following year, Husted began writing and selling weekly summaries of the opinions of the Alaska Supreme Court. His subscription list has now grown to more than 125 law firms throughout Alaska and in Seattle.
When the UAF paralegal studies program started in 1992, Husted taught the first introductory class, and he has taught it ever since. He also teaches three other paralegal courses in addition to Mass Media Law (JRN 413) for the UAF Journalism Department and Media Relations (JUST 630) for the UAF Justice Department. In 1997, Husted became the first full-time coordinator of the UAF paralegal studies program, a position he still holds.

Eric Muehling
Adjunct (Multimedia Theory and Practice)
eric.muehling@uaf.edu
http://www.faculty.uaf.edu/fferm/

As a special projects manager at UAF, Eric Muehling works in new media (educational interactive, multimedia CD-ROMs, Web site content planning, development and design). He gives technical assistance and manages projects for a number of UAF departments on short- and long-term projects.

For more than 20 semesters, Muehling has created and taught multimedia classes at UAF. His industry experience includes 10 years with the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner (photo editor), three years with the Memphis Commercial Appeal and three years with the Arctic Region Supercomputing Center (information officer). He also was editor and publisher of Alaska Living Magazine. He has a Macromedia Professional Certification in Flash design, the main software program he teaches in his current multimedia class.

Dave Partee
Adjunct (Website Design)
partee@sfos.uaf.edu

Dave Partee, who teaches website design, is communications designer for the Alaska Sea Grant College Program at UAF, and before that was Web Coordinator for the UAF School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences. Prior to moving to Alaska in 1996, he pursued the family business--academia--studying philosophy and music at the University of California at Berkeley (B.A.). and was a graduate fellow in philosophy at UMass Amherst, before being drawn into a career in design and music. Dave's specialties also include graphics and design applications, such as Photoshop and InDesign, and digital
photography techniques.

Dave freelances as a photographer, specializing in dog mushing, frequently contributing to mushing and dog sport magazines. He also works as a bass player with many Fairbanks musicians. His says his biggest regret in moving to Fairbanks was having to give up the sport of squash.

Jason Lazarus
Computer Systems Analyst / Darkroom Labs Manager / Adjunct (Basic Photography)
jjlazarus@alaska.edu

Jason Lazarus provides our technology-dependant department with its life support, keeping our computers, cameras, recorders, microphones, printers and all the rest of our gear in operating condition. He is a graduate of our very own department, with a degree in Photojournalism. Jason has been with us since 2004, taking over the management of our computer labs and traditional darkrooms.  Since 2005, he's served as an adjunct for the department teaching both film and digital versions of our photography courses.  Currently, he is pursuing a MFA in Photography through the Academy of Arts University in San Francisco. His hobbies range from vintage video games to exploring abandoned mines and dredges. He has a lovely wife, Deanna, and a 4-year old son named Aidan.