Alumni News

CCI students meet with Tombras School Alumni during academic trip to Atlanta

Several College of Communication and Information students had the opportunity to travel to Atlanta with the Tombras School of Advertising and Public Relations to visit multiple professional industries and get a first-hand look at how their degrees are used in the real world. Students visited the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Omnicom Group, American…
Tombras School Alumna Returns to Campus to Encourage Students to Follow their Goals

University of Tennessee, Knoxville, alumna Karen Freberg (‘11) moved across the country on several occasions to chase her academic and athletic career goals. Freberg’s mom is a professor in psychology and her dad is retired but he also was in marketing and taught marketing. “I actually thought I would go in as a pre-med major.…
Tombras School Alumni help create commercial for Super Bowl LVIII

It’s an advertiser and marketer’s big dream– to have a commercial play during the big game. For Tombras School of Advertising and Public Relations alumni Hayley Howell (’16) and Patrick Wells (’14), that dream came true. The pair work in Brooklyn, New York, for Orchard Creative, a full-service advertising agency. Howell is an Account Director…
Tombras School Alumni Lee and Erin Freeman Celebrate Their Love After Meeting at UT Over Two Decades Ago

Lee (’02, ’15) and Erin (’02) Freeman did not meet one another until their final year at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, but they had similar reasons why they wanted to attend UT —game days on Rocky Top. They first met in an advertising class before both graduated from the Tombras School of Advertising and…
UT Alumna to host guest lecture series for the Tombras School of Advertising and Public Relations

Chandra Hayslett (‘97) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning communications executive and vice president of communications at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, but when she first stepped foot onto the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, campus, her eyes were on a different field of study. “I wanted to be a doctor,” Hayslett said. While in…
JEM and ADPR Students Learn About Careers in New York City

The week before classes started this spring, a cohort of College of Communication and Information (CCI) students packed their bags and headed to New York City to visit agencies and media outlets to gain insight into their future careers. This year’s trip included students from the School of Journalism and Media and the Tombras School…
Three Volunteers Recognized at Volunteer PRSA Communicator of the Year Awards Ceremony

Caption: Drue Hamlet (left), Chancellor Donde Plowman (middle), and Cole Pawlaczyk (right) at the 2024 Volunteer PRSA Awards Ceremony. Three Volunteers were recognized for their remarkable work in the fields of marketing, public relations, and communications, at the Volunteer Public Relations Society of America’s 2024 Communicator of the Year Awards Ceremony. The recipients included University…
Advertising Grad on Broadway? Alumni Spotlight: Phil Brooks

Phil Brooks, who graduated from the University of Tennessee with a B.A. in Advertising, has made strides in the video production industry since graduating in 2007. After finishing his degree, Phil moved to NYC and began working with Final Cut USA, where he continues to work fifteen years later. In addition to his work in…
CCI Alumni Start VOLs Remote Internship Program for Students

As many students around the country had their summer internship plans put on hold because of COVID-19 and economic uncertainty, the University of Tennessee’s New York City Alumni Chapter quickly organized a virtual internship program for future communicators. The VOLs Remote Internship pilot program paired five interns from CCI with social media and digital communication…
2020 Social Media Week: Q&A with Sookie Park (AD ’13)

The 2020 UT Social Media Week will be held Feb. 18-20 and features social media and news professionals from near and far, including three CCI graduates. Admission is free for all six sessions, which will take place in the Communications Building. Sookie Park (AD ’13) is the Director of Partnership Activation at Complexity Gaming, one…