This spring, students, faculty, and staff at the College of Communication and Information (CCI) are celebrating three major gifts that will strengthen hands-on learning, support innovation and research, and make a lasting impact on students preparing to enter the world as leaders in their field. The named gifts, and those who made them, are:
- The John Williams Studio, made possible by John Williams (‘71)
- The Kelly Leiter Director of Media Innovation Chair, made possible by Deb Woolley (‘70)
- The Rene and Clara Said Director’s Chair, made possible by Habibi Mamone (BA ‘97, MS ‘23, PhD ‘25), PhD, and Tony Mamone
“These gifts create opportunities for our students to tell meaningful stories, solve communication and information problems of today’s world, and leave CCI ready to lead and influence the world around them,” said CCI Dean Joe Mazer. “While these gifts are distinct, they share something powerful in common: a commitment to empower the next generation to make meaningful and far-reaching impact.”
The John Williams Studio
The financial support provided by Williams, an alumnus of the college and member of the CCI Board of Visitors, will sustain CCI’s new student studio space in the coming years, ensuring it will be maintained with cutting-edge technology and equipment that will allow students to produce meaningful work and prepare for careers in an ever-changing media landscape.
For Williams, this gift reflects his belief in empowering future communicators with the resources, skills, and space needed to inform, innovate, and lead with integrity. He pointed out that he gained hands-on professional experience during college by working, but he observed then that not all students have that kind of opportunity. The John Williams Studio will provide all CCI students with the opportunity to use professional-grade tools to hone their skills in a real-world environment and put into action what they learn in the classroom.
“I think if I can do anything to help CCI to be even more attractive and to train our students better, I’d like to do that,” Williams said. “It’s my expectation that students will leave the program and will have studied television journalism—whether it’s as a reporter, producer, news manager, or on-air anchor—and they will have leave with enough experience that they will be a preferred candidate when they’re going out on the job market.”
Williams has a long philanthropic history of supporting the college through a variety of initiatives, from naming academic spaces to funding student experience opportunities. Just this past year he helped launch the Williams Reporting Cohort within The Media Center, an initiative that equips student journalists with the resources, mentorship, and training to report on critical issues with depth, care, and accuracy.
The Kelly Leiter Director of Media Innovation Chair
Since its inception two years ago, The Media Center has been a conduit for student journalists to produce work that has garnered dozens of awards, including placing in the top 10 of the prestigious Hearst Journalism Awards. The Media Center’s role in providing students opportunities to produce such award-winning work inspired alumna Deb Woolley (’71), a member of the CCI Board of Visitors who has long championed the importance of strong storytelling, to establish the Kelly Leiter Director of Media Innovation Chair.
“When I look to the future and what this gift could make to the college, I think I hope for two things: I hope first and foremost that it helps to better prepare students to be professionals in the real world and be up to speed when they get there,” Woolley said. “I think from the college standpoint, I would like it to be an innovative media center where, as the professional media world changes, we’re not trying to catch up in training students, but we’re helping to lead the way.”
She expressed her hope that the gift will increase the college’s capacity to advance creativity, collaboration, and innovation—all of which were valued by the gift’s namesake, former CCI Dean Kelly Leiter, who was a mentor to Woolley when she was a student and, after she graduated and began navigating her career, a friend. As her advisor and professor, Woolley said Leiter was always one step ahead and always questioning if there was a better, more effective, or different way to tell stories that need to be told. She hopes that, with her gift, his legacy and spirit will be carried on by those who create, innovate, and learn at The Media Center.
The inaugural recipient of the Kelly Leiter Director of Media Innovation Chair title is Professor Nick Geidner, who has led The Media Center as its director since its beginning. Geidner said this gift will allow faculty to guide students as they “really test things at the edge of what we’re doing within media today and allow them to take into the workforce some of these new and innovative ideas and really help shape the future of media.”
Since its inception, Woolley has been a dedicated supporter of The Media Center, inspired in part by the work of Land Grant Films. Her philanthropy over the years has advanced student success and broadened access to hands-on media opportunities.
The Rene and Clara Said Director’s Chair
Education has always been an integral element in entrepreneur Habibi Mamone’s life, evidenced by the three degrees she holds from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville—the most recent of which she completed in 2025, a PhD from CCI with a concentration in information sciences.
Mamone’s perpetual appreciation for learning, as well as her dedication to philanthropy, began with her parents, Rene and Clara Said, who had a deep passion for education and for investing in others.
The legacy led Habibi and her husband, Tony Mamone, to endow the School of Information Sciences’ director’s chair and name it in her parents’ honor. The Mamones hope this gift will create opportunities within the school for professional development, student research, innovation, scholarships, and mentorship.
“Everyone should have the opportunity to get an education if they want that education, and I’m hoping what with what we’re doing it, it gives that opportunity. If we can just help one student at a time, then I feel like we’ve met our goal,” she said.
School of Information Sciences Director Abebe Rorissa will be the first to hold the endowed chair, and he noted this gift will allow him to create scholarships and build a positive student experience that extends beyond the classroom by ensuring students feel valuable and supported in their academic endeavors.
“That is the kind of impact that this gift will have. For me, it is important to provide these opportunities to, hopefully, all our students. This gift will help us add initiatives that will ensure our students’ success, faculty excellence, and staff excellence, as well,” Rorissa said.
With a deep commitment to student success, the Mamones have focused their philanthropic support over the years on expanding student support across the college, particularly within the School of Information Sciences.
