Cal Poly Journalism Presents the Mustang Media Hall of Fame
2023
Melissa Figueroa Chechourka
An award winning communications professional, Figueroa has more than 20 years of public and private sector experience in political communications and journalism. Following a career in broadcast news, she translated her skills learned at Cal Poly into a dedicated career in state government. Figueroa has served as an appointee for two consecutive Governors of California as the head of strategic communications and external affairs working collaboratively to implement policy for Californians. She notes her most meaningful work in public service is her work as a mentor for Cal Poly's Inspire program and also the Capital Fellows program through Sacramento State University.
Jim Hayes
Long before the advent of spell-check and online thesauruses, Jim Hayes was a devotee of accuracy and clarity. Hayes worked for 18 years on newspapers in Oklahoma, California, Arizona and Washington, D.C. before teaching at the universities of Florida, Arizona, and Minnesota, as well as the American University in Cairo. For twenty-three years, he taught journalism students at Cal Poly and reporters and editors at the Telegram-Tribune in San Luis Obispo. He also served as Chair of the Department of Journalism and was the founding director of the Brock Center for Agricultural Communication. Jim spent his retirement years coaching and mentoring new generations of writers in person and online.
David Kerley
David Kerley began his broadcasting career in radio, as the news director for KCPR-FM in San Luis Obispo. He eventually became the Senior Transportation Correspondent for ABC News based in Washington, DC. He joined the network in 2004 and covered aviation, railroads, the automobile industry, and space for all ABC News broadcast and digital properties, including "World News Tonight," "Good Morning America," "Nightline," ABC News Radio, and ABCNews.com. He is now the owner of Full Throttle, a newsletter covering the transportation industry.
David Kraft
From starting his career at the local newspaper while still a Cal Poly student to running the news division of a multi-platform sports media giant, Kraft has been part of a remarkable journalism evolution. He began at the SLO Telegram-Tribune as a sportswriter, joined Volleyball Monthly magazine as a writer/editor, and has spent more than a quarter century at ESPN. He was part of a team that built ESPN’s website into one of the largest in the world and is the company’s Vice President of News, responsible for news coverage on SportsCenter, ESPN's digital properties and other broadcasts. He has been part of teams earning numerous Webby and Online Journalism Association awards, as well as two Emmys.
Mark Looker
Mark Looker is owner of Looker Communications Consulting, a Modesto-based business specializing in providing communications services to agricultural organizations in the San Joaquin Valley of California. Mark specializes in monitoring state and federal legislative and regulatory items of interest to the California agriculture industry with dissemination of timely information to targeted audiences. His clients have included the Almond Board of California, the Almond Alliance of California, the California Poultry Federation and Western United Dairy.
Conan Nolan
Conan Nolan began his broadcasting career at KVEC Radio in 1980. He later made the transition to television (KSBY TV and KSBW TV). He has reported for KNBC TV in Los Angeles since 1986. Conan has covered countless fires, floods, earthquakes. He reported from Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom and Pakistan during the war in Afghanistan. Awards include an Emmy for his report on child refugees along the Afghan border and a Golden Mic on the South Pacific Island nation of Tuvalu and the consequences of global warming. As the station’s political correspondent, Conan has attended over a dozen party conventions and is NBC4’s lead reporter on the 2024 campaign.
Tracy Ozmina
After graduating from Cal Poly’s Journalism program with a concentration in public relations, Tracey joined Kinko’s Service Corporation in a communications and training role which expanded into business systems analysis and technology. She then went on to become IT Director at Flambeau Products Corporation in Cleveland Ohio. Tracey joined Sage Publishing in 2000 as the company’s Chief Information Officer and then, in 2004, took on responsibility for US operations in addition to global technology in the combined role of CIO & COO. In 2020, Tracey was promoted to President and Global COO and currently oversees operations across the US and UK, India, and Asia Pacific. Founded in 1965 by Sara Miller McCune, Sage is a privately held, global academic publisher of books, journals, and library resources for the higher education market.
Lauren Rabaino
Lauren Rabaino is Vox Media’s COO, overseeing product, design, engineering, info & media tech, and analytics teams. Her role is a keystone across the executive team, all departments and newsrooms. With a decade at Vox Media, she’s held roles like chief of staff, executive director of operations, and product director and product manager. Prior to Vox Media, Lauren was the news applications editor at The Seattle Times, and worked at journalism startups like Publish2, Spot.us, and CoPress aimed at reinventing the media industry. She is also a former media blogger and reporter for Mediabistro and small local outlets in rural California.
Class of 2018
View a video of the awards presentation here. Click here to view the current Hall of Fame nominees and purchase a ticket to the gala on October 27.
Bruce Flohr
While still a broadcast journalism student, Flohr was hired at RCA to lead the alternative radio promotion department. From there he worked his way up to senior vice president of A&R, signing bands such as Dave Matthews Band and Foo Fighters. In 2002, he joined Red Light Management and helped build one of the biggest management companies in the business, managing artists such as Dave Matthews Band, Luke Bryan, Chris Stapleton and Allen Stone. Flohr is also a founding partner of Greenlight Media as well as a frequent speaker at conferences and universities around the world. He is on record stating that his music business career would not have been possible without KCPR.
Susan Houghton
Houghton has more than 30 years of experience in public affairs, corporate communications and philanthropy. The former Mustang Daily reporter and public affairs director/ reporter at KCPR started her career as a journalist at KSBY-TV, KFSN-TV and KMGX-FM and later served in leadership and managerial roles at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, UC Berkeley, Cal State Bakersfield, Allan Hancock College, Pacific Gas & Electric Co., Safeway and Contel. She has personally founded three non-profit organizations. One, Sunflower Hill, is developing vocational options and residential communities for individuals with special needs. It was named Nonprofit of the Year in 2017.
Kevin Riggs
An award-winning television news anchor and reporter for 40 years, Riggs has covered the major local, state and national stories of the day, including the Columbine shooting, Oklahoma City bombing and the highly contested 2000 U.S. presidential election. The Emmy-winning political journalist got his start as a journalism student producing news for KCPR. He now leads strategic communication efforts for statewide political campaigns, businesses and non-profits as senior vice president at Randle Communications in Sacramento. True to his journalistic roots, he also delivers regular political analysis, The Riggs Report, for KCRA-TV in California’s capital.
Ed J. Zuchelli
As faculty adviser to KCPR from 1969 to 1986, this veteran broadcaster helped the fledgling 1.7-watt radio lab mature into a 2,000-watt, 24-hour news and music station. A lifelong sports enthusiast, “Zuke” also was known as the voice of Cal Poly football and basketball in the 1970s. The World War II veteran also served on the city council in Santa Maria, where he was instrumental in securing the license for the city’s television station, KCOY.
2016 INAUGURAL YEAR
Robert Kennedy
Cal Poly professor and administrator, El Mustang adviser and university public relations director, this former reporter helped to found the Journalism Department. Kennedy served as Cal Poly’s president from 1967 to 1979, a period of tremendous growth. A standing tribute to his legacy is the campus library that bears his name.
Bruce McPherson
Former California Secretary of State, state representative and senator, McPherson was an El Mustang student reporter before rising through the ranks at the Santa Cruz Sentinel, the newspaper founded by his grandfather, and then launching a successful career in politics that continues to this day. He now represents the 5th District on the Santa Cruz Board of Supervisors.
George Ramos
A key contributor to three Pulitzer Prizes won by the Los Angeles Times, Ramos was a Mustang Daily sports editor and editor-in-chief; Vietnam veteran; Los Angeles Times reporter, editor and columnist; and Cal Poly Journalism Department chair. He was instrumental in founding the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and the Chicano News Media Association.
Al Yankovic
Known professionally as “Weird Al” Yankovic, this four-time Grammy winner is the best-selling comedy recording artist in history. The former KCPR-FM student DJ famously recorded his first breakout hit, “My Bologna,” at Cal Poly. He has just completed a wildly successful Mandatory World Tour following the release in 2015 of his No. 1 album, Mandatory Fun.
The purpose of the Journalism Department's Mustang Media Hall of Fame is:
- To honor and acknowledge those individuals who have made significant contributions to the student media organizations in the Journalism Department or those who have used their student media experience to launch successful careers. This includes alumni, faculty and staff who have been active participants in El Mustang, Mustang Daily, Mustang News, KCPR, CPTV or CCPR.
- To recognize the value of having a vibrant student media operation at the center of the Journalism Department’s Learn by Doing curriculum.
- To engage honorees, the campus and the community in important conversations about journalism integrity at the Jim Hayes Symposium and other Journalism Department events where inductees will be honored.
- To advance the profile of student media and the Journalism Department.
Guidelines for Nominations:
Nominees may be Cal Poly alumni, faculty or staff who embody the power of Learn by Doing. The university considers alumni to be anyone who attended Cal Poly; they do not need to be graduates of Cal Poly. Honorees may be inducted posthumously, but those who are still with us would be expected to attend the induction event. We seek nominees who have:
- Participated in El Mustang, Mustang Daily, Mustang News, KCPR, CPTV, or CCPR
- Distinguished themselves in their profession or element of prominence
- Demonstrated social responsibility in giving back to their profession, community or Cal Poly