ONA and SPJ at UGA Alumni Advisory Committee
Below is a list of ONA and SPJ at UGA’s distinguished alumni. Feel free to reach out to them for career advice or to learn more about their roles in the journalism industry.
Lindsey Cook, U.S. News & World Report: Lindsey Cook is a data editor at U.S. News & World Report where she runs the Data Mine blog, serves as the graphics editor for the newsroom and combines data, journalism and coding into new projects. At UGA (’14), she studied journalism and computer science, served in several positions at The Red & Black and interned at The Washington Post, The AJC, Voice of America and Online Athens. The news nerds field is far less diverse than journalism as a whole. Throughout her career, Lindsey has worked to support diversify by starting UGA’s ONA/SPJ chapter, leading training sessions, conducting research as an AP-Google Scholar on women in computer science and speaking out on diversity issues.
Whitney Wyszynski, POPVOX: Whitney Wyszynski is the digital strategy manager at POPVOX, a nonpartisan advocacy platform that combines real-time legislative data with personal stories in a format optimized for Congress. She graduated from UGA in 2014 with degrees in journalism and political science. During her time on campus, she served as a student judge for The Peabody Awards and held multiple roles in the Student Government Association and Delta Zeta sorority. She also co-founded the ONA/SPJ group with Lindsey Cook and Alex Laughlin.
Alex Laughlin, The Washington Post: Alex Laughlin is a social media producer at The Washington Post. She is also the producer of The Ladycast podcast. Previously, she was an audience engagement manager at National Journal. She graduated from UGA in 2014 with a women’s studies major, English minor and interdisciplinary writing certificate. While at UGA, she held positions at The Red & Black, WUGA, Recipe for Press, Mandala Journal, HLN and USA TODAY. She also co-founded the ONA/SPJ group with Lindsey Cook and Whitney Wyszynski and has freelanced for Flagpole and NPR’s Code Switch blog. Outside of work, Alex is super interested in conversations of how race, class, gender and sexuality influence the way stories are told — as well as whose stories are told.
Julia Carpenter, The Washington Post: Julia Carpenter is a digital audience producer at The Washington Post. In addition to integrating user-generated content across The Post’s newsroom, she pilots Tumblr and Snapchat strategy. But her favorite thing is creating intimate conversation spaces within the wide, wide Internet — like when veterans discuss their experiences transitioning from military to civilian life within a closed Facebook group; or when teen parents share their stories of pregnancy and beyond; or when thousands of people leave voicemail messages describing the biggest lesson they learned in the past year. At UGA, Julia majored in English, journalism and The Red & Black.
Lesley Hauler, AOL.com: Lesley Hauler lives and works in New York City as an audience engagement editor for AOL.com, where she focuses on trending content and social media strategy. She graduated from University of Georgia in 2015 with an ABJ in Digital and Broadcast Journalism and a New Media certificate. While in school, she was a member of the Di Gamma Kappa broadcasting society, the Influence Director of ONA/SPJ and the president of the Student Honor Board for the Peabody Awards. During her college career, Lesley gained experience in journalism working at The Red & Black on campus, WTOC in Savannah and CNN in Atlanta.