Letter from the Director: March 2026

This week I had the pleasure of meeting Mary Rogot, who established a scholarship for SJMC undergraduates in honor of her late husband, Peter, an alum who died suddenly in 1991 just after landing his dream job at ESPN. I reached out to Mary because I was traveling for a talk in Tucson, where she now lives with her husband Rick Rosen, and she was eager to get together to hear about our program and our students.

Our conversation was the ideal reminder of the things that make SJMC special.

Mary asked about Emeritus Professor Jim Hoyt. Peter was deeply appreciative of Jim as a mentor, and to this day, Jim remembers Peter calling him to discuss landing the job at ESPN and his move there. This speaks to the enduring bond between our faculty and students that stretches long beyond graduation.

She also was interested in what recipients of the Rogot Scholarship have been up to. I was happy to tell her about Ana Demendoza, a 2020 graduate. Ana started her career at Univision in Miami, working in broadcast news producing. She is now pursuing a master’s in marketing at Birkbeck, University of London. Ana is the kind of student we see all the time in SJMC – she is taking our focus on adaptability and building skills that can take her in countless directions.

Finally, Mary and Rick were interested in what we were doing in response to the challenges to truth and democracy. I was proud to share the work of the Center for Journalism Ethics, the Center for Communication and Civic Renewal, and all our researchers focused on mis- and disinformation that affects everything from voting rights to human health. We are meeting the moment, to be sure.

I was struck by how neatly this single conversation summed up the impact of this remarkable school. Through the generosity of a gift in honor of a graduate, a student received help to pursue her own dream of studying journalism. She is going on to make her way in the world in journalism and strategic communication. And a past professor’s legacy lives on in new ways. It’s a privilege to be a part of a place that makes things like this possible.

On, Wisconsin!

Kathleen Bartzen Culver
Director, School of Journalism and Mass Communication