UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Three Penn State alumni, an honorary University alumna, and a faculty member have been selected as recipients of top annual awards from the College of Communications Alumni Society Board.
The award recipients will be recognized during a luncheon on Monday, Sept. 12, on the University Park campus.
Those selected for the honors were:
- Tyler Walk, a 2006 film-video graduate, who earned the Emerging Professional Award;
- Nina Jack, a 1992 film-video graduate, who earned the Outstanding Alumni Award;
- Lou Prato, a 1958 journalism graduate, who earned the Alumni Achievement Award;
- Barbara Palmer, president of the Palmer Foundation, who was named the Anderson Communications Coordinator; and
- Kevin Hagopian, a senior lecturer in the Department of Film-Video and Media Studies, who earned the Excellence in Teaching Award.
Emerging Professional, Tyler Walk
Walk is a Cinema Eye Award-winning and Emmy-nominated editor. His films have premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, Toronto Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, and have received numerous awards and accolades. The documentaries Walk edits often tell the stories surrounding marginalized populations and progressive social issues.
He has worked on projects that include Michael Moore’s “Where to Invade Next,” David France’s Oscar-nominated documentary “How to Survive a Plague,” Sara Taksler’s “Tickling Giants,” and Eric Weinrib’s “Roseanne for President!”
The Emerging Professional Award is presented annually to recent alumni (10 years or less since graduation) for professional achievement and/or distinguished community service.
Outstanding Alumni, Nina Jack
Jack is a television producer who has also won awards for her work as a director. She has earned two Emmy nominations for AMC’s “Better Call Saul,” and is a currently co-executive producer for the show’s third season.
She also serves as a supervising producer for Season 4 of “Black Sails,” which shoots in Cape Town, South Africa, and was co-producer of Season 5 of “Mad Men.” Prior to producing, she was an assistant director and her credits include: “Breaking Bad,” “Mad Men,” “Togetherness,” “Jericho,” “The Office,” “The Break-up” and “The X-Files.”
Jack was a six-time Director’s Guild of America (DGA) award nominee as first assistant director on directorial teams for both “Breaking Bad” and “Mad Men.” She got her start in the DGA trainee program in New York from 1995-97, and says “I wholly credit my Penn State film professors for recognizing my skills and guiding me to that program.”
A native of Pittsburgh, she lives in Culver City, California, with her husband.
The Outstanding Alumni Award is presented to a graduate of the college who has demonstrated excellence in the field of communications, contributed significantly to their profession, and gained an exemplary reputation among colleagues and students within his or her community.
Alumni Achievement, Lou Prato
Prato is the foremost authority on Penn State football and the history of Penn State athletics. The first director of the Penn State All-Sports Museum, he has written seven books and hundreds of articles about Penn State athletics and football.
His career began at The Daily Collegian, where he was sports editor in 1958. Since then, Prato followed a journalistic road that included 40 years as a news director in the broadcast industry; the director of Northwestern’s journalism program in Washington, D.C.; and as a instructor and guest lecturer in several courses in Penn State’s College of Communications.
As the first director of the All-Sports Museum, Prato was the primary person in charge of construction, development and initial collections, literally overseeing the project from the ground up. He has dedicated thousands of hours as a volunteer to his alma mater, serving as an original member of the College of Communications Alumni Society Board, working on the All-Sports Museum Board, speaking to alumni groups from coast to coast, and mentoring numerous Penn Staters through the decades.
The Achievement Award is presented to a College of Communications graduate or friend of the college whose significant contributions to the college and/or University, in terms of time and talent, have brought distinction to themselves, the college and the University.
Anderson Communications Contributor, Barbara Palmer
Palmer is a 1946 graduate of Iowa State and an honorary alumna of Penn State. After moving to State College in 1953, she served on the board of directors of C-COR Electronics, where her husband, Jim, was CEO for 25 years.
Palmer was active in the State College community as the first woman president of the Centre County United Way, vice president of the Hemlock Girl Scout Council, a volunteer at the Park Forest Day Nursery, and numerous other service agencies. She has also supported Centre Volunteers in Medicine, as well as national organizations devoted to health and well-being as she funds a genetic research project for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.
She and her husband established the Palmer Chair in Telecommunications in the College of Communications. She also served on the steering committee for Penn State’s Grand Destiny campaign and is on the advisory board of the Palmer Museum of Art at Penn State. The Palmers provided the lead gift to renovate and expand the Palmer Museum of Art, as well as creating funds for faculty and students at both Penn State and Iowa State.
The Douglas A. Anderson Communications Contributor Award is presented to an individual in the field of communications as they relate to the College of Communications, Penn State and/or the Commonwealth, to acknowledge their contributions and achievements.
Excellence in Teaching, Kevin Hagopian
Hagopian has been teaching cinema studies and media studies at Penn State for 15 years. He earned doctorate and master’s degrees from the University of Wisconsin, and he received his bachelor’s degree from Illinois State University.
Before joining the Penn State faculty, Hagopian served as a senior analyst for Kenny and Associates Inc., a national corporate communications consulting firm, and as editor of the Film Literature Index for the State University of New York Research Foundation. He taught for several years at the University of Memphis, where he won the first-ever Thomas W. Briggs Foundation Award for distinguished teaching.
Hagopian’s writing on film has appeared in academic journals, daily newspapers, and online. He also teaches film history and theory, and has been quoted as an expert on the movie industry for publications such as the Boston Globe, Dallas Morning News, Christian Science Monitor, CNBC, and The Washington Post, and by the French television network Canal Plus.
Communications faculty who has demonstrated excellence in teaching, contributed significantly to the growth of students’ learning, and gained an exemplary reputation among colleagues, students and alumni.