Elon University has presented its alumni awards for years, but starting this year, each school or college can now honor its respective distinguished alumni.
Elon alumni Jo Craven McGinty, Class of 1985 and Doug Finberg, Class of 1994, were chosen as the inaugural recipients of the School of Communications Distinguished Alumni Award. McGinty is a projects editor at The New York Times, and Finberg is the executive vice president of marketing for MGM Studios in Los Angeles.
“Our school has terrific alumni who spread the name of Elon all over the world and who help current students secure internships and begin careers,” said Paul Parsons, Dean of the School of Communications. “We appreciate our alumni, and we want to start recognizing those who are doing great things.”
McGinty won a Pulitzer Prize for a story she proposed about police shootings when she worked at The Washington Post. She has also contributed to another Pulitzer Prize-winning team atThe New York Times.
“It was great that they put a team together to pursue a story I had proposed, and it was exciting because it was the biggest project I had worked on,” she said. “It was the first Public Service Pulitzer the Post had won since Watergate.”
McGinty found out she would receive this award a few weeks ago, and she said she was both surprised and pleased.
“I haven’t really communicated with Elon in a while and it was just nice to hear from them and an honor for this reason,” she said.
Finberg has maintained communication with the university and delivered Elon’s commencement address in 2008 when he was senior vice president for international marketing at Paramount Pictures.
Parsons invited nominations from the Awards Committee, composed of faculty members from the School of Communications. The School will present McGinty and Finberg with the award in April.