2000s

Nathaniel Cerf M.A. '03 signed a contract for his novel "Missoula Noir: Tough Gumshoe, Fast Women, Slow Town." The dark comedy murder mystery will be released in November. "It's through a small publisher, but they aren't asking for a penny and will actually pay me. Yippee," Cerf wrote.

Garrison Courtney ’00 was promoted in September 2004 as the new — and first — press secretary for the Border and Transportation Security Directorate under Asa Hutchison in Homeland Security in D.C. He works with more than 100,000 law enforcement employees in TSA, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. “I think I am going to be very, very busy,” he says. “But, I love it; it proves to be a daily challenge.” Garrison worked as a weatherman at KPAX in Missoula, and in Eugene, Ore., and then got into government public relations, first with INS and then Homeland Security.

Candy Buster ‘02 recently moved to Chicago to work for the Northwest Herald in Crystal Lake, Ill. She will design pages and copy edit. Buster previously worked for the Anderson (S.C.) Independent-Mail.

Brenna Chapman ’02 is working as a photographer and writer with Shoreline Publications, newspapers that cover the Connecticut shoreline. Chapman and her colleagues have the job of revamping the publication. Chapman theorizes that what sold her boss on hiring her was when he saw just how excited she was about buoys frozen solid in the bay. “I guess if that can excite me, he figured anything can,” Chapman said.

Garrett Cheen ’04 had a photograph published in the New York Times on Oct. 22, 2004. He is photo editor at the Livingston Enterprise.

Sam DeWitt '01 is back in his native Colorado, working as the assistant media relations director in the athletics department of the Metropolitan State College of Denver. He's also the lead singer of a popular local band in Denver, lazyface. Visit the band Web site at www.lazyfacemusic.com.

Ryan Divish ‘00 is sports editor at the Havre Daily News.

Chad Dundas ’00 is in the creative writing master’s program at UM and also teaches composition to unsuspecting freshmen.

Matt Hayes ‘04 opened a month-long show with a reception at Gallery Saintonge in Missoula on Feb. 4. Hayes’ project, “Lost on Route 93,” depicts life along a stretch of U.S. Highway 93 that runs through western Montana and Idaho.

Lisa Hornstein '04 spent the summer after graduation at the Poynter Institute Summer Fellowship in St. Petersburg, Fla. After driving back to Montana she flew to London for a semester with Syracuse's Newhouse School. Living in London and traveling all over Europe, she wrote, broadened her photography and her vision for her work. in late January she returned to the U.S., where she planned to start a photo agency/collective with Matt Hayes, called RedShutter. "All I've really been doing is making photographs of new things I stumble upon in the London underground and along the English countryside," she wrote.

Katie Klingsporn ’04 is a reporter at the Daily Triplicate in Crescent City, Calif. Her most interesting recent interview, she reports, was with aviator Chuck Yeager.

Courtney Lowery ’02 left her job with the Associated Press to join former Pollner Professor Jonathan Weber in his online news site, newwest.net.

Kate Medley ’04 held a temporary job at the William J. Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock, Ark., where she took a distinctive photo of former Washington Post reporter Carl Bernstein putting the finishing touches on his notes before delivering a keynote address at a banquet in Little Rock. She’ll move to Oxford, Miss., in the fall to take classes in the Southern studies program at the University of Mississippi.

Paige Parker ’00 married Ryan Frank outside of Portland on July 2, 2005. She is a reporter at the Oregonian.

Jenn Ruddy '02 is the editor of a political magazine in Regina, Saskatchewan. In the fall of 2005, she started a Master's degree in political science with an emphasis on women's involvement in Saskatchewan politics.

Julie Sarasqueta ’00 was married in May 2004 to Greg Hahn. She left her job at the Idaho Statesman to take a job in the communications office at Boise State.

Nate Schweber ’01 lives in Harlem, plays with a band called Blame Hound, and in his spare time does freelance writing. He previously worked for the Herald News in West Paterson, N.J.

Ben Shors M.A. ’01 spent three months in Germany last fall on a fellowship that included giving a talk that drew 350 people to a university to hear him discuss the U.S. media and politics. He’s back at his job as a reporter for the Spokesman Review.

Anne Sundberg Siess, M.A.’03, is a half-time grammar and English composition instructor at a technical college in Wisconsin. She had been a home improvement and real estate improvement reporter at the Manitowoc Herald Times in Manitowoc, Wisc. Anne and her husband, Ryan, welcomed Wyatt Richard Siess on July 2, 2004.

Patia Stephens '00 is the University of Montana's Web content manager and an editor with University Relations. She joined UM's creative writing program last fall, working toward an MFA degree with a nonfiction emphasis.

Sanjay Talwani x M.A. '01 worked for Sen. Byron Dorgan in D.C. for about a year -and-a-half, and was planning to move back into journalism once the election was done. He and his wife, Danna, were also expecting a baby last February. Talwani wrote: "I'm planning to stay at home for a while and once again begin free-lancing. Before I started here, I had some pretty good relationships with a couple of publications, so I'll probably revive them. I'll look for a full-time reporter job in the meantime, but I'm being pretty selective and only plan to apply for things I think are really worthwhile."

Matt Thompson ’00 is in his second year of a two-year Peace Corps stint in Bulgaria.

Ron Tschida, M.A. ’02, took a job in May as communications coordinator for the Global Environmental Management Education Center in the College of Natural Resources at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. Ron says, “We’re excited to be going back closer to family and think this will be a great move for our little family of four.” Ron had been city editor of the Bozeman Chronicle.

Lido Vizzutti '02 put together a movie of three trips he took to Camp Shelby, Miss. View the movie at www.timesfreepress.com/shelby.html.

Adam Weinacker ’04 has left the Redding (Calif.) Searchlight to accept a job on the copy desk at the Billings Gazette.

Ann Williamson ’00 is a photographer at The Topeka (Kan.) Capital Journal.

Josi Carlson ’04 has accepted a job with the Ivy League Office, which is based in Princeton, N.J., and covers Ivy League sports teams.

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