Alumni Profiles
UM Journalism graduates go on to report for national outlets, produce documentaries, photograph history, run newsrooms, shape public policy, and build companies. Here’s a look at where a UM Journalism degree can take you.
Tailyr Irvine ’18
Independent Photojournalist & Co-Founder, Indigenous Photograph · National Geographic Explorer
“I want to photograph Natives being people. Showing the other side of what Native America looks like — from somebody who’s from Native America — was really important to me.”
Tailyr Irvine grew up on the Flathead Reservation in Northwest Montana and graduated from the UM School of Journalism in 2018. She found her way to photography almost by accident — a required Media History and Literacy course showed her images from 9/11, and the lasting impact of those photographs convinced her that storytelling through a camera was exactly what she wanted to do.
After working in newsrooms at The Dallas Morning News and Tampa Bay Times, she launched a career as an independent journalist and documentary photographer whose work centers on Indigenous communities — not the stereotypes, but the full, complex reality. Her commissions include the New York Times, Washington Post, ESPN, CNN, and the Smithsonian. She is a National Geographic Explorer and co-founder of Indigenous Photograph, a global database dedicated to expanding Indigenous representation in the media industry.
In 2026, her photographic exhibition “Beyond Bison: Returning Land to the Original Stewards” opened at the Missoula Art Museum — a multi-year project documenting Indigenous land stewardship and identity on the Flathead Reservation and beyond. She appeared on PBS NewsHour’s “Brief But Spectacular” series in January 2026 to discuss her “Reservation Mathematics” project, which uses photography to explore how the federal blood quantum system shapes love, family, and identity in Native America.
“Putting people in other people’s shoes is kind of why I got into this,” she has said. “I think you don’t have to even speak the same language to understand what’s going on in a photo.”
Jiakai “JK” Lou ’20
Documentary Filmmaker & Visual Storyteller · National Hearst Multimedia Champion
“I gradually found my passion for visual storytelling when I was a sophomore. Then I heard the School of Journalism at UM is one of the best in the country. I decided to dive in.”
Jiakai Lou came to the University of Montana from Zhejiang, China, drawn by a love of the American West and outdoor adventure. He didn’t arrive planning to be a filmmaker. But a visit to the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour in Missoula sparked something, and by his sophomore year he had transferred into the School of Journalism to pursue visual storytelling in earnest.
The result was a body of work that caught national attention while he was still a student. His short documentary “32 Below” — filmed during brutal winter nights on a Montana ranch, documenting a family’s calving season — won first place in the Hearst Journalism Awards’ Multimedia Narrative Video Storytelling competition, chosen from 88 entries across 54 schools. It was also selected to premiere at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival. He went on to win the Hearst national multimedia championship outright, becoming the overall national champion.
Lou has since built a career as a documentary filmmaker and visual storyteller working internationally — living with ranchers in frigid winters, traveling with Indigenous communities, mountaineering at 19,000 feet in the Andes. His path from international student to national award winner at UM illustrates what the school’s learn-by-doing philosophy can produce when a student commits fully to their craft.
Nate Schweber ’01
Freelance Metro Reporter · The New York Times
“It wasn’t just learning journalism, it was doing journalism. That was so helpful when I got into the real world.”
After interning at Rolling Stone right out of UM, Schweber built a freelance career covering New York City — crime, politics, breaking news — for the Times and other publications. He says the Montana Kaimin habit of writing three or four stories a day gave him something no classroom alone could: the discipline to always be generating, always pitching, always working. He still calls former UM professors when he runs into ethics questions. His advice for making freelancing work: “Cultivate relationships with editors — if you have a handful you work for regularly, you can make ends meet.”
Nathan Rott '09
Environment Reporter · NPR
“There are a lot of people like me who came from that school and are proud of it. We are where we are today because of that school.”
Rott covers wildfires, endangered species, and climate for NPR’s national desk — and says he came to journalism almost by accident, hooked by a reporting class that was “at once the hardest educational experience I’ve ever had, but also just so, so awesome.” He spent years freelancing and working seasonally before landing a Stone and Holt Weeks Fellowship that placed him in newsrooms at the Washington Post and NPR. A two-month contract became two years of month-by-month work, which became a full-time reporter position.
Breanna McCabe ’09
Documentary Filmmaker & Video Producer
“I care deeply about nature, and I worry about our planet’s future. I see storytelling as my best shot at making a difference for future generations.”
McCabe graduated from UM, worked in video production and university communications, then returned for a graduate degree in Environmental Science and Natural Resource Journalism — producing a documentary about whitebark pine trees along the Montana-Canada border. “I feel so fortunate every time someone opens up to me,” she says. “It’s an incredible feeling when someone trusts you with their story.”
Thea Bergeron ’99
Senior Creative Video Producer · Nike
“You have to be the best at what you do — and be kind to everyone, because it all comes back around.”
Bergeron has filmed from helicopters, private planes, trains, and speeding SUVs — most of it for Nike, where she’s worked as a senior creative producer for over seven years, traveling from Dubai to Japan to Uruguay. She got there through internships, long nights, and a genuine love of storytelling: “My job has provided me with a lifetime of unforgettable experiences.”