The 2025-2026 academic year has officially come to a close, and we are delighted to welcome the class of 2026 to our Alumni COMMunity! On June 9th, faculty, staff, friends, family, and loved ones celebrated over 300 graduates earning their bachelors, masters, and one doctorate.
We are so proud of you class of 2026, and we can’t wait to see what you do next!
The Alumni Corner
Nominations now open for the Alumni of Distinction Awards
Nominations are now open for the Outstanding Early Career Award, Excellence in Mentoring Award, Communication Leadership Award, and Alumni Hall of Fame. Learn more about each award and how to submit your nominations before July 19!
UW Communication explores Los Angeles
In February, a group of eight Communication students traveled to sunny Los Angeles to meet with 9 UW alumni and explore career paths in communication. Read more about where they went and what they learned.
UW Communication News
Driven by Students, Backed by Community: Inside Communication’s MA/PhD Program
UW Communication is committed to rigorous, relevant scholarship that speaks to public challenges and promotes social progress. The MA/PhD program embodies these values. Learn more about the impressive research of our MA and PhD students.
Lost Credits Podcast Explores the Impact of Black Girls on Screen
Associate Professor Dr. Timeka Tounsel and collaborator Dr. Ashleigh Greene Wade (University of Virginia) launched Lost Credits, a documentary podcast analyzing the portrayal of black girls and women in U.S. popular culture. Find out more about how the podcast came to be and how it will be used in the classroom.
2026 Scheidel Lecture: Dr. Kathleen Hall Jamieson on Proactive Science Communication
Dr. Kathleen Hall Jamieson (University of Pennsylvania) spoke about proactive science communication for the UW Department of Communication’s annual Scheidel lecture. Learn more about her lecture “Preempting or Displacing Public Misconceptions About Controversial Science,” and watch the recording on our YouTube channel.
Navigate this job market
Build skills that matter most in today’s landscape – leading with impact through storytelling, strategy, and AI. Apply to the Communication Leadership Master’s Program. Rolling admissions through July 31.
Newsbites and Scholarship Spotlight
- Lori Matsukawa (MA, 1996; 2025 Communication Alumni Hall of Fame member) published Being There: Memoir of an Asian American Journalist on May 19, 2026. Matsukawa is an award-winning journalist, author, and former anchor (KING 5 News, KONG TV).
- Evelyn Iritani (BA, 1978; 2005 Communication Alumni Hall of Fame member) was featured in UW Magazine discussing her new book Safe Passage: The Untold Story of Diplomatic Intrigue, Betrayal, and the Exchange of American and Japanese Civilians by Sea During World War II. Iritani is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist.
- David Horsey (BA, 1975; 2004 Hall of Fame member) was featured in UW Magazine discussing his first novel Beach of Stars. In May, Horsey was honored by UW’s Alumni Association as this year’s Golden Graduate Distinguished Alumnus. Professor and Chair Dr. Christine Harold presented the award. Horsey is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist.
- UW Communication alum Philip H. Red Eagle (1983) was named as a key collaborator in a Viewpoint Magazine feature on “This is Native Land,” a permanent exhibition at the Washington State History Museum that shares the state’s history and culture through the voices of 100+ Indigenous contributors.
- Emily Kim (BA, 2008), co-founder and impact director of The Pastry Project, met with UW Magazine’s Aleenah Ansari to share about the origins of the project, what it means to run a social impact business, and how she developed the curriculum for their free pastry education program. Read the whole article on the University of Washington Magazine website.
- Four UW Communication faculty members will receive research funding through AI@UW’s inaugural seed grant program. UW’s new AI-related research initiative will fund Dr. Katy Pearce’s project “Scaling a classroom-tested AI tutor for research methods instruction.” Drs. Ekin Yasin, Matthew Powers, and Lara Bradshaw will receive funding for their project “Preparing Communication Students for AI-Integrated Professional and Civic Life: A multi-Level Longitudinal Study.” Read more about both studies here.
- Professor LeiLani Nishime shared her expertise on the current cultural discourse around “Wasians” (those of mixed White and Asian descent) for NPR’s It’s been a Minute podcast, “Welcome to ‘The Republic of Wasia.”
- Associate Professor Benjamin Mako Hill was named as an inaugural faculty fellow for the Center for Statistics and the Social Sciences.
- Assistant Professor Jisoo Kim co-authored “They Check Facts” vs. “Claptrap!”: How the American Public Conceptualizes Fact-Checking published in Mass Communication and Society.
- Assistant Professor Jisoo Kim’s dissertation, Misperceived Divides: How Communication Environments Contribute to or Remedy Misperceptions of Ideological and Affective Polarization, has been named the runner-up for the 2026 AEJMC (Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication) Nafziger-White-Salwen Dissertation Award. As part of this honor, Kim will present her work in a panel discussion hosted by the AEJMC Standing Committee on Research, during the AEJMC annual conference in August in New Orleans.
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