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Communication Alumni Hall of Fame 2010
The Department of Communication at the University of Washington inducted six new members into its Alumni Hall of Fame on Oct. 21 at the University of Washington Club. Read more about the event >>
This year's inductees are:
- Betsy Bach: Ph.D., 1985
Distinguished professor and respected academic - Margaret Fimia: B.A., 1989; M.A., 1992
Former County and City Councilmember - Robert McChesney: M.A., 1986; Ph.D., 1989
Award winning author and professor, media activist
- E. M. "Eddie" Pasatiempo: B.A., 1977
Leader in management and organizational leadership, community activist - Herbert F. (Herb) Robinson: B.A., 1949 (posthumous)
Award-winning television and newspaper journalist - Joseph Slate: B.A., 1951
Author of 17 noted children's books, painter, journalist, professor
The Communication Alumni Hall of Fame Award is bestowed upon a University of Washington Communication graduate and is presented annually by the UW Department of Communication. The award is for outstanding alumni who are distinguished for their service and achievements over a period of years since graduation from the University of Washington.
Hall of Fame members are people who have “made a difference” in an important way: as prominent journalists (e.g., winners of the Pulitzer Prize), public servants, celebrities who have used that celebrity to help others, leaders in their field, devoted mentors to our students and academic stand-outs. They are people who did more than just have a job or career; they did it with great success and often with great dedication to others. Since its inception in 2004, 55 alumni have received this prestigious honor. Inductees are chosen on the basis of involvement and recognition in their community. This is judged by the number of people and organizations impacted by their involvement, the breadth of their impact, and the quality and quantity of evidence of national or international recognition.
The Communication Alumni Hall of Fame selection committee consists of all living members of the Alumni Hall of Fame and the department chair and alumni outreach manager. Committee members receive ballots in April and selection is generally determined in May or early June and the winners notified shortly thereafter.
You can nominate an outstanding alum for the 2011 Hall of Fame. Read more >>
Betsy Bach: Ph.D., 1985
Betsy Bach is Professor of Communication Studies at the University of Montana, where she has served on the faculty since 1983. From 1999-2005, she served in two administrative roles: Assistant Provost for Enrollment Management and Retention, and then as Interim Dean of the Davidson Honors College from 2003-2005, both at the University of Montana. She has been an adjunct faculty member at the Chalice of Repose Project at St. Patrick Hospital, where she offered communication courses to graduate students preparing to be music thanatologists — people who use song and harp to counsel the dying. She is a past president the National Communication Association and she has served as president of the Western States Communication Association. She specializes in organizational communication and her two major research areas are the mentoring and socialization of organizational newcomers. She received the University of Montana's Distinguished Teacher Award in 1991 and the Master Teacher Award from the Western States Communication Association in 1992.
Margaret Fimia: B.A., 1989; M.A., 1992
Margaret Fimia received an associate degree in nursing from Nassau Community College ('70), a bachelor’s degree in speech communication and a master’s degree in public affairs from the University of Washington. As a member of the King County Council (1994 to 2001), she served on several committees including: the Puget Sound Regional Council Transportation Committee and chaired their first Transportation Pricing Committee. She also served on the State Commute Trip Reduction Task Force; the County Law, Justice and Human Service committee and Regional Water Quality Committee. She successfully lobbied for neighborhood traffic calming, clean diesel buses, significantly more & better bus service, low fares, & bus rapid transit. Following a “No” vote by the public, she worked to minimize public financing of the new baseball stadium. As a Shoreline City Council member (2003-2007), she brought historically opposing groups to increase public participation, reduce overhead, fund basic infrastructure and increase environmental protection. She has been the Co-Chair of CETA, the Coalition for Effective Transportation Alternatives since 2001. Margaret is married to Don Moe MD.
Robert McChesney: M.A., 1986; Ph.D., 1989
Robert McChesney is Research Professor in the Institute of Communications Research and the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is also the Executive Director of the Illinois Fellowships in Media and Communication Policy Program and the President and co-founder of Free Press, a national media reform organization. He hosts the Media Matters weekly radio program every Sunday afternoon on WILL-AM radio. His academic work concentrates on the history and political economy of communication, emphasizing the role media play in democratic and capitalist societies. He has written or edited eleven books, including: Media and Empire: The United States and Global Communication; The Problem of the Media: U.S. Communication Politics in the 21st Century; the award-winning Telecommunications, Mass Media, and Democracy: The Battle for the Control of U.S. Broadcasting, 1928-1935; and Corporate Media and the Threat to Democracy. He has written some 150 journal articles and book chapters and another 150 newspaper pieces, magazine articles and book reviews. His work appears in twelve languages. In 2001, Adbusters magazine named him one of the Nine Pioneers of Mental Environmentalism. McChesney co-edits, with John Nerone, the History of Communication series for the University of Illinois Press, serves on the editorial boards of several journals, and is a research advisor to numerous academic and civic organizations. While teaching at Wisconsin, he was selected as one of the top 100 classroom teachers on the Madison campus. Prior to entering graduate school in 1983, McChesney was a sports stringer for UPI, published a weekly newspaper, and in 1979 was the founding publisher of The Rocket, a Seattle-based rock magazine. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in his hometown of Cleveland, credits the founding of The Rocket to the birth of the Seattle rock scene of the late 1980s and 1990s.
E. M. "Eddie" Pasatiempo: B.A., 1977
Since 2008, E. M. "Eddie" Pasatiempo has been a senior client partner in the Seattle office of Korn/Ferry International. He focuses on senior and board-level search assignments as a member of the firm’s Global Technology practice. Pasatiempo has more than 25 years of senior leadership experience. Most recently, he was Senior Vice President of Global Sales and International Field Operations for Capartis. In this capacity, VAR Magazine recognized him as one of the “Top 75 Channel Executives in North America. Prior to Capartis, he served as the Pacific Northwest Territory President for EDS. He also spent more than 15 years with IBM, finishing his term as the Director of Operations Asia Pacific. His areas of expertise include global sales, marketing, executive coaching, management and organizational leadership. Pasatiempo has long been active in area advisory boards. He is the current president of the UW Alumni Association and he sits on the Pacific Northwest Advisory Board of BMO Harris Private Banking. He is also on the board of directors for the Washington Technology Industry Association. Past volunteer board positions include the Albers School of Business, Seattle University; the UW Center of Innovation and Entrepreneurship; Washington Athletic Club; the Columbia Tower Club; the World Trade Center of Seattle; and the Seattle Humane Society. Pasatiempo has also become a regular visitor to the UW Department of Communication, serving in a variety of mentorship roles for Communication undergraduate students. He is a member of the Big “W” Club, the Seattle Rotary Club, and the 101 Club. He also served as an MBA Program Mentor for the UW School of Business.
Herbert F. (Herb) Robinson: B.A., 1949 (posthumous)
Herbert F. (Herb) Robinson was an award-winning television and newspaper journalist in Seattle who served as lead editorial writer for The Seattle Times from 1977 to 1989 and as anchor, news director, and on-air host at KOMO Television in the pioneering years of 1953 to 1965. As a UW student, he was the campus correspondent for The Seattle Times. His college career was interrupted by World War II, where he saw combat in Burma. He left the service as a captain and returned to the UW to earn his degree in journalism. In 1954, television was a new medium on the scene and Robinson joined KOMO-TV to host a daily news program called Deadline. The show received a Sylvania Television Award in 1956 for outstanding local and special-events programs. Robinson left television and returned to The Seattle Times where he wrote editorials. Over 20 years, he produced thousands of pieces. The Municipal League honored him in 1983 and the Washington State School Directors Association in 1973 for his contributions to understanding public policy issues. After retiring in 1989, Robinson turned to writing novels. In 1993, he enrolled in a fiction class at the University of Washington. He became a regular at writing-practice sessions held twice weekly at Tio's (renamed Louisa's) Cafe on Eastlake Avenue in Seattle. He wrote there for 10 years. Robinson was in the process of seeking an agent and publishing venues for his fiction when he died in 2003.
Joseph Slate: B.A., 1951
Joseph Slate is an award-winning author of children’s books and a painter. He began his career as a journalist. Serving as editor of The Daily where he was awarded the University of Washington Top-Flight Award for journalism (1951). He joined the staff of The Seattle Times in 1951, working as a reporter for three years before becoming editor for Foreign Broadcast Information Service in 1955, a job he held until 1959. He attended Yale University, completing a BFA in 1960. In 1962, Slate began as an instructor at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. He became a professor of art in 1969, serving as chair of the art department from 1963 to 1975 and again from 1981 to 1982. He has served as a consultant and co-author with the late Professor Irvin Child of Yale University on his studies on the psychology of art (published in the fall, 1963 Art Journal as The Preconceptual Eye). He originated the National Endowment for the Arts “Fiction in Newspaper” program. Slate published his first picture book for children, The Star Rocker, in 1982. The story is a reworking of the Greek myth of Cassiopea. Since then, Slate has published 16 other books for children. His most popular books are the Miss Bindergarten series about a border-collie kindergarten teacher and her classroom. The books help to introduce young children to the idea of school and some of the things and activities they might encounter there, while reinforcing the alphabet and number skills. Merry Makers, Inc. created a Miss Bindergarten doll a musical based on two of the Miss Bindergarten books ran a 19-city tour in 2009.
