Class 42 – Writing for targeted publics

Igbal Pittalwala is a senior public information officer in the Office of Strategic Communications at the University of California, Riverside. Working with the faculty and staff of the College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences and the Division of Biomedical Sciences, he enhances UC Riverside's reputation in the sciences through marketing and media relations. During 2003-2005, he was the assistant director of media relations for science and technology at the University of California, Irvine. He received his doctoral degree in atmospheric sciences from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1993 and his Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Iowa in 1995. His collection of short stories, "Dear Paramount Pictures," was published in 2002 by SMU Press. He teaches writing at UCR Extension.

Class 43 – Targeted publications

Elizabeth Scherle has been principal designer for Anomaly since its inception. With degrees in both fine art and psychobiology, she brings a blend of art and science to her work, with an understanding of the nature of communication through sensory perception.

Class 44 – Electronic media, audio, for targeted publics
Outstanding Professional Skill Award Judge for Diversity Category

Samuel Orozco is the founding executive producer of Noticiero Latino, a groundbreaking news service spawned by the live bilingual broadcast of the national presidential conventions of 1984, and "Línea Abierta," the first national call-in show in Spanish (1995). He has been the news director of Radio Bilingüe since 1983 and directed the launching of the operations of Satélite Radio Bilingüe in 1993. He was awarded the 1996 Kaiser Media Fellowship in Health. He has been oral historian for the books "To the Promised Land," (1987) and "Organizing for our Lives," (1992). Prior to Radio Bilingüe, Orozco was a long-time community organizer.

Class 45 – Electronic media, video, for targeted publics

Carla Aragon co-anchors Eyewitness News 4 on KOB-TV Albuquerque.

Before joining KOB-TV in 1994, Aragon spent 11 years in Los Angeles working at KNBC-TV as the morning co-anchor of the top-rated weekday morning newscast, "Today in L.A.," and as a general assignment reporter.

Honored several times for her outstanding work in journalism and community service, Aragon won an Emmy Award for "Final Journey," documenting the final days of a hospice patient. She has also been honored with several Associated Press and New Mexico Broadcast Association awards in various categories.

In 1988, she garnered the TV News Award from the National Association of Hispanic Journalists for "Out of the Shadows: Legal at Last." The immigration series also won the Award of Excellence from the California Chicano News Media Association.

Aragon received a 1987 Golden Mike Award for Best Spot News Coverage of the Cerritos Air Crash and the 1985 Broadcasting Award for excellence in television news from California's Association of Latins.

In 1991, she received the coveted Community Service Award from MALDEF (Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund). In 1990 she was voted one of the most influential Hispanics in the U.S. by Hispanic Business Magazine and was one of six journalists to receive a Salute to Latinas in the News Media.

Class 46 - Marketing and media relations programs for targeted publics

Kirk Whisler is the president of Western Publication Research, Inc., a corporation that includes Latino Print Network, a national advertising sales program representing over 440 Hispanic publications; WPR Publishing, a book publishing company; and Western Publication Research that does Hispanic readership studies and other research.

From 1992 until 1996, Whisler served as publisher of MEXICO Events & Destinations Magazine. Between 1986 and 1992, he was publisher of NEVADA Magazine and from 1977 to 1986 he was publisher of SOMOS and CAMINOS Magazines.

In 1982, Whisler was honored as the founding president of the National Association of Hispanic Publications (NAHP). He also serves on a variety of national and local boards, including Latino Literacy Now, the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival, the National Latino Media Council and the Verified Audit Circulation's Board of Governors. He is also a member of the Advertising Research Foundation, National Association of Hispanic Journalists (founding member), National Association of Latino Independent Producers, and National Press Club, amongst other organizations.

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