Alumni Board Members
Officers
PRESIDENT
BETH THOMAS HERTZ '89
Managing editor, Communications Department, Cleveland Clinic
216/444-8561 (o)
hertz23@aol.com
Beth Thomas Hertz has been a managing editor in the Communications Department at The Cleveland Clinic since 2001. Previously, she spent six years at Advanstar Communications in Cleveland, a trade-press publishing house, five years at the Akron Beacon Journal, and 18 months at the Times Herald-Record in Middletown, N.Y. She is a 1989 graduate of BGSU and worked at The BG News for eight semesters, including being editor in the fall 1988. She lives in Copley, Ohio, with her husband, David, an editor at the Beacon Journal, and two children, Alyssa and Joshua.
SCOTT BROWN '98
Sports page designer, The Canton Repository
330/580-8343 (o)
scott.brown@cantonrep.com
Scott Brown is the lead sports designer for the Canton (Ohio) Repository and resides in Massillon with his wife Darla (BG News Class of '99) and sons Alex and Zach. He previously worked in news and sports at the Bowling Green Sentinel-Tribune, Sandusky Register and Elyria Chronicle-Telegram. He served as editor of The BG News for two semesters (spring and fall 1997), the first to do so in 10 years, in addition to serving as sports editor, copy editor and other titles from 1994-98. He is a native of Wapakoneta, Ohio.
TREASURER
BOB BORTEL '77, '83
BGSU director of student publications and BG News adviser
419/372-2607 (o)
rbortel@bgsu.edu
Bob Bortel has served as director of student publications and adviser to The BG News and all other officially recognized student publications at Bowling Green State University since 1982. He holds a bachelor of science degree in journalism (1977) and a master of business administration (1983) from the university. While an undergraduate at BG, Bortel was the 1976 summer editor of The News, a page layout editor, reported, and also managed the first pre-press production operation at The News. Bortel worked for The Franklin Chronicle in southwestern Ohio before returning to graduate school at Bowling Green in 1980. He resides in Napoleon, Ohio, with his wife, Ann, and four children.
STUDENT MEMBER
HOLLY ABRAMS
Editor-in-Chief, The BG News
419/372-6966 (o)
habrams@bgsu.edu
Holly Abrams, 2006-07 ediitor-in-chief of The BG News, is a senior print journalism major who has worked at the student newspaper since her sophomore year. As a sophomore staff reporter, she covered Faculty Senate and general assignment. As a junior, she was campus news editor and helped redevelop a police beat during fall semester and was city news editor, covering Bowling Green City Council, spring semester. She has served internships with the Toledo Free Press and the Fostoria Review Times. She is the recipient of the Robert G. and Carol C. Speck Scholarship in Journalism -- an award for BG News editorial board members from the College of Arts and Sciences -- for fall semester 2006.
Committee Co-Chairs
COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE
CO-CHAIR
JOE WOLLET '77
Project manager, Mactive, Inc., Strongsville, OH
440/846-8077 (h)
joewollet@aol.com
BG News editor in 1977, Joe is project manager for Mactive, Inc., a leading software developer of newspaper advertising systems. He has spent most of his career associated with the newspaper industry, but from the vendor side. Mactive's products are used for advertising order entry, billing, accounts receivable and production by leading newspapers around the country, including The Plain Dealer (Cleveland), The Oregonian (Portland), The Star-Ledger (Newark), St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times, Arizona Republic, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Chicago Sun-Times, San Jose Mercury-News, Orange County (Calif.) Register and Philadelphia Newspapers.
EVENTS COMMITTEE
CO-CHAIR
GEORGE BRAATZ '67
Executive secretary, Ohio Masonic organization
614/885-5318 (o)
gbraatz@freemason.com
Both 1967 graduates of BGSU, George and Marilyn Braatz started dating while juniors working on The BG News and were married two weeks after graduation. They have three grown children, all of whom also graduated from BGSU -- David, 1992; Michael, 1996; and Wendy, 1997. Wendy was Frieda Falcon in 1995-96. George served The BG News as issue editor, sports editor, editorial page editor and columnist. He was a full-time staff member for The Blade in Toledo for 10 years, establishing the paper's first regional office in Bowling Green. He later covered city and county government and became financial editor. From 1977-94, he was a public relations officer for Champion Spark Plug Co., and from 1994-99 he was vice president of public relations for Hart Associates, a Toledo-based advertising agency. In 2000, he became grand secretary of the Grand Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons of Ohio, managing the Worthington-based headquarters of the statewide organization.
CO-CHAIR
MARILYN BRAATZ '67
Events manager, Ohio Department of Education
614/466-3908 (o)
marilyn.braatz@ode.state.oh.us
Both 1967 graduates of BGSU, George and Marilyn Braatz started dating while juniors working on The BG News and were married two weeks after graduation. They have three grown children, all of whom also graduated from BGSU -- David, 1992; Michael, 1996; and Wendy, 1997. Wendy was Frieda Falcon in 1995-96. As an undergraduate, Marilyn was feature editor, issue editor and columnist for The News and a member of Kappa Delta sorority. In 1969, she became assistant director of the University News Service and, from 1978-99, worked for BGSU's College of Education and Human Development as publications specialist and, in later years, as alumni/development officer. Now in Columbus, she currently serves as events manager of the Ohio Department of Education.
CO-CHAIR
JULIE PAVELICH '95
Freelance writer
419/660-1243 (h)
juliepav@neo.rr.com
Julie (Tagliaferro) Pavelich joined The BG News staff in the fall 1991 and served in several reporting and editing positions before becoming editor-in-chief in the spring 1995. As a stay-at-home mom living in Norwalk, Ohio, Julie is a freelance journalist, primarily writing for Crain's Cleveland Business Magazine. Previously, she was a copy editor at the Sandusky Register and city editor at The Record-Courier in Ravenna and Kent, Ohio. She also worked for the Ashtabula Star Beacon. Her husband, Kirk, was BG News editor in spring 1994.
CO-CHAIR
KIMBERLY DUPPS '03
Copy editor, Fort Wayne (Ind.) Journal Gazette
260/461-8333 (o)
kdupps@jg.net
Kimberly Dupps joined The BG News the first week of her freshman year and moved through the ranks, serving as reporter, page designer, city editor, Pulse editor, summer editor and editor-in-chief. After graduating in 2003, she began her copy editing career at the Sandusky (Ohio) Register. She is now a copy editor at the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, working in features and on the universal desk.
C0-CHAIR
HAROLD BROWN '72
City editor, Bowling Green Sentinel-Tribune
419/352-4611 (o)
hbrown@sentinel-tribune.com
Harold Brown spent three years on The BG News as a reporter, sports editor, summer editor and assistant manager editor. He is now city edtior at The Sentinel-Tribune in Bowling Green, with supervisory responsibilities over the newsroom computer system. He served as sports editor of the newspaper for eight years.
CO-CHAIR
KIMBERLY PUPILLO '93
Account executive, Landau Public Relations, Cleveland
440/476-5130 (cell)
kpupillo@landaupr.com
A former editor-in-chief of The BG News, Kimberly Pupillo is an account executive at Landau Public Relations in Cleveland, where she has worked for nearly two years. Prior to joining Landau, she served as press secretary for two Fort Wayne, Ind., mayors -- a Republican and a Democrat -- and was marketing development director of the YMCA of Greater Fort Wayne. She also worked at several daily newspapers in Ohio and Indiana and has been a free-lance writer and editor for several magazines and newspapers. She is married to former The BG News staffer Erik Pupillo, '93, and they have two children, Francesca and Sophia.
CO-CHAIR
MICHELLE BANKS '92
Director of annual giving, BGSU Development Office
419/372-6389 (o)
banksm@bgsu.edu
Michelle currently is director of annual giving for BGSU and previously was major gifts officer in BG's Development Office. Before that, she was director of institutional advancement at Franklin University in Columbus, and also has worked in fund raising and marketing with several not-for-profit agencies. Those include the American Red Cross (Toledo Chapter); the Toledo Society for the Blind; The Media Institute (Washington D.C.); and the Leader Institute (Columbus). She also served as a public information officer for the Ohio Consumers' Counsel and was responsible for media relations throughout the state. She received her master's degree in marketing and communications from Franklin University.
CO-CHAIR
JERRY MASEK '75
Media relations manager, Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority
216/566-5211 (o)
jemasek@aol.com
Jerry Masek covered sports for The BG News before graduating in 1975. His 17-year newspaper career started at age 16, and included writing, photography and editing positions in Madison, Geneva, Ashtabula, Cleveland and Lorain in Ohio, and Terre Haute in Indiana. He also worked in corporate communications at BFGoodrich's World Headquarters Building in Akron, and as a press secretary for Cleveland Mayor George Voinovich and publications supervisor for the Ohio Lottery. He is now media relations manager for the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority. He has been active with the Society of Professional Journalists.
CO-CHAIR
JARED WADLEY '89
Senior Public Relations Specialist, University of Michigan
734/936-7819 (o)
jwadley@umich.edu
Jared Wadley spent four rewarding years at The BG News in various capacities, including reporter, copy editor and editorial page editor. A 1989 graduate, he spent 13 years as a business reporter for two newspapers in Michigan and Southern California. Two internships at the BGSU Office of Public Relations became the catalysts to his career in public relations. He is a senior public relations specialist at the University of Michigan, where he promotes outstanding faculty research.
Subscriptions
