Introducing the Daily Cardinal Media Corporation Board of Directors

The 13-member Board of Directors for the Daily Cardinal Media Corporation directs the long-term planning for the Cardinal. The directors include three Cardinal staff members, three at-large students, four UW faculty and staff members, two Cardinal alumni and one member of the Madison business community. All are one year renewable terms. The officers of the board are also one year terms, except its Treasurer, which serves for two. The following are the current officers and directors of the corporation.

Alumni Members

Cliff Behnke is managing editor of the Wisconsin State Journal, which he joined in 1966 while a senior at UW-Madison. Behnke has been a general assignment reporter, university reporter, city hall reporter, capitol reporter and city editor for the State Journal. He began working for The Daily Cardinal in 1962. After one year as a reporter and two years as a night editor, he was named editor-in-chief for the 1965-66 school year. Behnke joined the board in September 1996, serves the corporation's vice-president and chairs its personnel committee.

Jeff Smoller serves as special assistant to Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Secretary George E. Meyer. He sits on DNR's senior leadership team where his job is to ask questions. Smoller served Gov. Tommy G. Thompson and Legislature as executive director of the Commission for the Study of Administrative Value and Efficiency, which reviewed all branches and levels of government and the roles for business, non-government groups and citizens in the next century. He served as a senior staff member and press secretary to Gov. Patrick J. Lucey. He directed the Wisconsin office of the Upper Great Lakes Regional Commission, a multi-state economic development partnership. He has led DNR's information program and trends analysis group which did future thinking and strategy for DNR. Smoller has degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and executive education from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. Service activities involve the UW campus and urban community. Smoller joined the board in January 1996, serves as its secretary and chairs the corporate development committee.

UW Faculty and Staff Members

Sharon Dunwoody is Evjue-Bascom professor and director of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. She serves as a faculty director. She teaches science and environmental writing, as well as courses in general writing and reporting; public opinion and seminars in communication theory and methods. Dunwoody also conducts workshops nation-wide for scientists interested in communicating with the public. She studies public understanding of science issues. Her most recent work has concentrated on exploring how people use information to make judgments about health and environmental risks, as well as on how individuals learn about science from the World Wide Web. Dunwoody joined the board in May 1997.

Al Friedman has been the director of the UW-Madison Office of University Publications since 1987. In his present position, he reports to the provost, the UW's chief academic officer, and participates in committee work across campus. Before this, he worked in two other UW-Madison departments: UW Press and the Wisconsin Clearinghouse. Non-university jobs have been in the marketing, communications and publishing fields, including advertising and international marketing. Friedman joined the board in September 1996.

Brian Mattmiller serves as a university relations specialist and science writer with UW-Madison's Office of News and Public Affairs. He graduated from the UW-Madison School of Journalism in 1986 and served as the Cardinal's campus editor during the fall of 1984. Prior to joining the news service in 1994, he worked as a part-time general assignment reporter for the Wisconsin State Journal and as the higher education reporter for The Southern Illinoisan in Carbondale. He joined the board in September 1998.

Cardinal Treasurer Carol Samuel manages the cash management area for UW-Madison Accounting Services. A certified public accountant, Samuel has run a small business and has worked for her father's small newspaper. Samuel attended the UW as an undergraduate English major in the late 1960s and returned to earn a master's of business administration in the 1980s. Samuel joined the board in September 1998 and chairs its finance committee.

Student Members

A doctoral candidate, Karen Faster teaches journalism and public relations at UW-Whitewater. She has more than 14 years of experience in journalism, student media, public relations and desktop publishing, including six years at three daily newspapers and three years as the adviser to the award-winning Madison Area Technical College Slant. She received her master's degree in 1990 from the University of Minnesota, where she worked with the Minnesota Daily student newspaper. Faster joined the board in November 1997, serves as its president, chairs its executive committee and co-chairs its campus partnerships committee.

Eileen Gilligan is a doctoral candidate in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. A former newspaper reporter, she covered state politics and features in Delaware for 12 years. Gilligan has taught several journalism courses, including copy editing and public affairs reporting. She studies reporters' practices and news production and plans to teach college journalism. Gilligan joined the board in September 1998.

Kate Woodward is a senior majoring in journalism with emphases in advertising and public relations. While attending the UW-Madison, she has served as public relations coordinator for the Wisconsin Union Directorate, written for various publications and served an intern at an advertising agency. She joined the board in 1997 and serves on the personnel committee.

Cardinal Staff Members

A senior majoring in finance and economics with a specialization in international business, Brad Jorgensen is The Daily Cardinal's business manager. A Sheboygan, Wisconsin native, Jorgensen joined the board in January 1999 and serves on its finance committee.

Third-generation Daily Cardinal staffer Adam W. Lasker currently serves as Editor in Chief. Grandfather Robert G. Lewis served as Cardinal editor in 1941-42 and mother, Sarah Lewis, wrote for the paper in her undergraduate days. Born in Madison to two UW Law School graduates, Lasker was raised in Milwaukee and is a senior majoring in journalism. His first leadership position came in 1993 as a U.S. Senate Page for Sen. Herb Kohl, D-WI. He began working for the Cardinal in Oct. 1995 and served for two years as Photography Editor. Lasker joined the board in May 1998 and co-chairs its campus partnerships committee.

Digital Cardinal Manager Andrew Wallmeyer is a junior majoring in journalism. He plans to attend graduate school and study media psychology and, eventually, work in the emerging field of new media journalism. Wallmeyer keeps his hands full managing the Cardinal's Web site, fixing numerous broken computers, and being a general tech know-it-all around the office. Wallmeyer joined the board in September 1997 and serves on its corporate development committee.

Community Member

William Kennedy brings the perspective of the Madison business community to the Cardinal board. A native of Madison, Wis., Kennedy graduated from the UW-Madison in 1972. Following graduation he was named as a Research Editor at the UW, then Communications Director of the American Dairy Association. He joined a large Madison advertising firm in 1980 before founding Kennedy Communications in 1983. His work with regional and national advertising has earned his agency numerous creative awards. He has been a media consultant on nearly 30 winning political campaigns at local, state and Congressional levels. Kennedy serves on the Board of Directors of the Madison Advertising Federation, Epilepsy Center of South Central Wisconsin and the American Heart Association of South Central Wisconsin. Kennedy joined the board in September 1996.