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When Lynne Snifka was in elementary school, she asked lots of questions like “What if the Earth stopped spinning?” and “What if the Polar Ice Caps melted?” Her classmates started calling them “Sniffy Iffys,” a play on her last name. Decades later, she still likes asking questions – and getting answers.

Snifka began her journalism career in television, working for PBS affiliates in Wisconsin and �Ӱ�ԭ�� before moving to commercial TV, where she produced a nightly program for an Anchorage CBS station. Her passion for writing led her to the online and print world next, where she worked for daily and weekly newspapers, as well as magazines. Her award-winning work has appeared in local, regional, and national outlets including Rachael Ray In Season, The Wall Street Journal, Smithsonian.com, and �Ӱ�ԭ�� magazine. She’s been a working journalist and editor for more than 25 years and has been teaching the craft for 15.

Snifka earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism at the University of Wisconsin Madison, and a master’s degree in Northern History at UAF. In the Science and Environmental Journalism Department, she teaches News Writing, Science Writing, Copy Editing, Media and Culture, and other courses. She’s a proud grammarian and enjoys spending time with her pointy-eared dog, Wren.

Hank Nuwer is a veteran columnist, editor, author and educator. The �Ӱ�ԭ�� Press Club awarded him first place for column writing in 2024 and 2025. Buffalo State University awarded him an honorary doctorate for his research and writings on hazing deaths, and Ball State University elected him a member of its Hall of Fame. He has written about efforts of researchers to reverse declining sturgeon numbers, as well as an award-winning (from Indiana SPJ) investigation into coal ash stockpiling in Indiana by coal companies. His work-in-progress is a biography of Kurt Vonnegut with ample attention to the author’s environmental activism. In his spare time Hank enjoys acting in university and community college theater plays.

Dave Waldron began his radio career in 2000 as a volunteer DJ at UAA’s radio station KRUA 88.1, where he hosted a weekend music show. In 2004, he was hired as the station’s music director and held the position until his graduation in 2007. He was hired by �Ӱ�ԭ�� Public Media in 2008 and for the next 10 years, worked as an audio engineer, editor, reporter, and producer. Since 2018, he has been running his own small business, AK Audio Pro, where his audio work has won dozens of statewide awards, as well as a PMJA award and a Signal award on the national level.

Dave began teaching Audio Production for UAF in 2024 and loves sharing his passion for audio with his students.

Charles Mason is in his 36th year of teaching photography and photojournalism at the University of �Ӱ�ԭ�� Fairbanks.

Charles started making photographs at 11, using baking pans for developing trays in his makeshift bedroom darkroom. He was a photographer on his high school yearbook, then a staff University photographer at his college, Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. He moved to �Ӱ�ԭ�� after graduating to work at the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner before accepting his current position at UAF.

His assignment work has been featured in many publications, including Time, Outside, LIFE, Sports Illustrated, Smithsonian, Newsweek, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and others. Mason's photographs were also featured in the Pictures of the Year issues of Time, LIFE, and Stern.

Mason won the acclaimed international Oskar Barnack Award at World Press Photo in Amsterdam in 1989 for his series on the Barrow, �Ӱ�ԭ�� Whale Rescue. His work has received other awards at World Press Photo and POY. He’s received two Rasmuson Individual Artists’ Grants, and the UAF Usibelli Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Mason's personal work includes series on Zoos, Kudzu, Reindeer Herding, Circus, and Street Work. He is now absorbed in making 8x10 Collodion photographs of the social and natural landscapes in �Ӱ�ԭ��.

Mason's Collodion work from his July, 2018 Artist-in-Residency at Denali National Park was shown in a large solo exhibition April- November 2021, at the Anchorage Museum. This body of work featured twenty-four  40"x50" prints.

Mason’s work can be seen on his website, charlesmason.com.  His Instagram hashtag is #charlesmason.

M.A. '85, Broadcast Journalism, New York University
B.A. '77, History, University of California, Santa Cruz

Professor Brian Patrick O’Donoghue recently received �Ӱ�ԭ�� Press Club’s highest honor, the , for “dogged persistence in pursuit of the truth.” The recognition follows more than a decade of student-assisted reporting that helped exonerate the Fairbanks Four, a group including three Native �Ӱ�ԭ��ns, wrongfully incarcerated 18 years for a white teen’s 1997 murder.

O’Donoghue’s 35-year career spans print, broadcast and mobile journalism. He’s taken readers with him pulling 7Gs in a F-16, accompanying Stryker Brigade soldiers sweeping palm groves for weapons in Iraq, observing pipeline construction on Arctic Ocean’s ice in 70-below conditions.

His news photos document Mid East peace talks, political campaigns, disasters, tribal gatherings and jazz greats. His books, My lead Dog was a Lesbian, and Honest Dogs, recount his misadventures mushing the distance in both  and the .

O’Donoghue spent 2012-13 teaching and researching digital media trends in India as Fulbright-Nehru Scholar in residence at Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication.

He is past president of �Ӱ�ԭ�� Press Club and a dedicated member of Investigative Reporters and Editors. He joined UAF Journalism’s faculty in 2001.

He and his wife, UAF Development and Alumni Relations Director Kate Ripley, have three kids, Rory, Robin and Rachel.

Laura is the administrative assistant for the Science and Environmental Journalism department. She is married with two wonderful children and a granddaughter who brings so much joy to her life. In her free time, she enjoys reading a good book, gardening, practicing yoga and relaxing with a great glass of wine. She also is a huge college football fan — go Buckeyes! Cheering on The Ohio State University is a favorite pastime. She values meaningful connections and finding balance in all areas of her life.