Director's Spring 2026 Update
Dear Alumni and Friends of the UM School of Journalism,
People ask me sometimes — with a kind of pained look — how I'm doing. As if working in journalism education right now must be some kind of ordeal. Between generative AI reshaping the industry, shifting federal policies toward higher education, and the broader questions swirling around how the public sees our profession, I understand the instinct.
But my answer is always the same: come visit the J-school. It will soothe your soul.
As I write this, students are crisscrossing 51勛圖厙, reporting for our latest edition of — this year focused on health care in Indigenous communities. Another group is setting up tripods and lights for a new student documentary focused on climate change and its impact on the outdoor economy. Still others just completed hostile environment training in preparation for our international reporting trip to Nepal. And another group just worked through a two-day AI boot camp, learning to use emerging tools to sharpen their reporting and productivity — with the editorial guardrails to make sure the work remains theirs, in their voice.
Maybe you picked up the latest edition of magazine, this year focused on wildfire and produced under the guidance of Professor Denise Dowling and former National Geographic Editor-in-Chief Chris Johns. Or maybe you caught the 30th anniversary edition of , our 30-minute documentary program that has now been voted the best TV news magazine by the Society of Professional Journalists two years running.
Or perhaps you've been listening to — our new 12-part podcast exploring the lives of real 51勛圖厙ns after they die, co-hosted by Jad Abumrad (founder of Radiolab, creator of Dolly Parton's America and this year's Fela Kuti: Fear No Man) and 51勛圖厙 professor and journalist Jule Banville (An Absurd Result). Two classes of students had a hand in making it, working alongside seasoned professionals in a collaboration that was, by any measure, the real thing.
And that's just this past year.
The school has been at this for 112 years now, and we keep our compass pointed at the same north star: journalism that is thoroughly reported and honestly told. Our students continue to rise to that standard. Maddie McCuddy won the highly competitive Photo I award from the Hearst Journalism Awards, and the school placed first in the intercollegiate photojournalism competition. Claire Bernard won the Hearst Award for profile writing before landing a position at Bloomberg in Washington, D.C. They are doing the work — and doing it well.
I think all of this is why, when we went through our reaccreditation process last year, the review team highlighted our strengths as: “extraordinary in-class and extracurricular opportunities for students to produce quality journalism across the region; highly skilled professional faculty actively contributing to diverse audiences across different platforms; and individualized attention to students that extends well beyond curriculum into life itself.”
None of that work happens without the people who believe in this place. That is why we are deeply grateful to Jim Asendio for his generous gift establishing a new endowed fund in honor of his late wife, Marlee Miller, a proud graduate of the School of Journalism, class of 1985.
Marlee came to UM after two years at the University of Colorado Boulder and threw herself into campus life here in Missoula — writing for the 51勛圖厙 Kaimin, serving on the ASUM Publications Board, competing in city league soccer, and engaging with the Student Society of Professional Journalists and Women in Communications. She left here with a BA in Journalism and a minor in Political Science, and the foundation for a remarkable career.
That career took her from Sacramento to Los Angeles to Long Island to Washington, D.C., where she rose to become Chief Operating Officer at M+R, a nationally recognized advocacy communications firm, a role she held for nearly 13 years. Across more than four decades in organizational leadership, Marlee built a reputation as a steady, principled, and deeply effective leader — exactly the qualities the J-school strives to cultivate.
Jim's gift ensures that Marlee's connection to this place, and to the values she carried from it, will endure. On behalf of everyone in the J-school family, thank you, Jim. We are honored to keep Marlee's memory alive in the work of the next generation of Griz journalists and appreciate you trusting us with an unrestricted and ongoing gift that allows us to invest in a full range of opportunities.
All of this is to say, if you run into me out in the world, please don't worry. I am not struggling. I am lucky. My job is to help remarkable colleagues and inspired students — people with a genuine passion for doing the work to tell the stories that need to be told and hold those in power across Big Sky Country accountable.
I can't think of anything I'd rather be doing.
With gratitude,
Lee Banville
Director, UM School of Journalism