Tomorrow morning, one of my Operations & Information Management students, who is in my Humanitarian Logistics and Healthcare class that I am teaching this semester, will be attending with me the Hometown Heroes event at the Mass Mutual Center in Springfield, MA.
We will be the guests of Mr. Rick Lee, the Executive Director of the Pioneer Valley Chapter of the American Red Cross, who spoke in my class in February.
The Pioneer Valley Chapter of the American Red Cross provides emergency response in Hampden, Hampshire and Franklin counties in western Massachusetts and is also behind a model call center for servicemen.
According to a lovely article in The Springfield Republican: The chapter created the Hometown Heroes program in the wake of the
terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Lee said. The idea was partially to
help bridge gaps in funding left when so much charitable giving went to
causes related to those attacks.
But the larger reason was, and remains, giving the community a way to honor people who go above and beyond to help others.
And in the beautiful words of Mr. Rick Lee:
"We are celebrating one of the most beautiful aspects of the human heart, which is kindness," Lee said.
This year 9 Hometown Heroes will be honored.
In addition to Mr. Rick Lee, this semester, we have hosted Mr. Jeff Hescock of UMass Amherst, Dr. Pierre Rouzier of UHS at UMass Amherst, Mr. Dave Madsen of WGGB, and even the other Dr. Nagurney, my husband, who gave a guest lecture on Disaster Communications. The students and I were so inspired by these remarkable individuals that I wrote a Guest Editorial, Community Experts Enhance Disaster Management Education as Guest Speakers at the Isenberg School of Management at UMass, about their talks (with the exception of my husband's since he was guest lecturing when I was out of town), which was published the other day on masslive.com.
I had to thank these very special people in a public way and that is why I wrote the Guest Editorial, which also features a photo of Mr. Rick Lee with the students in my class.
In addition, the Isenberg School of Management posted a two-part series on this course focusing on the presentation of Dr. Rouzier and also that of Mr. Madsen. Many thanks to the Communications Department and especially to Mr. Lou Wigdor who attended these lectures and wrote them up so eloquently.
We have amazing people in our midst, which deserve special honors and recognition and among those I include the above individuals.
We look forward to seeing Mr. Lee of the Red Cross again tomorrow and honoring this year's Hometown Heroes for their exceptional courage! Even two UPS drivers will be honored (perfect humanitarian logistics example!)
Showing posts with label WGGB. Show all posts
Showing posts with label WGGB. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 26, 2014
Thursday, February 27, 2014
Dave Madsen of WGGB Gives Fascinating Lecture on Disaster News Coverage at the Isenberg School of Management
We have amazing professionals in our community, several of whom have delivered guest lectures in the Humanitarian Logistics and Healthcare course that I am teaching this semester at the Isenberg School. For this I am extremely grateful as are my students.
Since I believe in disseminating information - yes, Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times, there are quite a few of us academics who interact with the public, through our blogs, public forums and venues, OpEds, etc., (and this, I promise, will be a topic of a future blogpost) - I present some of the highlights of another brilliant lecture today with photos.
Today, we hosted Mr. Dave Madsen, who is the Anchor and Managing Editor at WGGB - abc40 and he went to UMass Amherst! He has over 40 years of news broadcasting experience - imagine! Today, he shared with us his coverage of such major news events as 9/11 and the June 1, 2011 tornado that struck Springfield and covered 35 miles. He was also on the job in 1979 when a tornado hit Windsor Locks in neighboring Connecticut and the power in their newsroom went off. He spoke of newsreels, the advent of video, and the Internet, and the impacts on news.
Mr. Madsen grew up in western MA, and had a great story of being paid $3 per hour while doing data processing at Whitmore (this is the UMass Administration building) as a student with big IBM computers but the lure of broadcasting at $2 per hour, even after a counteroffer of $4 per hour, was a wise decision that he made, although his mother was not pleased at the time.
He told of how, as a young boy, he recalled (and this led him, in part, to pursue a career in news), when Ted Kennedy, then a young senator, at age 32, was in a plane that crashed in Southhampton, Madsen's hometown, in 1964, only months after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. He showed us a news video from that event and followed up with some of his dramatic reports.
He emphasized the impact of technology on news coverage including that of social media.
He also noted how many of his interns come from UMass Amherst and what a great work ethic our students have - I agree!
He left the Isenberg School at about 11AM and then we just had to see him do the noon news broadcast -- the consummate professional.
We thank Dave Madsen for his mesmerizing lecture complete with a video of the 2011 tornado and his reporting of the shutdown of the US airspace after 9/11, the controlled evacuation of our Bradley airport, and the important role that a news broadcaster plays in giving information out to the public and also in calming them in times of disasters.He even spoke of the "controlled chaos" in the newsroom during such times. He also noted that journalists and broadcasters used to check 3 sources - and now with the 24/7 news cycle and even news streaming on the Internet this may not occur.
Also, we are glad that he stayed in western Massachusetts, where he was born and raised, since he serves the viewers so well and is truly the face of news in the Pioneer Valley!
Since I believe in disseminating information - yes, Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times, there are quite a few of us academics who interact with the public, through our blogs, public forums and venues, OpEds, etc., (and this, I promise, will be a topic of a future blogpost) - I present some of the highlights of another brilliant lecture today with photos.
Today, we hosted Mr. Dave Madsen, who is the Anchor and Managing Editor at WGGB - abc40 and he went to UMass Amherst! He has over 40 years of news broadcasting experience - imagine! Today, he shared with us his coverage of such major news events as 9/11 and the June 1, 2011 tornado that struck Springfield and covered 35 miles. He was also on the job in 1979 when a tornado hit Windsor Locks in neighboring Connecticut and the power in their newsroom went off. He spoke of newsreels, the advent of video, and the Internet, and the impacts on news.
Mr. Madsen grew up in western MA, and had a great story of being paid $3 per hour while doing data processing at Whitmore (this is the UMass Administration building) as a student with big IBM computers but the lure of broadcasting at $2 per hour, even after a counteroffer of $4 per hour, was a wise decision that he made, although his mother was not pleased at the time.
He told of how, as a young boy, he recalled (and this led him, in part, to pursue a career in news), when Ted Kennedy, then a young senator, at age 32, was in a plane that crashed in Southhampton, Madsen's hometown, in 1964, only months after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. He showed us a news video from that event and followed up with some of his dramatic reports.
He emphasized the impact of technology on news coverage including that of social media.
He also noted how many of his interns come from UMass Amherst and what a great work ethic our students have - I agree!
He left the Isenberg School at about 11AM and then we just had to see him do the noon news broadcast -- the consummate professional.
We thank Dave Madsen for his mesmerizing lecture complete with a video of the 2011 tornado and his reporting of the shutdown of the US airspace after 9/11, the controlled evacuation of our Bradley airport, and the important role that a news broadcaster plays in giving information out to the public and also in calming them in times of disasters.He even spoke of the "controlled chaos" in the newsroom during such times. He also noted that journalists and broadcasters used to check 3 sources - and now with the 24/7 news cycle and even news streaming on the Internet this may not occur.
Also, we are glad that he stayed in western Massachusetts, where he was born and raised, since he serves the viewers so well and is truly the face of news in the Pioneer Valley!
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