Mass Comm Week Speakers

Andy Sevilla is the managing editor for news and investigations at the Austin American-Statesman. His team collaborations have won Edward R. Murrow Awards, the prestigious Alfred I. duPont–Columbia University Award and were named Pulitzer Prize finalists for Public Service for their coverage of the Uvalde mass shooting. Sevilla graduated from Texas State University 2009.

Billy Calzada is a veteran photojournalist who loves wielding the gentle power of the camera to tell the stories of our times and our lives. He counts it a privilege that people allow him into their lives to tell their experiences. Calzada has been a newspaper photojournalist since 1987. He recently left the San Antonio Express-News, having covered the Robb Elementary School mass shooting in Uvalde, the deaths of 51 migrants in a trailer, San Antonio Spurs NBA basketball and much daily life. He was a Hearst Visiting Fellow at the University of Texas, has twice been a judge for the U.S. Air Force worldwide contest, has an NPPA President’s Medal, Tribune Newsphoto of the Year, numerous Texas APME and NPPA awards and the Texas Veterans Commission Excellence in Media Award.

 His career began in 1987 at the El Paso Herald-Post, where he covered Mexico, immigration and drug trafficking, in addition to shooting daily wild art and spot news. After the closure of the Herald-Post, he freelanced, including a short stint in Beirut, Lebanon. He then answered the call from the Orlando Sentinel, where he covered the wildfires of 1998 and events including the Daytona 500 and Bike Week. His skills include shooting and editing news video. He is an FAA certified drone pilot. He counts his brother, Victor, a recently retired photojournalist, as his inspiration. His work can be seen at www.calzadaphoto.com.

Former Cable One Chair and CEO Julie Laulis brings more than four decades of media industry leadership into the classroom for a candid look at what happens inside the executive boardroom. Drawing on her experience leading a major publicly traded media company and serving on corporate boards, Laulis will explore how executives turn strategic ideas into organizational action. 

Students will learn how successful leaders communicate recommendations with clarity, build credibility with decision-makers, anticipate difficult questions, manage competing priorities, and earn support when the stakes are high. The conversation will also examine executive presence, strategic decision-making, and the leadership skills required to move an idea from a strong proposal to an organizational commitment.

Nancy M. Preyor-Johnson is a senior projects reporter at the San Antonio Express-News. Her reporting focuses on immigration enforcement, ICE detention, policing, crime and accountability. She has covered investigations involving public officials, including U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, as well as the experiences of immigrants, detainees and other vulnerable communities. 

Her work seeks to hold powerful institutions and individuals accountable while amplifying the voices of those most affected by their decisions. She previously served as deputy metro editor, overseeing public safety coverage, and as deputy editorial page editor and columnist. She is a former president of the San Antonio Association of Hispanic Journalists and serves as vice president of print for the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.

Emmy and Peabody Award-winning producer Elizabeth (Betty) Buckley brings more than 25 years of experience in film, television, new media, and animation. She is an Assistant Professor of Practice in the School of Cinematic Arts at Texas State University and founder and president of Environmental Arts Alliance, a nonprofit production organization dedicated to telling stories that make a difference.

 Buckley recently produced the PBS feature documentary What’s the Story Wishbone? and wrote and directed The Stars at Night, which premiered at the Austin Film Festival and has been broadcast nationally on PBS. Her extensive credits include projects for HBO, HISTORY, National Geographic, CuriosityStream, and Scripps Networks. A longtime advocate for women in media, Buckley founded Women in Film Dallas and was a founding Advisory Board Co-Chair of Women in Film & Television Austin. She is also a member of the Directors Guild of America.

Pam Nemec helps leaders build organizations that win. Over more than two decades at Whataburger, Pam rose to Senior Vice President, leading Brand Communications, Culture, and People strategies as the beloved brand grew from 350 restaurants and 30,000 employees to nearly 1,000 restaurants and 50,000 employees. Along the way, she discovered a truth many organizations miss. 

The companies that win don't win because they have the best strategy. They win because they have the most aligned and passionate people executing that strategy. When people understand where the company is headed, know what's expected of them, feel connected to the mission, and trust their leaders, performance follows. 

Teams move faster. Customers notice. Brands grow stronger. Today, Pam helps leaders create that kind of alignment through her Take Care Framework™, an eight-step leadership system that helps organizations become remarkable from the inside out. The framework teaches leaders how to align culture, communications, and employee experience from the C-suite to the front counter, creating workplaces where people are equipped to succeed, inspired to contribute, and committed to a shared purpose. 

Drawing from that experience, Pam shares practical strategies for building organizations where people take ownership, work together, and consistently deliver on the brand promise. Because winning isn't just about hitting goals or outperforming the competition. Winning is what happens when people take care of the work, the customer, and each other.

Twister Marquiss is a strategic leader with more than 30 years of experience in higher education communications, marketing, media relations, and academic affairs. From 2021 to 2026, he served as the first-ever Director of Marketing and Communications for the McCoy College of Business at Texas State University. 

He previously served as Director of the Common Experience at Texas State, the nation’s #1 initiative of its kind at the time. He was also a long-time faculty member, teaching courses in the Department of English and the Honors College. Twister holds a B.A. in English from the Honors Program at St. Mary's University and an MFA in Creative Writing from Texas State.

Elissa Jorgensen is a breaking news reporter at The Dallas Morning News. She is a graduate of Texas State University, where she earned her bachelor's degree in English and master's degree in mass communication. 

Elissa previously reported for the Houston Chronicle and Texas Community Health News. She has also written for the Austin American-Statesman and Public Health Watch.

Greg is an award-winning former sports and news anchor during a career that spanned over 40 years in various local television markets. He began his broadcasting career at the University of North Texas with a stint doing sports at KNTU Radio. Greg then moved on to the University of Central Oklahoma, where he was the play-by-play announcer for the UCO football team, and also a campus TV show. He began his professional career in San Angelo, TX, at KLST-TV as the 10 pm sports anchor/reporter; then he moved on to Austin, Beaumont, Springfield, IL, Oklahoma City, Greensboro, NC, and finished his 29-year sports career at Fox Sports SW in Dallas. 

Greg moved into news, where he spent the next 14 years anchoring in Beaumont and Amarillo before retiring in June of this year. Greg won several sportscasting awards, including Best Sportscast in Texas and Illinois, and won a Lone Star Emmy while at Fox Sports SW and later for his news work in Beaumont.

Amira graduated from Texas State University with a Bachelor's in Journalism and Mass Communication. While studying at Texas State, Amira interned for Dave Campbell’s Texas Football and wrote for The University Star. She also did some contract work with the Associated Press during the 2020 elections. In her final semester as a full-time student, Amira worked full-time at The Hays Free Press covering Hays County. 

After graduating Magna Cum Laude in 2022, she found a new opportunity to report on local government, development, business and transportation with Community Impact Newspaper, working her way up from reporter to editor. As a reporter, she dove into San Marcos’ Strategic Housing Plan, a plan aimed at preserving and expanding affordable housing options in the city, which officials never adopted. Her reporting prompted the city to resume discussions of the plan. She also reported on a development agreement approved by Kyle City Council that would displace several residents in a low-income area.

 Her reporting led those residents to learn about their potential displacement. As an editor, Amira has had the opportunity to moderate candidate forums for various city elections. She was also a panelist for the Texas Association of Municipal Information Officers Region 7 Mini-Conference, where she talked about how media and cities could work together to keep communities informed.

Bob Guerrero is a creative producer with fifteen years spanning agency production and in-house brand leadership. He has worked on clients like Nike, KFC, Toyota, VW, and Taco Bell at agencies including Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Deutsch, and Wieden+Kennedy Portland.

 He spent the last six years at Patagonia in Santa Barbara, building and leading major cross-functional programs including the brand's 50th Anniversary campaign and its first company-wide Progress Report. Bob speaks about production as a creative discipline in its own right, not a support function, and about what it takes to hold the full complexity of a project without losing the thread.

Leigh Munsil is the SVP of News and Editor-in-Chief of Texas Public Radio and the San Antonio Report. She has served as the Report’s editor-in-chief since November 2021, and previously held staff writer, reporter, and editor positions with The Dallas Morning News, POLITICO, The Blaze, and CNN Politics, where she was the editor of CNN’s The Point with Chris Cillizza in Washington. 

Munsil holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism and mass communication from Arizona State University, where she also studied Spanish and served as editor-in-chief of the university’s daily newspaper, The State Press.

Saliyah M. Parker is a TXST alumna and strategic communications and public relations professional with more than five years of experience supporting nonprofit, public-sector, higher education and corporate organizations. She is the founder and principal consultant of PR with ParkeR, an independent public relations consultancy focused on strategic communications, messaging and media relations. 

Throughout her career, Saliyah has worked across agency, in-house and consulting environments, developing a multifaceted perspective on relationship-building, professional growth and navigating an evolving career.