Mila Sanina has been working as an assistant teaching professor of journalism at Penn State University since 2022. Previously, she served as executive director at Pittsburgh’s Public Source from 2016 to 2022, as deputy managing editor at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. She also worked at CNN International and PBS NewsHour. A native of Kazakhstan, she holds a master’s degree in public policy from the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Public and International Affairs and a bachelor’s degree in political science from the American University in Bulgaria.

Sanina has been a member of the Pitt News Advisory Board since 2023.

Siobhan Scalamogna is the Director of National Sales at PepsiCo Foodservice, where she has worked since 2008. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Finance and Marketing from the University of Pittsburgh in 2008.

Scalamogna joined the Pitt News Advisory Board in 2023. Her tie to The Pitt News is a personal one — she was a student employee in the Business Department from 2006 to 2008 and served as Sales Manager her senior year, crediting much of her professional success to what she learned during her time at TPN.

Andrea Boykowycz is the executive director at Oakland Planning & Development. An Oakland native, she attended Columbia University (1993), Central European University (2001), and New School University (2002), and has lived in the Oakland neighborhood from 1971–1989 and again from 2004 to the present.

Boykowycz has served on the Pitt News Advisory Board for approximately six years across two different terms. Her tie to The Pitt News stems from living in and working with the Oakland community daily — she works with Pitt students regularly and wants TPN to serve the community and help keep students informed about how the university functions as an institution within the city and neighborhood.

Neena Hagen is a data reporter at The Boston Globe, a position she began in 2024. She graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 2022 with a degree in Data Science and Writing.

Originally from Philadelphia, she lived in Pittsburgh for five years before relocating to Boston.

Hagen joined the Pitt News Advisory Board in 2024. Her connection to The Pitt News is deeply personal — she was a student reporter in the news section from 2019 to 2022 and credits TPN with singlehandedly launching her professional journalism career

Ashley Johnson is the Advertising Sales Director for the New Pittsburgh Courier, where she has worked for 17 years. She earned a bachelor’s degree in print journalism from Point Park University.

Johnson joined the Pitt News Advisory Board in 2020.

Rich Lord has been a Pittsburgh journalist since 1996 and currently serves as managing editor of Pittsburgh’s Public Source. He graduated from George Washington University with a degree in Politics and English in 1991.

Lord has been a member of the Pitt News Advisory Board since 2021. His tie to The Pitt News comes through PublicSource, which regularly brings on TPN journalists as interns.

David Miguel Molina is a Teaching Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Pittsburgh, where he has taught since 2018. He holds a BA in English from Amherst College, an MA in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Mississippi, and a PhD in Rhetoric and Public Culture from Northwestern University.

Molina joined the Pitt News Advisory Board in January 2025. His connection to TPN is primarily through collaborating on the TPN marketing internship program, as well as teaching COMMRC 1114: Freedom of Speech and Press.

Dana Nowlin-Russell is a Teaching Associate Professor in the Department of English at the University of Pittsburgh, where she also serves as Director of the Public and Professional Writing Program and Associate Director of the Writing Center. She holds a BA in Sociology with a Public and Professional Writing certificate from the University of Pittsburgh (2006) and an MFA in Creative Writing from Chatham University (2012).

Originally from Washington, D.C., Nowlin-Russell has been a member of the Pitt News Advisory Board since 2020. She loved reading The Pitt News as a Pitt undergraduate and now enjoys teaching and advising TPN writers as an educator.

Katelyn Polantz is a correspondent at CNN, covering the Justice Department and the federal courts from Washington, D.C. She graduated from Pitt’s School of Arts and Sciences in 2009. She has been based in Washington since 2012 but visits Western Pennsylvania as often as she can.

Polantz joined the Pitt News Advisory Board for the 2022–2023 school year. She served as Editor in Chief of The Pitt News from 2008 to 2009 and contributed as a news and sports reporter and copy desk editor during her time at Pitt. She has maintained strong ties with the TPN alumni network over the years, including helping connect former Pitt Newsers with opportunities at CNN.

Gayle Rogers is a Professor of English at the University of Pittsburgh and serves as Chair of the English Department. He earned his BA from Vanderbilt University in 2001 and his PhD from Northwestern University in 2008.

Rogers has served on the Pitt News Advisory Board for three years. His tie to The Pitt News is through his role as Chair of the English Department at Pitt.