Stephen D. O’Leary, a former associate professor of communication at USC Annenberg known for his scholarship on religion and media, as well as his love of choral music, has died. Suffering from liver cancer, he passed away on Jan. 24, according to his family. He was 60 years old.

From the moment he first saw the University Park campus as a prospective undergraduate student in the mid-’90s, JaBari Brown knew he wanted to be part of the USC culture. “It was just one of those things where, I could see myself here,” he said.

The Center for Health Journalism at USC Annenberg has awarded $25,000 in reporting grants from its Impact Fund to help California journalists undertake ambitious explanatory or investigative reporting about health issues in underserved communities in the state. The grants will go to journalists at eight news outlets, including a podcast, two public radio stations, one Spanish-language radio station, one online-only outlet and three newspapers. Grantees also receive six months of mentoring from veteran journalists.

The USC Annenberg Office of Communication and Marketing, led by Associate Dean for Communication and Marketing Emily Cavalcanti, has won four regional 2020 Awards of Excellence from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE).

Manuel Castells, University Professor and Wallis Annenberg Chair in Communication Technology and Society at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, has been appointed minister of universities for the newly formed government of Spain. He will oversee policymaking and funding for Spain’s 50 public universities.

Ever since Amanda Brunak ’20 set foot on the USC campus, she’s made the most out of her time here. A public relations major, Brunak became the director of PR for The Buzz, a student-run TV program, as a sophomore. In Spring 2019, she participated in the Maymester program, visiting top media companies in New York City.

Cecil Hannibal ’20 has always seen sports in his future. As a kid watching ESPN, especially long-form feature pieces, he thought, “That was something I could do,” he said. “Those stories capture you whether you love sports or not. My grandma would sit and watch those with me, and she doesn’t care who scored 30 points last night.

Crosstown, a news website created by USC Annenberg and the USC Viterbi School of Engineering’s Integrated Media Systems Center (IMSC), has been awarded funding from Google for an ambitious effort to bring data-driven journalism about crime, traffic and air quality directly to Los Angeles neighborhoods.