The 2020 Dr. Lewis B. O’Donnell Media Summit Career Connectors
Natalie Brophy (’17)
Natalie Brophy grew up in Buffalo, N.Y. and graduated from SUNY Oswego in May 2017 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a minor in public justice.
Natalie works in Appleton, Wisconsin, as a statewide breaking and trending news reporter for the USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin. In her role, she covers breaking news for 10 USAT-Wisconsin papers in central and eastern Wisconsin. She previously worked as a city government reporter for The Citizen in Auburn and as a breaking news, crime and courts reporter for the Wausau Daily Herald in Wisconsin.
During her time at Oswego, Natalie was a member of the swimming and diving team and a staff writer and chief copy editor with The Oswegonian. She also interned with The Palladium-Times in Oswego during her senior year, which was a great opportunity to gain professional experience.
Imani Cruz (’17)
Imani Cruz is a talent, casting and series development assistant for MTV Networks.
Imani, who graduated from SUNY Oswego in 2017 with a degree in journalism, started her professional career as an agent trainer with The Gersh Agency in 2017. In 2018, she worked as a production assistant on the Netflix original series, “When They See Us.”
During her time at Oswego, Imani was an RA in Riggs Hall, Director of SAPB from 2015-2017 and founder of Oswego’s first fashion club: Fashion at Oswego. Her favorite part of being at Oswego was the freedom to try as many different things as possible and truly learn what you’re interested in and what you’re good at. Between all of her course study and extracurricular activities, she graduated with a well-rounded experience in a bunch of different things and a unique set of skills that helps her at work every single day.
Justin Dobrow (’17)
Justin Dobrow is currently working at NBCUniversal directly supporting Peacock, NBCU’s new streaming platform.
Justin started at NBCUniversal in the Broadcast Operations Center after graduation in 2017. In 2018, he joined the Global Media Operations team, and in early 2020, he became the Program Operations Manager for Peacock. There, he onboards new shows, makes sure they are prepped to Peacock’s needs and delivers them to the platform. Essentially, he is a project manager for all content going to Peacock.
At SUNY Oswego, Justin spent a lot of time with WTOP as General Manager for two years, as well as the student organizer for Rokerthon 3 – where SUNY Oswego broke the world record live on the TODAY Show for the longest conga line on ice. Justin earned a Broadcasting and Mass Communication degree from SUNY Oswego in 2017. He lives in Astoria with his wife and two kittens, Cannoli and Spumoni.
Stephanie Herbert (’18)
Stephanie Herbert graduated from SUNY Oswego in May 2018 with a BA in Public Relations and a minor in health science. Currently, she works at the Museum of Science and Technology in Syracuse, N.Y., as the Marketing and Communications Coordinator. She controls all website and social media content, as well as the museum’s publicity efforts. She is pursuing a master’s degree in strategic communication, online, through SUNY Oswego, where she is projected to graduate in Spring 2022. She loved Oswego so much that she had to come back for a few more years for her master’s.
Stephanie made a lot of lifelong connections through her various roles and classes that she is very thankful for. She obtained 12 internships while in college, through the support of Oswego, which helped her land a few great positions out of college.
In her spare time, she loves to read PR books and exercise!
Allif Karim (’18)
Allif Karim is currently the Sports Director at WDVM-TV in Hagerstown, Maryland. He covers everything from local high school sports in Maryland, West Virginia and Virginia, to the University of Maryland Terrapins, and Washington D.C. professional teams. In 2019, he covered the World Series championships parade for the Washington Nationals, leading the field-team effort for his station.
Allif graduated from SUNY Oswego in May 2018 with a degree in Broadcasting and Mass Communication, and was lucky to be able to spend all four years of his undergrad at Oswego. His primary focus/obsession (truth be told) was working at WTOP-10 TV; where he got to work almost every position in the club, leading up to the executive board.
Allif can be found on social media @AllifKarim.
Omy Melo (’14)
Omy Melo, a 2014 graduate of SUNY Oswego, is an editor at Nickelodeon, where he works on promos and digital content for the network’s various properties.
Before starting at Nickelodeon in 2016, Melo worked as an assistant editor at Definition 6.
As a student at SUNY Oswego, he was a Broadcast major and spent most of his time working at WTOP, where he ran their Creative Services department. He also worked on the Media Summit in different roles each year.
He can be found on social media at the handle @OmyMelo across most platforms.