Alumni Outcomes

Tim Meko ’06 For a world that’s eager to digest complex stories in a succinct, well-designed image, we have Tim Meko, an award-winning graphic reporter and deputy graphics director at the Washington Post. He uses data, design and code to distill the most complicated information into decipherable and often stunning visuals. Get a glimpse of what he does.  So, how does a Pioneer prepare to shift the paradigm in one of America’s most innovative newsrooms? “More than anything,” Meko explains, “Transy taught me how to learn. That’s a skill I use absolutely every single day, as I switch from mapping the Rohingya crisis in Burma to diagramming how climate change and wildfires can lead to mudslides in California.” Transy…provided me a rock solid foundation in how to solve problems and express myself through writing to physical art to digital code. He describes how the job requires him to become an instant expert, to determine what is most essential and then to communicate it clearly and creatively.  “Without Transy’s liberal arts focus,” Meko explains, “I would not have the depth or breadth of subject expertise or the ability to solve problems with the flexibility and creativity that I have now.”   The Russell, Ky., native had the freedom to design his own major at Transy, blending creative coding and art with communications courses. After graduating with a B.A. in digital imaging and application design (minoring in studio art and computer science), Meko earned a

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Corey Clatterbuck ’08 As a graduate student in biology at San Jose State University, Corey Clatterbuck ’08 had the opportunity to accompany her advisor to Laysan Island and Midway Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, where they used GPS and GLS devices to track movements of breeding Laysan albatrosses. Clatterbuck found that experience typical of most field research. During a three-week period, they endured: Bathing in ocean water Ant infestations in their tents Basic equipment maintenance, such as on a propane hose needed to warm food A tsunami warning that prompted a middle-of-the-night evacuation to the highest point on the island Emergency evacuation of a sick team member, whose care while on the island required that Clatterbuck give her daily shots using medical supplies dropped by the Coast Guard And Clatterbuck can’t get enough of it. She is now a Ph.D. candidate at San Diego State University, and before she entered graduate school, she accepted research jobs that took her from Alaska to the islands off the coast of Washington state. She studied the behavior of salmon in the Alaskan interior and the geographic distribution of the marbled murrelet, “a federally threatened and charismatic little seabird that poses all sorts of interesting wildlife management decisions.” “This research lets me mix my love of developmental and behavioral biology—classes I took at Transylvania—while expanding on questions of ecological conservation,” explains Clatterbuck. When Clatterbuck graduated from Transylvania, she first headed to Seattle to work

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Lesley Goodaker ’17 Lesley Goodaker interned in marketing at Spring & Sprout dental network. She based her senior seminar project on the work she’d done there. She invited the vice president of marketing and communications to be on her review panel. But she still wasn’t prepared for what happened during her presentation… …a job offer on the spot. “To say that was a surprise would be an understatement,” she says, “but it was incredibly exciting.” Lesley’s study in her writing, rhetoric and communication major centered on rhetorical practices, but she was especially interested in incorporating digital technologies into her projects. So she worked with WRC professor Kerri Hauman to craft her curriculum to give her as much time in the Digital Arts Technology Lab (dArt lab) as possible, learning video and audio editing softwares and taking courses in digital rhetoric. To have faculty and staff that recognized the growth potential I had and pushed me toward that was indescribable. “In my program, you could really pick and choose what you want to focus on,” she says. “I had done several videos with Dr. Hauman in our Digital Rhetoric class, and it laid the foundation for technical skills. She made sure we were getting exposure to a lot of different tools.” She used her newfound expertise in her internship—which Hauman recommended to her—where she worked with a creative agency to gather all of the video and audio footage they had compiled

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Bill McCann ’79 We talk a lot about the Pioneer network, lifelong connections and how Transy has your back long after graduation. Ask Bill McCann, Class of 1979, and you’ll find a specific example of how that generous faculty-student connection works even decades after graduation. In Bill’s case, it’s with a faculty member he didn’t even know as a student. But that didn’t stop him from asking for help. McCann has always loved the theater and held a deep interest in playwriting. “Theater is another way of looking at the world,” he says. “It’s a way of getting people to think about things they might not otherwise think about, in ways they wouldn’t have thought of before.” He began his career at Transy as a theater major, but, at his father’s urging, changed his academic focus to history.  After Transy, he worked for a defense contractor in D.C. and earned a degree in education. He returned to Kentucky to work for the Department of Education as a financial management consultant for school districts, helping with everything from budgets to bidding practices. He was always observing and sharing best practices. Then, as he was passing through mid-life, he asked himself what he really wanted to be doing—“and it was to write plays and do theater.” He decided to earn a master’s in theater at the University of Kentucky. “I’d always been involved with theater,” he adds, “I’d tried and struggled to

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