Michael S. Brown earned a BA (1962) and M.D. (1966) from the University of Pennsylvania, followed by a residency at Massachusetts General Hospital and a fellowship at the NIH. In 1971, he joined the University of Texas Southwestern, where he is now Paul J. Thomas Professor and Director of the Jonsson Center for Molecular Genetics. Brown and Dr. Joseph L. Goldstein discovered the LDL receptor, which regulates cholesterol and led to the development of statins, used by over 40 million people. Their work earned them the Nobel Prize and National Medal of Science. Dr. Brown served for 16 years on the Board of Directors of Pfizer, and he is currently a Director of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals.

Mary Hadar became managing editor of the DP in 1964, following a staff revolt for reasons she no longer recalls. This was shortly after the paper became coed. Inspired by the DP, she attended Columbia’s J School and began her career as a night copy editor at the Baltimore Sun. After three years, she moved to Israel to work at the Jerusalem Post, where she edited various types of copy and became foreign editor. She later joined the Washington Post’s Style section, eventually becoming its editor in 1983 under the legendary Ben Bradlee, holding the position for 12 years. Style won the Penney Missouri Award four times during her tenure. She later served as front-page features editor and writing coach, taking a Post buyout in 2004 but continuing to work on contract for 20 years, now editing op-eds for Opinions.

Steve Stecklow ('76) is a London-based, global investigative reporter for Reuters who previously worked at the Wall Street Journal and the Philadelphia Inquirer. He has won numerous journalism awards, including sharing three Pulitzer Prizes (2024, 2019 and 2007) and has been a Pulitzer finalist three times. His 2018 investigation of Facebook's failure to combat hate speech in Myanmar was featured on John Oliver's Last Week Tonight show. A series of stories he did in 2012 and 2013 on sanctions busting in Iran by Chinese companies led to about $2 billion in fines for ZTE and the arrest of Huawei’s chief financial officer in Vancouver. Steve got his start at the DP, where he did both investigative reporting and wrote a humor column.

Peter S. Canellos is the author of The Great Dissenter: The Story of John Marshall Harlan, America’s Judicial Hero, recognized by Publisher's Weekly as one of the top 20 nonfiction books of 2021. As managing editor for enterprise at POLITICO, he oversees investigative journalism and major projects. Previously, Canellos was POLITICO's executive editor and editorial page editor at The Boston Globe. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia Law School, he has mentored numerous journalists and overseen multiple Pulitzer Prize-winning projects. As a writer, he was recipient of the American Society of Newspaper Editors award in 2011 for excellence in editorial writing along with the 2022 George Polk Award, Robin Toner Award, and News Leaders Association Batten Medal for his writing about the Supreme Court. He was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

After graduating from Penn in 1984, Ken worked in newspapers, moving from York Pa., to Cherry Hill, N.J., to Baltimore, where he wrote for The Sun from 1987 to 2000 as an Orioles beat writer and general sports columnist. Ken moved on to The Sporting News from 2000 to ‘05, then went to Fox Sports, writing for their web site and serving as a dugout reporter on their baseball broadcasts for the past 19 seasons. He won back-to-back Sports Emmy Awards in 2015 and ‘16 in the category of Outstanding Sports Personality - Sports Reporter. In Aug. 2017, Ken joined The Athletic as a senior baseball writer, and in 2022 was chosen by his contemporaries as the National Media Sports Association’s National Sportswriter of the Year.

Randall Lane is the Chief Content Officer of Forbes and editor of Forbes Magazine. Lane is responsible for editorial content across all platforms, globally. Since returning to Forbes in 2011, he has helped the magazine, website, live and video offerings achieve record audiences. He has also created some of Forbes’ most successful and enduring franchises, including the 30 Under 30. Lane began his career at Forbes in 1991 and served as reporter, staff writer, and Washington bureau chief. He left Forbes in 1997 to become an entrepreneur, co-founding two media companies and serving as Editor-in-Chief of a half dozen magazines and related websites, including P.O.V. (Adweek’s “Startup of the Year”), Trader Monthly, and Dealmaker. An Emmy Award winner, National Magazine Award Finalist, and book author, Lane is a frequent guest on “Morning Joe,” serves on the board of Global Citizen, and created the One Free Press Coalition, which rallies the world’s top media organizations to support the endangered journalists.

Charles Cohen is managing director and third-generation owner of Benco Dental Company, the nation’s largest independently owned dental distributor, and Clarion Financial, a sister company offering financing to dentists. Founded in 1930 by Benjamin Cohen, Benco serves over 25,000 dental offices and dental laboratories across the United States. The company is based in Northeastern Pennsylvania with locations in 40 states. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, Charles joined Benco as a territory representative in 1989. After taking on management roles in the company’s sales and marketing department, he assumed a senior leadership role in 1997.

Amy Gardner is a national reporter on The Washington Post's Democracy Team, where she has worked since 2005. She has reported on the Virginia suburbs, the 2010 midterms, the Tea Party, and the 2012 Republican primaries. A former political editor, she returned to reporting in 2018. Gardner won the 2021 George Polk Award and 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service and Toner Prize for her coverage of the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. She previously worked at The News & Observer, the Daily Press, and the Corning Leader. A 1990 University of Pennsylvania graduate and former president of The Daily Pennsylvanian Alumni Association, she lives in Arlington, Va., with her husband, Bob, and has two grown sons.

Emmy Award-winning writer/producer, Matt Selman, has worked on THE SIMPSONS for 27 seasons and counting. Selman has written or co-written 30 SIMPSONS episodes and was one of the writers on THE SIMPSONS MOVIE. He has won six Emmys, a Writer’s Guild of America Award and a Peabody Award. He currently serves as Show Runner and Executive Producer. Selman grew up in Watertown, Massachusetts, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, where he was the Editor-in-chief of 34th Street Magazine. Before starting at THE SIMPSONS, he wrote on SEINFELD, and has written comedy for many animated movies. He currently lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two daughters.

Clemson Smith Muñiz is a sports broadcasting pioneer on MLB Network and the Spanish voice of the New York Jets, where he has worked since 1998. He has served as the first Spanish-language announcer for multiple teams including the Jets, Knicks, Yankees, Mets, and MLB Network. After starting at the Hartford Courant and covering the Yankees as one of few minority sportswriters, he transitioned to Spanish-language broadcasting in 1988 as a foreign correspondent for El País. A Co-Sports Editor of The Daily Pennsylvanian, he's launched multiple production companies, broadcast Super Bowls, NBA Finals, and the 1992 Olympics. Smith Muñiz won the NFL Hispanic Heritage Leadership Award in 2022 and Penn's Alumni Award of Merit in 2021. A 1979 University of Pennsylvania graduate, active Latino alumnus and scholarship donor, he lives in New York and continues pioneering Spanish-language sports coverage across multiple platforms.

Oreta "Rita" Richardson was the Night Manager of The Daily Pennsylvanian's Comp Room, where she worked from 1965 to 1995, becoming a maternal figure to countless staff members. She began her career at Bartash Printing in 1962 before joining the DP, where she later brought her sister Helen Sessoms to work until 2004. After the birth of her son Vaughn in 1984, Richardson founded Printed Page in 1996, a desktop publishing business serving Philadelphia's churches, funeral homes, and local businesses until 2003. She then joined Horizon House as Records Manager, where she was known as "Ms. O" until her retirement in 2016. A pioneer in Philadelphia's print industry and dedicated public servant, she began her career during the hot-type era and adapted through the digital revolution. Oreta has left a lasting impact on her community and embodied a lifelong commitment to excellence in every role she held and every space she touched. Her dedication, compassion and unwavering pursuit of quality continue to inspire those who had the privilege of working with and knowing her.

Helen Sessoms was a pioneering employee at The Daily Pennsylvanian, where she worked from 1979 to 2004, becoming the first person to reach retirement in the paper's history. She began in nighttime production during the pre-digital era, working alongside her sister Rita Richardson in the composition room. Throughout her 25-year tenure, she adapted to multiple technological transitions, from manual typesetting to Mycro-Tek systems to Macintosh computers. Sessoms served in various roles including ad production, content archiving, and web PDF creation. Known for her unfailing warmth and daily cheerfulness, she mentored countless staff members and maintained the paper's institutional knowledge through decades of technological change. A graduate of the hot-type era who mastered digital publishing, she retired in 2004 as the DP's longest-serving employee, setting a precedent as its first retiree. Helen Sessoms will be deeply missed by all who knew her and worked with her at The Daily Pennsylvanian.