Past JPC Alumni Award Recipients
- Leah Boltz, 2023
The 2023 JPC Alumni Award was presented to Leah Boltz on Friday, May 5 at the annual JPC celebration, which honors graduating seniors and student work.
Leah graduated from the UAA with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and Public Communications in 2006. Even before graduating, she was editing and writing at the MILEPOST travel guide.
The mark of a JPC Alumni Awardee is professional and community achievement. Leah is an exemplar on both fronts. She leads marketing, branding, communications, community outreach, business development, and client services at Bettisworth North Architects and Planners Inc. In 2020, she became a partner and principal of the firm.
Leah was named a Top 40 Under 40 and is past president of Anchorage Rotary Club. She is a founding member of the Society for Marketing Professional Services Alaska Chapter and is a Certified Professional Services Marketer. In 2022, she was named a Fellow of SMPS, being one of only two communications professionals in her industry in Alaska to service in a partner role at her firm.
In 2009, Leah co-founded Parks for All, a grassroots effort to bring inclusive play to Alaska. Anchorage now has almost two dozen inclusive playgrounds. Leah is now acting in an advisory role, volunteering, advocating, fundraising to help communities in Alaska and in the United States adopt inclusive play and inclusive design. She speaks publicly about Parks for All, raising awareness and teaching young leaders to engage in their communities, innovate, and develop their personal brands. View her TEDx Talk “Power of No Fun.”
- Kate Consenstein, 2022
Kate graduated from the Journalism and Public Communications program at UAA in 2011. She went on to work for several years as a communications director and account manager for various businesses before launching her own company in 2014, Rising Tide Communications.
Rising Tide is a brand of its own. Kate ensures her employees are well taken care of with not just good pay, but with benefits such as unlimited sick leave, sabbaticals, three-month paid parental leave and a monthly allowance for health and wellness. Her philosophy of putting people first and having great work life balance for both staff and clients is second to none.
Kate also extends her empathy and problem solving skills in tangible ways by participating and sponsoring community events in all aspects. She serves on the board of the Alaska SeaLife Center, provides hundreds of hours of pro bono services yearly to nonprofit organizations, and donates her time and money to more nonprofits than can be counted. Her main passions are food security, promoting women in leadership, and inclusivity/LBGTQ+ rights, but she’s touched lives throughout the Alaska community.
Professionally she has been honored with accolades from many organizations, including most recently, the Public Relations Society of America’s Silver Anvil award in 2021 for the “Most Effective Campaign on a Shoestring Budget” for her work in saving the Alaska SeaLife Center when they shut down during the first year of the pandemic.
- Bill Roth, 2021
Long-time Anchorage Daily News photographer Bill Roth was a student/athlete, member of the UAA alpine ski team, while earning a B.A. in Journalism and Public Communications in 1983.
Bill began his career at the ADN in 1984, roughly two decades before laptops and digital cameras became the norm. Back then, ADN processed black and white film by hand, used an enlarger to make photographic prints, then tapped out captions on a typewriter. ADN also used two-way radios to communicate while in the field.
While technology has certainly changed journalism, Bill maintains the job remains the same – documenting life and covering events that become a part of Alaska history.
Over the years, being a news photographer has allowed Bill the opportunity to meet people and to travel extensively around the state from covering the whale rescue in Barrow, to helicopter logging in Southeast, visiting the WWII battlegrounds on Attu Island, along with communities that serve as checkpoints along the historic Iditarod trail.
People sometimes ask Bill: What is your favorite assignment? Without question, Bill mentions the once in a lifetime opportunity to ride in a F-15 Eagle. In addition to this assignment, Bill was also part of the 1989 Pulitzer Prize Winning ADN team for public service reporting.
- Jennifer Schrage, 2020
Jennifer Schrage is the co-founder of Signature Land Services, a leading contracting service company specializing in snow removal, concrete and asphalt paving. Jennifer oversees major client relations, marketing and contract management.
Schrage is well-known for her community involvement. A lifelong Alaskan with deep roots in the Anchorage community, Jennifer earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism and public communications while a student-athlete on the cross-country ski team.
After 15 years of sales and marketing experience, coupled with 25 years of property management and real estate acquisitions, Jennifer and her husband Tim established Signature Land Services. She is an outdoor enthusiast and an active volunteer with a variety of organizations, including Covenant House Alaska, the Alaska Women’s Gold Nugget Triathlon and West Anchorage High School, supporting her two teenage sons. Additionally, she serves on the UA Foundation Board of Directors.